Interview with Gordon Bressack

This interview is something really special for me. As a ’90s kid I grew up with some of the best cartoons ever. If you were born in the ’80s, I am sure you know what I am talking about. My interview partner is, without knowing, jointly responsible for what I have become as an adult and has a huge influence on my cartoon and movie addictions. I had a great childhood and love looking back to the lazy cartoon sundays or the 7 o’clock afternoon cartoons I was always watching with my brothers during the week. Gordon Bressack was one of the guys who wrote for The Smufs, The Real Ghostbusters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Darkwing Duck, Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain and a lot more and I am really happy to have him as an interview partner. So let’s start.

El Gore: For our readers who do not know you and your work, can you please introduce yourself?

Gordon Bressack: I am a writer, director, producer and international bon vivant. I’m most known for my animation writing for which I’ve received three Emmy Awards and a WGA Award

E.G.: Is there a cartoon for which you wish to have written something?

G.B.: I’m a big fan of Gravity Falls and would love to write for that show

E.G.: In your opinion, why has there been such a steep decline in terms of quality when it comes to cartoons? I mean, honestly, nothing can reach the awesomeness of the ’90s.

G.B.: Several reasons. First of all, the studios and networks don’t want to spend much money and if audiences will watch inferior shows they don’t see what’s to be gained by having better quality. Another reason is that the networks have preferred artist-driven shows in the past few years and the level of writing has gone down. Lastly, there is a lot of age-ism in the business. Executives with very little knowledge and experience themselves are threatened by older more experienced professionals.

EG: How can we imagine a working day of a cartoon writer? Do you first write the stuff and the animator (or back in the days the drawer) does the rest or do you work together all the time and keep each other updated?

GB: That depends on whether you are working freelance or on staff. Since most work is done on a freelance basis these days I’ll answer that question thusly: I goof off as much of the day as is possible and write a lot at the very last minute before deadline. As for working with the artists that depends on each show. Mostly a writer works alone and writes very specific scenes and dialog so that the storyboard artist has a lot to work with.

E.G.: From all your cartoon work we like Pinky and the Brain the most. What’s your favourite and why?

G.B.: Pinky & The Brain is my favorite too. The concept is brilliant, the relationship between the characters is wonderful and the creative freedom the writers had was unusual. It was also fucking funny. I also enjoyed working on a not-very-well-known show, Captain Simian & The Space Monkeys for the very same reasons.

E.G.: If I am well informed you also wrote and even directed some plays: what are the main differences between writing a play and writing an animated series?

G.B.: One of the main differences in writing a play is that you start with a conversation and then just keep going. Animation is a visual medium and although there might be a lot of verbal gags you have to think about what is being shown at all times.

E.G.: Did you have an affection for cartoons from the beginning or did you just slip into the business by „accident“?

G.B.: I got into writing animation when I moved to L.A. My then wife was a voice over actress. As she got cast in a cartoon I thought “hey, someone has to write those“ so I submitted some sample live-action scripts to Hanna Barbera and got hired. I was also always a big fan of cartoons, particularly Bugs Bunny and Rocky & Bullwinkle.

E.G.: What are your influences and, on a professional level, by what are you inspired?

G.B.: The Marx Bros, Bugs Bunny, Danny Kaye, Bob Hope, Firesign Theater, Monty Python, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Albert Brooks, Brooks Brothers, Ritz Brothers, Smothers Brothers, Dr. Joyce Brothers,Ringling Bros,Billy Wilder, Neil Simon, Louis C.K., Larry David, Christopher Guest, SCTV, the old SNL, Sid Caesar, Jackie Gleason, Lucille Ball, Maria Montez movies,Chaplin, Keaton, Preston Sturges, Abbott & Costello, Shakespeare, Ian Fleming, Raymond Chandler, Catch 22 (the book), Nichols & May, The Daily Show, etc, etc.

E.G.: We love oldschool monster movies and think that Pinky and the Brain: Tokyo Grows, That Smarts, Brainstem is a fantastic homage to the Godzilla movies. What are some of your favourite movies and genres?

G.B.: Old comedies like His Girl Friday or dramas like Casablanca. My favorite horror movies are Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy then movies like Rosmary’s Baby and The Exorcist and more recently, Old Boy and Saw. I am also a sci-fi geek and love Bladerunner, Star Wars, Alien and a weird little movie named Lo. I see most everything and have very eclectic taste.

E.G.: What do you like more, writing alone or having a co-writer? What are the main pros and cons?

