Baron Dave Romm
Marscon CDs 2
By Baron Dave Romm
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Nuclear Bubble Wrap
Nuclear Bubble Wrap gave a concert at Marscon, but I missed it. So I only have a picture of Jace McClain, "the leading leader" of the group, at Sunday's Smackdown.
Jace McClain of Nuclear Bubble
Wrap
Marscon, March 7, 2010CE
I did manage to pick up all three CDs they had at the Merch Table. These are their stories.
Advanced At Nothing
They sing, "Musical complexity does not belong in comedy" but turn out some pretty good music. Frank Zappa and Weird Al Yankovic are major influences, which was apparent long before from the in-joke filled bonus track, "The Ultimate Showdown of Musical Comedy". It's a snappy, tuneful, driving dance number that slips in the names of many of their musical friends (and many that I've talked about here). They have one foot in deep musical roots -- the CDs contain parodies of two Beatles songs -- while the other is planted firmly in the mire of 21st century Dementia Music. I might describe them as Syd Barrett on laughing gas, but that would be going a bit far.
Lots of people make fun of conventions, or use them as personal fodder, from Galaxy Quest to Mpls musician Nate Bucklin's powerfully depressing Convention Report. To my knowledge, NBW is the only group to take on a Teletubby Convention. Indeed, if you Google "Teletubby Convention", their song "Convention" is the second and third listing. Sad, really. But they drive on, fearlessly:
I just got a bootleg of the Japanese dub
And I am now a member of the Teletubbies Fan Club
Some people may laugh at me and say I'm immature
But I don't care what people say my fandom is secure
It's such a joy to buy a toy
And keep it in the box
Now I don't know about you, but Teletubbies rocks my socks!
Bad Spell is a rare foray into hip hop, a parody of "The Bad Touch" by The Bloodhound Gang. They deftly tap into the large demand for Wizard Rock, in a series of not-so-subtle double entendres. "You and me baby ain't nothing but magic so let's go into the dorm and I will show you some tricks."
"Final Destination" is a parody of the Beatles "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" riffing off the wordplay of the chorus:
Holy GeezeYessirree, a bouncy upbeat song about dying gruesomely. Reminded me of The Foremen's Song of Many Deaths
Oh my god
Life is gone, yeah
La la la the life is gone
Advanced At Nothing is a strong album, taking on old people, Scientology, the environment and more. The song titles don't always map to the song, but they're probably in-jokes I'm not in on. I've mentioned my favorite tracks, but all were at least good, from the a cappella THX intro to the self-referential Bonus Track.
Kudos to Tom Rockwell, who mastered Advanced At Nothing. The finished tracks involve lots of overdubbing and getting the levels right must be really tricky. The two songs done on later albums sound better on this one. Parody music has to be technically better than the original, and Tom does well taking on the likes of George Martin.
You Are What You Eat
You Are What You East is an EP with 21 minutes of material comprising seven songs, two of which are also on Advanced At Nothing. Presumably, this is the title track. They continue their slightly macabre theme with "Looks Delicious" about eating pets and other found animals. That's followed by a continuation of their fanboy theme with "Miyazaki Pig" with lot of references to the animated films of Hayao Miyazaki
You Are What You Eat has a wide range of subject matter and good comedy music, but seems to be filler until their next major CD release.
Draining The Lizard On A Dead Gay Wizard
Draining The Lizard On A Dead Gay Wizard is even shorter then You Are What You Eat. Three songs, one an instrumental of another, for ten minutes of material. They're only charging $2, which is roughly what you'd pay for a download, with the instrumental as a bonus.
Unfortunately, the title track is one of their few songs I didn't like all that much. Another Wizard Rock entry, slightly groty, as they urinate on Dumbledore's grave. It almost works. The music is bouncy and fun and I actually prefer the instrumental version of Draining The Lizard On A Dead Gay Wizard.
The middle song, "Creepy Internet Guy" is a parody of the Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Sleeps", with lyrics like "Must kill them all while they sleep.". A creepy song (though I don't know why they picked that title) that is certainly in the tradition of the Beatle's "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" or The Smothers Brothers "Mediocre Fred".
As I talked about last week, marketing in the digital era means a constant flow of new material for hungry fans. I suspect that's the reason for the two EPs. And in that vein, I'll mention Know Your Power Chords, their Green Day parody, up on The FuMP
Nuclear Bubble Wrap's store sells these three CDs plus two earlier ones. Clearly, Advanced At Nothing is the one to get; unless you see them in concert it's not worth paying $2 for shipping a $2 disk. Still, it might be worth getting all of them at once. Or, you can buy individual tracks from iTunes. In any event, Nuclear Bubble Wrap is recommended, and definitely iPod Worthy.
