Cooking with Satan

“Countdown To Extinction”.
Giant robot machines, dark shattered clouds, abandoned highways, acid rain, merciless “man vs. cyborg” wars, reoccupied bunkers, endless black smoke from fortresses factories, customized lazer weapons, pale sick sunsets, freezing nights, piles of metallic carcasses covered in ashes, thick pollution fog, smell of fear, paranoïa, genocide, war trials, corporate alienation, twinkling red eyes, cold robotic sounds, Skynet, The Nostromo, Major Dutch and his squad, The Thunderdome. No glamour, no fun, just war, sacrifice, pain and death machines.
Mankind facing its final confrontation against technology, against himself, the countdown to extinction…

Here’s a mix I played for the Live Alive opening at the Brachfeld-Gallery in Paris a few months ago. The exhibition consisted in a bunch of t-shirts portraying famous fashion designers the way our favorite bands were in the 80’s. As you already guessed it was a great success as the music was actually a million times better than the exhibition itself.
Now dude, it’s your turn to have fun.

BANG

25 years after the big wave, it’s cool to listen to heavy metal again. Can you believe that?
I can still remember the half amused, half embarassed look hipsters would give you, wearing an Iron Maiden tee back in 2000. Anyway… Trends suck and this one is no exception but well, there’s nothing bad in the fact that old glories of our youth take the stage over again. Anvil was part of this heavy-metal magic pack, along with Whitesnake, Ratt, Stryper and a bunch of others, except they were faster, nastier and from Canada. They were partly responsible for the term speed-metal and Rob Reiner, their drummer, was totally the shit at the time with these ultra fast double-bass kicks. But for some reason (let’s put it on the wrong place- wrong time syndrome) they totally fell into oblivion after their first three acclaimed albums, although they kept on recording records, touring in small clubs and dreaming about becoming rock-stars. “Anvil: The Story Of Anvil” tells us this most amazing story of perseverance and dedication to their music, their lifetime dream. Good for us, the movie hasn’t been shot by some pretentious asshole who doesn’t know shit about rock music but by one of their ex-roadie, when Anvil could afford to have roadies. Director Sacha Gervasi is totally committed to his subject and offers the band this incredible grandiloquent homage which brings them back under the spotlights, just right where they belong. The mass-media highly praised the film which has won several prestigious prices, Anvil makes now decent money with its music and they’ve seen their status upgraded from “pathetic losers” to “absolute winners”. And it’s definitely a good thing that this story, emblematic of the immense majority of bands on this planet, has been caught on tape. Because you know, these old, ugly, bold heavy-metal guys who always did what they wanted to and never gave up will probably still rock when they’ll be uncool again. A lesson for everyone. Every musician, every human being in quest of something bigger than buying an equipped kitchen or a sport car has to watch this. Spinal Tap can suck it.

Isn’t she cute? The first time I heard that song, I said to myself: if one day I direct a teen movie, this will be the opening track. Damn straight.