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Friday, August 31, 2007

YouTube Video of The Week! : Blinded by the Light

Last week I showed you a clip from Canadian legends The Kids in The Hall. This week I have what was considered at the time to be their junior auxiliary, The Vacant Lot. In this sketch they try to determine the lyrics for "Blinded by The Light"..a classic!

Music News: Superman Can Fly, Superballs Can Bounce, but Members of Supergrass Do Neither


Mick Quinn: Brokeback Bassist

Supergrass bassist Mick Quinn has broken his back (yeeeOWCH!)... According to a band spokesman Quinn was sleepwalking when he stepped out of the "first floor" window of a villa in France. No word yet on whether that was the European "first floor" which would be the second floor for yankees. He is expected to make a full recovery -- and by full we mean pain-full. The "Caught by The Fuzz" boys should have a new album out in 2008.

Music News: R.E.M. Nearly Almost Done with New Album

Billboard, the bible of the music biz, reports today that R.E.M. will likely unleash their next album, produced by Jackknife Lee, in the spring of 2008 and that the band is being coy about the sound. See the full article here . I took Mike Mills' advice and did a search on YouTube for their live "rehearsal" shows in Dublin which unearthed the new track 'I'm Gonna DJ" for your listening and viewing pleasure:



Dare I posit a return to Life's Rich Pageant - era glory?

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Music: Car Stereo (Wars) -- Album Cover of The Year?




Check out their MySpace page . These guys do the ginsu style song slicing and dicing better than anyone since Girl Talk. Their debut album is out now.

Music Review : Liars - Liars : Not The Reissue of a Jim Carrey Soundtrack


Liars: "Ahhh we had some good times with those shirts didn't we fellas..."

Liars have seemed to run the full pendulous gamut of critical opinion since their 2001 debut album They Threw Us in a Trench and Stuck a Monument On Top garnered rave reviews for their prescient dance punk Gang Of Four meets Sonic Youth sound. Follow up They Were Wrong, So We Drowned suffered not so much from critical backlash as from whiplash, with many critics finding the witch-themed concept album unlistenable. The third record Drum's Not Dead tempered some of the more experimental touches of Drowned but had an even more impenetrable concept. Despite this and the band's exile in Berlin Drum's received better reviews and even occasioned some backwards re-evaluation of Drowned . I always found their albums to be a mix of a few great songs and some pretentious noodling, never wholly satisfying but always interesting. Now they complete the cycle of reinvention laid out by David Bowie with their new album called simply Liars . Dropping the proggy concepts and embracing (mostly) melodies, this is their most listenable record yet and their most consistent. They are still exploring, with little that resembles the straight ahead propulsion of album number one and a greater emphasis on guitars on many songs. There are moments that sound like Jesus and Mary Chain (the awesome "Freak Out") , Happy Mondays mixed by DFA (the better than it sounds "Houseclouds"), the terrific "Plaster Casts of Everything" is like the sunburned stripped down Steppenwolf that Queens of The Stoneage always wanted to be. There is still experimental stuff here like "Leather Prowler" which sounds like Swell Maps navel gazing and the gorgeous keyboard waves of album-closer "Protection". Liars is Liars best, a real grower that suggests there is more good stuff ahead for this band.

Liars gets four out of five liars:




Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Movie News: Oliver Stone Gathers No Moss


Oliver Stone directs Colin Farrell -- "I'm pushing your lion button -- now roar!"

Platoon leader Oliver Stone has been working on an on-again, off-again biopic of Iranian President and hostage-taker Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (!) The Pres himself sent a spokesman out to pooh-pooh Stone's efforts, calling the burly auteur part of "the great satan" which led to this gem of a remark from the man who directed Val Kilmer in The Doors: "I have been called a lot of things, but never a great satan. I wish the Iranian people well, and only hope their experience with an inept, rigid ideologue president goes better than ours." Reports are that Ahmadinejad now has "no objection" to the film. Hmmmm...

Music News: Billboard Charts Get Slippery Again


Rilo Kiley -- someone didn't get the memo re: white

It's a measure of what a good chart year this has been for indie rock when career-high debuts by both M.I.A. and New Pornographers can be described as disappointing. However in the wake of Top 5 albums from The Shins and Modest mouse and a Top 10 album from Spoon the bar has been set high. Hopes were particularly strong for the New Pornos who were hoping for a Spoon-like surge. They have to make do with a respectable placement of number 34 for Challengers on Billboards top 200 in the wake of mixed reviews. M.I.A does better at number 18 for Kala despite deep and adulatory press clippings. Even Rilo Kiley who have a new album that makes The Eagles sound like scruffy ruffians have to make do at number 22 with Under The Blacklight. Is the indie boomlet over or will this too pass?

