Mikey Serpico's Top 10 Arnie Films

Rock bands often have a lot of time on the road and watching films is a great way to stay entertained. Non know the road better than Scottish rockers, Serpico who can often be found touring relentlessly. So Serpico frontman Mikey told us his top 10 Schwarzenegger films.

10 - Kindergarten Cop
Arnie has to go undercover as a kindergarten teacher to catch a psycho drug dealer. Arnie... as a kindergarten teacher - how incongruous and hilarious would that be!?! Directed by Twins director, Ivan Reitman, it works in a similar vein, taking Arnie and putting him into an unfamiliar setting. It's even more weighted towards the family-friendly comedy vs. action than Twins, but covers both bases pretty well and would cement Arnie's position as a major mainstream star and more than just an action hero

9 - Twins
I'm pretty sure the pitch for this film went "Arnie and Danny DeVito are twins!" and the movie got green lit from that most ridiculous of premises! It's a good fun action comedy and the first of Arnie's foray into more mainstream commercial fare that helped widen his appeal from just a muscly killing machine to the man who could marry into the Kennedy dynasty and eventually become The Governator.

8 - Conan The Barbarian
Credited as the film that really launched Arnie from bodybuilder to movie star, he's in his element as a greased up, loin cloth wearing, broad sword wielding fantasy character. Despite winning a Razzie for Worst Actor in 1983, Conan introduced America and the world Arnie's incredible physique and unique talents. As far as these kind of sword and sorcery films go it's far and away the best, not that it's saying that much!

7 - True Lies
Coming on the back of the box office bomb that was "The Last Action Hero" many thought that Arnie's star might be on the wane as excess of the 80s turned to the grungey reality of the 90s - but teaming up with James Cameron again proved to be a winning formula for the Austrian Oak. The cast is great with Jamie Lee Curtis who transforms from dowdy suburban housewife to super fox in an unforgettable strip-tease, Tom Arnold is a nice comic foil and Tia Carrerre and Art Malik are suitably evil baddies. Combining some cool action with a fast and fun plot, True Lies is one of Arnie's most under-rated films.

6 - Total Recall
Some quality trashy high concept sci-fi from Paul Verhoeven (who also directed Robocop, Basic Instinct and Starship Troopers - so awesome trash all round then!). Based on a short story by sci-fi king Philip K Dick, Arnie has to go to Mars and kick some ass in zero G! There's the super evil baddie Cohaagen, the woman with 3 boobs and some crazy mutants - what more could you want?!

5 - Commando
"Hey Bennett... let off some steam!" This is a one-liner-tastic affair where Arnie has to go and save his daughter from some baddies of some variety... blah blah, who cares!? Arnie runs around killing people, spouting some of his most classic catchphrases including the immortal “But you said you'd kill me last!"... "I lied!" This is a great tour bus movie!

4 - Terminator
The first time we're introduced to Terminator Arnie and the immortal line "I'll be back!", which is a genuinely global catchphrase... and so closely associated with Arnie that he regularly uses it in his political speeches in his role as The Governator of California. Made for a tiny budget of $6.5million, it still looks pretty incredible and launched the career of James Cameron, who'd go on to direct Aliens and Titanic! Also launched one of the biggest grossing movie franchises in history... which isn't too bad for and Austrian bodybuilder and a director whose only previous feature was Piranha II: The Spawning!

3 - The Running Man
A lesser known Arnie film but one of my favouries, based on an early Stephen King novel (before he was even called Stephen King!) It's a very prescient satire on consumerism where the biggest rated show is a real life 'Gladiators' where Death Row inmates fight for their freedom. The concept has been recycled in recent films like the Death Race remake and Gamer... but this is the original! It has some nice ideas combined with Arnie violence - nice combo!

2 - Terminator 2: Judgment Day
The zenith of Arnie's movie career is just beaten into #2 slot, but it's still a cracker. He's just so perfect as a cyborg... obviously it was a real stretch of his acting talent. The special effects still look awesome all these years later and it remains a bench mark for action/sci-fi films in terms of spectacle. Hasta la vista, baby!

1 - Predator
The universe's ultimate hunter becomes Arnie's prey! So many classic scenes... and just Arnie kicking ass in the jungle. Can't ask for much more than that!

Comfort in Sound

Serpico - Neon Wasteland

Serpico - Neon Wasteland 8/10
[WeSaySo Records]

Scottish quintet, Serpico, announce themselves to the rock world with their debut album and they could be around for a while yet. Their metal, punk, rock driven sound hooks you in and you'll be singing along in no time.

All songs, including first single 'We Own The Night' are really good rock tunes and feature some standout guitar solos especially in 'Alkaline Nights' and 'Last Honest Cops.' The most notable song is the anthemic 'Kultura' a treat to see live and you can feel the energy coming through.

It's possible some of you have already seen Serpico, the band preferring the classic route of extensive touring and promoting rather than being a MySpace band with 'some fancy haircuts.' Taking to the road in 2007 and rarely being off it, Serpico have provided support for AFI, Aiden, Kill Hannah, Elliot Minor and Black Stone Cherry amongst others. This was topped off with a set at this year's Download Festival.

'Neon Wasteland' is an impressive first showing from Serpico, and hopefully there will be more to come.

