Banger Films Official Blog

“finally posted”

There are but two things that can get me to my hometown…Christmas presents and a movie about RUSH. Last night wasn’t Christmas, so you can connect the dots as to why I was in town. I suspect that today’s topic warrants its very own full-length blog/essay/rant, but there’s just not enough time in my current day to do it justice, so I’ll stick to sharing a few highlights…besides, some of my favorite RUSH-related anecdotes are somewhat incriminating…Okay, thoroughly incriminating.

I’ll start by saying that RUSH was the primary soundtrack to my junior high and highschool years. These Canadian masters, whose first album sounded nothing like the album I stumbled onto them through (Moving Pictures), are very largely responsible for my unwitting decision to pursue music as my life’s calling…AND were central to an elaborate chess match with my parents as to what was acceptable influence/presence in the Thompson household.

This all began the summer after my eighth grade year…Okay, summer school following my eighth grade year. All the neighborhood kids of curious age were up to no good in the devoid-of-adult-supervision Mearacle/Parsons household. Brothers Jay and Rodney Ford, Mickey Long, Jeff and Gina Hoover, my best friend David Mearacle, and his older brother and our collective guru, Eric. [I hate that I impose the sanitizing of chapters/details for all concerned's safety...The stories I'll keep to myself are hilarious in their tragic and terrible natures.]

We were all regularly gathered around an old JC Penny turntable where a wide variety of music was spun…Marching band albums, Sugar Hill Gang, Ted Nugent, Van Halen, and ultimately, RUSH. I remember walking in on the extended live YYZ drum solo off ‘Exit Stage Left’ with everyone present air-drumming and lying as to their respective ability to play like that on an actual kit, which none of us had.

Within the week, I scored/borrowed/etc my very own copy of ‘Moving Pictures’…on 8-Track tape! I had just become the proud steward of my uncle Allen Murphy’s quadrophonic stereo system, its decibels charging the air of my teen bedroom with waves of change. Within a couple of days, I was inspired to twist two pants-dowells off my father’s suit-hangers to fashion a working pair of drumsticks, pull up a chair to the couch in my bedroom, and proceed to whale on it daily to the point of beating holes in it…all while listening to this album.

I soon had to have more RUSH…but the only thing I could convince Eric to lend me was their first self-titled album. As I scanned the back, I was like, “Hey, who’s this guy? Where’s Neil?”. I was told that this was their first drummer and that the album was no lesser because of him and to get out of his room. What I was unaware of was that RUSH had pulled off one of the greatest practical jokes in the history of recorded music. Side one had a prolonged, low-volume intro…”Why is this so quiet?” I thought to myself as I maxed out the system’s volume for a better hear-see. “YEAH! OHHHH YEAH!” – Without warning, the full onslaught of the band’s music and lyrics catapulted me backwards out of my chair onto the floor, scrambling to reach the volume knob before my folks came to see what the hell was going on in here…”YEAH! OHHHH YEAH!…”. What I wouldn’t give for a gag-reel of the bests-of this scenario playing out in the bedrooms and households of youths around the globe. When they entered my inner sanctum and saw the stuffing protruding from the numerous holes that had been beaten into the couch, an executive order was given to have the couch removed from my room. My protests were in vain and I was left susceptably naked, raising my arms in pointless defense against a red star of authority.

This incident only cast gasoline upon the bonfire of my obsession with RUSH. I began assembling makeshift drumsets out of our garbage area behind the garage and giving prolonged ‘performances’. The best kit ever involved several useful items that my mother had intended the garbagemen to have dibs at, but after the ‘concert’s’ conclusion everything had been smashed, beaten, and broken to a point of no use to anyone. Upon discovering the ‘stage’, my mother hit the ceiling…another milestone in their thinking that there must really be something wrong with me…and that maybe these damned Canadians were behind it all. At any rate, I subsequently gave up my dreams of becoming a drummer, picked up a tennis raquet, and began pretending to be Alex Lifeson, while gooning in the mirror, as my growing collection of RUSH albums played on, subconsciously contemplating having the short in my real guitar soldered back into operation.

Now at some point, I decided I wasn’t doing enough to pad RUSH’s coffers and that my walls’ RUSH-adornment levels were dangerously low. I think the very first poster I ever purchased was a moderately-sized depiction of the band in its natural setting – live on stage. It was from their ‘Moving Pictures’/'Exit Stage Left’ tour, and trying to gauge this from my father’s standpoint, this paper flag seemed to be within the boundaries of permissable decoration. Let’s see…there’s only one hippie in this band, the others seem to have some damn sense; the guitarist dons a red blazer and the drummer seems to be wearing some sort of white button-down shirt.

