When it comes to all-time underrated rock bands, The Cult must be at the top of the list. They are an aggressive blend of Judas Priest and Queensryche with a touch of The Doors who arose from England in the early 1980s as a post-punk Goth rock band. As their career progressed they fused in hard rock with their original sound to become one of the most distinctive bands of the 1980s.
Their fourth studio album, 1989's Sonic Temple, provided them the breakthru they'd been looking for in the United States, reaching #10 on the Billboard charts and providing the hit singles "Sweet Soul Sister" and "Fire Woman". This success follows on the heels of two moderately succesful albums, Love in 1985 which gave them thier first real taste of commercial success in the UK, with the track "She Sells Sanctuary" playing a huge role and Electric in 1987 which saw the band start to become more hard rock than Goth rock. The band's huge hit from Electric was "Love Removal Machine".
Like most rock bands, The Cult had their share of in-band disagreements and personal problems and began a hiatus in 1995. However, the band stormed back in a big way with "Painted On My Heart", a prominently featured song in the Nicolas Cage/Angelina Jolie action flick Gone in 60 Seconds. This led to the release of a 6-disc boxed set titled Rare Cult and a new studio album in 2001 titled Beyond Good and Evil. Despite good critical reviews and huge airplay overseas, BG&E was not the comeback album thge band hoped for and a second Cult hiatus began.
Ian Astbury, the band's singer and primary lyricist, has one of the most recognizable and distinctive voices in all of rock. He recorded a song for the Doors tribute album and toured with the surviving memebers of the Doors as their vocalist for 2002's Doors of the 21st Century tour. Oliver Stone offered Astbury the role of Jim Morrision for the 1991 bio-flick, but Astbury turned the role down because he did not like how Morrison was portrayed in the script.
Astbury is also the reason Lollapalooza exists. In 1990, he organized The Gathering of the Tribes, featuring Soundgarden, Ice-T, Iggy Pop, Indigo Girls, Public Enemy and other artists to play in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The two day festival drew 40,000 fans and inspired the creation of Lollapalooza which began the following year.
The Cult is still recording and touring with their most recent release being Choice of Weapon, released in 2012.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Monday, August 6, 2012
Bad Movies I Love: Adventures of Ford Fairlane
Everyone has their favorite bad movies. Near the top of my list is an early 1990's gem called The Adventures of Ford Fairlane. It's one of those moviesd which is so ludacris and poorly acted you just have to love it.
The film stars shock comic Andrew Dice Clay as a "Rock N Roll Detective". He's a crude, arrogant and sexist pig. He's also behind on his bills because the rock stars pay him in gifts instead of cash. However, the death of rock Bobby Black (played by Vince Neil), sets off a chain of wild and crazy events for Fairlane.
The movie has a lineup of co-stars which includes Wayne Newton, Lauren Holly, Maddie Cornman, Ed O'Neill, Priscilla Presley and Robert Englund. Appearing in cameos are Gilbert Gottfried, David Patrick Kelly, Tone Loc and Morris Day.
You really can't expect much from a cast like that. Ed O'Neill is the most disappointing as it appears he just played his role as Al Bundy in the form of the jaded Detective Amos. And Priscilla Presley is just...well...yeah. Lauren Holly has her moments in this movie but she totally could have stolen the show with some extra effort.
I can't say all the acting is bad. Maddie Cornman is hilarious as airheaded groupie ZuZu Petals. Robert Englund is obviously having a blast as a perpetually smiling hitman and Wayne Newton is delightfully sleazy as record executive Julian Grendel. Andrew Dice Clay is great as the lead role. His cocky swagger and crass demeanor is exactly what you'd expect from him.
What's amazing about this movie is it landed director Renny Harlin to job of directing Die Hard 2, which to this day is still the best movie on his resume. Some of the other cinematic masterpieces on Harlin's list are Cliffhanger, Cutthroat Island, Deep Blue Sea, 12 Rounds and Exorcist: The Beginning.
I'm not going to go on and give away a lot of the plot details other than murder and a counterfeit CD scam. But this is a movie you all should grab if you see it in a bargain bin somewhere. It's crudely hilarious and a great way to kill 90 minutes on a rainy Saturday afternoon when there ain't shit else to do. It will have you laughing from start to finish, most of the time for the wrong reasons.
The film stars shock comic Andrew Dice Clay as a "Rock N Roll Detective". He's a crude, arrogant and sexist pig. He's also behind on his bills because the rock stars pay him in gifts instead of cash. However, the death of rock Bobby Black (played by Vince Neil), sets off a chain of wild and crazy events for Fairlane.
The movie has a lineup of co-stars which includes Wayne Newton, Lauren Holly, Maddie Cornman, Ed O'Neill, Priscilla Presley and Robert Englund. Appearing in cameos are Gilbert Gottfried, David Patrick Kelly, Tone Loc and Morris Day.
You really can't expect much from a cast like that. Ed O'Neill is the most disappointing as it appears he just played his role as Al Bundy in the form of the jaded Detective Amos. And Priscilla Presley is just...well...yeah. Lauren Holly has her moments in this movie but she totally could have stolen the show with some extra effort.
I can't say all the acting is bad. Maddie Cornman is hilarious as airheaded groupie ZuZu Petals. Robert Englund is obviously having a blast as a perpetually smiling hitman and Wayne Newton is delightfully sleazy as record executive Julian Grendel. Andrew Dice Clay is great as the lead role. His cocky swagger and crass demeanor is exactly what you'd expect from him.
What's amazing about this movie is it landed director Renny Harlin to job of directing Die Hard 2, which to this day is still the best movie on his resume. Some of the other cinematic masterpieces on Harlin's list are Cliffhanger, Cutthroat Island, Deep Blue Sea, 12 Rounds and Exorcist: The Beginning.
I'm not going to go on and give away a lot of the plot details other than murder and a counterfeit CD scam. But this is a movie you all should grab if you see it in a bargain bin somewhere. It's crudely hilarious and a great way to kill 90 minutes on a rainy Saturday afternoon when there ain't shit else to do. It will have you laughing from start to finish, most of the time for the wrong reasons.
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