Video and Film

Produced by AWM's Bassist John Fesken and 58 Gallery's Orlando Reyes, Brotherhood is the final struggle between a power saturated President Fuchface, who controls all of the world's land mass and the Brotherhood of the Sea, his obstacle against his Fuc*ing Machine.

So a couple of weeks ago, February 17th of 2007, to be exact, I attended the debut of John Feskin and Orlando Reyes's new film, Brotherhood of the Sea and the Fucking Machine at the Dictators and Tyrants party at 58 Gallery in Jersey City.

This short digital film was an absolute riot, starring Tony Susco as President Fuchface. It was a mega-over-the-top story of an underground movement of super humans and criminals systematically assassinating a world empire by taking out its leaders (Black Skull #1 and Black Skull #2). The fight scenes were half faux kung fu, half WWF, featuring the heros of the story literally beating the bejeezus out of the President's men, then braking into his compound as he slowly breaks down while chain smoking and screaming the dying throes of his sexually charged domination of the world, ending in his assassination.

The world of the Brotherhood is without any women at all, making the suggestion that this power struggle is taking place at the end of humanity -- in otherwords, there's nothing left to fight for, cuz this is it.

The footage is cleverly set on beaches, stock footage of submarines, Grace Church Van Vorst, somewhere in the woods (of South Jersey?), and what appears to be an old office building.

One of the most moving scenes in the film was in Grace Church Van Vorst, a low angle shot of the leader of the revolutionary movement The Brotherhood of the Sea, screaming and preaching away about choice, mixing it with syllabic things, ("A BA BA BA BWWAAAAYYYYYY!") doing what was apparently an improvised rant in the thunder of the Church's reverberation.

There definitely seemed to be some general element of insidiousness to the revolutionary movement, with the leader being clearly pretty nuts, and the assassins of the movement being emotionless executioners.

The filmed ended with a shot of the twin towers, which had a few folks (myself included) wondering if that was really necessary, or distracting from the rest of the film's point. I've definitely changed my mind, reflecting on it without being so inebriated, I like how it throws the whole Never Forget thing into your face after a cold blooded farce to which you're basically cheering along because it's intentionally symbolic of current events and President Bush (and his hidden number two calling the shots). It's entirely confrontational and that's why I loved it. John and Orlando really did a great job putting it together, along with the cast, and the soundtrack by American Water Color movement really kept the film going, adding extreme tension and excitement to many of the scenes. It was a really fun movie to watch.

After the showing of the film the party really got started, and 58 Gallery turned into a dance party, which was really just good kleen fun for everyone involved.

A small booklet was handed out to attendees to accompany the film, titled after the movie, with the introduction: "What happens when you ask schoolchildren to write about their leaders in their private journals, using the following prompt: (Are) we being run by dictators, tyrants, ....????" It purports to be "taken from various student's journals, grades 3-12 – Jersey City, NJ," and it certainly seems to be the case, neat little read with random pictures of women being hung (since they had all been killed in the world of the film).

Here are a couple of quick scans:

While most aging rockers tend to accidentally slip into perversion, addiction, and eventually self-parody, Nick Cave has decided instead to think outside the box, grow an awful looking goatee and take all three head-on in his new project: Grinderman.

"My face is finished, my body's gone.
And I can't help but think standing up here in all this applause and gazing down at all the young and the beautiful.
With their questioning eyes.
That I must above all things love myself."

Thanks to that opening, what would have been a paean to post-pubescent frustration instead (intentionally) casts Cave and his cohorts as The Dirty Old Men leering from the stage. Cave plays the part of the massively egotistical front man, and the band plays what is perhaps the most simple sounding rock and roll song ever.

Focus your attention on the mad (balding) man with the microphone and the guitar, it says.

The name "Grinderman" evokes both a pathetic organ grinder, spinning the handle on his box to play simple tunes for small bits of cash, or an alternate universe pornographic superhero. That duality is probably exactly what they were going for. It's easy to watch this video and see it as four old guys trying to look cool by playing to young folks, but then it ends with animal on human sex and you realize that Cave, Sclavunos, Ellis and Casey have been at this "fucking with people" thing for a long time.

And who doesn't like the sound of an amplified violin coming through a wah pedal?

No Pussy Blues

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Tom Waits performs "Day After Tomorrow" from the album Real Gone on The Daily Show, much to the delight of Jon Stewart. Never mind that the song gets cut off at the end - the performance of this poignant song is well worth the interruption.

Today on the YouTube Sampler, a trio of old school "post-punk" videos. Whatever post-punk means. Like, music made by kids that came out after the explosion of the safety pin haute couture. Marvel at a young, make-up free Robert Smith, watch Ian Curtis do the St. Vitus Dance just months before he offed himself, and check out XTC's statue-fetish days - long before they started ripping off The Beatles.

The Cure - Killing An Arab (Live, Paris 1979 - Theatre de Lempire)

Joy Division - "Transmission"

XTC - "Statue Of Liberty"