Fat Freddy

"Cheech & Chong's Up In Smoke" (1978)

In the stoner-comedy duo's first movie, the dimwitted "Pedro" and "Man" have a variety of weed fueled adventures, and eventually end up driving a van made entirely of compressed marijuana into the U.S. from Mexico, with a dedicated-but-clueless narcotics cop (Stacy Keach) in hot pursuit. 

Loaded with low brow gags from beginning to end, "Up in Smoke" is dumb as a box of rocks but C&C are so much fun to watch that you can't help but laugh all the way through it. Has it really been 40 years since this movie was released? Farrrrrr OUT maaaaan! 

Big ole heap of Stormspell Records goodies in the mail today:

Stygian Oath -s/t
Blazon Stone - Down In The Dark
Runelord - Message From The Past
Rocka Rollas - Celtic Kings
Various - Stormspell 10th Anniversary Tribute
"Steel Assassin" - 1986 Mystery Band
Spellwitch - The Witching Hour
Terrorvore - Unforeseen Consequences
Lucifer's Hammer - Time is Death
Siren - Up From the Depths: Early Anthology & More (2CD)

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I'd take it off his hands for $100.

Haha! Yea, it's not like their roster was loaded with mega-stars that would make it worth the $100K asking price, especially in this day and age. 

It's funny, even after all the years of drama surrounding this label that I've witnessed in my time on this forum, I actually only own one Retrospect release -- "Look Out For the Night" by Axtion.

....and y'know what? It isn't even that good  

"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2" (1986)
A Texas marshal (Dennis Hopper at his coked-out best) and a lady radio DJ track Leatherface and his cannibal clan to their new hideout beneath an abandoned carnival. Screaming, yelling, over-acting, running through tunnels, and of course, chain sawing follows.
"TCM 2" trades the gritty realism of the original for ultra-violent, over-the-top black comedy, and the results are bigger, louder, and waaaaaayy dumber than the first movie. I had a screaming headache by the three quarter mark. 
Mildly entertaining in spots, but in the end all this flick did was remind me why the "TCM" series was always my least favorite of the big horror franchises.

"Joysticks" (1983)
Small town teens band together when a councilman wants to shut down their favorite hangout - the local video arcade. A cheap, so '80s it hurts "moron comedy" loaded with raunchy gags, fart jokes and half naked girls.

Cookie cutter teen comedies like these were a dime a dozen back in the day, some were better than others. "Joysticks" was pretty terrible, but it's worth a look for its retro value, especially if you're into classic arcade games.

5 hours ago, Geoff said:

When was their last release, out of curiosity? Jeez you'd be a brave man or woman to purchase a record label in 2018 (or anytime beyond). 

Dunno, but if you go to RetrospectRecords.com, the front page is still advertising their "Rockfest" concert from 2015 (!), so it would seem that they've been gathering dust for a while.  

Walmart barely stocks any CDs in their stores nowadays anyway, so this is kind of a non-issue. If you're not a top 40 pop or country act, you're not getting rack space there, no matter what your album title is.

Apparently you can still order it online from Wal-Mart's web site tho, so much for corporate morality I guess. 

"Policewomen" (1974)
Cheap cops n robbers junk about a karate kickin' lady officer (Sondra Currie, sister of the Runaways' Cherie Currie) who goes undercover to infiltrate a "female Mafia" of gold smugglers. Lots of car chases, catfights and a heaping helping of T&A. Currie is purty, but she can't act worth a spit...which is fine because neither can anyone else in this movie!

New entry:
I dusted off W.A.S.P.'s Helldorado this past week for the first time in a good long while, and I said to myself "Self, this album would be a damn good candidate for a new blog," so it was done.

https://spinditty.com/genres/Retro-Rock-Review-WASP-Helldorado-1999

On 4/15/2018 at 7:51 PM, martinsane said:

Atomic Blonde ~ Quite solid spy movie with everyone's favorite chameleon Charlize Theron. James McEvoy and John Goodman put in solid performances. Movie has 10 pounds of action stuffed into a 2 pound sack. I can't imagine a sequel NOT happening.

