Canadian Video Vindicators VIDEONOMICON Continue the Rental Store Dream and Unleash a Few Slabs of Fresh VHS featuring RYAN’S BABE and RUNAWAY NIGHT MARE with an Analog Edition of LOWLIFE On Deck!
Saskatoon-based video rental shop Videonomicon is still going VHStrong. Over the past year totally radical Tapeheads Tyler Baptist and Jon Vaughn have been supplying a groovy selection of take-home slabs for their fellow rewind-inclined locals, and now they’re starting to serve up some fresh VHS for the magnetic masses with their video vindicating Videonomicon brand. Unleashing two titles last summer via analog means with the never-before-seen road comedy RYAN’S BABE and the cult horror comedy RUNAWAY NIGHTMARE (both available now!), Videonomicon is rewind ready to invade your VCR once again with their upcoming analog edition of the surrealistic indie horror / drama LOWLIFE. Read on, my fellow Videovores, and chow down on a couple of exclusive analog announcements from the Videonomicon dudes that are VHSure to get your heads a spinnin’…
The VIDEONOMICON commands you to OBEY THE TAPE! WATCH IT. REWIND IT. RE-ANIMATE IT. Every day, mang.
We haven't talked to you in a little while, Tyler! How's everything going? You released two fresh VHS a little while back. How'd that go? It’s going pretty alright. Our rental shop has been open a little over a year now so it’s good to see folks still taking tapes home and making use of their VCRs in town here. Membership might not be what it was back in the days of video stores past, but it’s good that people can still sign up for a video store membership here. Since we’re a micro-video store, with a selection of 50 rentals, we’ve changed over the stock about 3 times so far since we’ve opened, and we’ll be offering another fresh selection early here in the New Year. As to the releases, we put out our first two tapes in August of this past year. Our first, making its home video debut, was the never-before-released road trip comedy RYAN’S BABE (2000) and our second release was the cult horror/comedy RUNAWAY NIGHTMARE (1982). RYAN’S BABE is a little bit of a harder sell, seeing as it’s a no-name comedy that no one knows about, but from everyone we’ve showed it to or who’s bought a tape we’ve heard nothing but amazing things from. We’ve only got a handful of tapes left of each in the store and online, so don’t pass if either float your boat.
Brought back from Oblivion by the VIDEONOMICON! Peep the trailer HERE, and pick up yer copy RIGHT HURR. Obscure Analog Always.
How'd you get involved with those titles? What made you go for those? Can you describe the process of putting those together? RYAN’S BABE is a local film that’s never seen the light of day anywhere other than a Superchannel airing when it first came out in 2000 and hasn’t been seen since or available on any format until now. It’s one of the most unintentionally hilarious comedies I’ve ever seen – and not just because it was shot where I’m from. It’s personally up there in my Top 3 of “so-bad-their-good” movies and is a perfect party movie. I actually saved it out of a dumpster, believe it or not (you’ll have to read the liner notes on the release for the full story)! So I tracked down the director, convinced him to let us release it, and the rest is history. We’re still working on some special features, but we’re planning on releasing a 15th Anniversary Edition DVD of RYAN’S BABE this coming spring, as well as booking some theatrical dates as, in all honesty and sincerity, we truly believe it is more fun than THE ROOM and deserves a midnight revival! RUNAWAY NIGHTMARE we partnered with Vinegar Syndrome on. I had managed to track down the film materials and director Michael Cartel, and I was previously friends with Joe at VS and knowing he was also a huge fan of the film got them on board to properly restore the director’s intended version for the first time ever, so they handled Blu-ray and DVD and we did the limited-edition VHS. We decided to go with new cover art for both releases, so we had a local artist Huw Evans come up with a more National Lampoon-y/80s VHS comedy vibe for RYAN’S BABE, as it fit the unfolding of events on screen a lot better than the original press poster that was originally made up for the film. I love all the little things from the film that Huw managed to throw into that art, and his tagline he came up with – “The Road Move That Doesn’t Know Where It’s Going” – is sheer brilliance and sums up the film perfectly! Shira Haberman created the artwork for RUNAWAY NIGHTMARE, originally for a Toronto screening they were doing of our VHS version while we were still putting the full release together for public consumption, and we loved her artwork for that screening so much we asked if we could use it for the release. Both releases also feature curated liner notes, something we do for all our releases.
