Faith No More - Epic (Rock in Rio 2 - 1991)

Their top single, performed live at Rock in Rio 2 (Maracana?). I couldn't find the video. Is it just my Friday morning net connection, or is this choppy? Anyhow, enjoy as best you can.

Black Sabbath - War Pigs (Live in Paris 1970)

I had to include this - which also feature the alternate lyrics. Tony, at this early stage, doesn't have the full bushy mustache or the elaborate leather, and Ozzy, of course, is MUCH younger. I'm impressed by Bill Ward's energy - perhaps he spent it all in those short years.

"War Pigs" Faith No More Live at Brixton Academy

A fairly faithful cover of Black Sabbath. You can see Mike Patton's stage antics and hear his offbeat delivery. Quality - at their peak.

Faith No More

November 26, 1989.  I just had just dropped off my friend Jean (John) at BWI Airport following the Thanksgiving 4 day weekend, and joined my brother Matt, my friend Phil, his sister Kathy, and my friend Ken, to see Faith No More at the (old) 9:30 Club, at 930 F Street in downtown DC.  I wish I could remember the setlist, but it was mostly from The Real Thing.  I got Mike Bordin and Jim Martin to sign the CD insert of that album.  Overall a kick ass concert, by the band at their peak.   Later, in July 1992 we saw FNM open for Metallica & Guns’N’Roses at RFK, on the Angel Dust tour, but this show was much better.

 The Real Thing.  They had two albums with Chuck Mosely, the prior vocalist, We Care A Lot and Introduce Yourself; another album, Angel Dust, with Jim Martin and Mike Patton; a live album Live at Brixton Academy, which features two extra songs “The Grade” and “Cowboy Song” (NOT the Thin Lizzy song); an extended single cover of “Easy” by Lionel Richie; and two albums (King For a Day…Fool For A Lifetime, and Album of the Year) later without Martin.  But this is by far their best album.  To be honest, I didn’t like the earlier albums, and didn’t care to listen to the post-Martin work, of which I might have heard one album.

            Probably the best known track on this is “Epic”, a rap-metal mix which got phenomenal airplay and a weird video.  “War Pigs” is the Black Sabbath cover, which they did play live.  My favorites were the title track, “Zombie Eaters”, and “The Morning After”.  “Woodpecker From Mars” was an instrumental, “Edge of the World” was a twisted attempt to portray a child molester; “Surprise!  You’re Dead” is a thrash number; and “Falling to Pieces” and “Out of Nowhere” are fairly commercial examples of their material. 

            I hesitate to put a label on their music.  There’s clearly a big dose of funk, similar to Red Hot Chili Peppers, but the keyboards are definitely noticeable as an instrument in their own right, not merely as some sort of additional melody factor along with the guitar. All well and fine to talk about the rap element, but “Epic” was the only song like that, so even if it was their biggest single, it hardly defines their sound, except to classify it as original and eclectic.  The most important thing, in fact the REAL THING, was that this album and band were undeniably DIFFERENT and ORIGINAL.  There was no one else like this in 1989.

 The classic lineup:

Mike Patton (vocals).  He took over from Chuck Mosely.  Mosely was of the Robert Smith of The Cure “just got back from the dentist, still on novocaine” school of singing.  Patton actually sings in some sort of snarky way like Roger Waters.  I’d say he has a unique voice, and I like it.  However, I’ve heard Mr. Bungle and was not impressed, nor did I like the FNM material since Martin left.  He strikes me as having a lot of talent and inspiration, but it’s only impressive when he has someone else channeling it in some way or acting as a foil – similar to the way Lennon & McCartney’s solo material suffered from the lack of any input from the other former writing partner.  Left to his own devices he comes up short.  I’m also not keen on his deliberate attempts to feign bisexuality.

 Jim Martin (guitar).  Aka “Big Sick Ugly” Martin, he has strange red glasses, a wacked out beard, and long hair.  He dropped off the radar after Angel Dust.  He did appear in “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey”.  His trademark guitar is a black Gibson Flying V with a mirror pickguard.  He also used to play with Cliff Burton of Metallica.