 Badass movie, with a great '80s Euro-pop soundtrack too. I had Peter Schilling's "Major Tom" stuck in my head for days after seeing that flick!

Out now from our buddy Stormspell:

Lucifer's Hammer, TIME IS DEATH 

Classy, melodic retro metal from Chile, for fans of early Maiden, Angel Witch, and the NWOBHM in general.

Review @ my blog: https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Lucifers-Hammer-Time-is-Death-Album-Review-2018

"Prisoners of the Night" on YouTube:

Out now from our buddy Stormspell:

Lucifer's Hammer, TIME IS DEATH 

Classy, melodic retro metal from Chile, for fans of early Maiden, Angel Witch, and the NWOBHM in general.

Review https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Lucifers-Hammer-Time-is-Death-Album-Review-2018

"Gallowwalkers" (2013)
"Blade" meets "Jonah Hex" in a silly but entertainingly ultra-violent horror/Western hybrid. Wesley Snipes is a gun slinger who recruits a young protege to help him kill some bad guys who stubbornly refuse to stay dead. "Gallowwalkers" is a fairly well made film, with lotsa pretty scenery and cool gory action bits, but the story goes around in circles until the final battle between Snipes and Head Bad Guy.

Fun fact: Snipes turned himself in to face charges of tax evasion while making this flick, which was just one of numerous production problems that delayed the movie's completion for several years.

"Night of the Comet" (1984)
A pair of Valley Girl sisters and a truck driver may be the last humans left on Earth after a passing comet disintegrates most people instantly and turns the few who survive into ravenous zombies. Yeah, I hate when that happens.
This odd ball horror/sci-fi/comedy blend has become a cult film but I'm not really sure why, I thought it was pretty "meh." The two female leads are fun to watch and there are a few funny bits scattered throughout the film but  I was mostly bored. Oh well. (shrugs)  
 

"The Crawlers" (1993)
Nuclear waste dumped in a remote forest area mutates the trees, who then strangle a bunch of people with their roots. Yep, that's the whole plot of this horribly cheap, terribly acted, snail-paced direct-to-video piece of crap. This was the worst movie I've seen in quite some time. 
"The Crawlers" is also known as "Contamination .7", "Creepers," and "Troll 3," but whatever name you want to call it, this movie sucks!
AVOID.

Damn, that's almost spooky. They got that vintage Kiss sound down!!

"Rats: Night of Terror" (1984)
In this semi-legendary Italian post-apocalypse flick (directed by spaghetti schlock kingpin Bruno Mattei of "Hell of the Living Dead" and "Shocking Dark" fame, and co-written by Claudio Fragasso of "Troll 2"), a group of nomadic bikers discover an abandoned laboratory that's fully stocked with food and water. They think they've hit the jackpot - until night falls and  they find out that the facility is also home to thousands of hungry rats who don't take kindly to trespassers on "their" turf. You can probably figure out the rest...
Like most Italian horrors, "Rats" features atrocious acting, awkward dialogue, and plenty of cheap but effective gore, plus one of the most WTF twist endings in Z-movie history -- which, amazingly, was spoiled by many of the flick's posters/video covers. Cheesy but enjoyable for all the wrong reasons.

"Mutant" (aka "Night Shadows," 1984)

Stranded in a backwoods burg after a car breakdown, a city boy soon learns that toxic waste in the groundwater is slowly turning the townsfolk into a horde of nocturnal, blood-drinking zombie-like creatures. Hilarity ensues. 
A fun, oh-so-'80s slice of low budget eco-terror, not to be confused with Roger Corman's 1982 "Aliien" wanna-be "Forbidden Planet," which is also known as "Mutant" in some parts of the world.

Woke up too damn early this morning so I killed some time with a couple of music docs on Amazon Prime.