This litmus test apparently gave off some sort of false reading; deeming the coast to be clear for further RUSH accoutrement, I hastened back to Spencer’s in 100 Oaks Mall and purchased a GIANORMOUS poster of my Canadian overlords to take up any remaining space on my walls. Remember the trend in the late seventies/early eighties of wallpapering an entire wall or room with some variety of scenic nature views? This poster was to do the very same thing…only instead of mountain scenery, babbling brook fernscape, or woodland solitude, my version was nothing but RUSH. The ‘problem’ with this banner, aside from its all-consuming size, was that it was depictions from ’2112′ era RUSH…I’m talking long, long hair (one of ‘em was sporting a moustache), kimonos, and…makeup?. When I returned home from school the next day, I entered the garage to check on our litter of puppies, and much to my dismay/astonishment, I found that the mighty presence of RUSH had been removed from my wall and placed on the garage floor…as training paper. Puppy-scat embellished the faces of my false idols…Geddy, Alex, and Neil…NNNNOOOOOOO!!!

Following incidents went on to to further drive a wedge of RUSH between me and my folks. They had a terrible habit of having long-distance calls with relatives and invariably used the phone in my room. During these discourssions, they liked to root around in my space and belongings to see what they might turn up. The sort of contraband that could get a fellow grounded for an entire summer was found nestled in the sleeve of ‘A Farewell To Kings’ (to my credit, the following year and ensuing summer grounding’s contraband was found jammed into my Classical Greek [for which I won a national award for scholarship] notebook). Another unfortunate finding surfaced in the sleeve of ‘Hemispheres’; not contraband per se, but volumes of lyric parodies…basically RUSH lyrics that bassist John Main and myself had rewritten about members of our church, in particular our associate minister. I can hear my father now, “When I was your age, my friends and I engaged in some low-brow/off-color humor every now and then, but this? This is SICK!”…”Why were you digging through my record collection?”…”Well, I was talking to your grandmother on the phone and was just looking around, and here’s this very strange looking album with a nude man and floating brains,…I thought I better have a closer look and found all these poems hidden there.”

To my parents’ credit, they were uncharacteristically cool in some regards to my obsession. I remember Dad stopping in my doorway and nodding in impressed approval as I played along with “Countdown” off ‘Signals’…Maybe in his infinite awareness, he knew that RUSH was keen on the U.S. Space Program, or maybe he was impressed with the unconventional chording ‘down’ the neck I had just learned from Hunt Adams, who had just learned it from Sean Davies. And somehow in their strictmost policies, my parents indulged a loophole that would allow me to see RUSH not once, but twice, unattended at downtown Nashville’s Municipal Auditorium! As fuzzy as those memories are, a couple will stand out forever.

First in line and against the stage, myself and fellow Rigor Mortis band members, Hunt Adams and Lang Martine, spotted Geddy Lee reenter the stage after souncheck…Without hesitation, Lang blurted out, “Hey Geddy!?”…”Yes?”…”What’s your favorite cereal?”…”I like Special K.”…Wow, none of us saw that coming, but it now somehow makes perfect sense. I’ll never forget the pitiful incident that happened the following time I saw them…I believe it was on their ‘Grace Under Pressure’ tour, but it could’ve been ‘Power Windows’…Anyway, halfway into the concert, Geddy Lee announced, “We thought that since we’re here in Nashville we’d work up and play a country music song for you tonight.”…This was met with a deafening din of boos and hisses…”Well ok, maybe not then…” and went into their next familiar favorite. The conformist rabble of ‘Music City’ robbed me of my chance to see one of the greatest prog-rock bands in the history of music perform country music. It was an embarrassing shame, for which I could never forgive my fellow citizens.

Throughout my highschool years, RUSH endured as the gold standard of what my fellow musicians and I strove for. My bands, namely Bacchus Rockus (and even in college, the Park Avenue Dregs), covered or attempted to cover a huge variety of our heroes’ works…”Spirit Of The Radio”, “Limelight”, “La Villa Strangiato”, “Tom Sawyer”, “Working Man”, “What You’re Doing”, “By-Tor And The Snow Dog”, “A Passage To Bangkok”, “Xanadu”, “Natural Science”, “Free Will”, “Jacob’s Ladder”, “Witch Hunt”, really too many to recall…Everytime a new album came, ‘Signals’, ‘Grace Under Pressure’, ‘Power Windows’, it was over to Hunt Adams’ house to figure out, or more precisely watch him figure out and learn as much of the album as we possibly could. This was a HUGE part of my ear training.

