Every month, Cosmik Debris brings you many CD and record reviews, but the writers manage to find a little time for other pursuits, like reading, going to movies and watching videos. That's where Everything Else In Review comes in...


MOVIE REVIEW: Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Starring John Cameron Mitchell, Michael Pitt,
Miriam Shor, and Andrea Martin
Written and Directed by John Cameron Mitchell
Music by Steven Trask
Produced by Killer Films
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes

This is one compelling transsexual rock film!

It's unlikely story: an East Berlin boy who adores rock music is seduced by an American GI who offers him passage to the US if only he will undergo a sex change operation. The boy agrees, but the operation goes terribly wrong, giving him genitals that can only be called The Angry Inch. The not-boy-anymore lives on though. He finds a life in rock music and finds love of a sort with a young man. Who only adds to his tragedy by leaving him, stealing his best music and becoming a major star in his own right. As the film opens we find Hedwig still on his feet in spite of these tribulations, playing the local Bilgewaters in cities all across the country, telling his story in songs. Loud, kick-em-in-the- teeth songs usually.

Not exactly Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita is it? Yet it has an undeniable power. Hedwig And The Angry Inch was first a hit off-Broadway, penned by its star John Cameron Mitchell with music and lyrics by Steven Trask. If you have any feel for alternative lifestyles, Hedwig's story will touch you. If you have any feel for rock, Hedwig's music will have you shaking. Alternately sweet and aggressive, the music by Trask, who honed his skills in the house band of a New York drag club called Squeezebox, where Hedwig first appeared, is absolutely first rate. Songs like "Angry Inch" ("Six inches forward and five inches back! I've got an Angry Inch!") and "The Origin of Love" are something to contend with.

Undeniably, the star of the movie is John Cameron Mitchell, a veteran of the New York stage who already has a couple OBIE awards to his credit. He doesn't even make an especially comely woman, but there is a raw passion to his performance that demands attention, right from the first swish of his cape. A cape that unfolds like huge wings, revealing the words "Yankee Go Home" on one side and "With Me" on the other. And that beautiful overdone Farrah Fawcett wig! And then you're overwhelmed by his frenzied abandon while he's singing. You're hooked, you can't look away. In fact Mitchell submerges so completely into Hedwig that you begin to wonder exactly how many inches HE is angry about!

Mitchell's direction is first rate too. Working with an obviously off-Hollywood budget he coaxes the most out of his little Bilgewater sets and even sprinkles in several short animated sequences. His co-stars are mostly theater types that are relatively new to the screen such as Miriam Shor as Yitzhak, Hedwig's current love interest (whose own sexual identity is questionable), Alberta Watson as his mother, and Maurice Dean Wint as Luther, the GI who proposes the sex change. Only slightly more familiar is Michael Pitt, who has worked in several small film roles and who plays Tommy Gnosis, the lover he raises to stardom. He's a little unconvincing as a major rock star though, he always seems like the young man that Hedwig first meets while baby sitting. Of course there's also Andrea Martin, late of SCTV and countless other roles, who plays Hedwig's slightly ditzy road manager to perfection. But it's Hedwig's story and Mitchell doesn't dwell on any of them too much.

Comparisons to The Rocky Horror Picture Show will inevitably come up. Like Rocky, Hedwig And The Angry Inch is a true original that will stand on its own merits, but is it going to be the new queen of the midnight show too? Perhaps. It is certainly a far more edgy and dangerous production than Rocky and it's got its own endearing philosophical comments tucked in here and there, but Hedwig's got 25 years to go before he can truly wrest the tiara from Dr. Frank N. Furter. We'll have to see.

And you'll have to see it too.


(C) 2001 - Rusty Pipes



DVD: Cleopatra Records Presents The
DVD Companion To The Goth Box CD Set
Label: Cleopatra
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

I missed out on the CD box set, grumble grumble, so I jumped all over this puppy. 15 videos and a dozen audio tracks. Not bad! The quality is very high, in general, although I did have one question: does someone at the label hate Eva O.? While many of these videos are live performances with good sound (and good performances, by the way), Eva O's "Children Of The Night" sounds like it was recorded in a trash can that apparently didn't allow the players enough room to change chords cleanly. But that's the only el-stinko moment on The Goth Box DVD. The rest is fine Goth and dark music by the likes of Alien Sex Fiend, Nosferatu, Christian Death, Ghost Dance, Corpus Delecti, Usherhouse, Lords Of The New Church, Red Lorry/Yellow Lorry... Okay, I admit that while I think they hold together well as a band, I think Skeletal Family has a little bit of a U2 fixation. Just an observation. When the videos are through, there are a dozen audio tracks to keep you moping unhappily to your heart's discontent. It's a nice little package and probably a good companion to the Goth Box... though... I wouldn't know about that, #$!@ it.


