"Do You Want To Die Tonight Sydney?" How Scream Became My Gateway to Horror

On December 20th, 1996, I reluctantly joined my friends Trish, Matt and John at Showcase Cinemas in Burlington to take in the movie Scream. It was opening night. It also was Trish's birthday and she really wanted to see it. I was scared shitless as my only other real experience with slasher type horror films at this point was Halloween II at my friend CJ's 10th or 11th birthday party. Needless to say that flick put me off horror for a long time. I can handle gore but the suspense is killer for me. Michael Myers creeping about and jumping out did not make my pre-teen self feel that great.

Because I was such a supportive friend, I tried to push my childhood fears of people jumping out to the back of my mind and handed over my money to the box office attendant. It should be noted that Scream was in the smallest theater at that point (Cinema 6) and it was only half full. I had read a positive review of the flick in Rolling Stone magazine but this did not neutralize my fears, instead, it served to ignite them. "Scary and funny," I believe it read. Funny, great. Scary, not so much. I purchased a bag of licorice as for some reason, I did not wear my Dolphins or Maple Leafs hat that night. I'm really not sure why I wouldn't have worn one given that I wear a hat about 70% of the time and I must have been away from University for Christmas break. So there was no excuse really.

Anyway, we entered Cinema 6 and I was wondering how I could get out of this situation. Did I have to babysit my teenage brother or sister? Did my parents need me to pick-up something from the store? Christmas shopping, was it done? No dice, I was stuck there. So I tried to think happy thoughts. Drew Barrymore was in the movie. Julia Salinger was in the movie. Monica from Friends was in the movie. All good points, I enjoyed their work.

After some previews, the movie started with a black screen, the phone ringing and the Dimension Films logo appeared. Cue Drew Barrymore making Jiffy Pop on the stove. Already I'm sweating. I don't want to spoil things for people who haven't seen this movie (and if you haven't do yourself a favour and watch it), but let's just say my licorice bag spent a lot of time in my eye line over the next 15 minutes. This sequence was scary ... and funny. Just like Rolling Stone said it would be. There were references to old horror movies, ones I had never seen, such as Friday the 13th and the original Halloween. The intro was bold and showed that in this new horror universe, no one was safe from death.

After the opening sequence, my licorice bag could relax a bit, as the movie settled into some solid storytelling, with a nice backstory for Neve Campbell's Sydney Prescott. I am by no means a cinema-phile but I noted that this movie was pretty well-written and the characters were fleshed out, which is always positive in any movie, regardless of genre. There were some good scares, such as the Fonz in peril and Sydney being attacked at her house.

I also noted that Ghostface had the most menacing voice, which completely fit with the proceedings. He also had some pretty amazing one-liners.

The death wasn't that fast and furious until the last third of the movie (or the "final act main cast bloodbath" as referenced in Scream 4). By this point, I was fully hooked on this movie. I almost wanted to be scared. Dare to scare me. Bring it! The last third had some scares but was more gory than frightening. The motive of the killer was solid and just brought everything together, tying up Sydney's backstory.

So after this positive viewing experience, I decided maybe I should give horror a try. My then 11 or 12 year old brother was also up for this. We watched the original Halloween, and it was awesome. I watched the sequel again and it was decent. I'm sure we watched other horror films. But then Scream took off and the copy cats started coming out of the woodwork. Masterpieces such as I Know What You Did Last Summer (any movie that featured Buffy and Jennifer Love Hewitt at that time knew what it was doing) and we embraced all of these films. I finally caught up with Friday the 13th and it's many sequels, The Exorcist and it's sequels, Psycho, etc.

However, while the first 15 minutes of Scream were frightening, the scariest movie I have ever seen is The Grudge remake, also with Buffy. That was 90 minutes of pure anticipation/jumping out terror. With a scary demon kid. People in the theater were laughing at me because I was so scared. Second scariest is the first 30 minutes of Jeepers Creepers. I almost left the theater. I think it's the anticipation of knowing something terrible will happen that gets me. Once it happens, I am good but the moments before the mind starts going and going and knowing and knowing. But I think I like this feeling...to a degree. Though I still haven't watched The Conjuring or Paranormal Activity.