G.B.: I enjoy both. Writing comedy is more fun with a partner because if two people are laughing it probably really is funny. I only write plays alone, however because there isn’t any money in it so who would want to?

E.G.: Every ’90s kid loves Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, TMNT, Ghostbusters etc… Did you ever feel some kind of responsibility for the kids while you were writing? In addition, were the main subjects of the series some kind of given or did you have free hand?

G.B.: Oddly enough, I never wrote to entertain kids but to entertain myself. The trick is to still enjoy what you enjoyed as a kid. As for whether or not I had a free hand – mostly not. The shows where I did are, coincidentally, the better ones.

E.G.: I just reviewed your son James’ movie Hate Crime, which is quite a disturbing and violent movie. What do you think about the movie, as a father and on a professional level?

G.B.: I am not related to James Cullen Bressack. His mother was raped by an escaped lunatic. I think he is a dangerous filmmaker and should eventually support me.

E.G.: What are you currently working on?

G.B.: An escape. Also just wrote a new play entitled Another Fucking Play in L.A. Also I’ve been hired to write movie parody scripts for an app for iPhone and iPad called Act With Me. Users will be able to download my scripts and, using the app, make their own movies with their devices. Pretty Cool.

E.G.: Thank you Gordon Bressack for your time and all the best for the future!

 

PVT – Homosapien


If you decide to call an album Homosapien all I can think of is evolution, be it as a human being or as a band. So I was really looking forward to PVT‘s newest release, as their last album Church with no magic (specially the first half of it) was one of my favourite records in 2010. The newest single Shiver made me quite curious as it sounded quite different and experimental with its spacy arpeggios and distorted, quirky vocals. Could Homosapien be a better album than the previous releases O Soundtrack My Heart, with its grandeur in sound varying from Jean-Michel Jarre to Kraftwerk influences?

The answer is no, unfortunately. Let me get this straight, from the beginning; Homosapien is not that bad, if you give it more than 5 listens. It grows a little. But it still feels like driving a car without loosening the handbrake, you think you’re driving 75 on the highway but all you do is blurring the sight of others.
I really greet the new approach in PVT‘s songwriting, more vocals and catchy moments like in Love & Defeat, or Evolution that reminds me of Kraftwerk’s Spacelab in the beginning which is a really cool thing but then there are songs like Homosapien, that is truly uninspired in everything; generic drumming, a little glitch here and there, a slightly distorted guitar and a bored vocal performance.

Vertigo is also a failure in case it was supposed to be a chilly intermezzo between some killer tunes. It tries to be relaxing and dreamy but sounds as innovative as if James Blake would fart into a vocoder. And this is the ONE real problem with this album.

Homosapien does not have any surprises nor does it challenge the listener. It’s more filler than killer. The dancy, crazy moments in older songs like Window have completely disappeared, it’s just like PVT have been taking tranquilizers for the last 3 years. The album lacks aggressivity, joy in performing and also consequence. What happened to the megalomania and wittiness that they had in O Soundtrack My Heart or Church With No Magic?

I guess it was just a hard task to keep up with the older albums so I think that this album must be considered as a pardonable faux pas. Let’s hope it was for the last time.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jufWwb4Car0]

Plankton Waves – Songs Of Endings

“In all of our songs, we’re looking for a kind of beauty, and every beauty has a certain melancholy and gloom inside.” Plankton Waves pretty much knew into which direction the output for their debut EP would go when we had the pleasure to interview them last summer. Listening to Songs of Endings in this light, endings may be the beginning of something new. The musical experience throughout these 20 minutes of electronic music made in Luxembourg is hypnotic and leaves enough space for the listener to define what endings, beauty and melancholy could mean.

The overall repertoire has been broadened, the vocals still have that Indian-like feeling, nature merges into electronic worlds, sometimes dark, sometimes lucid, sometimes both and nothing at all.

Synthesizers and beats often leave place for experimentation and psychedelic parts, but they always just appear for a very short flash before arranging into straight forward and progressing tracks. A kind of 80s sound is still very present, even though not that obvious compared to their appetiser single Cloud Caravan, released last year. French and German lyrics are missing on Songs Of Endings, the mysterious vocals were chosen to be in English only this time. The overall psychedelic feeling rounds up the nature of the EP; it could be described as a poppish and experimental electro experience in the end, for those listeners who choose to put music into words. The rest may just want to give it a try and hear if the electronic Armageddon takes place or not.