(C) 2001 - DJ Johnson



CONCERT REVIEW: They Might Be Giants
Wiltern Theater - Los Angeles, CA - September 22, 2001
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes

Too bad for John Flansburgh and John Linnell: their new album, Mink Car, was released on THAT day, 9-11. But they have managed to persevere and last month's show in LA at the venerable Wiltern Theater was not only well-attended, it was a downright smash.

The show was opened precisely at 8PM by San Diego's The Incredible Moses Leroy. Walking to my seat I had seen onstage a laptop and a small projector, showing an image of several black militants brandishing afros and pistols, labeled with the band's name in red. Though it looked very out of date, I still thought, "Uh-oh, what are we in for?" but Moses was nothing like that. Indeed when Moses, also known as Ron Fountenberry, came out onstage with a five piece band (including the guy on the laptop), the images on the screen changed to a pair of sock puppets who lip synched along with the band. It was just the sort of thing that a TMBG crowd would enjoy and they embraced Moses Leroy wholeheartedly. Clever video additions--clips from Godzilla movies and superhero cartoons--spiced most all the performances. The lyrics were whimsical, a song about sneezes, a song about love making you warm, and overall it was great fun. Put this guy on the good list; I'll have to track down his album, Electric Pocket Radio.

At 8:45 an acoustic trio came out that never bothered to give their name. They were not bad really, but I never did find out who they were and I didn't recognize any of the songs in the half hour set. Oh well!

On to They Might Be Giants, who hit the Wiltern stage at 9:50. The face of a smiling old man hung in triplicate on the backdrop of the stage. Otherwise the bands's lighting was very straightforward as the five member band came out with a lotta jump.

Linnell and Flansburgh specialize in catchy short tunes that almost seem like ad jingles. Is it any wonder? They started their career as a Dial-A-Tune service in Brooklyn so they had to get their hooks in quickly before the tape ran out on the old answering machine. They also became experts at clever little lyrics that sneak up behind you, yank your coattail and run away again. Never mind that they both sing in a nearly identical nasal whine and they use offbeat instruments like accordions, they are masters of their concise little world. It might be an acquired taste though.

Not the stuff to get folks excited? On the contrary, the Wiltern crowd was on its feet practically the whole night to the strains of TMBG favorites like "James K. Polk," "She's Actual Size," "Your Racist Friend," "Particle Man," "Fingertips," "Cyclops Rock" and "Man It's So Loud In Here." The tunes mostly were drawn from Flood, Apollo 18 and the aforementioned Mink Car, but perhaps the most poignant moment came whey they did "New York City" from Factory Showroom. After an hour and a half of their two and three minute jewels it was time for an encore of "Mink Car" and "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)".

Some of my earlier favorites from Lincoln and their first album were missing but no matter. It can only be said that these guys rock.


(C) 2001 - Rusty Pipes



BOOK REVIEW: Bubblegum Music Is the Naked Truth:
The Dark History of Prepubescent Pop, from the
Banana Splits to Britney Spears
Edited by Kim Cooper & David Smay
328 pages (Feral House)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

I've been waiting for this book since the day I realized I couldn't remember the story behind Captain Groovy and his Bubblegum Army. It's here, along with dozens of other stories of that sweet and chewy music called Bubblegum, doled out in "chapters" that are actually articles by many of the best Net generation music journalists, including two Cosmik Debris folk, Bill Holmes and Gary Pig Gold.

This is a book with everything for the true bubblehead. Do you live to debate what is and what isn't gum? There are articles in here to fuel your fire. Do you have fetishes for certain groups - The Archies, The 1910 Fruitgum Company, Ohio Express, The Partridge Family, The Cowsills, The Lemon Pipers and on and on - that are almost never written about elsewhere? Roll up your sleeve and get ready for your fix. By the fifth or sixth article I'd decided to say a lot of nice things about this book. By the middle of the book I was determined to implore you to buy it, because it brings so many happy memories back, reminds you of so many things that were good and, most importantly, fills you with the realization that it's okay to renew your love affair with this music. Seek out those Archies records and smile again as Cobain's depressing genius work gets dusty on the shelf.