Back to Scream, which is actually on TV now as I'm typing this. As you may understand from the Oasis post, once I really like something, I become relentlessly obsessed. We had 2 VCRs in our house so once Scream was available on VHS (yes VHS), my brother and I taped it so we could view it multiple times, which we did. We were there on opening night for Scream 2. I ended up seeing Scream 2 three times in the theater. And for the opening of Scream 3, I sent Outlook meeting invites out. And my brother in law scored me premiere tickets to Scream 4, complete with a Neve Campbell Q&A. Of course, none of the other Scream movies measures up to the first (2 comes close, 3 is the worst and 4 is entertaining and rather gory), but like Oasis affected my musical growth, Scream was my gateway to embracing horror movies. And it was also my gateway to moving back into creative writing as my first few pieces were horror yarns.

That said, I haven't seen a good horror movie in a while (or even a non-kids movie in a while)...though Annabelle looks promising and frightening.

So I have to offer a belated thanks to Trish...and wish everyone a Happy Halloween. What's your favourite scary movie?

This is not a unique thought but Weezer's new album is a surprise and welcome return to form

In my last post, which is kinda long as I re-read it, but that is what talking about Oasis does to me, I mentioned that I had a story about Weezer's "Blue Album". I also mentioned the "like 3 songs, buy the album" rule that I believe my best friend Matt instituted to try to keep us all honest. The "Blue Album" was likely the first purchase I made that eschewed this rule. I have been a CD/music addict since September 1992 when Bon Jovi's "Keep The Faith" came out, but I used to be able to keep it somewhat in-check, by using the "3 song rule". The "Blue Album" threw that rule out the window and is likely the reason I have so many CDs. Back in the '90's, I was always trying to find the next Weezer; that band you took a chance on without hearing any of their songs and when you did, you found out that they were all great. But this proved to be exceedingly difficult.

Anyway...

I remember hanging out in my parent's backyard in the summer of 1994 and my friend Geoff mentioned that he saw a band called Weezer who had a cool song called The Sweater Song on Conan O'Brien the night previous. I nodded and stored the band name in the old noggin. Remember this was before the Internet so one couldn't YouTube this stuff to see if it was any good.

I used to lifeguard back in my high school years to make money and teach people how to swim. On break, I would often venture to the Burlington Mall and Sunrise Records. A few nights after Geoff told me about Weezer, I was in Sunrise and saw the "Blue Album" in the new release section. I believe it was $19.99 as this was what they used to charge for CDs. Seriously crazy, but we happily paid these prices. I picked it up off the rack, it had the Sweater Song on it (only it was called (Undone) The Sweater Song) so I decided, what the hell, Geoff liked good music so let's get it. I am 100% glad that this decision was made. Not only was The Sweater Song amazing, the whole thing rocked and contained many melodic surprises. All my friends became hooked on the album and it was the soundtrack to the rest of our summer, along with "Purple" by STP.

Naturally, Weezer, like Oasis, had CD singles, so I picked these up and again the b-sides were great (esp. Mykel & Carli). My friends and I saw Weezer at the Opera House in Toronto in December 1994 and we even met them after the show. Fantastic. "Pinkerton" came out a few years later and although it lacked the polish of the "Blue Album", I was in 2nd year university and the angst in the lyrics due to Rivers' inability to find love spoke to me. Then Weezer disappeared. They re-emerged I think 5 years later with the "Green Album". This was an enjoyable record. "Maladroit" was also enjoyable though more raw. "Make Believe" and subsequent albums completely lost me. I even stopped courtesy buying Weezer albums after the "Red Album". I don't think I've even listened to all of "Raditude". So when I read that they were coming out with a new record this October after a 4 year break, I was fully skeptical. 

But then grooveshark had the new album "Everything Will Be Alright In The End" streaming a week before it came out so I gave it a listen at work one day. It didn't immediately grab me but there was enough there to warrant another listen. I cued it up the next day and heard the same type of melodic surprises and witty lyrics that got me hooked the first time I heard this band. So I listened to it again, and again and again. I read an unauthorized biography on Rivers in the mid-2000's and feel he's a weird dude but music is subjective forsure so I'm sure he felt (or maybe didn't feel) that he was making great tunes from 2005 to 2010. Anyway something got to him because, say it ain't so, he and the band have recaptured their 1994-1996 mojo here in a big time way. Songs like The British Are Coming, Go Away (classic boy/girl vocals from Rivers and Bethany Cosentino from Best Coast) and Foolish Father are welcome additions to the Weezer canon. But the real gem for me is Da Vinci. Great lyrics about finding that perfect love that border on cheesy but never fully get there because of the sincerity in Rivers' voice. And the melody is just classic Weezer.