Still, I'm sorry I missed their concert.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia who produces Shockwave Radio Theater, writes in a Live Journal demi-blog maintains a Facebook Page, plays with a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E. Podcasts of Shockwave Radio Theater. Permanent archive. A nascent collection of videos are on Baron Dave's YouTube channel. More radio programs, interviews and science fiction humor plays can be accessed on the Shockwave Radio audio page.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Richard Roeper: Tragedy worse when it was preventable (suntimes.com)
You read about the promising life and the many accomplishments of 26-year-old Katie Lunn, how beloved she was by so many, and your heart breaks.
Susan Estrich: The First Amendment and Animals (creators.com)
Let me be clear at the outset: I love dogs. Not like them, love them. Of course, I love mine the best: Judy J. Estrich, Molly Emily Estrich and Irving A. Estrich. Judy is named after one of my dearest friends, Judy Jarvis, who died of cancer 10 years ago. Molly is named after her dog, who took care of her when she was sick and taught me not to be afraid of big dogs. Irving is named for my father. I would kill anybody who laid a hand on them.
John Connolly: "Online dating: Cyber Cyrano for hire" (guardian.co.uk)
Too busy to chat up the suitors in your online dating account? No problem. Matt Prager will simply assume your identity and do it for you.
Marion Maneker: The Great Chain of Publishing Is Broken (thebigmoney.com)
The "literary" world of publishing has always operated as an informal network in which writing teachers identified promising students and passed them off to agents or editors who, in turn, excited the publishing house and sales force to get the independent booksellers talking about the next Great American Novel.
"Another Way the River Has: Taut True Tales from the Northwest (Northwest Readers)" by Robin Cody: A review by Peter Sleeth
The thing about regional writing that makes it so hard to create is it must evoke a place readers familiar with the area believe they know intimately, even exclusively, while simultaneously drawing something new and remarkable out of it.
David Martindale: Author Stuart Woods gives series' character the good life (McClatchy Newspapers)
Sometimes, when readers meet Stuart Woods, they make the mistake of addressing him as Stone. As in Stone Barrington, a New York City cop-turned-lawyer who solves crimes while living large. Woods, author of 26 consecutive New York Times bestsellers, has written 18 glib crime novels featuring Stone.
Hadley Freeman: "Shameless or Brilliant? We really can't tell" (guardian.co.uk)
Nothing touches LiS's heartstrings more than a grieving person spotting a PR opportunity for themselves .
Evan Sawdey: "Heart & Soul & a Whole Lot More: An Interview with Shelby Lynne" (popmatters.com)
With a new label (her own), a new album (self-produced), and a new lease on life, Grammy winner Shelby Lynne talks about the lack of autobiography in her songs, how she doesn't really want to learn how to make an MP3, and why she'll never record another cover song again.
John Dickerson: Getting Naked Every Night (slate.com)
Girlyman and the pursuit of creative risk.
Rebecca McKinsey: OU alum spends lifetime photographing legends (thepost.ohiou.edu)
He photographed Albert Einstein, Harry Truman and Marilyn Monroe, but some of his most famous work comes from within smoky jazz clubs.
Patrick Barkham: "YouTube: five years on" (guardian.co.uk)
In just five years, YouTube has changed the world. It has also brought us breakdancing babies and a host of back-bedroom celebrities. So what's next for the world's third-biggest website?
Jacqui Goddard: Leonard Nimoy's career reaches the final frontier (timesonline.co.uk)
Spock's retirement set to stun Star Trek fans as Nimoy announces he 'wants to get off the stage.'
David Bruce, editor: Me, Myself, and My Family and Friends (lulu.com)
Download: FREE. This book is a collection of mainly humorous stories by talented writers in Athens, Ohio, about life, growing up, family, and friends.
The Weekly Poll
New Question Tomorrow
wrote:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Michael Dare
10 Questions
Reader Comment
Michelle in AZ
Primal Scream in Arizona on Immigration: Will Dems Deliver in Washington?
I would add that this was a tragic and ultimately self-defeating decision for Arizonans; already $3 billion in the hole deficit, calling for a special election to add a 1-cent sales tax for 3 yrs. to fund education/health-care because of foreclosure mess and ensuing recession woes.