By the end of the book, you'll have digested enough information to consider yourself something of an expert on the subject, and since the articles covered the entire time span from the earliest gum to The Spice Girls (oh yes, I'm serious, and the writer was in his 40s), there'll be few gaps in your education. You'll have a healthy respect for the talent of Ron Dante (Archie) and a determination to walk on the other side of the street from Don Kirshner. And you, like me, will once again know that Captain Groovy and his Bubblegum Army was going to be a Saturday morning cartoon, but it never got any farther than having a theme song recorded (that actually charted). We don't choose top five books of the year here at Cosmik Debris, but if we did, this would be a sure thing for number one. I checked for you. It's easy to find online, most places ship it within 48 hours, and when it arrives it'll be a sunshine day.


(C) 2001 - DJ Johnson



MOVIE REVIEW: Rock Star
Starring Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Anniston
Directed By Stephen Herek
Written by John Stockwell
Released By Warner Brothers
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes

Paging Cinderella! Paging Cinderella! You're next on stage!

Well, somewhere in this movie about the sordid backstage world of big-hair- arena-rock there's a Cinderella story.

Mark Wahlberg is Chris Cole, copier repairman by day, Steel Dragon wannabe by night. But a really good wannabe, enough that he really gets to be. Judas Priest did something like this when a salesman named Tim Owens replaced Rob Halford as lead vocalist in 1996 and Rock Star is loosely based on his story. Anyway Chris from Pennsylvania is rechristened as a Brit named Izzy and immediately begins touring with his idols. And then the fun begins.

Chris's girlfriend, Emily, is played by Jennifer Aniston with business-like precision (after all she was his cover band's, sorry Tribute Band's, manager). The plot gets its main tension from the will-she-leave-him-or-not question that hangs over his new career in Steel Dragon. And of course there are plenty of distractions for Chris/Izzy, mostly of the bare-breasted variety, not so much drugs, which could have led the story down a much more sinister path. Also less than sinister is Dragon's slightly oily leader, played by Dominic West. Mostly the oil is in his hair, keeping it nice and curly. His English accent is exactly what you'd expect from a rock star and he's not allowed to make the role really dangerous, he's more like a guitar-playing businessman. Better is Timothy Spall as Dragon's road manager who gets to deliver the film's message to Chris, "Don't dream it, Be it." No wait, that was Rocky Horror. This film's message is, "Dream big, Live the life."

Maybe because the sinister road was not taken, in a lot of listings this movie is in the comedy column. That surprised me. It didn't really seem like a comedy most of the time, at least not the sort of comedy that's all laugh-out-loud pratfalls, though there are some very funny scenes. One of the best is when Chris is drummed out of his own band and soon after he watches everything repeat as lead singer Bobby Beers is drummed out of Steel Dragon. That doesn't come with gut-laughs, just a heavy blanket of irony, or Steel-rony. Later, the film's best laugh comes when he's practicing Izzy's answer to the question, "How did you get your voice to do that?" (No, I won't give it away.)

Yes, it could have been played for a lot more comedy, but Rock Star's real strength is that it's quite faithful to the genre of arena rock. When it rocks it really ROCKS. If you like heavy metal, find a theater that will play it nice and loud and you'll have a lot of fun. Most of Steel Dragon's songs are originals written by Brian Vander Ark from the Verve Pipe and they sound great. Also authentic is Jason Bonham as Steel Dragon's drummer and Zakk Wylde from Ozzy's band who gets the lead guitar-god role, though he's not as prominently featured as the Devil's Guitarist that Steve Vai played in Crossroads. It even looks like Mark Wahlberg is really singing in his close-ups. He was a rapper some years back; it's a very different style here, but he's definitely got a feel for the stage. That's as far as it goes because Arena Rock itself is rather like TV wrestling, it's all posing and roaring and nothing of substance, but then we knew that already, didn't we? DIDN'T WE? C'mon, you didn't know that Ozzy Ozbourne is really Barry Manilow?

Rock Star reminds me of the way Showgirls gave a similarly sketchy story of a dancer's rise to the top in Las Vegas. It's big budget and beautifully shot but nothing really endearing or unexpected happens. Unless you count as unexpected when Chris/Izzy falls down the stairs in his first performance and spends the rest of the set bleeding while singing. Maybe I put too much into this, but the Blood Boy sequence seems to be ripped off of a Henry Rollins story related on his album Think Tank; to most other movie goers I'm sure it was a stroke

In short Rock Star is not as good a story as Almost Famous and not as funny as Spinal Tap, but the trip to the world of mid-80's arena rock, especially the music, was handled well. Metal fans, it's worth a trip to see it on a big screen with a good sound system; it might lose a lot after that.


(C) 2001 - Rusty Pipes