Music to listen to: Lamp of Thoth

Lamp of Thoth is a Doom Metal band from West Yorkshire, England and was form in 2006. Right now they are signed to The Miskatonic Foundation. If you like your songs with some nice riffage and some corny lyrics, Lamp of Thoth is of you.

They have one full length out, called Portents, Omens & Dooms, which is their best release. I didn't think their EP, Sing as you Slay, was all that great.

(((Doom or be Doomed)))

Music to listen to: Saint Vitus

One of the most underrated bands. These guys are the 1970's version of Black Sabbath, but you don't see kids in high school sporting their shirts or talking about them. The recently got back together with their (in my opinion) best vocalist that goes by the stage name Wino.

Above is the song 'Clear Windowpane' from their most popular album 'Born too late' that was released in 1986. I saw them last year playing in San Francisco, they fucking rocked. Check out wiki for more info.

Movie to watch: This is England

This is England is a British film made by Shane Meadows and is probably one of the most underrated drama films in the last decade, at least here in the states. The movie stars Shawn, a kid who gets bullied at school and doesn't fit in, one day he meets a few skinhead misfits and starts a bonding friendship.

Too bad it doesn't stay all positive, in the middle of the film, an older skin head named 'Combo' gets out of prison. He drops his white nationalist views and tries to take over the group. Even though they are 'skin heads', they are 1960's skin heads with  black culture roots (Soul, ska and reggae music).

If you watch the film and like it, there is also a 4 part TV series named "This is England '86" that stars the whole cast. If that wasn't good enough, Channel 4 in the UK has already stated they will be doing "This is England '88" and "This is England '90". Sounds good, man!

Can you see Jake Gyllenhaal playing Bourne?

Matt Damon, who played Jason Bourne in the last three films, has decided he didn't want to be typecast and refused to star in the upcoming movie "The Bourne Legacy".

It seems that Jake Gyllenhaal is being looked at for the film, meaning he will take the role of Jason Bourne himself for a few (maybe more) films. Do you think Donnie Darko turned Prince of Persia can pull it off?

Experimental Japanese band goes pop

One of my favorite Japanese experimental bands, Boris, has released the new single for their upcoming album "Attention Please". The song is called hope, you can download it here.

The band has more than 20 full releases since they formed in 1996, ranging from Drone/Doom to fuzzy Rock n' Roll. Check out their wikipedia entry.

[Source: Pitchfork]

Movie to see: Shogun Assassin

I will start off this blog by sharing one of my favorite films. Shogun Assassin is an edited version of the first two Lone Wolf and Cub films.

The plot for the movie is that the Shogun turns paranoid, sends ninja assassins to murder Ogami Itto. But the ninjas don't find him home and murder his wife. This is where he begins his path of vengeance, a path he takes with his son Daigoro. The movie is from the point of view of the kid, how he grows up walking the path of death.

An interesting old school samurai film, with some really well done scenes. The English dub even has some cheesy lines, if you are into that sort of thing (I am).