Babes In The Woods
(Microcinema)







You just gotta love early 60’s ‘nuddie’ films. Naked girls romping with their pre-silicone breasts (well not completely ‘pre’ but certainly not common at the time) bouncing, as they enjoy the sun, fun, and seclusion of summer camp settings or private beaches and backwoods. It was a simpler time way back then, in 1962 precisely when Babes in the Woods was filmed, when harmless movies like this could be and would be made, with the absolute only intention to show women naked.

“Babes” is basically a silent film with narration and dialogue put on after. The three ‘babes’ in question pretty much strip at a waterfall, at a gas station rest area, and at the side of the road while an insipid plot written by Edmund Kerwin (and I do use that word ‘written’ loosely) unfolds from the narrator’s telling, he the dead proprietor of the cabin-in-the-wood motel the trio have been trying to get to.

Lost for over 40 years this one hour film is now available through the Independent International company and while a little scratchy, if kitsch and naked girls are your thang director A.A. Krovek’s Babes In The Woods is a gem of this type of film making from yesteryear.

Ralph Greco, Jr.

Observe and Report
(Warner Home Video)





Sometimes your kids grow up and they don’t know what they want to be, the same is true in the world of film and such is the case with Observe and Report starring Seth Rogan. Its one part romantic comedy, one part psychological thriller, and eight parts question marks as the film weaves in and out of genres rather than evenly blending them together. Seth Rogan plays a mall cop ala Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver and it’s a tough pill to swallow after the sentimental everyday guy “won’t you please love me” antics end early on in the story.

The film is like the evil stepchild version of Paul Blart: Mall Cop and when it goes dark it means it with heavy drugs, date rape type situations, violence, and a touch of psychosis, and these are the elements that are actually most redeeming in the film. There are some worthwhile macabre laughs but getting to them is tough at times when the plot becomes overt but it’s worth sticking with for the moments.

The movie is not bad but it is certainly unsuccessful and really doesn’t find its way until the last act when it’s a case of too little too late. As Hillary said- it takes a village to raise a child and the same is true in producing a film, so who knows who messed this film up. But it clearly had some potential and it’s a shame to see it stuck in therapy and going nowhere in life.

Tim Needles

Niagara Bar
112 Avenue A
New York, NY 10009
Tel# (212) 420-9517
Hours:
7 days a week: 4PM to 4 AM
Happy Hour: 4 PM to 8 PM daily



New York City has some of the most historical locations in the entire country. At least the most notable. You can walk into any restaurant or bar and they’ll tell you all the stories about celebrities, politicians, and other such folk who frequent their establishment. In keeping with the historically important vein, take a trip to the East Village, and you’ll find a bar that has tried, and is now succeeding, in regaining the old artist and musician culture that used to permeate every brick in the area below 14th Street. Niagara Bar has a history, as a rockstar hangout for the likes of Joey Ramone and Joe Strummer (yeah, it’s that bar with Joe’s giant portrait on the side of the building). It is a hub for meeting other artists, located in a central spot on 7th and Ave A. Since the passing of the golden age of rockstars, places like the East Village have struggled to retain their allure, and though slowly, Niagara is one of the bars that is again giving artists the place to reconnect with the lost culture of the Village.

The layout of the bar is simple, there is an upstairs and a downstairs. Upstairs has a long bar, manned usually by one or two bartenders, some simple seating, and a back room area with a photo booth. The downstairs has just been remodeled so there is another large bar and seating (but more often lots of dancing). On the surface, it’s just your average bar. What is above average are the things that go on behind the scenes. Niagara is one of the homes of the Antagonist Art Movement (which is a whole other article altogether), who put on weekly art and music shows. And they’ve been doing this for years. The music shows began as part of the Thursday art shows, but have since broken off and created its own night, Mondays. One Sunday a month there is also a writer’s night, and at any time there is some crazy group of artists hanging around the bar, just shooting the shit.

The newest artistic addition to the bar is its permanent wall art, courtesy of Yoshitomo Nara. Completely drunk one night, he was given a sharpie and told to draw on the walls, which he did, before continuing into the subway system and subsequently was arrested for defacing public property. Niagara has become a name in the East Village for allowing artists freedom to express themselves, without asking for much in return: just bring folks into the bar and you can show your stuff.

Marissa!

