Nobody seems to appreciate it, and yet I keep telling y’all where some cool stuff is on the webs and nets. Nobody comments to thank me, none of the sites I reference hit me back. I’m so unappreciated. Either that or I have a sinus infection. Not sure which.
1. Neil Young covers the Theme to Fresh Prince of Bel Air (follow link)! (not)
2. Here’s a few legit covers of it . . .
3. Cover Me kicks off the Christmas covers with Reliant K. Pretty cool.
4. NYC Taper has a Meat Puppets bootleg, whereon they cover Freddie Fender!
5. This is kind of sad. But also kind of great. Exile on Main Street for just three bucks.
6. This Magic Moment (Jay and the Americans)-The Mountain Goats.
7. This dude’s blog is pretty funny.
8. For shits and giggles, here’s Mother Hips’ cover of Neil Young’s Cinnamon Girl. Since we blasphemed old Neil up above, we can treat him alright down low . . .
9. Tim at The Blue Walrus is a helluva guy, and a pretty damn good blogger, too. Go visit him. Drop a comment and tell ‘im I sentcha.
10. Rock Czar has tons of time-wasting lists, like the top 30 Nirvana songs. If need to do more procrasturbating.
Tags: Covers, Go away, Indie rock
November saw the release in trade paperback form of the six-issue “Search for Kryptonite” story that originally ran in Superman/Batman. The basic premise is that Superman finally gets fed up about everyone having secret kryptonite stashes and so he decides to track down every last little bit and hurl it into the sun. Helping him find the rocks is the world’s greatest detective. When I first read this, I was shocked that nobody had done this before. I mean Bats and Supes are supposed to be two of the smartest guys on Earth, but it never occurred to them to round up all the K and kick it into space? It was about time.
The book, scripted by Michael Green and Mike Johnson, penciled by Shane Davis, and inked by Matt Banning, handles the idea in a pretty straightforward manner: Each story is about a particular challenge, and the Batman/Zatanna storyline is one of the few times I actually liked reading about Lady Z. (The other was when she made all the supervillains forget the JLAers secret identities.) Then again, some of this book is just plain odd—although not in a bad way, necessarily. Aquaman acts more like Prince Namor, jealously defending the right to bear Kryptonite, but this makes him akin to Frank Miller’s Dark Knight, so it’s not entirely unbelievable. Aquaman is one of those guys whose entire personality and character seems to change based on who is writing for him. Another highlight of the book: Supes gets loopy from the newly discovered Silver Kryptonite–a pretty funny turn of events, as he begins to hallucinate, allowing Shane Davis’ “big” art style to stretch into humorous renditions of Superman’s fellow heroes. See below.
Be warned, though: If you’re a DC-nerd and know everything about the current continuity, this book will make you nuts. Flash is odd, Superman’s costume is off, and Smallville concepts are included in the storyline. (Author Michael Green is a writer for Smallville.) Plus, in the end, there’s a big Government plot (of course—because every comic has to have one) that we’ve never really heard about before. Despite its pedestrian plot points, though, it’s a fun read. It’s particularly good for casual SuperBat fans, like myself, who really don’t care too much about “World Of Krypton” or “R.I.P.” and just want to see D.C.’s best and brightest doing their thing. Younger readers will enjoy it, too, because it’s very easy to follow. Not enough books these days offer stories that readers can get into without a playbook.
And honestly, that’s the best thing about the very uneven Superman/Batman series overall—if you like Clark and Bruce, you can find them here—without all the nonsense in Dan Didio’s D.C. Universe. He’s got to be the worst Editor In Chief ever. Under his watch, Teen Titans went from being one of the best books ever to being unreadable; Bruce Wayne was “killed”—but not in Batman R.I.P., a story so obtuse and badly told that it couldn’t be understood (let alone appreciated) until it was all over; Superman implausible got exiled; the Justice League, like Teen Titans, went from good to bad, and now it’s going to have Congorilla in it(!); and several major “events” were either incomprehensible (“Final Crisis”), too long (“Identity Crisis”), or pointless (will anything ever actually happen in “Blackest Night,” or is this just a long hard slog to nowhere?).