The EP will officially be released on February 22nd (click here), accompanied with the release of a new video.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR5bVUM42Is]

Trash Monday LVI

Hammerfall helped the Swedish national curling team to prepare for the great battle in 2006, also known as the XX Olympic Winter Games which were held in Turin. Having this video up the sleeve it is completely logical that the Swedish women won the gold medal and curling eclipsed ice hockey and figure skating during these games. HAIL Hammerfall! HAIL Curling!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAtBVRFD_Zg]

HATE CRIME

Independent filmmaker James Cullen Bressack‘s latest movie HATE CRIME was quite difficult to review for me. To be straightforward with you, James and his movie want to provoke, which sometimes works really well but unfortunately also fails quite a few times. To give you an idea of what we are talking about here: HATE CRIME is a point of view found footage movie mixed with moderate french violence porn insanity and the aim of pointing to racial prejudices still existing in our modern societies.

The story and especially the idea/conversion of the portrayed pschological and physical abuse loosely remind me of Haneke‘s psycho epos Funny Games (1997) and Stanley Kubricks’s masterpiece Clockwork Orange (1971) with a pinch of neo-nazi. James, of course, has adapted the violence to the 21st century, so everything is a bit more brutal than you may expect. In short: a family is celebrating their son’s birthday when all of a sudden the party gets crashed by hate-filled nazis who resolve to torture the family in every imaginable way.

If you are into no-budget hardcore and exploitation, this movie could be interesting for you, but there are also a few things which bothered me. I won’t go into details now as I do not want to spoil the film for you. The family cast is quite decent but I had my share of problems with the villains. The neo-nazi scene is omnipresent in Europe and it is very important that we do not close our eyes and fight this bullshit, but in the end, they were not credible enough and behaved quite artificially.

The dialogues are mostly based on nazi stereotypes and seemed fittled or even improvised. As I already pointed out, the nazi subject is very weighty and just like the exploitation and especially rape and revenge movies from the 70s, James wants to focus on this theme by exaggerated violence and excessive shocking elements.

Personally, I think that the scenery and acting are too faked and seem to be uncoordinated or even improvised. All in all, if you can overlook these negative aspects and are familiar with bizarre independent flicks, you can give HATE CRIME a try.

I am looking forward to what young independent filmmaker James Cullen Bressack has in store for us in the future.

Capture The Crown – Til Death

In the couple of years that I’ve been listening to metalcore and similar music I’ve seldom seen one band receive as much hate as Capture The Crown. The reason for all this malice is that people argued that they blatantly copied Asking Alexandria‘s style from their Stand Up And Scream era. This includes: the way they dress, their musical style, their lyrical content and so on. I have to admit that back when I heard their first single You Call That A Knife? This Is A Knife! I had the same impression and opinion…but since I usually don’t judge a band after a single song I decided to wait for their first full length. In late 2012 they announced that their debut Til Death would be released in December 2012 via Sumerian Records, which wasn’t really a surprise since they have also signed AA. But enough back story, let’s get down to business.

Already during the intro you’ll know what direction this record is taking: metalcore infused with electronic elements. The guitars come at you with great ferocity and even though the main riffs are pretty generic, there are a lot of tasty licks to keep it from being monotonous. And, as you may or may not know, even though I usually have a hard time to hear the bass lines, there is absolutely no problem here, they are clearly distinguishable.

The drums throughout the fourteen songs are nothing awe-inducing but they do exactly what they are supposed to do: keep the beat and rhythm. So no complaints there. The vocals vary between deep growls, high screeches and clean singing and are altogether very well executed. The lyrics are laden with curse words but if you’re not too much of a wimp when it comes to that it shouldn’t bother you.

There’s only one small gripe during this forty-eight minute album: the “dubstep” song Storm In A Tea Cup is just awful, especially with the auto-tuned vocals…but I’m not a big fan of stuff like that to begin with. But since it’s easily skipped it doesn’t bother me much when I listen to the entire record.

All in all, I’d say that CTC have managed to make a respectable first step into the scene and that they’re definitely worth checking out, especially if you liked the above mentioned Asking Alexandria album. I’m eager to follow their evolution and I hope that people will at one point look past the prejudices and just accept the band’s style, be it original or not. Check out their Facebook page and listen to the song below!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC9ru4LLNHU]

Fights And Fires – We Could All Be Dead Tomorrow

Fights and Fires remain true to themselves, not without refining their rock soup with some nice little ingredients. If spring won’t come in the next months then this will melt the snow just at the right time to start the festival season.

