too bad

This silly little cartoon never went into full production..

ian and sylvia

I know they were a bit ahead of their time, but Ian and Sylvia are one of the few places where jazz, blues and folk meet and mange to be lame. They just can't be taken out of the context of the time they were around. I bet in the early 60s they were as hip as the strokes. Now they sound a bit like something aging people put on the cd player as a soundtrack to a shitty dinner party.

remember this video?

midnight nation

Reading Midnight Nation. A brilliant graphic novel steeped in metaphor in only the way a comic can. Telling the story of David a man who accidentally finds him self in the "land in between" inhabited by "people who fell threw the cracks", literally people who have been completely forgotten about in the world until they become invisible. How these people fell threw the cracks is what got to me. Afraid to take chances, but always blaming the world for their predicament and not themselves. They only have themselves to blame. I can say I can relate to this...

bitchin' camero

Although the Dead Milkmen are rarely regarded as classic, most children of the 80s who had at least a moderate fondness for them. I still have the intro to "Bitchin' Camero" memorized....
here goes...

- Hey Jack, what's happenin'?
- I don't know.
- Well uh, rumour around town says you mighht be thinkin' 'bout goin' down to
the shore.
- Uh, yeah, I think I'm gonna go down to thhe shore.
- Whadda ya gonna do down there?
- Uh, I don't know, p-play some video gamess, buy some Def Leppard t-shirts.
- Don't forget your Motley Crue t-shirt; y''know all proceeds go to get their
lead singer out a' jail.
- Uh huh.
- Can't wait to go down. Hey uh, were ya goonna check out the sand bar while
you're down there?
- Uh, what's the Sand Bar?
- Ah, it's a place that lets sixteen year-oold kids drink.
- Ah, cool.
- Ya hey, guess who's gonna be there?
- Uh, who?
- My favourite cover band, Crystal Ship.
- Wow.
- Yeah, they do a Doors show, you'd be reallly impressed, in fact, it goes a
little like this:

Love me two times baby
Love me twice today
Love me two times girl
Cause I got AIDS
Love me two times baby,
once for tomorrow,
once cause I got AIDS

- Uh...
- Pretty good Jim Morrison impersonation thhere. I hope those guys have a
good sense a' humour and don't take us into court.
- Uh, what's the court?
- Never mind that, the important thing heree...
- You mean the People's Court.
- The... Now, that's another story. The impportant thing here is that we get
to the part where you ask me how I'm gonna get down to the shore.
- Oh, how you gettin' down to the shore?
- Funny you should ask, I've got a car now..
- Ah wow, how'd ya get a car?
- Oh, my folks drove it up here from the Baahamas.
- You're kidding!
- I must be, the Bahamas are islands. Okay,, the important thing here is
that, uh, you ask me what kinda car it is.
- Uh uh, what kinda car do ya' got?
- I've got a bitchin' Camaro...

a short interview with joel peter witkin

coffin for head of state

I've been going through my music library and digitizing a lot of it. In doing so I came across my collection of Fela Kuti reissues. Fela was a Nigerian musician who spearheaded the development of Afro-Beat music, An amalgam of reggae, Cuban and soul that hit its stride in the 70's. My favorite of the bunch at the moment is "coffin For Head of State. An album that is one 32 minute song. It was written after Fela's mother was killed in a raid of his compound by police. It is confrontational, uncompromising and a middle finger to the government that tried so hard to silence him. No wonder he's still considered a national hero to the Nigerian people.

let sleeping corpses lie

Long before Rob Zombie was a mover and shaker in Hollywood he was the singer of New York industrial metal powerhouse White Zombie. They were all over MTV and radio in the 90s before Zombie decided to go solo and then get into film directing. Now those of us who remember watching the video fro Thunderkiss 65 on Beavis and Butthead have something to be excited about. Let Sleeping Corpses lie is a fours cd/one DVD box set that spans the bands entire career including soundtrack and noon album tracks. In fact nearly everything the band ever recorded is included here. From the scum punk stylings of the Gods on Voodoo Moon EP to the more polished Astro Creep 200. The DVD contains all the band’s music videos as well as a handful of live performances and a few easter eggs including the original White Zombie film starring Bela Lugosi. After listening to the box set and watching the DVD, it’s hard to believe these guys were New York art students and not a bunch of insane cannibal rednecks living in the middle of nowhere in Texas with only original film prints of bad grindhouse films and slaughter to entertain them. Sure it is all done tongue in cheek, but this music did have bite and an image that was over the top.

gift idea for a metalhead

How can you tell when extreme metal has infiltrated the mainstream? When there is a show that pokes a little fun at it on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. There are very few metal fans out there who haven’t seen at least one episode of this quirky series that tells the story of Dethklok, a death metal band so popular that it has become the world’s 7th largest economy. The complete second season is out now on DVD and makes the perfect gift for the discerning metalhead on your list. With musician cameos from the likes of James Hetfield, Angela Gossow, Mike Patton and Emperor and such classic moments as Murderface’s “Tittyfish” song, Dethklok’s foray into fashion design and a little trip to the amazon because it would be very “Cannibal Corpse”, this 2 disc set is chock full of both the hilarious and very metal. Don’t kid yourself, metal fans have a sense of humor. What could be better on Christmas then opening this putting it on the dvd player and cracking up a brew with that special Darkthrone fan in your life?

bastards of young

what a beautiful fuck you this was to MTV. I love the Replacements

dark reign

All right. I'm hooked. Secret Invasion is over in the Marvel universe. Make way for Dark Reign... A secret cabal of super villains calling all the shots? The story telling potential is astronomical. And here I thought quality writing in superhero books was on the wane. As the saying goes "bring on the bad guys". And just who are the Dark Avengers?? hmmm

rip

Odetta.. She won't be singing at Obama's inauguration after all.

crystal stilts

One thing proven by the rise of Crystal Stilts rise to prominence among New York's hipster elite is that the kids aren't tired of bands that sound like Interpol. Or to be fair, Joy Division. The band's new Album, Alight of Night, is a moody affair that had it come out in the 80s would have considered Goth. But it's come out in the new millennium, so let's just call it indie rock and move on. The lyrics are buried deep in the mix and soaked in reverb. Added to this the sea of guitar fuzz and you have a dreamy concoction. The only problem is that there aren't enough moments on the record to snap you out of the dream into the waking world. This isn't music for a party at your pad. It's music for a coffee shop between spoken word performers.