I bought "EWBAITE" at a Walmart in Orillia, Ontario driving home from my parent's cottage as I needed to listen to it repeatedly on the 90 minute drive back to my house. My 3 year old son really enjoyed it. I also played it for my friend Jamie (not really a Weezer fan) as we were car pooling to work and he thoroughly enjoyed it as well. Just last night, my 7 year old daughter wanted to hear the songs I've Had It Up To Here and Cleopatra on repeat. So it's a winner across many demographic groups.

My post title says it all, I'm not the first person on the Internet to have these thoughts about this record, which I'm happy about. There are definitely a lot of jaded people on the Internet, especially when it comes to music. While I find the way I consume and listen to music these days is moving at a much quicker pace than certainly 20, but even 5 years ago, it's nice to have a band you used to enjoy sneak up on you when you weren't expecting it all (see also Counting Crows' excellent new album "Somewhere Under Wonderland"). So now it seems that I'm still looking for the next Weezer, even if that now means being surprised by a band I once admired returning to form.

Where Were You October 3rd 1995? A Written History of How Oasis Became My Favourite Band

Where were you October 3rd 1995?  I was at The Stone Road Mall in Guelph, Ontario, Canada with some friends.  I'm almost certain we were going out for dinner at Legend's Bar & Grill because we could use our meal cards at this establishment.  But of course, we needed to stop into HMV first because it was a Tuesday and Tuesday was and still is, new release day.  I likely suggested or insisted that we do this.

On the new release wall I saw Oasis' 2nd effort "(What's The Story) Morning Glory?" and I immediately grabbed it.  I didn't even know it was out (email was only just catching on, we weren't there with the Internet yet) so was pleasantly surprised. I also am pretty certain I picked up Lisa Loeb's "Tails" that night, which I still have in my collection. Don't ask me how I can remember this stuff. But the Oasis album is the subject of this post and without a doubt changed the way I listened to music.  Although Do You Sleep? by Lisa Loeb is still a killer tune.

I'll backtrack a little bit.  I stumbled upon Oasis' excellent debut "Definitely Maybe" almost by accident.  Again, it was at an HMV (but this one was in Oakville), on a listening station in October or November of 1994.  My friends and I had 2nd period spare in Grade 13 so we would frequently make the 10 minute drive from Burlington to Oakville to hit HMV (at that time I guess our hometown Burlington wasn't populated or cool enough to warrant having it's own HMV).  Anyway, as soon as I hit play on the listening station disc man and heard the opening chords of Rock N' Roll Star I was hooked and I was pretty sure when I got to Supersonic that Oasis were my new favourite band.

After digesting "Definitely Maybe" and feeling that all the songs were great, I needed to see if Oasis had any other songs. Over the course of 1994, I discovered that Oasis had put out CD singles for Live Forever, Shakermaker, Cigarettes and Alcohol and Supersonic.  I picked all of these up as they had b-sides, which I soon discovered were as good as the album tracks.  My friend Simon and I then found a real gem in Hamilton when we were CD shopping at Dr. Disc at the end of 1994.  As an aside, if people asked me in high school what my hobbies were, the answer was CD shopping.  And creative writing.  But mostly CD shopping.  And I guess things haven't changed, though the blog is a way to keep the writing candle burning.  Anyway, we found the CD single of an Oasis song I'd never heard of called Whatever.  This wasn't on "Definitely Maybe" and contained 2 b- sides (It's Good) To Be Free and Half The World Away that also weren't on the album (Slide Away, the penultimate album track from DM rounded it out).  So obviously this was an easy pick-up. Whatever and the b-sides solidified my feelings that Oasis were awesome.  Many Oasis tunes made my best of 1994 mix tape compilations (I want to say there were 3 tapes that year), though Always by Bon Jovi was number 1 for legacy reasons and because it is an amazing power ballad.

In May 1995, we were going on class trip to Toronto (maybe to the Art Gallery of Ontario or somewhere cultural like that).  I knew that Oasis was coming out with a new single called Some Might Say (though I'm not sure now how I knew this), so I had Dr. Disc order it for me.  It came in the day before the class trip so I immediately taped the song and the three b-sides so I could walkman it up on the bus.  I was loving Some Might Say, despite the rather inane lyrics, the song soared and the guitar outro was bueno. Revisiting the reissues of "Definitely Maybe" and "WTSMG" and hearing the early live cuts included makes you realize what a powerful singer Liam Gallagher was. I feel the Some Might Say single, backed with Acquiesce and Headshrinker equal Liam's voice at its most powerful. In addition, the b-sides on this single (also including the Noel sung Talk Tonight) are probably the best trio included on any of their singles. So where did Some Might Say fit? I wasn't sure as again it wasn't on DM.  And then in August 1995 Roll With It came out and it still wasn't part of an album. But the song was good (not as good as Some Might Say) and the b-side Rockin' Chair is still one of my favourite b-sides by any band ever.