Now that court challenges to this legislation are assured; I wonder where the voices are re the equally assured costs the rest of our residents will accrue; there is NO way the rest of us will escape the extra financial burden to enforce this inhumane law w/o further taxes to hire more police/prosecuters/lawyers/build jails: like the money flows from a river in the desert.
We have a multi-racial family; some of whom have already been pulled over for DWB, (driving while brown). My grand-daughter's prom date has been stopped 3 times due to skin color in the last few months, even tho' he is 1/2 Puerto Rican/ Jewish. Of my Four granddaughters, two are slightly tinted and the other two are as blue-eyed and blond as Scandinavians; all from the same father/mother. All four are 3/4 Mexican descent, yet who wants to bet me odds which two might be stopped/intimidated?
If I weren't so tired, I could go on and rant about several other ramifications re this hateful and unconstitutional law. Shit; I ain't that tired!
The High School kids seen demonstrating in tears at the AZ Capitol were among the several thousands of US citizens of Hispanic descent who've lived in America for decades; contributing cheap labor during flush times, paying taxes, now flushed when recession hits.
Dontcha just LOVE those housing developers who took advantage of the cheap "coolies" and then demand that they leave when the market turns South? This is such a smart decision given that new housing will cost the average buyer 30-40 THOUSAND dollars more w/o immigrant labor.
Then there is the saddest part: children left behind to be cared for by the State when their 'rents are deported. Taxes must be raised to care for them when the 'rents aren't around to pay taxes into the system.
For the hard-core law 'n order tax-hating righties: picture this: no dough to pay for all the hard-on cops to rid the planet of brown/black-skinned folks, because you've just killed 1/3 of the economic engine that kept the money flowing. You are too stupid to understand how human capital/ economic dynamics work.
This law does nothing to alleviate the influence of the drug cartels, mitigate crime; --drug/human trafficking will continue unabated. Chasing down brown waiters/cleaning ladies is a complete waste of crime-fighting resources.
Decriminalize and regulate/tax drugs and the cartels lose the profit motive.
NOW I'm tired...
~Michelle
Thanks, Michelle!
Link from RJ
The Madness of Messerschmidt
A quick possible link for you.... a strange and sad tale but one that
left us with some quite remarkable art
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and warm.
Bringing Back 'Monsters' & Muppets
Disney
Monsters and Muppets are coming back to a theater near you.
At a press briefing at The Walt Disney Co. headquarters in Burbank on Thursday, studios chairman Rich Ross said Disney's Pixar division is creating a sequel to "Monsters Inc." that will hit theaters in November 2012.
Ross also said the studio was about to give the go-ahead to a new movie featuring the Muppets which will introduce a new character named Walter.
The announcements were among several made during a presentation of the studio's upcoming slate of films. Disney is in the midst of selling off its Miramax Films division as it focuses on family-oriented fare from Marvel, Pixar, its own studio and Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks unit.
Disney
Benny The Rat Requests
Susan Boyle
The Roman Catholic Church in Scotland wants Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle to perform for Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to Britain later this year, a spokesman said Sunday.
Boyle, who was catapulted to global stardom after appearing on a British TV talent show, would be a "great asset" to events planned for Benedict's trip in September, said a spokesman for the Church in Scotland.
He said there were hopes a meeting could be held to discuss the involvement of the Scottish singer at a public mass in Glasgow during the papal visit.
Her first album, "I Dreamed a Dream," was the best-selling debut in British chart history and also topped the US charts.
Susan Boyle
Documents Hip-Hop's Ties To Raiders
Ice Cube
When the groundbreaking hip-hop group N.W.A. was forming in the mid-1980s, they didn't care much for the colorful Troop suits then being worn by rappers such as LL Cool J.
Instead, the group - which included Dr. Dre, Eazy-E and Ice Cube - decided to wear black. Since many of the Compton, Calif., crew were fans of the Los Angeles Raiders, that meant wearing a lot of Raiders gear.
For years, Raiders apparel would be synonymous with N.W.A. and gangsta rap.
Cube, whose real name is O'Shea Jackson, has made a documentary about his old group's connection to the Raiders: "Straight Outta L.A.," a pun on N.W.A.'s 1988 debut album, "Straight Outta Compton." The film was to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on Friday and will air on ESPN in May as part of the network's "30-for-30" series.
Ice Cube
Hospital News
Bret Michaels
Rock singer and TV reality star Bret Michaels remained in critical condition, but was conscious and talking with slurred speech after suffering a brain hemorrhage, his publicist said on Sunday.