A Place to Bury Strangers have been blasting speakers with their breed of doomy noise rock for several years now, having recently gained greater attention on the strength of their self-titled 2007 debut album – a collection of mostly preliminary or demo recordings that few were supposed to hear. The band has toured extensively since, and have even joined MGMT and Nine Inch Nails on respective tours. I met the band – singer/guitarist Oliver Ackermann, bassist Jono MOFO and drummer Jay Space – at Death By Audio, the custom guitar effects pedal company founded by Ackermann, which is perhaps the only place that can be responsible for crafting most of the more hair-raising sounds this band can conjure…

Did the success of the first album and the new attention to the band come about quickly?

Oliver: Oh yeah, I had no expectations whatsoever. We had an offer [from label Killer Pimp] to put it out for nothing. Before that, we would go through the ridiculous labor of burning CDs and making all the artwork just to sell them for $3 at shows.

Jono: I said, ‘Let’s just go for it.’ I thought it’d be good so we at least had something out there that we could sell and that didn’t cost us anything.

Oliver: I always thought we would just re-record everything later, so we limited it to 500 copies. I would talk to people who had friends in the music industry and it seemed like we had to have the right producer or studio… I’ve been D.I.Y. for so long now, I almost felt like giving up; like, “If that’s what it takes to make a band…” But people really liked it, and it gave us great confidence in that what we were doing wasn’t worthless.

After the first album, you guys started touring a lot more. Had you been playing regularly before then?

Oliver: Yeah, I used to say ‘Yes’ to every show and these guys would get so pissed [points to Jono and Jay]. There was a lot of ‘Do we have to play at Lit Lounge again?’ We’d play out on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday...

Jono: Then you try to get friends and people to come to the shows and they’re always, “You’re playing again?”

Did you run into more issues with the sheer volume of your sound at venues the more you played and toured?

Oliver: It’s been a long road of getting kicked out of clubs, getting threatened by the sound guys, blowing out lots of other people’s amps…

Jay: A lot of teenage girls doing this [makes painful face while plugging ears]

How has audience reaction changed the more you’ve played out? And how did your sound go over on bigger tours with Nine Inch Nails and MGMT?

Oliver: I’ve noticed the crowd spans a range of ages. There are people that were maybe into bands like the Jesus and Mary Chain a while ago that hear that in us… I guess if the moms are into us, it can’t hurt. [laughs] But it runs the gamut. It’s cool that there are people still into this type of music. The NIN tour was crazy positive every night… But I remember this one guy who had his middle finger up at us for most of our set, so I stared him down until it got really awkward. He put it down, then eventually started moving his head to the music…

Jay: My favorite was getting an E-mail from someone where the subject said “You’re So Awesome,” then we open it up and it’s an attack. “You guys suck … who wants to listen to 45 minutes of feedback!?”

Has all the touring improved the band on a musical level?

Oliver: It made us a lot tighter and created more intensity in the band, so now we’re constantly challenging each other.

Jay: I’ve been pushed to a whole other level of my drumming … The first album, a lot of it is drum machines, but I end up playing the parts live anyway.

Jono: He’s a live machine.

The new album, Exploding Head, boasts a greater sense of melody and tighter structures amidst the noise. At their core, some songs sound like they could be pop. Was there intent to go that way with this album?

Oliver: We were trying to make what we think is a good album from start to finish. We were focused on getting a more hi-fi sound; it’s an experiment, I guess. If it doesn’t work, maybe we’ll go back to something more lo-fi. But I learn new recording and mixing techniques almost every day, so this album is sort of a culmination of that up to this point. And I like pop, too. I’m up for inspiration from anywhere if it sounds good … and those elements can be different in every song; maybe it’s the bass in one or the melody in another.

Your music is defined to a large degree by experimentation with sounds and guitar effects; is that a major and painstaking process when writing and recording?

Oliver: I like to experiment with technology not familiar to me to see what will happen… But it takes some hard work. You always think something could sound better, so it’s a never-ending search.

Jay: Oliver and I have spent hours just going through electronic drum sounds trying to get the right one. We’d find one, record the song and then realize listening back that it’s not right at all, and we’d have to start over again.

Jono: It’s always more fun to use fucked up sounds than normal ones, but sometimes you have to know when to reign it in if it’s more appropriate for the song. Sometimes a clean guitar could actually be best.

Oliver, you’re in the business of creating effect pedals. Are much of your set-ups custom built? Ever have problems with them while on the road and be stuck in a hard place?

Oliver: Well I make ‘em, so they never fail! [laughs] We’re open to using anything, really. We’ve had equipment break on tour, and then had to borrow gear from other bands. Sometimes you’ve got to think quickly to make things happen out there. We do have this electronic drum module that we built, and it does sort of look like a big bomb, so customs agents always carelessly unscrew it and look around inside to check it out. It’s pretty delicate and there’s not much room to breathe in there, so they’ve broken it a few times.

