Torture Garden Review

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(More customer reviews)This 2 pack album, called Black Box, is quite an impressive album. Torture Garden is lots of noisy saxophone playing to dizzying intricate time changes. Leng T'che is Naked City playing through an amazingly heavy and torturous set of music. The artwork to this cd kind of tells the story of the music, a photo set of a man going through horrendous torture in 1905 in Japan. All the while he is being dosed with opium to keep him alive, and all through the horrible torture, the man has a haunting smile on his face. If you are into Zorns heavier, noisier stuff, go for this. If you prefer the lighter jazzy stuff, stick to The Bribe and Naked City.

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The Casualties: Can't Stop Us Review

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(More customer reviews)The Good
Can't Stop Us is more of a documentary than is a concert video. The first half of the DVD focuses on the punk group's tour in Mexico. This section is padded heavily with behind-the-scenes material. In between that you do get some live performances, but most are not presented to completion of the song. It was interesting to see how rabid the fans were for this group. I have never heard of them, but clearly the people of Mexico have. There were two interesting segments that caught my attention.
The first took place in Mexico City. The Casualties were set to play a festival type show with a 2am set time. The set time wasn't the shocking part. The shocking part was when a gang of kids decided that they didn't want to pay to get into the show. All hell broke loose and the show was eventually postponed to the next day. The fear that the band was experiencing was quite genuine. The second incident took place the next day when the show finally went on. A fan was heckling the band when frontman Jorge brought him on stage to find out why.
This guy goes into a rant on how The Casualties are Capitalists for charging $15 dollars for a concert. The guy had a lot of balls, and The casualties showed a lot of restraint. It just goes to show you that everyone doesn't have it as good as the U.S. and other countries. The second half of the DVD highlights a tour through Japan. You can clearly see a difference in culture from the Mexico tour. This portion of the DVD focuses more on the wild and frenzied live performances. It still has its share of interesting tour footage.
The Bad
You can't just go into this blind, you really have to be a fan of the group to enjoy it thoroughly.
The Verdict
It's nice to know that The Casualties are out there keeping the spirit of punk rock alive. On their latest DVD you really do get to see a different side of the music industry. Instead of the typical big production shows you get with concert DVDs, with top-notch lighting, a huge stage, a packed arena, and perfect sound; Can't Stop Us now gives you a taste of old-school, down-and-dirty touring the hard way. I don't think The Casualties would have it any other way.


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This 90-minute movie documents their recent tours of Japan and Mexico. Includes insane live performances (over twenty songs) and all the behind-the-scenes mayhem you'd expect. From riots in Mexico City to DIY stitches and multiple emergency room visits, "Can't Stop Us" captures all the action. A must own for the band's rabid fan base.

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Freeze Frame Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a fun, highly infectious party record that dominated the airwaves in 1981. It rocks. One of the most essential hard rock albums of the 1980's. A consistent and coherent selection of nine songs that catapulated the J. Geils Band into superstardom after approximately 10 years in the business.
The birth of MTV/music televison would play the J. Geils within their first year of existence at least once an hour! Initially, the band received exposure for the hit title track to their 1980 album "Love Stinks." What was to follow was an album that spawned one of the greatest singles of the 1980's-"Centerfold," which spent an incredible six weeks at the summit of the billboard pop charts. The energetic follow-up,the title track for the album peaked at #4. The album also contained the beautiful hit ballad "Angel In Blue(#40)."
There is a remarkable continuity to this album that flows from the beginning of the album: the initial energetic yell of the lyric "Freeze Frame" thru the crude parody on the state of world affairs, "Piss On The Wall" that loudly terminates the CD.
This is 35 minutes of hard rock bliss that doesn't let up. Songs like "Rage In The Cage" has that power metal infused sound that was so reminiscent of the head banging 80's, while "Insane, Insane Again" has more of a free flowing bluesy feel to it. One standout adrennaline moment is the track "Flamethrower," which graced the R&B charts peaking at #25, but never gained the national exposure it truly deserved. It would have been the perfect radio friendly follow-up to "Centerfold." Nonetheless, listening to this hard rocking track (as with the entire album as a whole) twenty years later, still holds up.
"Do You Remember When" serves as a mid tempo tune that is reminiscent of a middle of the road Rolling Stones recording! It is very melodic as is "River Blindness," which has a choral feeling to it
This album is the pinnacle of their career. It was followed up with a live album "Showtime," which served as their all too abrupt swan song with the original line-up. Front man and lyricist, Peter Wolf continued recording in the early 1980's up until the new millenium quietly releasing 5 solo albums. There are rumours the original line-up will be reuniting sometime soon.
This album should appeal to the novice who enjoys hard rock with an heir of blues. Any fan of 1980's music will clearly embrace it as several million did in its heyday about 2 decades ago!
"This Freeze Frame Moment Can't Be (A) Wrong" Purchase! Essential rock hard listening.

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Limited Edition Japanese pressing of this album comes housed in a miniature LP sleeve. EMI. 2008.--This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

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