EVENING TRASH:Scorpions - He's a woman, She's a man - TV (1978)

Here are the Scorpions and their ode to transvestites. Awesome.

OCCUPY THIS! Heart-City's Burning (Occupy Movement's unofficial theme song)

MID AFTERNOON TRASH!: Zebra-Tell Me What You Want

Here is a great little rock song from the early80s.

EARLY EVENING TRASH: Bad News _The band you need to know

BAD NEWS! The comedy troupe who brought you The Young Ones created a Spinal Tap-esque band in the mid 80s and ran with it for a few specials. They are contained on one video, if you can still find it. I watch this annually. When it originally aired on Mtv back in the 80s me and all my friends freaked out at how it gets to the heart of what bands deal with on the lower end of the spectrum, and how brilliant the comedy is played out. I urge you to seek this out.

TODAY'S TRASH: 1974 Golden Earring - Vanilla Queen

TRASH #22 IS ON IT'S WAY KIDS!!!

Here is a sampler of the career overview I am giving the South Holland prog slammers Golden Earring in TRASH #22:

GOLDEN EARRING- No Promises-No Debts (1979): I have been rather over the moon about the band Golden Earring as of late. I have become quite excited over singer Barry Hay's amazing pipes. Being a singer myself, I love great singing. Especially guys like Barry Hay-who have a facility to sing just about anything they damn well please. I do not want to go fully into a Golden Earring tirade-that will be in the next, soon to be released TRASH #22. I just have to say that I got this particular record recently and have been cranking it. For most of the 1970s the band performed really dark, progressive hard rock both nasty and neat, many songs reaching the seven minute mark, or more. These guys liked to play. And then punk comes along and they do this compact S&M record. Three and a half minute songs- and really violent imagery. Guitarist George Kooymans produces, and he must have gone through some horrible, shitty relationship (him or Barry), cause the lyrics are fucking harsh- "Snot Love In Spain," "Save Your Skin," "Sellin' Out"- you get the point. The song "Need Her" is a mean little song; "Need her like a knife stickin' in my back/Need her to get me off the right track." Damn. Opener "Heartbeat" is a wicked strut, a very cool rock song about, uh, a hot, fat cock that can take care of business. But the song itself is sophisticated enough to allow you to invest in that as a viable answer to something so vulgar, so crass. It is constructed in such a way as to pull you into the framework before you notice the lacivious nature of the lyric. Pretty cool. "Don't Close The Door," is my favorite cut on this one, a full on late night swagger, on the road kind of medium bodied rocker that has a a film noir tinge (which this band may do better than anybody else-see "Twilight Zone," "Vanilla Queen," and "When The Lady Smiles" for further evidence.) I am really loving these guys. Like UFO or Nazareth or Lynyrd Skynyrd or Gillan-once you get past the popular beliefs-both bad and good-and just dig in heavy, you hear things that maybe earlier history was not tuned for quite yet, leaving us an endless future of fun and excitement like this to experience.

THE OSCARS MAKE CONTACT 2010

It's ALL about PRECIOUS for me this year!
This year the oscars are riddled with predictions that seem inevitable. Mo'nique will/should win The Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Her performance in PRECIOUS was astounding, and the kind of story the Academy loves. Stand up comic known for bawdy, low rent humor and sitcom status, knocks it out of the ball park with an emotionally wrenching performance that really got me best in it's final scene, in the welfare office with Mariah Carey. That was the scene that convinced me she should get the statue. For most of the film, though I was touched by all the performances, I really didn't believe any of the acting displayed award winning attention-until that final scene. Even Mariah had me. Mo'Nique desrves it- what she did on that screen was riveting, painfully honest, and terribly real. Bravo lady.

Best director should go to Lee Daniels for Precious as well. His direction really colored this story beautifully, not to mention getting 1987 visually down tight. The costume design was amazing. people don't tend to think about costume design in these sorts of human dramas- I think half the audience thinks the actors showed up in their street clothes! Which could not be further from the truth. I liked The Hurt Locker, but all the hype around it, and the director Kathryn Bigelow, I feel is over done. It certainly is an emotionally gripping film, but Precious goes it a smidge further for me.

I think Best Supporting actor should be Stanley Tucci for his transformation in THE LOVELY BONES. What a performance! You barely knew it was him inside there. A true characterization. I felt that the nomination of Christopher Waltz for Inglourious Basterds was fairly odd, considering his performance so closely mimicked Verner Klemper's when he was on Hogan's Heroes as Colnel Klink. Best Actor has just got to be Jeff Bridges for CRAZY HEART. He puts so much pathos and depth into his facial expressions alone, it should count him ahead. I'm not convinced George Clooney's business man is anything out of the norm for him, but Bridges plays his role subtly and coolly. Best Actress should go to Helen Mirren, though I am afraid the academy is want to send it over to Sandra Bullock- whose Producing skills will more likely be the target than her acting if she does receive the Oscar.

Even though I did not much care for A SERIOUS MAN, I do think it should win the best original screen play. Certainly over INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, a movie I found painfully over rated and silly- the extended rock video format a turn off. It was like a bad Duran Duran video, I felt. A Serious man's script was full of interesting dialogue and conundrums that were at least challenging and engaging. And yes, I think Precious should not only win for best adapted screen play, but best movie as well. I do not watch much animation, so I could not comment on those films.

And is there anyone else working on soundtracks OTHER than Randy Newman? Or T Bone Burnett? Can we get some new blood in here for a change? I am so tired of the millionth puttering, piano driven, sugar sweet, sappy ballad by this guy.