Shoegazer Sunday: Civic’s “Innocent”

May 25th, 2014

Here’s “Innocent,” another track of Japanese band Civic‘s debut album Toilet Monster.

Civic gets compared to Supercar, and while I can hear the resemblance, Civic has a rawer sound, like a garage band who just started meshing a few weeks ago. I like that high energy rawness, and some have labeled Civic “Noise Pop,” if that’s a real thing.

I’ve found and ordered Toilet Monster from a domestic source, and I hope to have a more detailed report if/when it comes in.

Library Addition: Signed/Limited Edition of Jack Vance’s Son of the Tree

May 19th, 2014

Slowly but surely I’m closing in on my complete Jack Vance hardback collection:

Vance, Jack. Son of the Tree. Underwood/Miller, 1983. First hardback edition, #183 of 200 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with just a tiny bit of wrinkling at head and heel. Hewett, A13g.

Son of the Tree

Shoegazer Sunday: Dead Mellotron’s “Weird Dreams”

May 18th, 2014

Since I have a lot of weird dreams, and remember the Mellotron from Genesis, I was already inclined to like Dead Mellotron‘s “Weird Dreams.”

How To Kill Godzilla

May 16th, 2014

Via Ace of Spades, comes War is Boring’s primer on how to kill Godzilla.

The basic plan is:

  • Blind it with multiple gunships unloading white phosphorous into its eyes.
  • Hit it with a Massive Ordnance Penetrator, a “30,000-pound, precision-guided bunker-buster…filled with a deadly RDX explosive mix and designed to slice through solid rock.”
  • That would probably work in real life (where the square/cube law pretty much precludes 10-story monsters, much less ones breathing atomic fire). But in the world of the just released Godzilla movie (which, alas, I have not seen yet), given that our fire-breathing friend is reported to have survived Castle Bravo, America’s first dry-fuel thermonuclear bomb test on Bikini Atoll, well, color me skeptical that 30,000 pound JDAMs would do the trick…

    Reality TV Show Ideas: Daddy Was A Serial Killer Division

    May 15th, 2014

    Someone needs to do a reality TV show featuring all the people claiming their father was the Zodiac killer living together in the same house. It would be like The Three Christs of Ypsilanti, except, you know, sleazy.

    For the season finale they could battle the people who claim their fathers were the Black Dahlia killer in some sort of trash sports obstacle course…

    H. R. Giger, RIP

    May 13th, 2014

    Pioneering artist H. R, Giger has died at age 74. Few other 20th century artists produced work so technically accomplished, pioneering, and disturbing (all at the same time) as his biomechanical paintings, which were mostly produced by airbrush. Even if Giger had never done the design for Alien, his work would still have been hugely influential. And few artists are able to open successful museums of their own work in their own lifetimes.

    Shoegazer Sunday: Jesus on Heroine’s “Jesus on Heroin”

    May 11th, 2014

    Honestly, the only thing I know about Jesus on Heroine is that they have a Facebook page. Here’s the slightly differently spelled “Jesus on Heroin.” It’s probably best I didn’t play this on easter Sunday…

    2015 To Be Filled With Blockbuster Franchise Sequels

    May 5th, 2014

    There’s lots of news about staggeringly successful, critically acclaimed movie franchise having new installments out in 2015.

  • Star Wars Episode VII will come out December 18, 2015.
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron comes out May 1, 2015.
  • Sharknado 3
  • What, you’re saying the words “staggeringly successful,” “critically acclaimed” and “franchise” don’t apply to Sharknado?

    All I have to say about that is: I had a great deal more fun watching Sharknado than I did Attack of the Clones.

    In other Sharknado-related news, The Asylum is crowd-funding a scene in Sharknado 2: The Second One. Personally, I think $50,000 for a single scene is more than a bit high. Give The Asylum’s previous track record, with that much money I would expect them to make an entire film…

    Shoegazer Sunday: The Cherry Wave’s “Blush”

    May 4th, 2014

    The Cherry Wave is a shoegaze band out of Glasgow that specializes in fuzzy walls of reverb. Here’s “Blush” off the EP of the same name.

    You can buy the EP for whatever you think fair off BandCamp.

    The Worst Song In History

    May 2nd, 2014

    If you’ve ever wondered what the worst professionally recorded and released song in history is, wonder no more!

    It’s “John John Let’s Hope for Peace” by Yoko Ono, John Lennon and The Plastic Ono Band off Live Peace in Toronto 1969:

    Think of it less as a piece of music than as a way to clear the room at the end of a party…