I am a big fan of the 80's horror movie. I spent many hours in the video store making sure I had seen every bad 80's horror movie. However it seems that I missed one. Troll 2 is the name of this amazing movie. I had already seen the original Troll movie starring Sonny Bono and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Which is bad in its own special way. But nothing really comes close to how bad this movie is. To start with, it has nothing to do with Troll 1. There is not even a Troll in the movie. It is about goblins who live in the town of NILBOG.
My friends Josh and Andrew were kind enough to share this movie with me last night. The movie was released a couple of years ago on DVD as a combo pack with Troll 1 and Troll 2. This movie is listed on countless lists as the worst movie of all time and has developed a crazy cult following. They show this movie around the world at midnight screenings. This little horrible movie has somehow become one of the best worst movies ever.
                                                                                                                                                                   
I seriously can not stop thinking about how amazingly horrible this movies was. It is basically about a regular family. A clueless
dad and a slightly crazy mom with their 2 kids. One, an exercise crazed daughter who refuses to let her boyfriend have any friends. The other an awkward son whose only friend seems to be his dead grandpa Seth. For their vacation they switch houses with a weird family in a very small town. The town is basically all goblins but they are able to disguise themselves as humans. Or they are simply both human and goblin. They seem to be led by a Jim Jones type cult leader as well as a witchy sorceress type old lady who is played by a 12 year old girl. The towns people/golbins are all vegetarians and make the guests of the town eat weird green food which turns them into trees which then allows them to remain vegetarians and eat the humans. Somehow, someone thought this would make some sort of sense

Queens of the Stone Age is just one of those bands that I can't stop liking. I always think that some day I will get sick of them and move on. But then I listen to them again and I just start liking them again. I have liked Mr. Josh Homme for a while now I guess. But not near as long as those into the early days of Kyuss. I didn't really listen to him until the first self titled Queens of the Stone Age album in 1998. The first place I probably heard them was at the Hole in the Wall or The Eagle. I think I quickly realized that this was a band I needed in my life. And then I got a bit obsessed with Rated R in 2000. I was a bit too busy with my shoe gaze and brit pop in the 90s to pay much attention to Josh Homme's 90's band Kyuss. His stuff didn't really sound like anything I was into which I guess is why I was intrigued. I think I probably needed something a bit harder in my music life. I needed some good stoner rock. I have since gone back and discovered all the great Kyuss and Desert Sessions albums.

The Queens of the Stone Age really got popular when "Rated R" came out. A couple years later they put out "Songs For the Deaf" in 2002. We did a huge instore with them at the Hollywood Amoeba. This is when I still worked there and I remember having fun with the sperm artwork for the album. I helped Kara decorate for some of the instores back then and it was hard to resist the sperm artwork on the posters. This was the album that gave us "No One Knows." Nick Oliveri left the band after this album. I am sure his departure will eventually be dramatized in the biopic about the Queens. Lullabies to Paralyze came out a couple years later in 2005.  The Queens of the Stone Age now release their fifth studio album.

It is always a little weird when a "new" album comes out  from someone who has died years ago. But I guess not really that weird when you look at the rest of the music industry. Most of the jazz and classical artists have been long dead yet continue to put out new albums. The industry is sometimes built on the collections and live albums of recently departed artists. Albums from Johnny Cash and Ray Charles sold by the millions after their deaths. Maybe its just weird since Jeff Buckley died so young. I can only begin to imagine the albums he could have continued to put out if he was still alive. After the death of Elliott Smith I had to get rid of all his records. I just didn't really want to deal with the fact he was gone. Listening to his records had been depressing enough when he was alive. I couldn't imagine how much worse it would be knowing he had taken his life.

