She sang Rock and Roll with the Devil....

Album Review: Matt Mays & El Torpedo – Terminal Romance

It’s too bad you probably don’t know who Matt Mays is. He’s a Canadian rocker who fronts a band called “El Torpedo”, who carry the torch of the likes of Tom Petty, Neil Young, and now apparently Thin Lizzy.

I first found Matt Mays about two years ago on Pandora (Internet radio station), and I haven’t stopped listening since. I fell for his songs immediately because the music he makes is heavily influenced by so many rock genre’s, including folk rock, classic rock, glam rock, and it’s all done in a modern alternative rock way. Because of this concoction of inspirations, and his own guitar playing/vocal styles, we get loud distorted guitars, folky acoustic guitars, rock and roll solo’s, the Killers style orchestrations, and even delicate and thoughtful songs. Even with a variance in style throughout his albums, there is an overbearing style that carries each song to the next.
Last week, Matt Mays released a new album called “Terminal Romance”, which I didn’t think I would like so much, because on first preview, it was a little too “in your face” rock for me (hey, I’ve been listening to a lot of slower/lighter music for the past few months). But after a listen or two, I have really began to dig my heels into this album and get behind it. This is a full-on rock album. There are about three songs that sound like they could have come off of an early 80’s Thin Lizzy album, which is very impressive. I haven’t heard a rock song like this since the last Lizzy album I bought. Two songs sound like they could come off of a Tom Petty album, and two that are straight out of the Ramones era punk. The final song, sounds like a it was made by Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and the Allman Brothers had they all been California bred bands. This is seriously good stuff.

My favorite song on the album is the title track called “Terminal Romance”, about a guy wandering the streets of New York alone trying to reconcile with the past. He seems disillusioned with love and relationships (It should be noted that in the final song “Long Since Gone”, he doesn’t miss his girl, he misses his band), and he seems to be ready to just give up on things because as he says, “heartbreaks are un-curable”. The part I love most is the climax of the song, where Mays starts singing in an almost gospel manner, repeating, “She sang rock and roll, with the Devil”. While I have no idea what it means, it is sure fun and easy to sing along with (for over a minute).

This is only Matt May’s second album with El Torpedo, and I can only hope for more. Sadly, since he’s on the East Coast of Canada, the chances of seeing him and his band live are not very good.

The Queen's Lair

A month or two ago, Koo Koo got a new bed, and it has become her favorite place to be. Without spending a dime, we transformed our buffet into a kitty bed!

I got the idea when she was jumping up onto the buffet about 20 times a night just trying to get close to watch the fish. This would make her knock the fish food over, and cause all sorts of trouble, so I decided to see if she would sit in the drawer. I emptied it out, and sure enough, she loved it. So we put a pink towel in there (why do all my cats like pink blankets and towels?) and she loved it immediately. She spends about 3 hours a night in there, just watching the fish swim. She also tries to catch her mortal enemy: The Sucker Fish (seen sneaking past her while she sleeps in the picture above).



She pays no interest to the 100+ mystery snails that we have been raising.... If you are looking for some apple/mystery snails, we've got tons to give away. They are awesome looking little dudes, which are either yellow/orange or purple/blue. The purple ones just look too cool for school. Let me know if you want any. They are low maintenance, and clean up gunk in your tank.

Boys Gone Wild

Monday night, Dustin and I went to San Francisco to catch a screening of Sam Peckinpah’s first breakthrough film: “The Wild Bunch”. Some of you may know that in my book, Peckinpah is second only to Sergio Leone in terms of visual style, directing, and editing, so I do my best not to miss seeing his movies up on the big screen, the way they were meant to be seen. In 2006, Dustin and I did a bonsai trip and drove to Santa Monica to see a double-feature of Peckinpah’s, “The Ballad of Cable Hogue” and “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid”. Monday night was a repeat performance, two dudes taking a trip to watch a “guy film” from the guy who invented the guy film.


After picking Dustin up from his work, we headed into SF to Castro Street, where the Castro Theater lives. We got to the theater a little early (280 > 101), so we were able to stop in at my favorite place to eat in SF: The Sausage Factory. If you haven’t been there, go check it out. Totally simple Italian food, and a decent price. In the past I’ve only ever had Pizza there, and it’s always good if you like thin/simple pizza with no frills, but last night since we didn’t have much time, I decided to check out the cheese ravioli’s, which were good enough to make me want to get some again next time. Stopping at the Sausage Factory before or after movies at the Castro has become somewhat of a ritual, so I was glad that we were able to stop by and get some good food on a work night.