The front man of glam rock band Poison was rushed to an undisclosed hospital on Friday with a severe headache. Doctors diagnosed a massive subarachnoid hemorrhage, or bleeding at the base of his brain stem.
In recent years, Michaels found fame as a reality TV star in such shows as VH1's dating contest "Rock of Love" and on the current season of "The Celebrity Apprentice."
On "The Celebrity Apprentice," which was filmed several months ago but is about halfway through its broadcast run on NBC, Michaels has raised $100,000 for his charity, the American Diabetes Association, and is a strong contender to win.
Bret Michaels
Limited Commercial Hunts Proposed
Whales
Japan cautiously welcomed an International Whaling Commission proposal that would effectively allow commercial whaling for the first time in 25 years - though under strict quotas that the commission argues will reduce the global catch.
Despite a 1986 moratorium on whaling, Japan, Norway and Iceland catch whales for various IWC-sanctioned purposes, including scientific research - which opponents such as Australia and conservation activists say are a cover for commercial whaling.
The proposal, to be debated at the IWC's meeting in June in Morocco, seeks a compromise by allowing whaling nations to hunt without specifying commercial or otherwise - but in lower numbers than they are now. Small indigenous groups could continue to hunt in limited numbers.
The commission argues that allowing whaling under strict quotas would be an improvement to the current hunts, over which it has no control.
Whales
Colonial Map Boundaries Settled
Vermont
A Colonial-era boundary dispute between two Vermont towns that were never exactly sure where one ended and the other began is finally going to be settled.
But it was old maps, not GPS or Google Earth, that ultimately found the common ground for the towns of St. George and neighboring Shelburne. The process has pointed up the art of trying to read the minds of the original surveyors and land granters to establish where the lines were drawn.
Vermont itself was a byproduct of a land dispute between the colonies of New Hampshire and New York.
Both issued land charters for the area between the Connecticut River and Lake Champlain. Much of what became Vermont was first surveyed in the 1760s using primitive equipment in near-trackless wilderness.
Vermont
Circus Reopens After Decade-Long Ban
Turkmenistan
Almost a decade after Turkmenistan's leader banned circuses as "alien" culture, the circus reopened in Ashgabat on Friday with a show of clowns and elephants watched by the current president.
The Central Asian country's authoritarian and eccentric leader Saparmurat Niyazov, known as Turkmenbashi, closed the circus in 2001 after declaring it "alien culture" and "contrary to the Turkmen mentality."
Niyazov, who died in 2006, also closed cinemas, village libraries and the country's opera and ballet theatre in a bid to erase outside influences from the national culture.
Friday's show, attended by Niyazov's successor, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, featured Turkmen "Dzhigit" riders, who perform daring stunts, as well as clowns from Iran, Russia, China and Austria.
Turkmenistan
The Hills Are Alive
Haggis
One in five people in Britain thinks that haggis, the traditional Scottish dish made from the lung, liver and heart of a sheep, is an animal that roams the Highlands, according to a survey on Friday.
Commissioned by the online takeaway food service Just-Eat.co.uk, the survey found that 18 percent of Britons believe that haggis is a hilltop-dwelling animal.
Another 15 percent said it is a Scottish musical instrument while 4 percent admitted to thinking it was a character from Harry Potter.
The survey questioned 1,623 people across Britain to see how well they were acquainted with traditional Scottish food.
Haggis
Weekend Box Office
"How to Train Your Dragon"
"How to Train Your Dragon" continues to breathe fire at the box office, while newer releases are mostly blowing smoke.
The DreamWorks Animation adventure took in $15 million to reclaim the No. 1 spot in its fifth weekend of release. "How to Train Your Dragon" opened in first place in late March, then dropped back into the pack. But it has held up strongly and climbed to the top again amid a flurry of so-so new releases.
Premiering weakly at No. 2 with $12.3 million was Jennifer Lopez's romantic comedy "The Back-up Plan," released by CBS Films. Another comedy, Steve Carell and Tina Fey's "Date Night" from 20th Century Fox, held up well to finish at No. 3 with $10.6 million, raising its total to $63.5 million.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "How to Train Your Dragon," $15 million.
2. "The Back-up Plan," $12.3 million.
3. "Date Night," $10.6 million.
4. "The Losers," $9.6 million.
5. "Kick-Ass," $9.5 million.
6. "Clash of the Titans," $9 million.
7. "Death at a Funeral," $8 million.
8. "Oceans," $6 million.
9. "The Last Song," $3.7 million.
10. "Alice in Wonderland," $2.2 million.
"How to Train Your Dragon"
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