Graham Central Station - Mirror (1976)

Larry Graham has got a fair few decent things going for him. He was a key member of Sly & The Family Stone, he is often credited with pioneering the slap technique applied to electric bass and he also worked with Betty Davis, Tower of Power's horn section and The Pointer Sisters. Amongst all this, he found time to form Graham Central Station back in 1973 with various musicians picked out of Jefferson Airplane, Santana and Hot Tuna. Mirror show cases this collectives combined playing skills on many levels. Some of the tightest and most energetic playing you are likely to hear.

Graham Central Station - Mirror

FUCK!!!! Some tight ass playing right here!

Recent viewings

Well had quite a bit to watch these past few weeks. Continuing my disintegrating bank account mission on great/shit films has led me to acquire the following...

Crocodile (2000)
Tobe Hooper's worst film ( I have seen at least). I am a sucker for giant monster/creature films so on a Poundland shopping spree it popped up on my radar. Usual teen slaughter fare. Incredibly annoying, intensely dis likable spring breakers get munched by a giant Egyptian croc. Pretty funny in places. mostly for the fact the animatronic crocodile is so much better than the naff Ocean PC game style CGI. No where near as good as Alligator (1980).



Cat In The Brain (1990)
Budget Luci Fulci "giallo". Cobbling together footage from his previous films to tell a film-within-a-film style story. Fulci plays himself as he begins to see scenes from his own movies played out in real life. Chuck in a psychiatrist and plenty of boobs and you have it. Not one of Fulci's best by any stretch but pretty enjoyable for many amusing death scenes involving chainsaws, wheelchairs, hooks, knives and plenty of other nasty things.

3D cover woo.

Loose Cannons (1990)
Buddy cop movie with Gene Hackman and Dan Akroyd. Completely silly and ridiculous, mindless fun. There is a plot about Nazi's and stolen film but the main attraction is Akroyd's schizophrenic detective putting on different characters and persona's. Hackman is pretty good in this but he does seem to be running on auto pilot for most of it. It does have Dom Delouise in as well. Which reminded me that there is a hilarious clip from SNL where Chris Farley plays Dom and the sadly missed Phil Hartman plays Burt Reynolds. Its pretty sweet. I can't find a trailer for this film but there is a song of the soundtrack performed by Katey Segal and Dan Akroyd himself.



Inglorious Bastards (1978)
The original "macaroni" war movie version. Tarantino loved this film so much he borrowed the title for his own and gave cameos to quite a few of the cast. Sort of like the Dirty Dozen but slightly dirtier. A bunch of American soldiers under court marshal manage to escape during a attack and make for the Swiss border. Along the way they heavy handily deal with racism, first love and loyalty and get caught up in a mission to scupper some Nazi rocket. Enzo Castellari believes this was one of his best films and I would probably agree with that. Solid, WWII action fodder. Plus its got Fred Williamson in it which makes any film that slight bit cooler.

Strange Bedfellows (2004)
Another Poundland buy. 100p got me a film where Paul Hogan pretends to be gay to get tax benefits. I would say that's a pretty sweet deal. The actual plot and story was ripped off whole sale by Universal for I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry (2007). Funnily enough this film was released in Europe as I Now Pronounce You Ralph And Vince. There is some sort of legal dispute going on about all of this. I would say this is the better film. Genuinely sweet and harmless fun if not a little heavy handed in its portrayal of gay culture. But its Paul Hogan pretending to be gay! So that is worthy of a pound.

The Fist Foot Way (2008)
The first film to really show off Danny Mcbride's acting talents. Tells the tale of a black belt Taekwondo instructor as his life falls apart. Its one of those films alongside Baseketball that is best watched late at night with your friends and some drinks. Features so many quotable lines that have now passed into use amongst people I know and has one of the best characters in Mike McAlister ( Jody Hill) as a intense martial artist. Will Ferrel liked it so much he released it through his own Production Company. So there.

Other than that everything else is still pretty crap. Thank god for Sabbath and The Dillinger Escape Plans cover of "Paranoid". Originally recorded for some Earache/Sabbath comp. I don't think it ever got released. it features the original DEP line-up and a swing break in the middle. Classy stuff.

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Paranoid

Now get out my house.

Teddy Pendergrass RIP

Teddy Pendergrass
March 26, 1950 – January 13, 2010

Maybe I'm a bit slow with this one. Only found out last night. Rest in peace you soulful, smooth bastard you. He made his name with Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes in the early 70's then a solo career that saw him achieve super stardom beyond anything he had done before. He did get caught with a transsexual in a car crash but seeing as he has spent the last 20 + years confined to a wheelchair due to this they let him off with that one.
Here's his debut, self-titled album from 1977. Superb R'n'B indicative of the times. And still stands up today. Make sure you brought a spare pair of panties ladies.

Teddy Pendergrass - S/T

Black Cobra - The bad one and good one.

I watch a lot of films. Lots of films infact. Most of them are terrible or just bad, I don't know why. I just like them. I like to think I have pretty good taste in shit films.
So when the chance to purchase Fred Williamson kicking ass for less than two queen heads came up there really was no other option.
Black Cobra is plain terrible tho. Not even in that "so bad its funny" way that true-shit-classic White Fire ( there will be much more written about this later) is. Just look at the cover art......

( My copy does not look like this. )

See, that screams "massive macho action fun" doesn't it. Sadly, that above image is way more exciting than the actual film is. Its about a girl that witnesses a murder and is chased by this nasty bunch of bikers and only Fred Williamson can protect her. Bear in mind this is set in New York, but obviously the budget couldn't meet this important script requirment so they filmed it in Manilla. This is why there is a beach scene, but New York has no beaches does it? Stock footage of New York streets follow the opening credits but thats about it, during the film it could be set anywhere.

These sort of films cropped up all through the 80's, usually not to long after a similar Hollywood effort appeared. in this case, Stallone's "Cobra". Fred Williamson is pretty solid tho. That can be said and I can imagine that everyone involved knew what a huge turkey of a film they where working on. Single best scene is the bit where Fred slides across a hospital corridor while shooting. The light catches the patch of grease beautifully just before he makes the dive.
They also made 3 sequels to this as well. All filmed in Manilla but for those they had a hostage swap/police trade/interpol plotline that explained the surroundings.

The good Black Cobra is the band. Awesome 2-piece sludge/doom/rock featuring memebrs of Acid king. I really don't know how to describe them without using those terms. Been going some years and have about 3 albums out last time I looked. Saw them supporting The Sword and Saviours a few years ago. They absolutly destroyed, three full Orange stacks for one guitar! Superb.
This is the EP they released back in 2004 and alongside the first album Bestial is the best stuff they have done in my usual retarded opinion.


Black Cobra - S/T EP

Its an awesome little listen so do the right thing and go get the albums as well. Bestial followed by the others.

Get rockin with Black Cobra!
Listen to Black Cobra!

Sweet.