Has it ever been a concern to not let the noise and loudness appear gimmicky?

Jono: If it’s ever just experimental noise over and over again then yeah, it would get old, but there’s more to it than that…

Oliver: There’s definitely a purpose – there must constantly be one to keep things exciting. But I mean, if I get tired of it, or the band gets tired of it, then fuck it. As long as I’m creating music for myself, or we’re making music that we’re into, that’s what’s important.

A Place to Bury Strangers’ killer new album Exploding Head is released Oct. 6 on Mute, and the band will play at the Bowery Ballroom Oct. 29.

John Mordecai

Pureology Systems introduces the Essential Repair Restorative Hair Masque to its line of well-touted Antifade Complex products, designed to strengthen and revitalize hair so as to restore it to a healthy state. For those with colored hair who have indulged perhaps a little too much in summer’s beach, pool and sunny-sided offerings, this masque may be exactly what your tresses need to kick start a hair-healthy fall season.

As would be expected, the product comes as a thick and viscous, paste-like substance. It comes in a bubble-gum pink form and smells much like the goo dentists use to clean teeth (readers may note that the website refers to this scent as its “signature aromatherapy blend” comprised of vanilla, bergamot, jasmine, mandarin, rose, lavender and ylang ylang. Go figure!). Although its aroma is not-quite-pleasant, it is not wholly intolerable either.

Furthermore, the experts of Pureology Systems have thoughtfully equipped the package with a small comb so as to ensure the products’ thorough, equal dispersion. Post-application rinsing proves somewhat difficult, and ultimately results do not prove to be very drastic. That being said, this reviewer’s once-dry ends did seem to have somewhat more moisture than they did pre-masque. Despite its subtle results, the Pureology legacy and vegan nature of the product make for a worthwhile investment in the regular application of this restorative, health-inducing, tress-friendly treatment.

Jessica Stein

Terry Fator – Live From Las Vegas
(Image Entertainment)





On his new DVD, Live from Vegas, Season 2’s America’s Got Talent winner Terry Fator proves that he is extraordinarily talented and that his show is equally extraordinarily difficult to sit through. The cringing started shortly after hitting the play button because although Fator is clearly one of the best singing-ventriloquist-impressionists around, his very hokey, starchy show is a snoozefest on valium. There is an audience for this kind of cheesy garbage, I know, I wait behind them sometimes at traffic lights screaming, but they are best avoided when possible.

The show does have moments that emerge from the middle-American grey, dullness such as when Terry pulls an audience member on stage and adds a mask and dress using the live person as a doll very effectively, but everything is so scripted any reality is quickly shooed offstage. I’m sure Terry is a nice guy because he said so in the first chapter of his autobiography which was included with the DVD “Who’s The Dummy Now?” (answer: anyone reading the book) in which he tells his story of rags to riches slowly and painfully. Another added bonus is the worst audio commentary ever recorded featuring Terry and his comedy writer who is so far from the microphone that he might be down the block running from the nightmare.

It may play well in Peoria and fill seats at the Mirage, but after watching his act Terry Fator’s fan club is probably just hearing about this great new thing called the internet.

Tim Needles

Loose Change 9/11-An American Coup
(Microcinema)






To quote an old Jethro Tull lyric: "Why do the faithful have such a need to believe?" I hate to say it, but Loose Change is built on a pretty loose need to believe. Claiming it all was an 'American Coup', Dylan Avery's hour and a half romp links the Reichstag Fire in 1933 (gotta go to those fun-loving Nazi's when you want to make a point), Roosevelt's supposed knowledge of Pearl Harbor, the Gulf of Tonkin badness and then 9/11 as examples of when a government allowed or prompted a violent episode to further push their aims…most notably, to go to war.

Nobody is denying that our intelligence agencies were found with their pants down during that fateful Sept. day, but to suggest our government planned the attack on the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and that plane landing in that PA field…that's a big leap. Chemicals found in downtown NY, building construction, the exact composition of crash sites, Avery offers up the usual conspirator 'smoking guns' and while "Rescue Me"'s Daniel Sunjata, the narrator of Loose Change, makes well-read dramatic pronouncements, very few are supported by fact.

In the face of a seemingly obvious terrorist attack and with an unspoken, but very real need for revenge because of it, people turn to their government for answers. Concluding that ours was powerless to prevent this terrible tragedy, are we perversely comforted with the possibility that our government did do something…even if the conclusion we reach is that they caused it?

Ralph Greco, Jr.