 Billy Gould (bass).  Nothing special, though he does remind me of Brian Wheat from Tesla.  He does do a passable slap-funk bass thing similar to Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  Aside from that he blends into the woodwork as bassists so often do.

 Roddy Bottum (keyboards).  I really like his keyboard sound.  Some keyboardists seem to be more like glorified pianists – particularly Billy Joel, Elton John, etc.  Even many “keyboardists” like Jon Lord don’t really go off very far off the beaten track.  He ranks up there with Rick Wright among my favorite keyboardists.

 Mike Bordin (drums).  So far as I can tell, Bordin was born with dreadlocks.  He actually played with Black Sabbath on the first reunion tour in 1997 before Bill Ward came back.  He’s also played in Ozzy’s solo band, from Down to Earth up to Black Rain, though he’s now back with Faith No More.

 As of now, FNM have reunited, but with Jon Hudson on guitar.  Martin apparently is not interested in returning to the band.  I’ll check them out to see if it’s as good as before, but I’m not holding my breath.

Dark Knight

After a few false starts I finally ended up seeing this film, on the heels Heath Ledger’s posthumous Oscar for his role as the Joker.  Since my review of “Batman Begins” started off my list of blogs, it’s fitting that I should follow it up with a review of this film as well.  Bottom line?  I didn’t like it.

 First off, the makeup wearing off the Joker’s face later in the movie indicated that he didn’t have any biological issues.  Contrast this with the original comic, in which The Joker was originally a villain named Red Hood, who wore a specially designed red mask over his head, similar to Mysterio.  He fell in a tank of chemicals, which turned his skin white, his lips blood red, and his hair green – and completely warped his mind.  Like The Invisible Man, there was a link between his physiological changes and his psychological ones.  But here?  Just makeup and fancy clothes.  Come on.

 Second, I didn’t like his attitude.  Too much cutesy dialogue.  Jack Nicholson was more impressive in the role way back when.  “This town needs an enema.”  I’ll concede, though, that this fairly subjective on my part.  Nicholson was content to make the Joker into a flamboyant, though evil, clown.  While the Mafia goons refer to Ledger’s Joker as “the clown”, his portrayal was considerably darker, almost twisting him into a pervert.  Moreover his clothes were a bit too much… GQ.  Is this a villain or a fashion mannequin?  Come on. 

 Third, I hated this odd business whereby somehow the Joker seems to be able to rig the entire damn city (looks like Chicago to me) with explosives, including two whole ferries and an entire network of hospitals.  “Excuse me, can I borrow both ferries?  I need to install a full array of gas drums in the bottoms and rig them up.”  I suppose that’s his super power: magically capable of installing vast amounts of explosives wherever he wants, no questions asked (particularly implausible post 9/11).  And this business of “hostages dressed as villains with guns duct taped in their hands” had been done before, but I can’t recall the film.  Nor did I care for this ongoing deal where the Joker forced people into impossible choices: save Rachel or Dent, and the ferry passengers – ordinary people on one, convicts on the other – likewise have to choose to blow up the other ferry before they themselves are blown up.  The real immoral person here was the Joker.  F**k these stupid games.

 

 Fourth, Batman as the Ultimate Asshole.  Sure, we need Batman to be the fall guy so that Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) can die as a hero, not as Two-Face – and the city’s faith in its top prosecutor maintained (good for morale, I guess).   So Batman, who is essentially good (as is Bruce Wayne) allows himself to be crucified as a villain to satisfy a more important public goal which is still in Batman’s ultimate nature to support: public order and the overall well-being of the people of Gotham. 

 Sounds much like… “The Watchmen”.  The similarities are there: The Comedian = the Joker?  The Owl (nocturnal flying animal – rich guy with lots of gadgets) = Batman?  Ozymandias = Bruce Wayne?  Most importantly, for this issue: Dr Manhattan has to be the fall guy for Ozymandias to keep the US & USSR from blowing each other up. 

