The album title and band name go together in a not-so-subtly seductive way, don’tcha think? This 4-person indie pop band from San Francisco (my adopted second home) don’t make anything too serious or heavy, think Blondie-meets-Metric, and they’re made up of a refugee from Google and a bunch of other tech-gadget nerds. Yeah, nerdy. White and nerdy. That’s what they’re like.
We (and everyone else) have been talking about it a lot, and now, at last, all 52 new #1 issues for the D.C. Comics reboot of its universe for 2011 (and probably about 7 years beyond) have been announced. With some of them (like Green Arrow’s new series) being origin books but others relying on there having been backstory, it seems like there will be books that take place at various different times—not all of these #1s will be in continuity.
Here’s what you should (and shouldn’t) care about, after the break.
These guys have the balls–the balls!–the cover Led Zeppelin. The Sonic Heavy are a San Jose band featuring heavy, thick drums, chainsaw guitars, and a lead singer who screams with urgency and power. It’s throwback bluesrock–the kind of heavy shit you heard in the late 1970s when Mountain and Bad Company were all over the place and metal hadn’t turned into Poison yet.
Plus, these guys have the balls to cover my third-favorite Led Zeppelin song.
Tangerine (Led Zep cover)
<a href=”http://soundowl.com/track/yl8/the-sonic-heavy-tangerine-led-zep-cover” _mce_href=”http://soundowl.com/track/yl8/the-sonic-heavy-tangerine-led-zep-cover”>Download The Sonic Heavy Tangerine (Led Zep cover)</a> The Sonic Heavy Tangerine (Led Zep cover)
Before I launch into the semi-regular comic book news items, I want to throw attention to Turbo Defiant Kimecan, an online graphic novel that’s been around since January 2010 and is poised to jump to print later this year. But it’s not the print work that’s catching my attention, it’s how they handled the online publication. The panels jump seamlessly, the art is beautifully reproduced…It’s actually fun to read it online, as each mouse click builds suspense. This is the future of comics. Why they’re going to print, I don’t know. Oh, wait. Yes I do. Because you can’t make money with online indie comic book.
This week: The new Daredevil! Joker versus Dick-Bat! More new DC books announced! The X-Men First Class sequel! And more! Hit the break!
I know, I know, yet another article about the “new DCU”? But it’s clearly important nerdnews, and it will be for at least the next 10 years when DC reboots again.
Lots of folks are griping about how this makes the DCU untrustworthy: Why should we care about their “major events” if they’re just going to erase them all on a regular basis via a Crisis or a Flashpoint or what-have-you. I imagine that these are the same folks who didn’t like Spider-Man: Brand New Day for the same reason. But I submit that this isn’t really a bad thing. The core information about the DC heroes will stay the same—the legends that we grew up with will essentially be updated or tweaked, leaving intact the Clark Kents and the Bruce Waynes, but reworking everything so that it is less ridiculous that Bruce Wayne has been fighting crime for over six decades but is still in his thirties.
What’s the alternative for a long-running publishing comic book company with beloved heroes? Marvel chooses to ignore “real time” and instead keeps its characters at the same age in perpetuity, relatively, but puts them through “cycles” either in their own books (Cap gets shot, Bucky becomes Cap, now exit Bucky and reenter Steve, e.g.) or on a “universe” level (House of M, Dark Reign, etc.). That’s why Brand New Day was necessary: Peter Parker was getting too old and needed to revert, because age and personal developments narrow possibilities for a storyline that is in essence timeless.
So accept that this is just DC’s way of cycling back for the next generation of readers and, knowing that, let’s look at the whole thing on its merits.
Lots and lots of changes are being proposed—nearly the entire publishing line is changing. Here’s a cheat sheet to help you reconstruct your entire monthly pull list….After the break.
The Von Ehrics are pumpin’ country rock/indie pop–by which I mean hooks with heft, pop with meat, filling indie pop. Music that could be part of a soundtrack or even on the charts, but at the same time isn’t stupid, dull, or simple. You won’t get shocked or (too) surprised by their latest album, Two Foot Stomp, but if you’re not careful, you’ll probably have a lot of fun. And there’s a lot to be said for that: Not all music has to be deep, not all of it has to explore–sometimes, you just want to kick back and listen to some guys who know how to play guitar and drums. Oh, and sing. Robert Jason Vanygriff’s vocals are terrific.
The words “punk” and “thrillbilly” are thrown around in discussions of The Von Ehrics, and I have to say: I see that a little, but not much. Their stuff is a little too accessible and traditional for those kinds of adjectives, but maybe that’s a move they’ve made on this, their latest album. If there’s any punkabilly here, it’s pretty cleaned up. The band is technically skilled, and unashamed of it–I don’t get any kind of sloppy, DIY feel from this album. It’s good, clean, well-written rock and roll.
These guys have been around for quite some time, and I’m surprised I haven’t heard from them before. We travel in the same musical spheres, and this is some damn good stuff.
For fans of: Steve Earle, the Vaughn Brothers,Texas rock, Old 97s . . .
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WHAT THE HELL IS BERKELEY PLACE?"Berkeley Place" has been a blog since 2000.
Berkeley Place is also 6 blocks of Brooklyn real estate, emerging from Sackett St. and ending at Banana Hill, a small park that grows a foot each year from dog shit and the corpses of dead rats. Though its residents have gotten wealthier over the decades, Berkeley Place still houses folks of all backgrounds with interests in, well, everything.
WHAT THE HELL GOES ON HERE?Ekko reviews independent music, comic books, and whatever else interests him.
WHAT THE HELL IS INDIE MUSIC?An independent record label (or indie record label) is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels.
- Wikipedia.org
That means they ain't in the RIAA, dude.