“Then one day it happened, Jackie Paper came no more…” I don’t know how it came to be, but band obsessions set up shop, eventually to run their courses and dissappear from my life. RUSH was certainly one of the more enduring fanships I committed to. At one point they were edged out by ‘different strings’, no longer hard/heavy enough nor ‘alternative’ enough to suit my tastes…I somehow outgrew them, like I did the Beatles, The Doors, Duran Duran, Iron Maiden, etc. before them. I have such fond memories of the life this amazing trio lent the soundtrack to…and for that I will always be their fan…no matter what.

Years and years later, I would venture off my native soil into the land of my heroes to add ‘fruit and tobacco smuggling’ to my accolades. On the Canadian side of Niagra Falls, I braved the over-priced blase-faire of Hard Rock Cafe to study artifacts from Toronto, like cultural treasures in a museum…An hour later found me angrily demanding answers from the manager: “I’ve been looking everywhere on the walls, floors, and ceilings of your establishment, and yet I can find not one trace of RUSH paraphernalia… What gives? Are you guys ashamed of RUSH like we are of Lynyrd Skynyrd?” My first international laughter garnered.

*Word came this year that a documentary movie about Rush, ‘Beyond The Lighted Stage’, would be shown in theatres in select cities this summer. I pledged that I would go to Louisville, even drive as far as Chicago, to experience it first hand on the big screen. D-93′s Tommy Starr kindly orchestrated a rare-for-me road trip to Nashville with himself, Fenner Castner, and Hunter Goatley to enjoy it in the tres hip, full bar-serving Belcourt Theatre in Hillsboro Village, where I had seen so many movies growing up…movies like ‘Superman’ and ‘Watership Down’. The RUSH movie totally delivered, as I knew it would. It was astoundingly informative, hilarious, and emotionally exhausting. The producer of some of their later albums starting with ‘Power Windows’, Peter Collins was on hand to introduce the movie and field Q&A afterwards. So glad I got to relive a bit of my youth through this…And apologies to my family who missed my all-too-brief visit; I just don’t think they would’ve shared my enthusiasm for this cinematic event :^)

-John Sonso

In the classic spirit of Central and South American metal (can you say Dictatorshit!), here is a story of Metal music inspired by continued oppression and rampant political brutality and corruption. Ever since Sam kicked a football around with a hoard of Guatemalan children while studying for his thesis, it’s been common knowledge that the Guatemalan people have had their challenges receiving fair treatment by their own government. In a story too often repeated through the Americas, Alfonso Portillo, the Guatemalan president from the years 2000 – 2004 managed to steal tens of millions of dollars from his people including a $1.5 million donation from Taiwan, a sovereign and independent country. The story below outlines a song inspired by brutal corruption and hypocrisy. Thanks for sharing this with us Carlos!

The story behind: “Bring the F**kers Down”:

By Carlos Pepió

Here in Guatemala, in the year 2000, Alfonso Portillo, presidential candidate from the FRG (which stands for Guatemala Republican Front) was elected on his second attempt at the Presidency.

From the very beginning it was nothing but the most barefaced, corrupt government we’ve ever had… and we’ve had some very corrupt ones.  I mean, it got so corrupt, that General José Efrain Ríos Montt, an ex-military who headed a previous coupe and who’s accused (and most probably guilty) of the most heinous genocide in Latin American history (around 150,000 massacred) was elected President of Congress fully backed by Portillo to the extent, that because constitutionally  he couldn’t be registered as the next Presidential Candidate, he threatened to “lose control” (according to his own words) of the FRG supporters and that they could turn violent.  And violent they turned just a few days later on July, 24^th and 25^th 2003, as truckloads carrying hundreds of “farmers”, armed with sticks, machetes and firearms took hold of the whole of Guatemala City and terrorized the most important parts of the city threatening anyone who dared come close.  One senior reporter died of a heart attack while running for his life trying to escape the FRG hordes, skillfully lead by FRG congressmen wearing ski masks.  As ridiculous as it may sound, they were videotaped by brave reporters hiding who caught them taking the ski masks off, and even with all that evidence they all escaped from justice thanks to the also bought judges.

