There’s Waldo!
Tags: Picture of the day
Lotsa folks love the Drake. Me, not love. But he’s cool. Ludacris on the other hand is the real shit. Haven’t listened to this one yet, but it’s Luda. How bad can it be?
Leeched link, boyyyy!
Alien vs. Predator in the Shower
Tags: Sci Fi, Video of the day
I’ve often thought of doing a list of the most under-appreciated albums of the 2000-09 decade, and if I did, Obie Trice’s “Cheers” would be on it. Cheers was slaughtered because it came out at the same time as “Get Rich or Die Trying.”
Unlike D12, which are basically Eminem’s backup band, Obie Trice has leading-man charisma, the ability to speed and slow his flow to match mood and attititude, and an understanding of the mechanisms of grammar, cadence, and vocabulary. All the skills of a master. And like a rap master, he’s released a posthumous album of new material. He also knew enough to break away from his master when Em’s skills began to fade, and dude became a paranoid recluse–rap’s JD Salinger. I don’t care what MTV says, Eminem’s 2009 releases sucked. There was nothing worth hearing on them. Nothing. Even Dre’s beats were faded and drab.
“Special Reserve” is a collection of Obie material that he recorded pre-2000 with Canada’s DJ Moss, who learned at the knee of DJ Premier, and is distributed on iTunes by Moss’s own vanity label. Yet it doesn’t sound like old demos. It’s cutting edge, lyrically and musically, and shows why this MC, and not 50 Cent, should have been the man to notice in 2003. Even before Obie got a shot to the dome, he was hardcore, underground and muscular. The albums shows remarkable versatility from such a young novice. Cuts worth special mention include “Got Hungry,” an autobio track, “On and On,” a club banger with tremendous beats, and the gangsta old-school track, “4 Stories.” But overall there are only a few tracks I felt like skipping. This is a terrific collection of songs from one of Detroit’s best.
Special Reserve is on 139th and Broadway, so it is independent, even if Trice’s upcoming 2010 release won’t be.
Tags: 50 Cent is Whack, Hip Hop
This is a post many months in the making. Mostly because I haven’t had time to write it up. Blondie was hugely important for me as a youngster, before the days of internet porn and copious, readily available nudity, because Debbie Harry was a hottie who wore a white see-through dress on the cover of Parallel Lines. I started at that cover for days. Or, I stared at two things on that cover for days.
But it wasn’t just Debbie’s boobs that grabbed me. The music was a fantastic blend of new wave and pop–it made top 40 cool to listen to–and their rawer material, like “Rip Her To Shreds” and the entire “Eat to the Beat” album rarely left my turntable.
They’re due a tribute. Here goes. A few tastes, and a zip included below, as usual.
A is for The Associates-Heart of Glass. This one is odd because musically it starts off doing Blondie’s “In the Flesh,” a great, underrated gem.
B is for The Bad Plus-Heart of Glass. By far the most covered Blondie tune in history.
C is for Captain Polaroid-Union City Blue. Love this song.
D is for Dungeon’s heavy metal take on Call Me.
E is for 11:59-The Postmarks. Solid cover.
F is for Franz Ferdinand-Call Me.
G is for even more glass! And more to come! Heart of Glass-Annie Bethancourt. A sad, acoustic, longing song that I wish was recorded a little louder. Still powerful, though.
H is for Heart of Glass-The Brew. I like this one. It’s kind of a cross between The Darkness and Death Cab for Cutie. If you can imagine that.
I is for impolite! Me First and the Gimme Gimmes-Heart of Glass.
J is for Bill Janovitz’s medley cover, one of the best songs on this post, of Blondie’s Dreaming and The Rolling Stones’ Til The Next Goodbye.
K is for KEEP THIS ZIPFILE! It’s good stuff!
L is for Lily Allen’s Heart of Glass.
L is also for look closely at this photo . . . 
M is for Mash Up!
N is for The Nerves, who actually did this song before Blondie. L7-Hanging on the Telephone. What a great band these chicks were. Wonder what happened to them?
O is for Of Montreal-One Way or Another. This is a bopping rock take on this song, one of Blondie’s most cynical stalker tunes.
P is for the Puppini Sisters-Heart of Glass.
R is for One Way Or Another-Lee Rocker. And since there was no Q, here’s another R: Lynch-Rapture. Okay, this one is kinda filler. It’s worth one listen, though.
S is for Dreaming-Amy Speace. A Johnny Cash-like take on my favorite Blondie song.
T is for Ted Leo-Union City Blue.
U is for Unidenified Jam-Charlie Hunter. A very neat blues/jazz jam in which, at about minute nine, he incorporates “Heart of Glass.”
V is for Shayla by Ramesh Srivastava (Voxtrot).
V is also for video! Rapture Riders video (Blondie vs. Doors)
W is for Wilco-Dreaming.
X is for X-Over. Union City Noise (Public Enemy vs. Blondie) is one of my favorite rap/pop mash ups of all time.
Y is for I Am Always Touched By Your Presence Dear-My Luminaries. Alright, it doesn’t begin with “Y”, but at least there’s a couple Ys in there. If you decide you don’t want this song because of that, I understand. Your loss.
Z is for the Zipfile hidden above. Go find it!
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I’m enjoying the self-titled debut of Amber Farris’ band, “Somebody’s Darling.” It’s kind of like Lucero or Old ’97s fronted by a woman with a powerful set of lungs. Rock and roll/country, straight-ahead four-person rock and roll on Shiner Records/PaloDuro Records.