Breaking Music News: Punk Rock Godfather Hilly Krystal Dead at 75


Hilly and his daughter Lisa in front of his legendary club CBGB

Hilly Krystal, founder of New York's punk spawning ground CBGB, died Tuesday of lung cancer. He was 75. CBGB was the original venue of choice for New York's mid-70's punk explosion, launching bands like The Ramones, Talking Heads, Blondie, and Television into rock history. CBGB stood for Country BlueGrass and Blues and that was the type of music Krystal originally intended to showcase in 1973 when he opened its doors on the seedy Bowery. In Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain's oral history of punk Please Kill Me, Television's late manager Terry Ork described the effect that early bookings Patti Smith and Television had on CB's:
"...they played Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at CBGB's, and it just became huge. Each weekend got bigger and bigger...After that I went to Hilly and said, 'You can't beat these figures with your country and bluegrass, dude!'" It was a sad day for music on October 15, 2006, when CBGB closed its doors for good after a long running rent dispute with its landlord. In another life when I managed a band, one of the best bookings I got was at CBGB in the main room, though I never met Hilly. Here is alink to Billboard's article on Hilly. Here's a list of bands that played CBGB . Hilly Krystal, rest in peace.

Music: Bo Diddley Survives Heart Attack! The Bo Diddley Beat Keeps on Thumpin'


Doctors claim Diddley's heartbeat goes bump ba dump ba dump, bump bump

Associated Press reports that Bo Diddley is in stable condition after a heart attack late last week. He spent the weekend in intensive care and is now in the cardiac care unit at North Florida Regional Medical Center in Gainesville. Diddley had a stroke in May in Iowa. For those not in the know, Bo Diddley is one of the greatest and downright coolest pioneers in rock. The man has his own beat, made his own guitars, inspired 60's British invasion bands like the Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and the Yardbirds and wrote a clutch of killer songs. Here's a YouTube clip of vintage Bo from 1964 doing "Hey, Bo Diddley" and making the white girls freak out. This is as great as rock gets:

We wish Bo Diddley and his family the best and a speedy recovery!

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Music Review: Stars new album bigger, but is it better?


Stars: Avril Lavigne wants her tie back

The Canadian band Stars had a major artistic breakthrough with 2004's Set Yourself on Fire. For their follow-up, In Our Bedroom after the War they have come down with a major case of Summer sequel-itis. Like something out of the Die Hard franchise they have taken all the things that were hallmarks of Fire, even down to the portentous literary referenced album title being spoken at the outset, and made them bigger, bolder and brighter. There are more strings, slicker production, brighter vocals, bolder arrangements. This isn't a disaster but it makes for an album that feels more distanced and less inviting than it's predecessor.
That's not to say that there is nothing to like here. Sometime Broken Social Scene-ster Amy Millan still has a heart-tugging yearning in her voice, which goes nicely with co-singer Torquil Cambell's detached iciness. Many of the songs are top-notch -- first single "The Night Starts Here" pulses along on an insistent groove, "The Ghost of Genova Heights" comes over as 1985 era Scritti Politti new wave, and "Window Bird" rides an outro of furiously solo-ing David Gilmour-esque guitars. Still, Campbell amps up his Morissey-isms a bit too much at times, and it's hard to recommend this to newcomers to the band even though by all measures it's more "accessible" than it's predecessor. For the already initiated, there are pleasure here that unlock over repeated listenings, but Set Yourself on Fire remains the high-water mark by which all other Stars albums must be judged. Stars gets...er..three out of five stars:

Monday, August 27, 2007

Television: BET -- is their satire racist?

As The New York Times reports today (registration required) BET has a new set of animated promotions that bring to mind MTV in it's late 80's heyday of mixing music video programming with self-referential and sometimes even avant-garde promos. The question being raised is whether the satire "Read a Book" is racist? I'll let you see for yourselves.



BET is also airing the very powerful "Bid 'Em In", which acts as straight commentary. "Bid" is barely present on YouTube unlike "Read a Book". Here's a decent home recording:



I think they are both really thoughtful and wonderfully animated. I can see why some people object to "Read a Book" but I think the slap in the face nature of it is what makes it work. The commentary on the imagery and iconography in today's hip-hop is trenchant. Let me know what you think.

