Sunset Park Riders

Da Bear over at the Bearly Rambling Blog gave us a really nice write up today. He brings up something that I actually thought a lot about while we were recording – he mentions that rap isn’t really his style, but says he thinks Showdown is a bit more than that and he finds it interesting. I think Showdown could be a really good entry-point for people who haven’t gotten into Rap Music as a genre.

I think a major obstacle for people approaching Hip Hop as a new genre of music is that a lot of the elements to appreciate about it are entirely different from other genres. For example, putting the primary focus on the CADENCE of the lead vocals rather than the MELODY is a pretty fundamental difference that new listeners may have a hard time even observing, let alone really getting excited by.

By having a cohesive narrative throughout the album, I think Showdown gives people unaccustomed to Rap something to grasp onto, and something clear to listen for, even if they wouldn’t know how to approach it otherwise. Hopefully after repeated listens, they can begin to appreciate Hip Hop’s unique qualities, and explore what the genre has to offer.

And there’s a lot! Keep an eye out for some posts here in the near future for some of our favorites, our biggest influences, and some suggestions for those of you new to Hip Hop as good next steps in your journey!

I’d love to hear some peoples thoughts on this issue, particularly if you came to Hip Hop after initially not appreciating the genre. What finally did it for you? What do you play for people to help them get into it?

———————————

…and if you haven’t yet, don’t forget to check out Showdown at the BK Corral worlds first/only Spaghetti Western Concept Rap Album

Well, after that long interview with Joe, clearly I had to go see Bloodsong and see if it lived up to his lofty goals. Let me tell you – it absolutely did! Now I’m not and I don’t pretend to be any kind of a theater critic, so this isn’t going to be that kind of review. Also, honestly – I don’t know Joe, he was kind enough to come by for the interview, but I’d never met him before or anything, and I don’t owe the guy anything (yes, I paid for my own ticket), so I am being 100% genuine when I say that me and my friends had a PHENOMENAL time at this show!

The show really does capture the spirit of Spaghetti Westerns, but, importantly, it does so without sacrificing humor and pacing. It’s really a testament to the quality that it manages to be so hilarious without ever feeling condescending to the genre or like a parody. The grit, the atmosphere, the violence is all intact, it just has some great jokes worked in. Meanwhile, the play breezes by like a freight train. Joe didn’t lie when he said it’s a tiny stage, but it’s filled with a brilliant, dynamic set that feels both like a saloon and the prairie, that the agile cast leaps around throughout songs like a playground.

The cast is, without exception, excellent. I would say the lead, Eric William Morris, is more of a John Wayne than a Clint Eastwood, but he comes off as a true Wild West cowboy, even if his weapon is his guitar and not a gun. Jeremy Morse plays the Villain, Lo Cocodrilo, just right to inspire a blend fear, revulsion, empathy and laughter – it’s almost as impressive as his kazoo playing, which really needs to be seen and heard to be believed. Lance Rubin is hilarious as the hero’s sidekick Banana, and Katrina Rose Dideriksen brings down the house with her amazing voice. Jason “Sweettooth” Williams provides even more laughs, as well as depth and insight as the narrator and a number of other extremely memorable characters that would be a shame to spoil here, and M.K. Lawson plays the kind of damsel in distress that makes a three year quest worth it.

I’m sure some of you are thinking, “but it’s a MUSICAL! I HATE musicals!”, and I know, if you aren’t into musicals, it tends to be the music part that you hate. But this is different. The music here isn’t like some lame, neutered version of Broadway “rock”, this is real rock and roll, flavored with country and the Morricone Spaghetti Western sound (complete with trumpet and harmonica) that works as both show stopping, toe tapping, ear worming, catchy music you’ll be singing all week, as well as evocative underscores for the scenes in between. It’s really amazing how the songs just gain in power and meaning through the repetition as the characters themes, and how satisfying it is to hear those themes come back as incidental music or in rousing reprises. I’ve been singing it since!

So see this show!!! Do it!!! It’s going away so quickly, which sucks! We have guests coming to town on May 10th, and we were all excited to bring them to it, but it turns out it closes the frickin NINTH! That is SO SOON, so you better get there! It makes a great night, too, what with really cheap bar (there’s even a $5 PBR/Whiskey shot combo!) open throughout the show. Tickets are cheap, too – only $15 if you’re willing to sit in the splatter zone. If that’s still not cheap enough for you, shoot me an email, and I’ll give you a discount code. I really will. It’s just for their facebook fans, so you could get it that way, too, but if you email me, I’ll give it to you.

See it. You won’t be disappointed!

———————————

…and don’t forget to check out Showdown at the BK Corral worlds first/only Spaghetti Western Concept Rap Album

We have our first review posted over at Gordonandthewhale.com! Take a look!

———————————

…and don’t forget to check out Showdown at the BK Corral worlds first/only Spaghetti Western Concept Rap Album

So I just discovered this whole genre of fiction that sounds damned exciting to me, Bizarro Fiction, which has it’s own subcategory of WESTERN Bizarro Fiction. Naturally, I was intrigued. Fortunately, I was able to get William Pauley III to write me a brief introduction to the genre, as well as a call to arms to help Bizarro Fiction gain a little more notice in the greater literary world.