Meanwhile, as all the non-official media was bravely covering the riots, the 4 most powerful TV channels, who are sold-out to whoever is in power where looking the other way even as their own reporter got killed.  All through this mayhem, all over the radio and printed media people were clamoring for the “authorities” to intervene.  But neither the President nor the Police Chief ever did anything about it for two long days.

During these two days I got so furious and felt so helpless that the only way I could release my frustration was writing the main ideas of this song in which I was wishing to see this fucker brought down someday, along with all his crew.  Little did I know that what I wrote back then would ultimately come true, as it is the very first time a Guatemalan ex-President spends a night in jail.

I could bore you telling you more about Portillo and his thievery, but right now you can easily read about it in the news or the internet.   He’s accused of stealing and laundering several million dollars which he stole during a time when tragedies almost like Katrina stroke Guatemala and people needed international money sent to help the desperate.  He stole money from donations, the GDP and anything he could get his hands on, and didn’t practice any discretion at it.  The General is still considered untouchable down here.

I usually write Metal in English first, since it feels more natural that way, but then I translated the song to Spanish for my countrymen to truly enjoy it.  It is called “Ya cayó el Maldito” which means different from the title in English but the whole song conveys the exact same message line by line.  It means “The Damned one has fallen”.  I sang the song live countless times all around Guatemala with my previous band called EGO between 2004 and 2005.  I’m putting my new band together and will start playing it again as soon as we’re ready.

I personally feel this song expresses not only a Guatemalan’s anger against governmental brutality, corruption and abuse, but any country’s person who’s experienced disappointing Presidents like so many recent history has seen worldwide, like George Bush, Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Mahmud Ahmadineyad, and so many others who accuse and blame each other of being the bad one, but they’re all the same shit.
You can hear the song in both languages along with Broken (Libre in Spanish) on this link:
http://www.facebook.com/carlos.pepio?v=app_19935916616&ref=profile
Want to check out some other gig’s videos:
http://www.youtube.com/dtruemetallian

I’ve decided to post this as its own topic as I felt it could stand on its own. Thank you for teaching us a little about your town and keeping us informed about the massive metal scene which is vibrant and growing in India. Please read and comment!

Hi fren,
i am jeffrey kharsyntiew from a small town of Shillong, Meghalaya in north east India. i am a true metal fan who wanted to keep alive the metal faith in us and in our next generation. I was a graduate in economics honours and PG degree in adult and continuing education from North Eastern Hills University. I am recently working under a university project but at the same time trying to film a documentary about our band but as we know that we do not get help and inspiration for these kind of music but one day a time will come for us to shine and bring fame to our land through music.

i was searching for your email ID but it was difficult and then i saw your documentary on global metal and when you reach india, i was so ashamed of myself seeing mumbai and those bollywood stuff, but fren what you miss the most is your visit to shillong which is becoming the new rock capital of india overtaking bangalore. Shillong was a capital of Meghalaya, a small tribal christian state of india. We are very different with the way of life compared to the rest of india. The main reason is becoz we are christian and we follow western ideology. Our place has been a state popular in western music but it was isolated from the country due to cultural and religious belief. The centre does not pay attention to the western music especially when it comes to metal and rock.

As years goes by, shillong became one of the first Indian state to accept metal and rock music. due to the effort of our state businessmen and politicians we for the first time invited international band to the state and that was PETRA. after that, Fire House came and we were shocked to see the crowd. People of all ages flooded to the J.N Stadium. From that moment we realized that Shillong people will proved better to the rest of the states. Micheal Learns to Rock came after that followed by Paul Daino, the original vocalist of Iron Maiden. Air supply reached too which was then followed by Eric Martin of Mr. Big. Guess What after that SEPULTURA came which was my most memorable moment to see them performing live. The most important moment for us is the coming of The Scorpions to Shillong which make the people mad just after announcing their visit. Nearly 55,000crowded flooded to the stadium and many fans from the other parts also came to witness. from that time, Bangalore was erased from being the rock city of India and Shillong replaced it. A year after that “A mother of all concert” was organized which is the biggest concert with two bands performing live at one stage.. that is Fire House for the 2nd time and White Snake. The crowded reaches 50,000 to 60,000 which holds the largest number for a concert. in our state bollywood was never accepted by all as we do not speak hindi language and that is why the main language for communication here is english and this pave a way for western music. We have our death and metal bands like Project blend, Native rules, prisoner of choas, nemesis, and other bands which follows the footsteps of lamb of god, kreator, slayer, death, sepultura, etc….