In short, Search for Kryptonite is not the best book you’ll ever read, but it’s a good stocking stuffer, especially for fans of superheroes who don’t care for the last two years of DCU implosions, uprootings, and destruction. The real question is whether we’ll still be seeing Kryptonite turn up on Earth, or if it is, indeed, gone for good.
Tags: Comic books, Superheroes
Speaking of squirreling away nuts, which is what all the little fuzzy rats should be doing right about now, here’s a few cuts I’ve been holding, looking for an excuse to dig out and post . . .
Beast of Burden and Sweet Jane (Rolling Stones & Velvet Underground Covers)-The Kooks
Prototype (OutKast cover)-Rifle Recoil
Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)-Winter Gloves
Tags: Covers, Nuts, Picture of the day
Here, you can find the top 50 wigs of all time. I wonder how they determine that something is a top wig of all time? Do they go to places where people wear wigs and survey them? Or is just really the top 50 wigs that are sold at wig salon dot com? Truly, I have no clue. But here is something that I DO know: The wig salon dot commers are willing to pay me–little old me–just to mention and link to their site! I am not saying it is a lot of money, but, hey, it is not a lot of work to write this. In fact, since I am writing about writing it, it is kind of writing itself! Am I a shill for wigs? I do not think so. I still have to write sixty-five more words about wigs. Wow. This is getting more challenging.
Wigsalon. http://www.wigsalon.com
I think I’ll close with a poem about wigs.
I think that I shall never see
A wig as lovely as a tree
Because although wigs are hairy
Not as lovely as a tree they be.
I know, it’s a reach. But I’m really running low on material now. Sheesh. This is hard. I need a drink.
Ah! I am done! Good bye!
This reminds me of that great Arlo Guthrie tune, “I don’t want a pickle, I just wanna ride on my motorcycle . . .” That’s why I posted it. What? Penis? Really? I don’t see it.
Tags: Penis, Picture of the day
Alice In Chains-”Dirty Rhythm,” a bootleg from Sweden, 2/7/93.
01: Dam That River 3:38
02: We Die Young 2:23
03: Them Bones 2:45
04: Would 3:42
05: Love Hate Love 6:42
06: Junkhead 5:23
07: Godsmack 4:11
08: Bleed The Freak 3:56
09: Put You Down 3:34
10: Sick Man 5:31
11: It Ain’t Like That 4:41
12: Rooster 6:16
13: Dirt 8:04
14: Hate To Feel 5:51
15: Angry Chair 4:14
16: Man In A Box 4:49
Tags: Bootleg
I do these shout-out posts periodically, but don’t get much reciprocation. Bloggers used to be much more community oriented. Kinda sad.
1. Danny! is a fresh voice in hip hop, and here’s his new mixtape.
2. Covered In Folk just featured a bunch of Cure covers. I’ve been thinking about doing that, too . . . I’ll probably get around to it soon.
3. And check this out . . . A buncha covers of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U.” Sinead’s best tune!
4. Rich Girl-Curtis Peoples (Hall & Oates cover). (Direct link)
5. Coverme is answering requests for Thanksgiving–and he offers a cover of Arlo’s Thanksgiving song.
6. Puritan Blister, always good for a laugh and a mashup, has a Thanksgiving post, too.
7. Turn On Your Lovelight-The Grateful Dead with David Crosby.
8. I already had most of the songs on Mystic Chords of Memory’s recent “20 on the 20th” mix, but you’ll find some very cool oddities there. Including duets between Eddie Vedder and Pete Townshend, and Will Ferrell and Dave Grohl doing Leather and Lace. Check it out, and tell him I sent you.
Do you miss the Bloc Party? And by Bloc Party, I mean the kind of exciting, unstable postpunk that made Silent Alarm the seventh best album of the last decade? Well, then, Kittens Ablaze might just be your thing. The band’s debut full-length is a collection of quirky, catchy tunes that mixes 2/3 postpunk with generous seasonings of Americana, dance-folk, and plain old indie rock and roll. Plus, they’re from Brooklyn.
The band is still raw–they haven’t been captured and homogenized yet, like what happened with so many great bands before them (see Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand, etc.), so now is the time to catch them. This is a truly fantastic record.
It Won’t Be long (The Beatles Cover)-Franz Ferdinand (ysi)
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