Alice Cooper - Road (2023)

“I know you’re looking for a real good time. So, let me introduce you to a friend of mine. I’m Alice.

I’m the Master of Madness; the Sultan of Surprise…so don’t be afraid, just look into my eyes.”

(I'm Alice", song #1)

*******

The new album from The Coop,  my favourite shocker-still the punk riot teenage rascal at 75!!!,s

Just saw him 3 months ago again with 'em Hollywood Vampires.

Out on August 25t, his 22nd studio album !!! following "Detroit Stories", issued in 2021. 

Again produced by his "partner in crime", Bob Ezrin, it's a very simple rock 'n roll concept, life (& death) on The Road (=touring).

Guitars: Ryan Roxie, Tommy Henricksen and Nita Strauss.

guest: Tom Morello on "White Line Frankenstein"

“White Line Frankenstein is a monster that we created. It’s a truck driver who’s been out there a long time. He's the king of the road. He doesn't live in a house. He lives in that truck,” Alice says. “In the song, this surreal tough guy is driving on white lines for his whole life. So, ‘White Line Frankenstein’ would be his CB handle. It’s monstrous and definitely a stage song.”

politically incorrect song: "Big Boobs", most fun and so are Alice's comments on the Woke movement, so he just got fired from the cosmetics firm he advertised. 

my favourite, introspective 110 More Miles (#12, and last song). 

cheesiest song, the obligatory ballad, Baby, Please Don't Go -not so much...

Bonus, #13, a personal energetic rendition of The Who's Magic Bus (The Who being Alice's favourite band...)

AllMusic review here: 4 stars out of five.

TBC 

you can find the album on all here.

Bluesferatu -work in progress

Be afraid...

Be very Afraid

Be wery wery af raid ;)

'cos

101 years later

Nosferatu is back in his homeland...

Transylvania, but Transilvania Blues...

 LIVE und ALIVE

ONLY ON 

28.09.2023

WORLD PREMIERE ;)

BRASOV, ROCKSTADT

BLUESFERATU

eine symphonie des blues

(a symphony of Blues)

also FREE ENTRANCE !!!!

what more do you want? B. THERE!!!

TBC

                            the musicians liking their stuff...Watzy & Yokko at InkMusic on 16.08.23

Sympathy for the Devil (2023)

The great contender for The Nicolas Cage Award of 2023 is this thriller in which The Cage eats and chews scenery more than Gary Oldman in the 2003 Tony Scott BMW film Beat the Devil with James Brown. I mean Cage is great as Dracula in Renfield but that movie sucked :( bigtime also. 

The only bummer with Sympathy for the Devil (2023)is it features no Rolling Stones song. Not even a cover. Well, the director, Yuval Adler, said it would've cost more than is post production budget...It has a great song and a great moment in Fat City by Alan Vega, Alex Chilton and Ben Vaughn from their Cubist Blues Sessions that reminded me of the vibe and the score in Wild at Heart (1990) though.

Cage opposite restrained Joel Kinnaman

Definetly a real summer (& winter) treat ! 

TBC

RIP Robbie Robertson

 sad day today, even sadder than 2 days ago when Billy Friedkin passed...

Sixto Rodriguez is gone also (but that was y-day on the 8th)...

just spoke about The Band 2 days ago, considered by many the best band ever, and last year or so I saw the doc focusing on Robbie Robertson's and The Band, Once Were Brothers...he was one of the Great ones, played with Bob,  probably Scorsese's best friend in the seventies and more, he's rejoining Levon Helm, Richard Manuel and Rick Danko on that Last Waltz...all dead but as Neil says it, not forgotten...

listen to Beautiful Madness from his SINEMATIC album, a very personal one...also loved Robbie's work for Marty, his album from 2011, How To Become Clairvoyant, and his theme song for The Irishman (2019) also Rememberance, the second song, also from Sinematic.

His final score will be heard this fall when Scorsese's latest KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON releases.

and here's Scorsese tribute to the Man, in Esquire....

RIP William Friedkin

The French Connection 

The Exorcist

Sorcerer

Cruising

To Live and Die in L.A.

Rules of Engagement

The Hunted

Bug

Killer Joe

One of my top favorite directors and much more than that, he had crossed the final bridge today. 

William "Hurricane Billy" Friedkin was 1987...He won the Oscar for directing in 1972 for The French Connection, at that time being the youngest recipient of the award at 33.

Met him thrice in Cannes, in 2006 with Bug at the American Pavillion, in 2007 at the Quinzaine with Cruising and nine years later in 2016 in Bunuel at La Lecon du Cinema. 

Friedkin had recently completed “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial” starring Kiefer Sutherland and Jason Clarke. His now-final film will premiere in September at the 80th Venice International Film Festival.

respects from the Industry here

Francis Ford Coppola took to Instagram to pay tribute to Friedkin, who he called “a giant of a man.”

“William Friedkin was my first friend among the filmmakers of my generation and I grieve for the loss of a much-loved companion,” Coppola said. “His accomplishments in Cinema are extraordinary and unique. He is the only colleague I knew whose work actually saved a man’s life (‘The People v. Paul Cruimp’). Billy’s work represents true milestones in Cinema, a list which will never be forgotten; certainly ‘The French Connection,’ ‘The Exorcist’ and ‘Sorcerer,’ but all of his films are alive with his genius. Pick any of them out of a hat and you’ll be dazzled. His lovable, irascible personality was cover for a beautiful, brilliant, deep-feeling giant of a man. It’s very hard to grasp that I will never enjoy his company again, but his work will at least stand in for him.”

RIP Mark Margolis

I know Mark Margolis from Scarface (1983, which I saw in 1984 or so, first time in black and white pan and scan video), where he was the Bolivian psychotic killer who doesn't speak English, "cienta metros"...His character is billed as "The Shadow".  Once you saw him there you never forgot him.

Character actor of Jewish Polish descent, he was born in Philadelphia in 1939. He studied acting under Stella Adler at the Actor's Studio. He was in a lot of films and TV (over 150!), including many Darren Aronofsky films, from Pi to Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler, Noah and Black Swan.

But his late fame came from the Breaking Bad series, where he was the evil "Tio" Hector Salamanca, even more evil on a wheelchair ! He got nominated by a singular Emmy for "Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series". He was a big part the spin-off too, in Better Call Saul. Last part he played was in the Your Honor series (also with Bryan Cranston), as the mob boss Carmine Conti.

Mark Margolis died August 3 2023 in New York. He was 83. RIP...

Obituary here

"You don't play villains like they are villains. You play them like you know exactly where they are coming from. Which hopefully you do."

                                                                                       Mark Margolis 

RIP Paul Reubens

Paul "Pee-wee" Reubens is gone! Really 70 years already ?