Music: Coachella -- the Frankenstein's castle of rock festivals may raise another corpse from the dead


MBV gaze listlessly at the camera, for a change

Billboard magazine reports that Kevin Shields long-dormant and super-revered band My Bloody Valentine may re-unite to headline Coachella 2008. A link to the story is here . Coachella has previously hosted the revivified corpses of such bands as Pixies and Jesus and Mary Chain. My Bloody Valentine is perhaps the best and most influential of the so-called "shoegazer" bands who roamed the British and then American nascent alterna-rock scene in the late 80's and early 90's. Their last album was 1991's Loveless, a classic of super-stacked guiatarscapes coupled with breathy vocals. Check out their official (?) MySpace page here. Just to get you even more excited here's a live video from their last tour in 1991. I was privileged to see them open up for Dinosaur Jr. and they had a sound that literally ripped the top of your skull off. "You Made Me Realize" seemed to go on forever...awesome!

Movies: Superbad -- Vagina Dentata From the Black Lagoon


McLovin asks for a wrench about 'yea big' to pry him from the bootie monster

Superbad, the latest opus from the comedy colossus that is Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, The 40-Year Old Virgin) is a very, very funny film, though not without its flaws. Essentially this is a monster movie in a comedy guise. The monster? Woman, the she, the creature from Venus. Of course women aren't monsters and Superbad is aware of it's own silliness over all things female and genital. This self-awareness is what keeps it away from misogyny and safely in the comedy realm. Our would-be heroes, Seth and Evan, are fascinated by these mysterious beings, studying footage on the Internet even as they are disgusted by the more extreme examples of behavior they find there. Their plan, like Carl Denham in King Kong, is to lure the women and ply them with intoxicants for further study. Sounds creepy eh? But remember, in the world of Superbad it's the women who have the power. Seth and Evan's buddy Fogell is horrified by Officer Slater's (Bill Hader) tale of why women should not be met in bars, a story that is delivered by his partner (co-screenwriter and Knocked Up star Seth Rogan) with all the rueful malevolence of Quint in Jaws. When the monsters do strike the results are deadly and therefore hilarious. Jonah Hill (playing Seth) almost gets beaten to a pulp by a jealous boyfriend who senses, literally, blood in the water. Michael Cera (playing Evan) is pinned down by a girl who's transformation is nothing short of Dr. Jekyll. In the end, the body snatchers have won as both man-boys watch each other longingly depart in the keep of their new mistresses. Oh, but it is funny. Cera and Hill are perfect together -- Cera's underplaying and Hill's near hysteria working it like peanut butter and jelly. Christopher Mintz-Plasse does geek-chic like it's going out of style. Martha MacIsaac as Becca shows great comic chops and Emma Stone plays Jules with a winning throatiness that suggests a Kathleen Turner in training. The flaws I mentioned earlier? The pic is too long, chiefly because of one too many scenes with the cops. A good 15 minutes of Hader and Rogan could have been left on the floor. Other than that Superbad is ace, if not quite as good as Knocked Up.
Superbad rates 4 out 0f 5 Monsters:

Friday, August 24, 2007

YouTube Clip of The Week! Attacked by a Bear

Those wacky Kids in The Hall had a lock on Canadian sketch comedy for most of the late 80's and early 90's. The comedy got patchier as they moved their show from HBO to CBS in the States but the move to network also seemed to spur them to get more raunchy. I love more raunchy. Here, for all you Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and wilderness enthusiasts, is what to do when you are being attacked by a bear. Enjoy!

Music: Missy Elliott Collides with Doritos


Missy Elliott -- maybe she and Doritos should continue to just be friends

According to an unintentionally funny Billboard article, Doritos is launching their new Collisions chips with ads featuring Missy Elliott. Given Missy's publicized weight loss this is a bit like when Eric Clapton shilled for Michelob after his stint in rehab. Missy's management company has this to say: "It's so Missy. And the fact that the campaign takes place in a studio means that Missy remains in her element, which makes the whole thing authentic." And thank goodness for that, when I think Doritos, I think authentic. More to the point (and the funny), her spokesperson goes on to say that "...the Internet element provides us with a great back-end." Uh hello -- it's MISSY who is providing you with the great back end! And then finally, "We've already started exploring ways to further Missy's relationship with Doritos." I can almost hear Missy's personal trainer sigh. My message to Missy is, "Hold up! Wait a minute!"