Comfort in Sound

Interview with Mikey Way, Serpico

Serpico are a Scottish quintet looking to breakthrough the classic way, not a ‘Myspace phenomena’ but through touring and word of mouth. The band have gone on the road with artists including AFI, Aiden, Kill Hannah, Stone Gods, Wednesday 13, Paradise Lost, Elliot Minor – even crossing the whole of Europe in support of Black Stone Cherry.

So after getting their name spread around and selling all 2000 copies of their four track EP Serpico are now planning to release their debut album, Neon Wasteland. We talked to lead singer, Mikey Serpico:

Where did the name for Neon Wasteland come from?

Well, we were all kinda brainstorming ideas for a title and weren't getting very far - no matter what anyone suggested there seemed to be a reason to shoot it down. Then I came up with Neon Wasteland and it just seemed to fit. It's quite an evocative title in terms of the mental image that it projects, which I thought would be cool in terms of linking it in with the artwork - the idea of sin/decay, the sleazy underbelly of a futuristic city. On another level, though it's a bit of a comment on the current music scene - lots of glow sticks, not that much creativity.


For fans of the Serpico EP, what can they expect from the album?

Well, for a start the EP tracks have been touched up and remixed for inclusion on the album. I've redone some of the vocals and we've beefed up the guitar and drum tracks - so basically they just sound even better! That's partially because the other tracks on the album were sounding so good, that we needed to make the EP ones sound better to compete.
Overall, I guess people that liked the EP will have liked the fact that it's fast, rockin', got moments of heaviness, but also great hooks and melodies... which has just been amplified with the songs on the album.


Has the band or the music changed since you made the EP when compared to now?

Yeah, the band's certainly changed - when we recorded the EP, there was just me, Jonny, Steve and Iain. I think vocally I've matured a bit and my writing has got stronger. Jonny is much more used to playing to a click now (he'd basically never done it when we did the EP) and he's even more determined to stretch his own skills. He's never willing to settle for a boring, safe beat - he's always pushing himself. In between the EP and album, we've had some guitarists come and go, but now we've had Olli for coming up to 18 months and he's had a really positive effect. First of all, he's a much better guitarist than I am, which helped with the recording, but also he added some nice little post-production touches.
Musically, the EP was more of a taster of what was to come with the album, rather than being a totally different sound. So it's definitely more evolution than revolution.


How would you describe Serpico’s sound to someone who has never heard you before?

Always a hard one - I usually describe us as melodic punk metal. We combine aspects of melodic punk bands like Bad Religion, Offspring, Greenday, AFI etc, with metal bands like Metallica, Avenged Sevenfold, Iron Maiden. There's obviously a pop aspect to it, but I think it's dark enough to not come across as too lightweight. Credible upbeat hard rock, that you can sing along to as well as circle pit to!


Who are your musical inspirations?

Well, all of the bands I mentioned above are huge inspirations. Vocally I love guys with strong, deeper voices because I can relate to them! So I love metal guys like Phil Anselmo, James Hetfield, Matt Shadows but also the punk sound of guys like Greg Gaffin, Kurt Cobain and Billy Joe Armstrong. I've also got a bit of a gothy side (some great baritones!) and I love a bit of HIM too. HIM is quite a big musical influence (although it might not be that obvious) because of the way that they take great pop songs and then turn them into metal songs! Quite a skill!


Did you enjoy making the video for We Own the Night?

Yeah! It was our first proper big production video and it couldn't have gone better. Basically everything that could have gone wrong... didn't, which was great. We just got to run around at night with awesome planes and fire everywhere - what boy wouldn't want that!


What was it like working with Nick Bartleet?

Really great. Nick is really "client focussed" to use a bit of jargon. All the time he was really mindful that he was making a video for us, not for himself and so he was really consultative and to an extent let us do our own thing. Also he was able to keep control of everyone in making sure that he managed to get the best performances out of them. Really nice compromise - and from what I've seen so far the results are going to be amazing.


You’ve been touring and playing with bands for while now, which has been your favourite: to hang out with?

We still keep in touch with lots of the bands we've toured with, like LostAlone, Black Stone Cherry, Kill Hannah and My Passion to name a few. We really got on well with Black Stone Cherry, they're awesome guys to hang with, really chilled out. But to be honest we've been lucky - almost all the bands we've toured with have been really nice guys.

and to see playing?

Black Stone Cherry are an amazing live band, as are LostAlone – especially because with LostAlone there's a real spectacle with Steven on guitar/vocals. Aiden are pretty incredible live - they're so passionate and energetic onstage.


Can you give us any news about future Serpico plans? Any tours lined up?

We've currently trying to sort out a tour of Ireland for late April kind of time with some Irish bands we know. Then we're booking a bunch of UK dates for late May/June, but nothing's confirmed yet - can't be too specific. But, obviously the main thing at the moment is the single release at the end of April and then the album in May. We've already had the single on XFM, and hopefully we'll get the video on the TV, so that's what's going on in the short term and then touring coming up!


What are your long-term hopes for Serpico?

Well, in the long term obviously I hope we become a band that people know all round the world! In the medium term, I'd hope that we could get to a stage where we can tour and be able to live from the band. At the moment we're still essentially just starting out, running our own label etc and so the costs are really high and the income is pretty low. Hopefully we can balance that out and be able to live without worrying about whether we can tour because people are working in bars or whatever!


Serpico’s debut album, Neon Wasteland will be released on May 25 and the single ‘We Own The Night’ will be released on April 27 via WeSaySo Records.

Damon Fowler
Comfort in Sound