After eating we headed a few blocks down to the theater. If you haven’t been to the Castro Theater, it is similar to the Stanford Theater, in that it is a classic Movie Palace, built in the early years of Hollywood. On the outside, other than the big marquee and the old school ticket box, it doesn’t look like much. On the inside however, it is a grand theater with huge artifices, paintings, and old world designs hanging from every corner of the room. The seats are much better at the Castro than they are at the Stanford Theater, thankfully, and they seem to be built for people that are taller than 4’ 2” and heavier than 112 lbs. They show primarily older films, and have interesting film series’ every few weeks, and it really makes me wish I lived closer. For instance, in August, they are presenting a film series of 80’s fantasy movies that were all done without CG, such as Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, and The Neverending Story.

When we got to the theater, it was about 60-70% full, which is pretty rare for some of these old movies that time has forgotten. The last time I saw the theater that full was when I saw a double-bill of Taxi Driver and Citizen Kane. I’ll get my major gripe out of the way before I go any further…. The print of the movie that they used for The Wild Bunch was supposed to be a print from a 1995 Director’s Cut restoration, but the version we saw had a very annoying popping and crackling noise coming out of the left hand side of the screen, and there was a deep warbling coming out of the right hand side. Both of these sounds seem to have been amplified by the fact that they had the sound turned up well beyond the norm, which was strange to me, since the Castro is really big on giving an accurate presentation. The sound was mostly audible during the quieter scenes, so it wasn’t too distracting, but I would never want to see it presented like that again. I'm guessing they did not store this copy of the film very well for the past 13 years, because there was some severe damage.

Onto the movie. The Wild Bunch is important in the history of American Cinema, because it is considered the first “Ultra-Violent” movie. Before the Wild Bunch, American films followed a set of rules called “The Hays Code”, which was established in 1930 with a goal to control content in films. Films were not to show nudity, drug use, any form of sexual perversion or adultery, or even hint at homosexuality. How this affected action/adventure movies such as those that Peckinpah had made before The Wild Bunch, was in the way violence was depicted. According to the Code, a realistic death could never be shown in film. For example, you could not show a person pointing a gun at someone and firing, then show the victim grab their chest and fall to the ground. Cuts between footage were required when filming scenes like this, so for example, we would see a shot of someone firing the gun, then we would cut to a close-up of the victim’s face in pain, therefore separating the act of firing the gun from the bullet killing the victim. In 1968, the Hays code was forever to be discontinued, and films like The Wild Bunch (1969) began doing all that the production code prohibited. In fact, The Wild Bunch took things a step further by not only showing the shooter and the victim in the same scene, but also by having the victim’s death shown in agonizing slow motion as they fall to their death and writhe in pain. The amount of violence in the film also propelled it into history as beginning the “rise of violent films”. This was the first American film to portray violence in such a way, and it has left its mark permanently.


Despite being originally released with a Rating of “X”, the film was a critical and commercial smash hit, and it made Sam Peckinpah a star director, granting him bigger budgets and more freedom in the industry. Unfortunately, the film also pigeonholed Peckinpah as being a violent filmmaker, and as a result, when he made his next film, “The Ballad of Cable Hogue”, a light-hearted comedic Western, it was a failure because the audience was expecting violence.

The film itself carries a common theme in Westerns, that of old men past their prime trying to adjust and survive in the modern world. This is shown through the two main “heroes” of the film, Pike Bishop, and Deke Thornton. Pike is the leader of the Wild Bunch, and is trying to make one last big score before retiring. Deke, on the other hand is a former member of the Bunch, and has been offered a release from prison if he agrees to hunt down Pike, his best friend. Throughout the film we are reminded of just how old these men are, and how the modern world has no use for their type of outlaws and cowboys. In fact, a car is introduced about halfway through the film, letting the audience know this is in fact a 20th century world they are living in, no longer the Old West. The drive of the film becomes honor and a man’s “word”, and the past histories that put these men where they are today. Through Pike and Deke, we learn about these men, their commitment to each other, and their desires of living young and free the way they did in the past. These ideas are best summed up in a scene where the Bunch is seeking refuge in a Mexican village, and the town elder speaks of how age and life lessons can affect a person: “We all dream of being a child again. Even the worst of us. Perhaps the worst most of all.”

Peckinpah intelligently chose to use Hollywood actors that were past their prime, and losing ground in the newer, younger Hollywood of the 1960’s to star in the roles of outlaws past their prime. William Holden (who played Pike) had been a dignified and popular actor of serious dramas before he fell out of favor in the new Hollywood, and it was very fitting that he played the disgruntled leader of the Bunch, wishing for the return of the good old days. Peckinpah made films about men, and he made them well, raging with machismo, and bordering on misogyny, and he influenced some of the greatest filmmakers who followed him. Peckinpah style movies are long gone, but at least we can still view them at these old movie palaces.