Music: Neil Young Gets Into Heavy Meta


Neil Young in 1976 contemplates doing an album called "Living With War" about some kind of mid-east war started by an unpopular arrogant President -- but would the world be ready yet?

According to his label and every other music site in Blogistan Neil Young's new album Chrome Dreams II is set to be unleashed on October 16th. What's that you say, you missed Chrome Dreams I? Well that's because it was due to come out sometime in 1976 before being unceremoniously yanked form the release schedule and returned to the man's extensive underground climate-controlled vaults. And speaking of those vaults, the first volume in Young's planned Archives boxed set series is not coming out this fall as planned but is being pushed back to next February. Or so. Las Vegas oddsmakers are once again taking bets on whether Archives, Guns N' Roses long gestating Chinese Democracy, or actual Chinese democracy will come first. To give the uninitiated an idea of how long Archives has been planned, the first time it was scheduled for release was when I was in college. And I graduated in 1995. So Chrome Dreams II, the sequel to a release that only hardcore Neil junkies have ever heard (although many of it's songs like "Like a Hurricane" would later show up on either releases or in other forms) in place of another Neil set that, again, only hardcore Neil junkies have ever heard. Oh Neil, you're so meta!

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Jobs: Attention NY Daily News!


Bianculli -- obviously overdressed

According to Rupert Murdoch's New York Post, an unimpeachable source, crosstown rival Daily New's TV critic David Bianculli is due to get his walking papers soon. The Post's anonymous source is quoted as saying "Everyone is horrified. ... I assume it is a money thing. They'll probably replace him with some blogger who sits around in his pajamas." Well Mr. X, if that's the job qualification let me take a minute to throw my hat in the ring. That is if I were wearing a hat and not my pajamas. To be fair some days I do blog in boxer shorts and when it's quite hot, sometimes even in the nude. However I can assure you that if PJ's are the dress code, I will honor that dress code if The Daily News were to choose me as Mr. Bianculli's replacement. Seriously, call me.

Music: Greatest Hits of Greatest Hits

This Associated Press article about the refusal of the band Cake to do a Greatest Hits album has some interesting points and also led me to thinking (always a dangerous thing). What are my favorite greatest hits albums? Here are my top 10 in no order whatsoever. For me a hits album is synonymous with a singles album so keep that in mind peeps. To the list!


Squeeze -- "Here let me get that spot of cream cheese for you"

1) Squeeze - Singles 45's and Under

2) Chuck Berry - The Great 28

3) Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady

Buzzcocks -- not at all drunk

4) The Beatles - Red and Blue Albums

5) The Rolling Stones - Through The Past, Darkly

6) The Cars - Greatest Hits


James Brown discovers that the stage of the Apollo has been freshly mopped

7) James Brown - The CD of JB

8) The Cure - Standing on a Beach

9) Buddy Holly - From The Original Master Tapes

10) Aretha Franklin - 30 Greatest Hits

Did I leave any of your favorites out? Let me know!

Music Review: The Canadian Underground and Neko --The New Pornographers Get Challenging


Ok everybody who has a solo album can relax...

The New Pornographers aren't afraid of ambition. Their previous album Twin Cinema, played with texture and structure while retaining the trademark hooks and bounce that make the New Pornos what they are. There was also the sense that perhaps chanteuse Neko Case had outgrown the band for the increasing demands of her solo career and that perhaps singer/ songwriter/guitarslinger Dan Bejar was growing tired of putting his main gig as Destroyer aside.
A.C. Newman is still the Pornographer in chief but the bands new album Challengers (Matador) features three terrific Bejar songs, lots of delicious Neko vocals, a lead vocal from Newman's niece Kathryn Calder and a newly expansive (and expensive) sounding palette. Everything on Challengers is like this: bigger, longer, more instruments -- and yet it works. The knack for a great hook and a well-structured arrangement hasn't left Newman and even with strings and mandolins and horns and piccolos and wurlitzers thrown into the mix the songs are allowed to breathe and the sharp playing, especially drummer Kurt Dahle, shine through.
Highlights include the one-two punch of the title track and Bejar's jaunty New York ode "Myriad Harbor", and the shivery phased guitar-fest that is "Failsafe". The overall sound is akin to late-60's Beach Boys but the New Pornos don't lose their own identity. This takes a little longer to reveal it's charms than their earlier more straight-ahead power-pop but it's well worth the time spent listening to one of their strongest sets of songs.
Four out of Five Challengers for Challengers:


Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Music: Black Francis Preview

Here's a sneak preview of Black Francis' fantastic new album Bluefinger due out September 3rd on Cooking Vinyl. Yes Frank Black has reverted to his Pixies nom de rock and served up some fresh rock that recalls his halcyon days in that pioneering alt-rock band and his first two solo albums. The song is called "Threshold Apprehension". This awesome video was created by BULLDOZ'R and is not an official vid. BULLDOZ'R created a few others as well for the new record and you can see them here .

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Book Review: The Zero by Jess Walter -- Memory Tricks and Political Slicks at Ground Zero



Jess Walter spent several weeks at Ground Zero starting a few days after the attacks of September 11th, but he seems just as damaged by his stint as a ghostwriter for an autobiography of New York's disgraced former top cop Bernie Kerik. His novel The Zero (Harper Perennial, Paperback, $14.95) is haunted by the aftermath of the twin towers destruction and the decisions that leaders made as a result of that day. The author himself prefers to call it a September 12th novel. Walter is not alone in tackling this subject but he comes at it in a unique way. His protagonist is a cop, Brian Remy, who suffers from conspicuous gaps in time and a severe case of macular degeneration which causes his vision to be obscured by "floaters and flashers" like damaged film stock. The time gaps are disorienting to character and reader alike, every few pages we are in a situation that Remy has to untangle from where he just was. One minute he could be about to pick up a cup of coffee and then... BAM! ...he's stepping off an unfamiliar elevator to a floor he's never seen before. Even worse he begins to suspect that the times he can't account for have been filled with misdeeds that he himself may be a central perpetrator of. There is an element of satire to the mysterious government agencies that all seem more interested in scooping each other than in protecting Americans and the vaguely threatening mayor (unnamed but clearly Giuliani) who speaks in platitudes about not letting the terrorists win.
Ultimately Remy's journey through darkness is meant to be a metaphor for America's own confusing, disjointed journey. Walter is not wholly successful in blending Chuck Palahniuk style mindfuckery with Kafka-esque satire and Chandler inspired hard boiled mystery. The climax is more of a resigned shrug and the puzzle pieces seem to fit together rather arbitrarily. Still it's a fascinating read and suggests that Walter is a writer worth watching.
Four out of Five memory chips:

Television Review: Weeds Gets Dark, Fluffy, Not So Sticky


Mary-Louise Parker listens to voicemail...or is she just acting "listening to voicemail"?

Weeds third season on Showtime has to compete with the woozy hangover created by a terrific second-season chocked full of darkness, paranoia and wackiness. So far Season Three has served up all three of these ingredients but the blend still feels a little off. Granted we are only at episode two so there is time for the buzz to kick in. Mary-Louise Parker's drug dealing suburban Mom Nancy and her erstwhile partner Conrad are both in deep with bad news weed baron U-Turn. U-Turn has them both over a barrel after last years drug deal goes horribly wrong and it's hard to see how either of them will get out from under his thumb anytime soon. As episode two closes U-Turn has control of Nancy's finances including her credit cards and Conrad is set to become his indentured kind bud chemist. Mary-Louise Parker continues to be the number one reason to watch the show and she is as mesmerizing as ever. Her huge dark eyes and twisty mouth set against that pale, pale skin seem able to express a million levels of emotion and thought. When she's onscreen you can't take your eyes off her. Luckily the supporting cast is also quite good, especially Elizabeth Perkins as bitchy neighbor Celia Hodes and Kevin Nealon (an utter tool on Saturday Night Live but a revelation here) as Doug Wilson. Justin Kirk as Nancy's freeloading brother-in-law however was a reliable source of comic relief in seasons one and two but so far he's just been annoying and unfunny. There is a sense that the writers aren't sure what to do with these characters anymore. Celia had a great drunk sequence in episode two, lurching down the middle of the street and confirming to a group of open-mouthed kids that yes, indeed, she is the "just say no to drugs lady". Celia and Doug have both destroyed each others marriages but they don't seem to be able to find any pleasure in each other either. It would have been an interesting choice to allow these two characters who have hated each other with such passion to fully explore the turnaround that happened last season when that passion turned to lust. The show seems to be pushing them back to their original starting points but creator Jenji Kohan has a way of throwing curve balls so this may just be more setup.
The acting is still great to watch even if the show seems a little wobbly so I'll be updating my view later on in the season to see if Weeds blooms anew or shrivels away into irrelevance. For the season so far three out of five roach clips (beaded) seems about right:

Monday, August 20, 2007

Music News: Kathleen Hanna -- Riotprof?