 “The Watchmen” was very faithfully derived from the graphic novel of the same name, originally published from 1986-87 and written by Alan Moore, best known for “V For Vendetta”.  “Dark Knight” is loosely based on the Batman comics “The Long Halloween”, from 1996-97.  The latter does not have this business about Harvey Dent’s identity being saved, and Batman’s reputation unfairly tarnished, to spare the city, so it’s the movie version which rips off “The Watchmen”, not the original comic.  The comic’s main focus wasn’t even on the Joker, who was a minor character, but on the Holiday killer, whose identity was hinted at but never conclusively established.

 Finally, BOTH movies owe royalties to Clint Eastwood: Bale’s inexplicable grumble as Batman (where’s the poncho and cigar stub?) and Rorshach’s similar growl.

 My “Batman Begins” blog had some scathing criticism for the last two Batman movies before “Batman Begins”.  In a sense, though, they were more in tune with the philosophy of the Batman TV series from the late 60s, with Adam West as Batman; the first two (with Joker, Penguin & Catwoman) were more aligned with “Batman Begins”.  So we have two competing schools of Batman: the Camp School, and the Dark School.  Obviously both can be done well – or poorly.  The Camp School runs the risk of being stupid, while the Dark School ends up as simply pretentious.  Which do I prefer?  I don’t know, but I know I don’t like bad movies.  In terms of this dark, urban distopia theme, I prefer the “Robocop” movies.  So I guess my preference has to be for the camp element; unfortunately no one seems to be able to reconcile the two.  Now THAT would be remarkable.

Diplomacy vs. Squad Leader

Here I expect to leave 90% of my female readers behind, venturing forth into this uniquely masculine domain – home of little paper counters, dice, and innumerable charts and graphs.  In particular, I’ll focus on the top two war games, Diplomacy and Squad Leader.

 Diplomacy (made by Avalon Hill) is remarkable in that it uses no dice whatsoever.  It takes place in Europe 1900, the map as it was before World War I.  The players are England, Germany, Russia, Turkey, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and France.  Ideally you want seven players, one per country, but in practice we’d have to double up on a few: Germany-Turkey, Russia-Italy, and Austria-France, with England by itself, for 4 players. 

 The map is littered with supply centers which support either an army unit or a naval unit each, and the game proceeds in turns: spring and fall, with new armies/navies arising after the fall term.  Each player writes down orders, subject to negotiation with the other players, and reveals the orders in turn.  Attacks are resolved by simple arithmetic: equal numbers opposing each other result in a stalemate, whereas any advantage in numbers, however slight, prevails. Typically a single country can rarely muster enough forces on its own to force an outcome (except overrunning neutral, undefended countries at the very beginning of the game), so some cooperation between players is necessary, thus…Diplomacy.  And since you cannot bind your comrade to the orders he claims he will write, you may be unpleasantly surprised to find what they turn out to be.  Intrigue, duplicity and back-stabbing are all part of the fun!

 Another part of the fun is that the traditional alliances of Germany-Italy-Austria vs. England-France-Russia are not required, so you can have the French walk into London, the British take Paris, or the Germans march into Vienna.  In our experience, the Austrians usually ended up being wiped out, as they’re surrounded by Germany, Turkey, Italy, and France, whereas the English almost always did well, as they could usually put enough naval units around the island to prevent anyone convoying troops there.  If England was invaded it reflected extremely poorly on the English player. 

 These games lasted hours, well into morning, usually ended more by sheer impatience then any decisive victory by any player.  I do recall that my friends Sean and Phil usually teamed up together to form an artificially tight bond which produced stalemates, as they could never be persuaded to turn against each other.  Personal feelings were yet another ingredient – just as the Kaiser’s resentment of his royal cousins may have colored his animosity towards England and Russia.  Overall, though, a very satisfying game.

 My high school history teacher thought it would be a good idea for us to play the game as a class – and we had well more than 7 classmembers.  I was teamed up with Kirby, for Turkey, and we took Moscow and Sevastopol, and were on track to take St. Petersburg – allied with the Germans, who had taken Warsaw - before the game ended.  The French team took England, pushing the English into exile in Norway, of all places.  Most of the teams were female, though, and the girls really didn’t care much for the game at all.

 A Far East variant (Colonial Diplomacy) was produced, for which the powers were Russia, England, Japan, Turkey, Holland, France, and China.  By this time, though, all our gaming buddies had gone off their separate ways, so we never played this one.