Starting with what remained the same, let’s talk about the very beginning of We Could All Be Dead Tomorrow, or should I say with the first few songs that again won’t give you any chance to breathe? Just like on the debut album Proof That Ghosts Exist, the four Britons tackle you out of nothing, and don’t you expect any pity: 11 powerful punches right into your face, all tracks rarely longer than 3 minutes, yum-yum! Admirers of the dirtier post-core sound of the debut will find a cleaner production, but fortunately not overproduced.

Pop punk as well as a few 90s metalish head banger parts are a bit more present, pushing the rough hardcore air of the debut a bit aside, but those are just bits and bobs. In the end, Fights and Fires have taken one more step forward, sounding more mature overall, which isn’t a bad thing as long as the lightheartedness won’t get lost. Thankfully, there’s no reason to worry about that, given that the boys still take you to corners of the dance floor you probably have never seen. The darker side of the typical Fights and Fires sound also found its place on We Could All Be Dead Tomorrow, arranged in a very powerful trilogy (If I’m The Forrest Then You’re Jenny, Rats and Vultures and Cat’s Lives) towards the middle of the album before it’s fast-tracking again after a nice transition to Mother’s Advice.

We Could All Be Dead Tomorrow surely is a very strong and worthy successor of the 2011 debut. Put on your dancing shoes!

Recommendations: Chase The Blues, Back Bone, If I’m The Forrest Then You’re Jenny, Bff… For Now

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d3yc4luUD8]

The LP will be out on February 22nd, you can pre-order it in the format of your choice or immediately download the digital album here.

TUB

Hey guys, did you ever wonder what happens when your girlfriend isn’t in the mood for sex and the only way to release pressure is to fap in your bath tub? Director Bobby Miller has the answer: “Paul jerked off in the shower. Paul just impregnated his bath tub.” Yes you heard right, today’s short movie (+/-12 minutes) is about a bath tub and a man (who is already in a relationship with a real woman) becoming parents of an „alien-like“ child.

After I watched the TUB I came along Miller’s influences and I wasn’t, at any moment, surprised that he listed directors like David Cronenberg, Lynch, Terry Gilliam and co. because TUB can best be described as an expirimental drama combined with grotesque black humor and adorable body horror elements.

As an (independent) filmaker you always walk a thin line when it comes to experimental movies and in the end, this is exactly what I like about them. TUB, which world premiered at Sundance 2010, does not follow the typical “how do I make a billion dollar hollywod shit movie without having an idea of what I am doing here” rules based on shallowed social stereotypes. Miller takes risks and there are surely people who don’t like it but in the end it is a nice, well-made short which certainly will not change your life but maybe will make your day.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H40oOp0pzY]
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SunnO))) live at Astra Kulturhaus Berlin

I was looking forward to attending a SunnO))) gig for the past three years now. Last Sunday I got the opportunity to see them again as they were the closing act for the Transmediale festival in Berlin and they did not disappoint me. In fact, SunnO))) is the single best live act who has ever walked the Earth (see what I did there?).

But first things first, as I was pretty late for the gig I missed the opening band but let’s be honest, I attended a drone doom concert and was not in the mood to hear/feel anything else.

The SunnO))) stage looked as always. The huge backline of amplifiers, just as the musicians, in their typical monk robes and the crowd itself, were completely embedded in exposured fog. When it comes to SunnO))) the performance is very important and always raises the tone of the ensemble.

Talking about the music, it was, as usual, very diffcult to distinguish different songs and I would rather describe SunnO)))’s act as a 3 segmented ritualistic performance. The first half hour consisted of instrumental, extremely loud drone feedbacks coupled with hypnotic oscillating pulsing riffs. At some point during these 30 minutes the band nearly managed to create something which could be defined as a toting percussive feel.

The transition to the second part was kind of surprising. Attila Csihar entered the stage and boosted the ritualistic performance to a new level. The atmospheric sound images eclipsed and supported Atilla’s vocal performance from the background while he was crying, mumbling, whispering and roaring like a dying man in pain. During his last prayers the whole band joined him to evoke an insane arrhythmic noise-apocalypse.

At first I wasn’t sure if the middle part would fit into the performance but after I witnessed the extreme discrepant and dissonant atmospheric last segment, I am pretty sure that it worked that well because of the middle part. The ending of the performance outshined everything heard before.

SunnO))) are able to create an atmosphere and soundscapes which slowly turn my body and mind in some kind of hypnotic state which leaves me unable to control myself. At the end I was completely dazed by this overwhelming, destructive beauty.

(Pictures were taken from here)