The hottest thread on ILM (that's I Love Music for the uninitiated) right now concerns Bikini Kill / Le Tigre riot grrl and feminist music icon Kathleen Hanna. Hanna is said to be teaching a graduate course in art at NYU this fall. One poster wonders if she is going to be the life model for the class and another wag opines "I would almost pay the full tuition price for a semester at NYU to not have to listen to a lecture by Kathleen fucking Hanna." Me? I have a restraining order keeping me 50 feet away from her at all times but I suspect she'll be dropping some mad knowledge on those punks. Dig the whole thread here .

Music Review: M.I.A goes POW! Drops Her Best Album Yet


Maya Arulpragasm (aka M.I.A.) dressed for some night jogging

Sri Lankan rapper/singer M.I.A. (pronounced like "maya") is connoisseur of rhythm, a veritable beat specialist. Like James Brown, she's never met a groove or a polyrhythm she didn't want to ride and on her new album Kala she serves up the results on a gleaming silver platter. Her last record, 2005's Arular, was produced by Diplo with a dense steamy mix that acted as a sensory assault, while still shakin' booties. Kala (XL Records) goes straight to the ass however, stripping away anything that doesn't serve the rhythmic flow and building layers of airy open sound out of people talking, M.I.A. rapping and singing in her distinct lilt and odd juxtapositions of lyrics and influences. "20 Dollar" comes in on gunshots, fuzz guitar, quasi-Indian vocals from M.I.A. and electro-drums before she she starts rapping, her flow insistent and cajoling until suddenly she hits the chorus and it's a cover of "Where is My Mind?" by The Pixies. "Bamboo Banger" similarly takes The Modern Lovers pre-punk classic "Roadrunner" and transforms it into a refrain for third-worlders banging on the doors of passing Hummers that could be full of tourists or soldiers or both. The killer single "Bird Flu" busts out of the speakers with squawking, Burundi-style drumming and wild vocal trills. "Jimmy" is a Bollywood tribute that's as smooth as melting butter and deserves to be a smash. "Mango Pickle" is as addictive as M.I.A. claims the titular snack is and features the rapping of aboriginal Australian pre-pubescents The Wilcannia Mob. They give this song about fishing and eating a strange skew with their high raspy voices and didgeridoo. Then there is "Paper Planes which samples The Clash's "Straight to Hell" in the service of discussing M.I.A.'s wanderings forced and otherwise. As a side-effect of Bush's stringent visa policies she was unable to work with Timbaland on the entire album, as was her plan. As the one Timbaland track shows, this was a good thing as her globetrotting yields up an album of diverse and eclectic pleasure all aligned with the hips and wedded to lyrics about third world democracy and "boyz" who start wars. This one gets 5 out of 5 Visas, a modern dancefloor clasic in the making:


Friday, August 17, 2007

YouTube Clip of the Week : The Party's in Space...

This weeks clip of the week is a compilation of Flight of The Conchords recent string of Bowie dreams. HBO has apparently picked up Conchords for another season of deadpan solipsistic New Zealand style songs and comedy and I can confirm they made the right decision. These Bowie dream sequences remind me of a song from actress/singer/performance artist Ann Magnuson and guitarist/performer/label entrepreneur Kramer's late 80's band Bongwater. Magnuson's lyrics were often based on her dreams and the song "David Bowie Wants Ideas" involves David's Byrne and Bowie mind-raping people for new concepts. More on Bongwater here.

Music: Judging a Record by its Totally Super-Wack Cover


Rawk out for the lord!

I found this awesome site today Show and Tell Music . There is still some construction going on so pardon their appearance but it's loaded with cool thrift store record cover art and info. Site mastermind Will (no last name) describes the site as "first & foremost as an archive/orphange for "lost" (or "found"), neglected and endangered vintage recordings." Seriously, this site will damage your productivity with hours of amusement and astonishment...behold these few examples:


Could this be the long awaited solo album from ? and The Mysterians frontman "?" ?


...and then ritualisticly slaughters your immediate family...