In fact, it’s hard to write much about them, because the music is so up front and pure. It makes you want to grab a brew, sit at a bar, and stare at the chicks who will definitely dig the band. That’s the best thing about alt-country sung by a female: It’s rough enough for guys not to get bored, but not dirty and unshaven . . . So after the night is over, you’ll probably get laid.
Good stuff.
A FEW OTHER CHICKS SINGING ALT-COUNTRY
Heavy Load-Deadstring Brothers
Borderline (madonna cover)-The Chapin Sisters
Handle Me With Care (Travelling Wilburys)-Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins
ZIP FILE OF ALL 5 ROCKIN’ TUNES: Here!
Tags: Americana
Wish I’d found this for a December post, but oh well. It’s just as good for MLK Day, innit?
Tags: Picture of the day, X-Mas
1. SPIDER-MAN 4. Seems like there’s a new rumor every week. Or, in this case, several. First, John Malkovich said he’d been been cast as The Vulture for Spider-Man 4. But at the same time, Sony was putting its foot down and saying it wouldn’t pay for a movie with a lead villain who was . . . Old and in green tights. And now, in an incredible turn of events, Sony is saying the entire project is scrapped. That’s right. They’d rather leave Raimi, Maguire and Dunst behind than make a movie with Oscar-winner Malkovich. Great thinking, Sony! Way to kill a billion-dollar baby! Now, they’re going to revive the franchise as Ultimate Spider-Man. Great. So now we have to sit through ANOTHER origin movie? Sam Raimi said it best: The origin story is the one everyone has to sit through before they get to the story they really want to see. Even if the reboot is great, there’s no way anyone can re-tell Amazing Fantasy #15 better than Raimi did in SM1. There’s no way to make an origin fresh and exciting after what Sam and Tobey did—that was pure genius. Top that off: Sony’s top choice for director is Marc “(500) Days of Summer” Webb. A music video director who made a brilliant but cute-as-hell love story? The whole reason SM1 and 2 worked was Raimi’s eclectic horror/action perspective—his ability to find humor in the darkness is exactly what makes for a good Spidey comic. David Fincher’s name is also being kicked around, which isn’t bad, but I can’t think of anyone who would do better than Raimi. Except maybe Joss Whedon. And they want to shoot it in 3D, with those godawful glasses. What a lousy way to lead this week’s news roundup post.
2. In better news: No date is announced yet, but AMC—home of one of my favorite shows (no, not Mad Men—Breaking Bad!)—will be serializing Robert Kirkman’s “Walking Dead” comic book. Comic is a ton of fun . . .
3. I saw my first movie of 2010—Daybreaker. Was it great? No. But it was amusing, and definitely had its moments. My main problem with it was that it was too well produced. Stylized monster movies just don’t tend to be scary to me. I prefer the grit of Romero and Carpenter. Did see a preview for The Crazies, though, and it looks vile. Can’t wait to see it.
4. Did you hear that David Finch, the genius artist of Millar’s Ultimates run, recently signed exclusively to DC? How did that happen? I can’t believe Marvel would let him go like that. Anyway, he’ll be the cover artist for the post-Blackest Night event, titled “Brightest Day.” It’s not entirely clear what the even will mean, but it will have lots of cross-overs so that you can spend your money on titles you wouldn’t normally buy just to get a page or two of necessary continuity. The series will start in April, will last a year and be published biweekly. Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi are the writing staff. I know lots of folks praised 52, but I guess I’m just not enough of a DC guy to get all wet about this. I do dig BN, though. In fact, Newsrama ran a great interview with Geoff Johns, where he explained about Blackest Night and the fight between mortals and Nekron: “We [mortals] age because we’re not supposed to be here. So we grow old. It’s the universe fighting against us. We age and die because we aren’t wanted here. Space was here then life came and messed up everything. In truth, life is chaos and death is order.” I never read the series that way before. It’s kinda deep.
5. Why aren’t you all reading the hilarious, ultraviolent, carefree and insane Punisher comic book yet? It’s like Deadpool, only way more wild. Seriously. Punisher isn’t a stupid idea anymore, not since Warren Ellis did the “serious” PunisherMax series.
6. There’s an A-Team trailer out, with Liam Neeson as Hannibal! The real key to this film will be whether Quinton “Rampage” Jackson can fill Mr. T’s bejeweled shoes . . . And believe me, I have doubts.
7. Joe Johnston, director of The Wolfman, discussed the Captain America movie with BOXOFFICE.com recently, and showed that he doesn’t know much about Cap. First, he says, “The great thing about Captain America is he’s a super hero without any super powers.” Really? So that super soldier serum was a placebo? Then, Johnston says that after Steve Rogers was turned into Cap, “You’d think he got everything he wanted. Well, he didn’t get everything he wanted.” Yes, he did! He wanted to be a hero! One of the best things about Captain America is that he never, ever doubts being a hero. He doesn’t let a burglar run by him and kill his uncle; he doesn’t miss his mommy and daddy as a drive for vengeance; and for a long time, he hasn’t even had a secret identity! The movie will be an origin story, and I’m not real psyched about that. I’d much rather see him and Bucky tearing ass through the Nazis than skinny-boy-gets-big. Cap is probably my second favorite superhero, so I hope to God they do right by him. Or at least pattern him after Brubaker’s Cap, not Bendis’ or Millar’s.
8. And finally, in the advance hype section, I don’t know if I’ve told y’all that Animalogic Studios (Happy Feet) is working on a movie of Jeff Smith’s wonderful, all ages appropriate “Bone” comic. Hope it’s good!
Tags: Blackest Night, Monsters, Movies, Spider-Man, Superheroes, Zombies
