The Crushing Low (great band name!), hailing from Boston, make poppy indie rock. Their debut EP, All Orbits Are Free, is out now. I fell in love with Skies Divide, the first track. It’s a little shoegaze, a little Bloc Party. In fact, the whole six-song thing is pretty damn good. But don’t take my word for it, stream the entire EP at their site.
Because cat pictures are ubiquitous . . .
BONUS COVER SONG:
I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man (prince)-The Replacements (live)
BONUS LINK:
The 50 Sluttiest Apparrell Ads of All Time
Tags: Picture of the day
This is not funny. This is educational. Sometimes, rarely, I use my blog for something other than nonsense. I am a vegetarian who has nothing against folks who eat meat, but I do think that you have a responsibility to know where your food comes from …
Tags: Video of the day
BONUS:
Attention, Bat for Lashes fans! Recording L.A. has a live acoustic set!
Tags: Picture of the day
Marvel has released info on this year’s crop of Holiday What Ifs. True Believers will remember that What If? was a regular book, hosted by Uatu the Watcher, that presented alternative endings to pivotal moments in Marvel history. I loved the book when I was a kid. My favorites were probably “What if the Avengers were the pawns of Korvac?”, #34-the all-humor issue (Marvel needs to do this again), and “What if Spider Man had been a TV star?”
These days, the House of Ideas releases What If specials, usually two stories (often related) per comic book, around this time of year.
And this year, almost as if they heard what I wrote in the previous paragraph, they’ll be adding four pages of humor to each issue, based on What If #34, done by some guys who used to work for Mad Magazine.
Here’s the run down of this year’s What If? books:
What If? Secret Invasion: Kevin Grevioux will be writing this—he’s done some What Ifs and he did “New Warriors,” a book I’m not that familiar with. The art 
will be by some guy named Pow Rodrix. They’ll show what would have happened if the Skrulls won. They win because they kill Reed Richards, so humans never get the benefit of his Skrull-detector. The second story is written by Chris Acosta, with art by Larry “X-Factor” Stroman. I can’t say I’m excited by the creative teams, and Skrull Invasion was the lamest Marvel event since Secret Wars II. Buy Factor: Not a chance.
What If? World War Hulk: For this one, they got Mike Raicht to write. Very odd, because he’s basically a writer for Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe and a few minor Marvel books, although he has worked on the Ash comic, “Army of Darkness” and serves as an editor. The book will be painted, not drawn, by Lucio Parrillo, who also works on “Army of Darkness.” Story one tells what would have happened if Tony Stark hadn’t paused before firing his satellite laser to end World War Hulk. The second story, also featuring a creative team of relative unknows (Story-Michael Gallagher/Art-Patrick Spaziante) brings Thor into the battle early. WWH was one of my favorite “event” books ever, so that makes me a little excited, but the B-list creative teams temper my anticipation. Then again, the cover will be by my favorite artist working in Marvel today, John Romita Jr. And it will have lots of fighting, always a plus. Buy Factor: Sunny, but chance of clouds. I wish they’d just reprint my favorite What If? Hulk story . . .
What If? Daredevil vs. Elektra: Two tales about two of my favorite Marvel characters. In the first one, Evil E’s origin is retold, but instead Miss Natchios of getting shot, Matt Murdock takes the hit, gets resurrected by The Hand, and fun and chaos ensue. Written by seasoned X-related writer Karl Bollers with art by Rafael (Spidey and Conan) Kayanan, and a cover by one of the greatest DD artists ever, Klaus Janson. No B-story, so they’ll really focus on telling the tale. Buy Factor: Most definitely.
What If Gwen Stacy survived House of M?: The only recent Marvel event that was more confusing and far-fetched than Skrull Invasion was, you guessed it, House of M. The blurb I read about this one says Parker and Gwen stay married after the House of M reality ends. The second story souonds pretty similar. Yawn. If you’re still reading this, then you may actually want to know that the first story is by Sean McKeever/Dave Ross and the second is by Frank Tieri/Brian Haberlin. Buy Factor: Zzzzzz. Hm? Sorry? Did you want something?
What If? Astonishing X-Men: This last one spins off the best X-Men series of the past 20 years, Joss Whedon’s run on Astonishing X-Men. The first story asks What if Ord had been hiding Phoenix in his basement, instead of Colossus. It will be written by Jim McCann, who has done some New Avengers and Dark Reign work that I’m not familiar with and drawn by David Yardin, who did nice work on the recent X-Men Origins: Gambit one-shot. Story two in the book asks what would have happened if Ultron had married Danger. The team is Matteo Casali and Mike Getty, neither of whom I am familiar with. Buy Factor: If the art looks good, I’m probably in, even if “Astonishing” without Joss Whedon sounds somewhat less than astonishing.
All in all, it looks like I’ll be throwing about $10 on this year’s crop. I hope they’re good—because often, they aren’t. And because I’m a geek, here’s a few of my fantasy what ifs. What are yours?
- What if Wolverine had killed The Hulk. Going back to the first appearance of Wolvie, what if he’d gutted the green giant’s throat? Would he have become known as a slayer of an Avenger, and hunted down by Earth’s Mightiest Heroes? I’d hope so!
- What if Flash Thompson had been bitten by the spider, instead of Peter Parker?
- What if Cap’s forces had killed Iron Man during Civil War?
- What if the bad guys had won the first Secret War?
And finally, my favorite one of all . . .
- What if Howard the Duck had gained control of the cosmic Cube?
Marvel released Strange Tales last week. It’s a “What If?” of sorts . . . What if independent artists and writers could write a Marvel story? One of the best humor books I’ve read in a while . . . Highly recommended! Here’s the cool cover:
Tags: Comic books, Superheroes
Not for the squeamish–a snake tries to eat a kangaroo.
Snake Nearly Swallows Whole Kangaroo – Awesome video clips here
I’d like to say that if you’re a fan of The Old ‘97s, you’ll be a fan of frontman Rhett Miller’s latest solo record, but I’m not sure that’s the case.
Miller has managed to prove that as a solo artist, he has his own voice. He’s not just a cast off from his band. Miller’s solo album is not as adventurous as Old ‘97s, who tend to favor rough Americana and a Texas sound, but that just means the songs are tighter. If his band work is rock but almost country, then his solo work is pop but almost country.
Although it’s eponymous, this is actually Miller’s fourth solo album. There’s shades of Marshall Crenshaw, Elvis Costello and The Byrds. The music is, with a few exceptions, upbeat and bouncy—complimented by Miller’s crystal clear vocals. The lyrics are consistent love songs, nothing too profound, but even among the commonplace there are some moments of true inspiration and wit . . . “Happy Birthday Don’t Die” could be a Ryan Adams tune, and the punch-line chorus of “Another Girlfriend” is pretty damn funny. I won’t give it away here. “Refusing Temptation” is a sentimental number that also stands out. At just 40 minutes, the album rarely misses a step. It’s sweet, suitable, and harmless, but that’s not a bad thing. Sometimes, it’s nice just to be able to put on a record and enjoy it.
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