Yo, that art IS Killer, mang! This is one analog edition that you're gonna want on yer shelf. You VCR will thank you.
Tell us about your newest release LOWLIFE. How'd that come about? Why do you want this flick to be on VHS? LOWLIFE (2012) is an indie horror/drama out of Nova Scotia from musician/artist/filmmaker Seth Smith (Dog Day, Yorodeo) about a failing tubist named Elle who falls in with a man named Asa, who gets her hooked on a psychotropic living drug and follows their descent… it’s grimy, dark, well-written, interestingly lensed, and quite surreal. I had come across the film during its DIY Canadian premiere two years ago where it screened at Beaumont Records, the same shop where we have our Videonomicon rental shop, and it stuck with me. It being somewhat Lynchian and going between B&W and colour along with its low-fi grimy aesthetic, it felt like it needed to be released on VHS and the format would somehow add to that aesthetic. And our mandate for releases at Videonomicon are films that either have been lost to the fringes or deserve to be discovered, so we feel our audience would appreciate discovering the film, and after getting in touch with both Seth and the rights owners they were all excited to license the film for VHS.
This one's lookin' analog excellent, Tapeheads. I personally can't wait to peep the whole flick via my VCR!!
When will it be available? What are the specs on it? Look for LOWLIFE to arrive real soon, going on sale at 11:00 AM CST on Tuesday January 20th, available exclusively at www.store.videonomicon.com or if you’re in Saskatoon you can pick one up at our physical video store in Beaumont Records! The LOWLIFE VHS is limited to 50 hand-numbered copies, with liner notes from Ominocity’s Chris Morin, and features new cover artwork and a “Woof Alexander“ sticker designed by director Seth Smith!
A killer still from LOWLIFE. You gotta peep this one, Tapeheads. It's lookin' totally VHSurreal. Check it out.
What's next for Videonomicon, mang? We’ve recently got back signed contracts for our next three releases after LOWLIFE, so we’re happy to announce the first two of those three releases exclusively here on Lunchmeat! So keep your eyes peeled for limited VHS editions of Lee Demarbre’s JESUS CHRIST VAMPIRE HUNTER as well as the complete HARRY KNUCKLES COLLECTION, which will feature all of the HARRY KNUCKLES shorts and the feature film HARRY KNUCKLES & THE PEARL NECKLACE! Our third release is extra special, and a “Holy Grail” so to speak for us, but we’ll be announcing it soon over on our website sometime later this month. All we can say is it too is Canadian and was shot in late 1980s, and will be arriving on both limited VHS and a special features stacked DVD! So look for those forthcoming titles in spring 2015, as well as the 15th Anniversary Edition DVD of RYAN`S BABE! We’re also working on some t-shirt and new sticker designs, as well as doing a screening series, something we haven’t done since we did the official store announcement at Beaumont Records back in 2012. And of course a new stack of rentals in the video store! Sounds bitchin’, mang! Anything else you wanna hoot and holler about to all the Videovores in Lunchmeat Land? Just thanks to you guys at Lunchmeat and all the other Videovores out there for the continued support of us and all the other indie labels and you can visit us online for more at videonomicon.com and store.videonomicon.com, as well as follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to stay up to date! (Follow @Videonomicon)And you’re gonna wanna stay up-to-date on all of Videonomicon’s analog avenging indeed, so be sure to groove on over to their Official Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to get all the radical rewind info and updates on their upcoming re-animations. LOWLIFE drops on Tuesday (1/20/15), and you DO NOT wanna miss that, mang. That tape is gonna slay. And, hey! Don’t forget to grab the already available slices of analog from Videonomicon. They’re down to the last copies, dude! GRAB YOUR SLAB BEFORE THEY IS GONE FOREVER!
Groove and Groove and Say Jello When You Answer the Phone.
Josh Schafer