However, my experience with Jeff Buckley is a bit different. I have to admit I had not really discovered him until after his passing and the release of "Sketches for my Sweetheart the Drunk." This is the album he was working on before his death. It has now been 10 years since his death. So I have been loving Mr. Jeff Buckley for about 10 years now. The first time I heard him I swore it was some new PJ Harvey songs that I had not heard yet. His voice is really amazing. The songs are all heartbreaking and beautiful. "Sketches" remains one of my favorite albums. There have been a few live and collected albums out in the last 10 years. So  we now get another one." So Real" is a collection of album tracks and live tracks from over the years. I will also admit that I am not usually a fan of  the live album. I would just rather see the live performance in person and listen to the studio album at home. Since I will not get the chance to see him live, this is as good as it will get. The album offers a fairly good introduction to Mr. Buckley.  Included on this compilation is an excellent live version of "So Real." It also includes an unreleased cover of the Smiths song "I Know it's Over." The album is mostly just a selection of songs from "Grace," "Sketches" and "Live at Sin-E" with a couple extras put on. Its mostly just an excuse for me to get obsessed with Jeff Buckley again. I have been listening to this album over and over again. I have also got out all of his other albums and have been revisiting them.

Like a lot of people, I grew up watching the game shows. I really did love them. More than soap operas. Even more than the Joan Rivers show and Oprah. There was just something about them that got me so excited. The thrill of winning and living through the contestants was really exciting. These were all real people winning real money. The Price is Right was one of my favorites. Along with Password, The Match Game, 10,000 Pyramid and Family Feud. What really made these shows so great was the host. I absolutely looked forward to when these shows were on TV. It made being home sick a lot better knowing that the game shows would be on. Every chance I got I would be watching them. Bob Barker was the Price is Right. It is the longest running game show and he is longest running game show host. It is actually only the longest running game show in english. The fabulous spanish language variety game show, Sabado Gigante, has actually been on a bit longer.  The Price is Right actually premiered way back in 1956. But it was not until 1972 that Bob Barker was brought in and the show became what we all know as the Price is Right. Next Friday, June 15th is Bob Barker's last day on the Price is Right. The Era of the great game show had pretty much ended years ago. Although Jeopardy and The Wheel of Fortune continue on, the old classic game show no longer really exists. Bob Barker and The Price is Right is really the last to go.

Shows like Password and The Match Game were great because they had the celebrity guest stars. So it was the regular person competing against the other regular person. The celebrities were just helping them out. The shows were hilarious because of the celebrities. The everyday people were not really the focus of the shows. However, The Price Is Right were all about the everyday person. You could find every kind of person on that show. It was not just good looking 20 something professionals like the other shows. You had everyone from jock college guys to sassy old grandmothers. This is what made the show so great. Everybody had to buy things and compare prices. So really, anybody could play the show. The show was so exciting because of the way it was set up. You had a huge audience who were all excited. Because anybody from the audience could be competing that day. Nothing was predetermined. And those contestants were so excited! They seemed to be just as excited to meet Bob Barker as they were excited to possibly win a new kitchen set. Or a new Car!!! Always the most exciting prize.

After a very slow new release week, we are back to normal with a kind of big week. Some of my old favorites like Shellac, Neurosis, and Marilyn Manson all have new releases. I am anxious to hear all these albums. The Long Blondes finally!!! comes out domestic. And the up and coming brazillian scenesters Bonde Do Role have their debut album out. Out today is also the new album by one of my favorite instrumental doomy metal Chicago bands, Pelican.

This is the third full length by Pelican. Following their excellent albums "Australasia" and "The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw." My friend Jesse first got me into this band. I remember the first day she told me about them. She came running into the office, so happy to tell me about her new favorite band. I liked much of the same music she liked, so I knew that I would love them as well. Like the band Isis, they are not really what you normally think of as metal. They do use many elements of metal but combine them with some of the post rock kind of stuff that has come out of Chicago. Imagine some of the better doomy metal bands but without the lyrics. Sometimes the lyrics actually ruin some of those bands for me. Sometimes you just don't really need the lyrics. The music is sometimes more therapeutic without the lyrics to weigh it down. It allows you to sort of develop your own internal monologue while listening to it. I think I was drawn to Pelican for many of the same reasons I was drawn to the Explosions in the Sky. It is just some really beautiful music. Pelican is a harder version of the Explosions. But they do a lot of the same things with their instrumentation and song development. I guess all these bands are sort of like doom versions of a jam band. But its better than it sounds.