Ken's Dead

Confession time: I like pro-wrestling. There. It's off my chest. I like the spectacle, the goofy convoluted story-lines and mainly the acrobatics. Lucha Libre like CMLL. Indy wrestling in particular, like Chikara, PWG, ISW or DDT and Triple6 from Japan.

Also, video games. Used to like them, not terribly alot but enough to head over to a local blockbuster rent a game. Back in 2004, I made a poor choice, renting a poorly, poorly designed wrestling game from Japan called 'Rumble Roses.'

Women wrestling video game from Japan. Chances are, if the game has nothing but women in it and it's from Japan, it's not going to be very progressive in female roles. Chances are there's going to be some degradation and that game didn't disappoint (actually, yes. I was very disappointed, not just with Japan but myself.) If you want sincere, authentic women's wrestling that doesn't make them out to be strippers sans poles (which, in their own right, is quite the athletic achievement) then you'd want to check out SHIMMER.

So, in the game, there was this character named Candy Cane (ugh) who came out to a song by The Killer Barbies. Did a search and found that they were this punk band from Spain. And that was it until recently, when I was able to get a listen.

Despite there being a gap with a band singing in English as a Second Language, they're not bad. Nothing you absolutely need to get first off but good supplemental material for your library. Can't really go wrong with a band who wrote a song called 'I Wanna live in Tromaville.'

They have a spooky punk element to them, with songs like 'Chainsaw,' 'Love Killer.'Plus, they pulled a 'Rock n' Roll High School' and starred in two movies - 'The Killer Barbys' and 'The Killer Barbys vs. Dracula,' both directed by Jesus Franco.

They've broken up and it looks like their lead singer Silva Superstar is parlaying herself into a solo career as an edgier Gwen Stefani (hot girl from an underground band going a bit mainstream) but here's hoping there's success for her and all the other bandmates.

Along with the Misfits 'Skulls,' 'Then He Kissed Me' by the Crystals, the band does a cover of 'Candy' by Iggy Pop and Kate Pierson. An odd choice, seems it seems like one of those uncoverable songs. Listen for yourself.







Note: you can tell there are some dedicated fans on Wikipedia when the entry on Iggy Pop's 'Candy' is amended to include a detailed account of the KB version.