 Squad Leader (also made by Avalon Hill) was much different. This was a squad-level wargame of WWII.  Small square paper counters represented squads, NCOs, officers, machine guns, flamethrowers, satchel charges, smoke, tanks, jeeps, armored cars, etc.  You could call in artillery support from off the board or even air strikes – Stukas, Sturmoviks or Mustangs.  The boards featured hexes and various different terrains: roads, buildings, plains, forests, even orchards and cemetaries.  The game was horribly complex and took ages to learn.  The rules had sections, subsections, exceptions, etc. and read like the Code of Federal Regulations.  It was set up with scenarios which progressed, each one introducing another new rule or element, to gradually familiarize the players, but even the first two, The Guards Counterattack and The Tractor Works, taking place in downtown Stalingrad, were still damn complex.  Each turn had several different phases – prep fire, advancing fire, defensive fire, movement, advance, rout, and rally phases; combat had various different charts of modifiers before the dice could be rolled.  Units broke – or could be rallied by officers, who could rally themselves. Despite playing the game for hours on end, we never finished all the original scenarios, much less progressed to the expansion sets Cross of Iron (which introduced SS units on dramatically cool black counters), Crescendo of Doom (adding in British, French, and Axis and Allied minor nations), and GI Anvil of Victory, which fleshed out the Americans and substantially changed whole chapters of the rules.  Later on, Avalon Hill revamped the system, producing Advanced (!!!) Squad Leader, in the process adding in the Japanese, Chinese and Pacific warfare.  By this point the rules were in a binder so that additions or errata could be added or subtracted page by page, like many of the CCH regulations manuals in the law library. That was a non-starter for us.  This was literally a game where you spent far more time trying to learn to rules and how to play it, than actually playing the damn game itself.

 If there was advantage of Squad Leader over Diplomacy, it was that Squad Leader was played with two players (German vs. either Russian or American), whereas Diplomacy was unplayable with only two players and best suited for seven.  But we could rarely round up as many as seven players.  Seven players in Squad Leader would have been hopeless.

 It was a given that I would almost always play the Germans, but since we never got to Cross of Iron, I never got to use SS units.  The dice, though, really made a difference.  Keep rolling snake eyes (two ones) and your enemies were mowed down, though it helped to have at least some clue about tactics.

 Risk.  Honorable mention for this game, which was even simpler than Diplomacy.  We used to play this one before we learned about Diplomacy.  But I found the chance element too high: some kid rolling sixes over and over again could wipe out your carefully developed invasion army.  I can recall making a huge non-winning argument that Ukraine was part of Asia, not Europe. 

 Illuminati.  Yet another honorable mention – and perhaps a precursor to those trading card games (they actually had an Illuminati trading card game, New World Order, which we never played).  This was the game of secret societies: the Bavarian Illuminati, the Gnomes of Zurich, The Discordian Society, the UFOs, The Bermuda Triangle, and the Servants of Cthulhu, each with their different goals (the UFOs’ goal was a secret duplicate of one of the other players’).  Then vast numbers of different groups (to name just a few): CIA, FBI, the Mafia, California (with a picture of a hot tub), cycle gangs, girlie magazines, convenience stores, GOP, Democrats, Libertarians, KGB, KKK, Triliberal Commission, the Oil Companies, South American Nazis, Swiss Banks, Semiconscious Liberation Army, Trekkies, the Reformed Church of Satan, Orbital Mind Control Lasers (a good target for the Bermuda Triangle), the Society for Creative Anarchism, joggers, and so on – extremely tongue-in-cheek. Each player develops a network of groups, tries to take over other player’s groups, or tries to destroy them (the particular forte of the Servants of Cthulhu).  The groups have different attributes: straight/weird, conservative/liberal, violent/peaceful, plus “fanatic”, which is the opposite of everything, including other fanatics.   Dice (2 six-sided) dice were involved, plus lots of fake money, humor, and as much back-stabbing and plotting as Diplomacy.       

Scorpions - Still Loving You

Classic '80s Scorpions, one of their best songs from this era - and of course, Jabs is playing the Explorer.