In September 1995 I was off to start my post-high school life, chasing a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Guelph. I was moving away from home for the first time, living with 3 roommates (whom I didn't know) in a building that was designed by the person who built a prison in Kingston. But I was excited. A girl in my alcove noticed me wearing an Oasis t-shirt early in the year which got us talking about the band. One day, she ran downstairs saying she had just heard and taped the new Oasis song Morning Glory off the radio. Yes, taping songs off the radio was a regular thing prior to Napster, iTunes, etc. I dubbed it off her tape and wow, I was blown away. This was somehow better than both Some Might Say and Roll With It. Buzz saw guitars, vague lyrics about razorblades and mirrors (Cocaine references were lost on me then, as they still are now). This upped the ante for the new album, but none of us had any idea of when it was coming out.

So the first month of school was good and we were hitting our groove by October, as I said, we figured out what alcohol serving restaurants accepted our meal cards. When I flipped over "What's The Story" at HMV, I saw that it contained Roll With It and Some Might Say, which quelled the small worry that was kicking around inside my head.  Also it had Morning Glory on it, so automatically it fit the like 3 songs, buy an album rule we had for buying albums (though this never really applied to me.  I have a story about Weezer's "Blue Album" I'll save for another post).

When I got back to the dorm I put on "WTSMG" and immediately after hearing Hello the thought was "best album ever".  Wonderwall and Don't Look Back In Anger reinforced this, though it was kind of surprising to hear Noel on lead for the latter as traditionally songs with his lead vocal were pegged for b-sides. It was a good surprise. The whole album flowed for me immediately. No bad songs (even the Swamp Song instrumentals fit). And soon, I began playing the album at least 3 times a day for the rest of 1995 up until we left Guelph in May 1996. Two of my roommates said that they had to buy the album once they left school for the summer because they were that used to hearing it all the time, even though they weren't fans of Oasis. I picked up the singles for Wonderwall and Don't Look Back In Anger when they dropped in late 1995/early 1996. As an aside, The Masterplan probably is the best b-side in the history of b-sides. I even bought the Chemical Brothers' Setting Sun single because Noel sung the song (still a good song). I bought every magazine Oasis was featured in also. I was full-on obsessed.

Because of "WTSMG", I like Radiohead, Pulp, Chemical Brothers and ironically, Blur. Even though these 4 bands don't really sound anything like Oasis. And Oasis is the most straightforward sounding of those bands above, but they got me into British music, which then got me into electronica, which then got me into indie rock. Before I was a complete hair metal / meat and potatoes rock kind of guy, not that there is anything wrong with that mind you and I still enjoy these genres. But "WTSMG" opened my mind to other genres.

Listening to that album over and over again as I was in a new place with new people made me "feel" music maybe for the first time and each song has a great memory attached to it. I never played or wanted to play an album as much as this one and this holds true today. The recent reissue of the album (of course purchased on new release Tuesday) brought it back into focus for me, although I never really go too long without spinning it. Hearing Noel's demos for some of the album's barn burners show what a gifted song writer he is in terms of melody, structure and soaring choruses (present tense, the first High Flying Birds album is a gem), but listening them along side the finished product also shows what Liam brought to the party even if he wasn't penning the actual songs.

In my mind Oasis was an impenetrable force that couldn't be destroyed. If people talked shit about them I staunchly defended their work. I still won't shut-up about them (just ask my wife). Their 1994-1996 output I would put up against the definitive 2 year period of any other band. Noel has admitted that he should have held onto some of the b-sides for future albums and he was probably right, though I do like at least half of each post-Morning Glory Oasis albums (including all of "Don't Believe The Truth" and "Dig Out Your Soul", both late career masterpieces).

I think without sounding too heavy handed, this album was (is) like religion for me. Bon Jovi, my previous fave band (there will be posts on this), took me through my years of innocence and my first taste of high school. Oasis and "WSTMG" specifically was with me almost from the beginning of my journey to becoming the person I am today. Right place, right time but the music backed it up for me.

Yep, I think I'm going to re-institute the 3 time a day playing of this album starting now. You know what some might say...