Daddy Like!!

[Gary Rabuzzi]

Sin City Sinners - Demo EP - People complain about Las Vegas for a lot of reasons, but one thing they can never say is that our rock and roll scene sucks. We've got guys here in town that I would put up against any band on whatever channel still shows videos. And of course, my fave Vegas rockers are Brent Muscat and his Sin City Sinners. Not only do they rock me like a hurricane, but they let me get onstage and make fun of them sometimes! AND, the other night at the show (guest-starring Phil Lewis and Bruce Kulick, and Vinnie Paul was kicking it at the bar- check my Sinners photo album!), Brent slipped me a demo of some of the songs that they're working on for their upcoming album (tentatively titled) "Exile On Fremont Street". I tell you, this cd f****** KILLS. I'd obviously heard a few of the tracks live, including the stomper "Probable Cause", and the superhumanly catchy "It's Not You, It's Me" (the most cathartic break-up song since "I Will Survive"!), but the other ones are new. I'm just guessing on these titles, cuz the demos are so super secret that the tracks aren't even listed, so guys, I apologize if I get them wrong. There's a mid-tempo ballad called "Arianna, Incomplete", which sounds ten times better than anything in heavy rotation on the radio, there's a rocker called "Blow-Up Doll", and my favorite track so far, "True Love", that is a sloppy, punky ode to the perfect girl that namechecks everyone from Gwen Stefani and Billie Holliday, to Pamela Des Barre, Imelda Marcos and Evita Perrone. I assume the majority of the lyrics are by singer and all around dream-boat, Todd Kerns, and they're so ridiculously clever, that now I have another reason to hate him. He crams every song with rock and roll references about David Bowie, Marc Bolan, and Patti Smith. I know he comes from the same place I'm coming from musically, as we could sit and jaw about the Dolls and Stooges, and Pistols and Clash, all night. And the band sounds great on this, just the right amount of production. I'm not sure which songs Brent Muscat plays leads on, but the guitar sounds on this thing are real teeth kickers! And I would know D's back-up harmony vocals anywhere. And drummer Rob Cournoyer (formerly of Raging Slab) is just another of the omni-talented rock drummers we seem to have in this city. I can't WAIT for the full length to come out! Go to a Sinners show, give Brent Muscat ten bucks for this album. It's a bargain at twice the price!

The Punisher: War Zone - Why is it so hard to capture the essence of such a "simple" character? Frank Castle, former Marine. Family killed in a gangland hit. He kills criminals now. ALL criminals. It's simple, really. Eric calls him "Death Wish in tights". I have been reading the Punisher comics since I was a wee lad, and in all that time, the most telling line he ever spoke was "I can only feel hate". The only thing that keeps him alive is his relentless quest to punish the guilty. He's ruthless, unfeeling, and humorless (with the exception of the times that he accidentally makes a joke). He's basically the worst mass murderer in the history of the Marvel Universe. He doesn't wink at little girls to let them know it's okay. He hardly ever cares about anyone he meets, he never says "sorry", "please", or "thank you", he's just a big meanie! He kills. Always. He's not redeemable, nor does he need "character development", any more than the Terminator, or Godzilla do. This movie wants to achieve that, but pulls back at the last second. Oh, they don't skimp on the gore, or the action, I will say that much for them. The story itself was okay, but the acting and the dialogue were atrocious. Dash Mihok (who plays detective Soap) should be horse-whipped. Same for the guy who played "Looney Bin Jim". And, as far as that goes, so should Dominic West, who played the deformed killer Jigsaw with scenery-chewing abandon, when simmering menace would have been so much more effective. Wayne Knight and Julie Benz were okay, I'll admit, and Ray Stevenson certainly LOOKS like Frank Castle, and he did a remarkable amount of acting with just his facial expressions. But his intermittent Irish accent doesn't really put me to mind of a Brooklyn-born Sicillian, like Castle is. Come to think of it, everyone in the film sounded like south Boston Irish mob, when they were supposed to be Brooklyn Italian mafiosi. I wanted to like this movie, I really did. And I can tell that everyone involved in the film really wanted it to work, and it certainly wasn't a complete failure, but it looks like I'm going to have to finish that half-done secret "Punisher" script I've had rolling in my head for a few years, for when the inevitable re-RE-boot happens. I give it a five.