So without further ado, The Sunset Park Riders Blog presents:

WTF? – An Introduction to Bizarro Westerns

By William Pauley III

Ever wonder what it would be like if David Lynch, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, and Douglas Adams all got together and wrote a western? Well wonder no further!

Bizarro fiction has only been around for the last ten years or so, but already the genre has accumulated quite a large following… and deservedly so. Every bizarro book offers something unique to its reader, something that is missing in most of today’s fiction. Every chapter takes the reader to a new and unexplored terrain. And while the reader may not know exactly what to expect, they can be damn sure that they are in for one wild and entertaining ride.

In the first ten years of bizarro fiction, there have only been three westerns.

First was Carlton Mellick III’s SEX AND DEATH IN TELEVISION TOWN, published in December of 2005. The uber-weird plot and characters were a breath of fresh air to the worn and ragged western genre. The book focuses around a pack of misfit hermaphrodite gunslingers who find themselves stranded in a strange town where all the residents all have TVs for heads.

It’s bizarro fiction – NOW are you getting it?

Four years later, in 2009, author Jordan Krall explored the bizarro western even further by adding more of a Spaghetti Western element into the mix. The result was his first novel, FISTFUL OF FEET. While CM3’s book was more a bizarro book with a western tinge, Krall’s was more a western with a bizarro tinge. Basically, it’s a fucked up revisioning of the film classic, DJANGO. It has a man mysteriously dragging a wooden donkey across the desert, cthulu-worshipping Indians, a candy-loving gunslinger, and ass juice. Lot’s and lot’s of ass juice.

The third, and hopefully not the last, bizarro western is William Pauley III’s DOOM MAGNETIC! The story centers around a man who is running from a pack of angry Japanese assasins. When Qoser, an assasin with a cue-ball for an eye, finally catches up to him, all hell breaks loose. Andersen Prunty summed it up nicely in a blurb. He said, “States fleeing the planet, Ziggy Stardust, a guy with a cue ball for an eye, and exploding heads galore! A highly entertaining tale told in exciting, frenetic bursts.”

If any of these books catch your interest, please check them out and tell your friends. Help spread the word about bizarro fiction!

Also, Friday April 16th, 2010 is BIZARRO SPAGHETTI DINNER DAY! Find out how you can attend/help at Jordan’s website: filmynoir.com

To purchase SEX AND DEATH IN TELEVISION TOWN, go here:

To purchase FISTFUL OF FEET, go here:

Buy FISTFUL OF FEET on Friday April 16th, 2010 to help meet the BIZARRO SPAGHETTI DINNER DAY goal!

To purchase DOOM MAGNETIC!, go here: breaksaidsilence.blogspot.com

Or to request a FREE ebook of DOOM MAGNETIC!, send an email request to: eyesliketwenty@hotmail.com

———————————

…and don’t forget to check out Showdown at the BK Corral worlds first/only Spaghetti Western Concept Rap Album

If you haven’t figured it out yet, we love our Spaghetti Westerns, so one of the things we’d like to do with our blog is to point out some exciting Western related things elsewhere on the internets. Today, I’d like to point out some of our favorite blogs out there that write about Spaghetti Westerns regularly. There’s a bunch of good ones, but I’ll just start with a couple of great ones and revisit the issue later.

Let’s start with Midnight Confessions Movie Reviews, because they really get to the heart of what we love about Spaghetti Westerns – the dark, pulpy, gritty, two-fisted action that has as much place in the Grindhouse as anywhere else. This is where you want to go to really focus on the dark side of the West, but I also love that they tackle some of our other favorite trash genres as well – Blaxploitation, Eurocrime,
Gore, and even has a special section dedicated to Lucio Fulci – no stranger to Westerns, himself! Check it out at Reverendphantom.com

For your general Spaghetti Western info, there’s really two places to best start your search – The Spaghetti Western Database and their new off-shoot Planet Spaghetti Western. The Database is the gold-standard online community of Spaghetti Western aficionados, complete with active forum, and a rapidly increasing archive of reviews of movies, books, DVD’s, even TV listings – everything Spaghetti Western.

Planet Spaghetti Western is their fantastic new blog aggregator, pulling in the best Spaghetti Western postings from all over the net. Definitely worth a daily stop to see what’s going on, especially if you don’t have time to keep up with everything out there individually.

The last one I’d like to mention today, I just found out about yesterday, and I think it’s just such a fantastic idea, I had to share it. Brad Flory and his 15 year old son, Andrew are on a mission to watch all 60 movies staring Clint Eastwood “in order to find the secrets of manhood” over at The Clint Eastwood Project. You can keep up with their progress in what is clearly, like the man himself, a sure shot!

———————————

…and don’t forget to check out Showdown at the BK Corral worlds first/only Spaghetti Western Concept Rap Album