Today the 28th Dec, 2009 we have an open air free metal and rock concert in which Parikrama, the metal band of the country will performed along with other rock and metal bands of north east india.

brother i hope to get a response from you so that we will be able to change the country through our work and finally my dream to put shillong in the metal map of the whole world will come true.

thanks.

This is the first of what I hope to be many stories submitted by YOU! As you may or may not know, Sam and Scot did make attempts to visit Iran to film sequences for Global Metal. Given the atmosphere and the nuclear concerns and pressure from some of the world leaders including Canada, the lads weren’t able to acquire tourist visas.
Well, given the vast diversity of the fans that are visiting our Banger Films and Sammy FaceBook pages, I thought we should tap into your unique and challenging experiences as metalheads in countries where persecution is a party of daily life. Something that we in the west and most of Europe rarely ever come in contact with.
Our first story comes from a young fellow from Iran who shared with us some brief experiences of being a Metal supporter in Iran. I’ve removed any names just because. Please enjoy a few words from LORD LUCIFER .

Well, Metalheads in iran are facing lots of restrictions like:

The Religious Authorities:

In all universities in all schools the clergimen are trying to misguide the youth about the reality of metal music. They abuse the religious thoughts of people in order to lead them away from truth. Below are some the shits I’ve heard:

1. Metal music appreciates satan and all of metalheads are enemy of God!

2.The bands fear not any guilt! like slaying people right on the stage and raping the children and ….

3.metal music equals drug addiction!!!!! All metalheads must be blind drunk and must use drugs in order to enjoy music!

4. They call many bands to be satanist! bands like Metallica Slayer Megadeth Children Of Bodom and many more are known to be satanist and criminals

Police:

Yes you heard me right POLICE. We have MORAL POLICE in Iran!!!! They pick on the girls with non-Islamic clothes or boys wearing metal shirts and so on. Let me tell you a real story.

I had a friend on the internet who had long hairs and an electric guitar. Once he was walking in the street the moral Police caught him and started beating him in the middle of street. Then they took him to their office and shaved his head and broke his guitar!
they told him that your instrument is HARAM (forbidden in Islam!).

He was lucky enough not to be imprisoned!

The People!

Fortunately ( you will realize later about it) people are mostly fan of pop music and rap or hip-hop shits.That’s because these kinds of music are not complex and they are can be called lovesongs. people just wanna dance or use them in the parties. So they don’t want the essence of music which is the identity,the community,and the prosperity of the music.
they just listen to singer for today and throw the CD tomorrow!
It’s like an old shirt for them.
But metal becomes more precious day by day.

So metal community in Iran is too small to be compared to other stuff.
But I am happy with it. I feel so good when I compare my iPod songs with those ordinary people. Yes, I am not an ordinary person cuz I listen to an extreme extra-ordinary music.
It feels so good to be different from the society and knowing things that others don’t.
In my idea, Metal is not meant to be listened and loved and understood by all people.
and also people block everything western. They label everything western to be bad or anti-moralistic or anti-islam!!

Wow! I wrote too much! I’m sorry dude.

Well let me talk about myself a little bit!

I’m *****, 21 and I study English Literature and Iive in Qeshm Island which is very very
close to Dubai!

There are lots of foreigners from Dubai who come to qeshm for few month in order to re validate their visa.

I think it’s easy to enter Iran this way. It’s one of my fucking dreams to meet you guys here and talk about everything METAL.

I have been listening to metal for about 8 years or so. Before that I wasn’t into music at all. But now music is a part of me.
The only way I can get the albums is by downloading them. I feel so ashamed when I think about it. But it’s more essential than food for me more than any kind of vitamin… I am addicted to it and I think it’s the best type of addiction in the whole universe.
My friends know me as LORD LUCIFER. It’s my artistic and metal identity.
I have written some poems in English and I have quit Islam and set myself free.
God, religion,prophet,heaven,hell are summed up in one word for me: METAL.

Enough said! I talked too much..

Send my regards to Dear Sam And other fucking Metal crews.

Take care and bye.

with best METAL wishes,

(LORD LUCIFER)

“Thanks LL. We appreciate you sharing your story with us -Admin”