30 Days Of Night: 30 Days Till Death - the anticipation of this new limited series, set in Steve Niles' vampire-infested universe has been making me drool for a long time. Because he's turned the keys to the coffin over to one of my favorite comic writer/artists, David Lapham (Stray Bullets, Young Liars, Silverfish). Lapham is a great fit for the genre, even though I've never seen him do any other horror books. No one writes dread and builds suspense like Lapham. Usually, just when you think you know what's going to happen, he zags the other way, and you feel emotionally manipulated, albeit in a good way. His art, here, too, is deceptively clean and simple, calling to mind Dave Gibbons work on Watchmen. His vampiric (anti?) hero, Rufus, keeps his neighborhood clean, by devouring the evil doers. And he's got a cracked out prostitute chained to his bed. What more set-up do you need? Buy this book, horror fans!

Texas By The Tail - Jim Thompson - If Chandler and Hammett are the literary gods of crime fiction, then, Thompson, along with Ellroy, Westlake/Stark, and MacDonald are the Demi-Gods. Thompson's work is more famous than Thompson himself (The Grifters? The Getaway?), but I just LOVE his writing. He came up in the south in the early part of the last century, mostly in Texas, and mostly as a bellhop, learning every con (short and long), dice hustle and scam in the book. And he writes about them with such easy authority that when you read Thompson, you invariably want to quit your job, and become a con artist. Or, maybe that's just me. This is one of my fave Thompson tales, a quintessential pot-boiler about two fisted, drunken, stinking rich Texans, beautiful, curvy, red-headed femmme fatales, and grifting protagonists that are too smart to know that they're certainly, irrevocably doomed. Thompson is another master of building suspense, as his "hero" (gambling mechanic Mitch Corley, in this instance), carefully, and unwittingly pulls the noose tighter around his own neck. And Thompson turns a phrase, like he's snapping a pool hustler's neck. He does it with humor, and sex, and tough talk, and if I could write like that, I would never work another day in my life.

The Alcoholic - this must be one of the greatest graphic novels I've ever read. Written by Jonathan Ames, and illustrated by Dean Haspiel, it chronicles the "fictional" story of a writer, Johnathan A., as he drinks too much, obssesses over members of both sexes too much, and hates himself too much. It's one of those uncomfortably honest stories, the ones that you cringe to read, but can't put down. Like Jerry Stahl's suberb junk diary, "Permanent Midnight" (favorite book ever!). Or the work of Harvey Pekar, or Alex Robinson, or Craig Thompson's "Blankets". Just amazing stuff. It has none of the misogynist bravado of Bukowski, none of the clinical detachment of Bourroughs, none of the cumbersome idealism of Hunter Thompson, it's just a story of guy who drinks too much, and is mostly pathetic. Check it out.

Harry Connick, Jr. - Only You, In Concert - this DVD/cd combo package was recorded in Quebec in early 2004, and originally aired (in part) on PBS. I love this guy. Not only do I think he's the last of the great crooners (Buble can suck it), but he's a good actor with a lot of range, and charm. He's also a hell of a piano player, as seen here in this concert. He does most of my faves here,"Save The Last Dance For Me", "For Once In My Life" (LOVE his arrangement of this), "You Don't Know Me", "Other Hours", and "Come By Me". What he really did in this era, was add a whole bunch of new songs to the great American songbook of standards, songs that everyone loved, but that no one would put up there with the work of Sinatra and Bennett. Well, he did, and for me, he made them viable in that category. He's backed by a swinging orcehstra, and really gives them a chance to shine. If you dig the croon-y stuff, you will get hip to this DVD.