"Inside Metal: The Rise of L.A. Thrash Metal" (2017)
The latest chapter of the "Inside Metal" series examines the challenges that bands like Slayer, Dark Angel and Hirax faced in the early days as they tried to establish a thrash scene in Los Angeles, the glam capitol of the world. Katon DePena, Dave Ellefson, Chris Poland, Gene Hoglan, Eric Peterson, Juan Garcia, Ernie C. (Body Count) and many more tell some good stories amidst the vintage clips and photos. Like the rest of the "Inside Metal" series, there's really nothing here that long time genre fans won't already know but it was an OK time waster. 

"Ramones: The True Story" (2005)
This cheap looking documentary covers the punk rock godfathers' first decade and consists mostly of vintage TV footage, with added commentary by Tommy Ramone (the only surviving original member at the time this flick was made), CBGBs owner Hilly Kristal, Ramones road manager Monte Melnick and art director Arturo Vega. This might not be a bad intro to the band for newbies but I'd say skip this and go for 2003's way more thorough End of the Century doc instead.

"Beerfest" (2006)

To defend their family's honor, two American brothers form a team of fellow slackers and head to Germany to take part in a super-secret international beer drinking competition. So basically this is a drunken, slapstick version of "Fight Club." A raunchy, funny as hell, dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks comedy that's best enjoyed with a few beers in hand!

In the next installment of "As the Ratt Turns," Metal Sludge is reporting that Carlos Cavazo is now out of Ratt as well.

For those of you who are keeping score, this leaves only one of the guys who played on Infestation (Pearcy) and Juan Croucier. 

It's starting to sound like Pearcy and/or Juan is trying to do the same thing Blotzer was doing - cutting out the "old" band members so he/they can take the RATT name on the road backed by no-names who work cheap. 

If that's the case, then the next court battle might be Blotzer suing them for stealing his business model. "That was my idea! I did it first!"

A truly obscure find at Goodwill today...

Various Artists: Rock Business and Long Island Records Presents: AOR I/95

...a promotional sampler from Long Island Records, the short lived '90s AOR/hard rock record label from Germany. I own one release from this label (Parish's Envision, which feat. ex-Crimson Glory guitarist Ben Jackson), otherwise I probably wouldn't have even recognized the name. 

Anyway, it's sixteen tracks in a slim case and the artists on it include some vaguely familiar band names (Demon Drive, Bloodstone, If Only, Phil Naro, Loudshine) and a whole lotta "who?" I have heard OF some of these bands, but I'm fairly sure I've never actually heard any of 'em.

I skipped thru the first half of the CD in the car as I continued on to work, and heard some straight up '80s style hair metal, some wimp-tastic Richard Marx-style AOR and even some weird synth stuff that was borderline new wave (?). 

An odd mix, but I can never resist promotional crap like this when I find it out in the wild.

Great idea, Ratt. Fire the one guy left in the damn band with talent. Pffft. 

"Coneheads" (1993)
"CONSUME MASS QUANTITIES!"
Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin reprise their classic "SNL" roles as pointy-skulled aliens Beldar and Prymat, who find themselves stranded after their spaceship crashes on Earth. Forced to adapt to Earth society, they start a family and settle in the New Jersey suburbs ("We are from France"), until their peaceful existence is threatened by an Immigration agent (Michael "Spinal Tap" McKean) determined to send them back where they came from. 
This silly, quotable slapstick sci-fi is one of the better SNL-to-movie translations. Sharp eyed fans will have fun catching the countless cameos by "SNL" stars past & present and other '90s comedy biggies incl. Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, Chris Farley, Kevin Nealon, David Spade, Adam Sandler, Phil Hartman, Ellen DeGeneres, Michael "Kramer" Richards, Jason Alexander, and more.  

"Batman vs. Two-Face" (2017)

This sequel to the successful "Batman & Robin: Return of the Caped Crusaders" animated movie is another campy-cool cartoon treat for fans of the '60s "Batman" TV show. Adam West and Burt Ward reunite one last time (the film is dedicated to West's memory) to provide the voices of the Dynamic Duo, untangling a mysterious series of crimes masterminded by the evil Two-Face, who's voiced by William Shatner. The always-welcome Julie Newmar drops in to provide Catwoman's voice too. Tons of tongue-in-cheek Bat-fun.