The Whigs

I went to Asheville to see the Drive-by Truckers. They rawked like fook (as usual). The Whigs opened. They're my new favorite band. Free The Party!

A Good Quote From A Book I'm Reading

She dismounted wearing scuffed boots and dirty jeans and a T-shirt that was overwashed and faded, and at the very sight of her I made an involuntary noise that went, approximately, ohf ... ! I suppose ohf ... ! reflects as poorly on my character as a wolf whistle, but I swear it escaped without premeditation. Strictly a spinal reflex. (My friend Frank once walked around a street corner and came face-to-face with a woman so stunning he yelped "Jesus Christ!" This from a poet and charter member of the local Student Feminist Alliance.)

Like the Police have anything better to do in New Zealand

From the Telegraph:

A New Zealand man who claimed he was raped by a wombat and that the experience left him speaking with an Australian accent has been found guilty of wasting police time.

Arthur Cradock, 48, from the South Island town of Motueka, called police last month to tell them he was being raped by the marsupial at his home and needed urgent assistance.

Cradock, an orchard worker, later called back to reassure the police operator that he was all right.

"I’ll retract the rape complaint from the wombat, because he’s pulled out. Apart from speaking Australian now, I’m pretty all right you know. I didn’t hurt my bum at all."

Catchy Thursday

Now, here's a lady who knows what she wants. NSFW, NSFH, NSFA.

The story takes a sad turn here bastards, as I've just been informed that Khia is afflicted with pancake nipples. (Scroll to the bottom of the following page after you click the link.)

Replacements Boots

Two 'Mats bootlegs are Fun To Play. The first is 'Shit Hits the Fans,' which can only be described as shambolic. The second, "Shit, Shower & Shave" can only be described as slightly less shambolic. Both are funny as hell.

More BigDog Footage Found!

Truly amazing.

Plagiarism or Tribute Band?

After a long, self-imposed, and universally welcomed hiatus, I am back in the songwriting saddle again. Dave will remember fondly my last effort back in the heady days of the mid-90’s (“I just got bored while she had ennui; I liked American but she loved Brie . . .”). My latest effort is somewhat unusual in that it consists entirely of misremembered lyrics to another song (“Two Black Suits” by the Happy Talk Band), that I gargled out this morning to my wife’s deep annoyance. And since I cannot carry a tune, I will have to set these lyrics (some of which may inadvertently overlap with the actual ones) to the original music.

It occurs to me this can’t be the first time this has happened – does anyone recall other songs (besides parodies and Ibiza-eurotrash dance hits) that simply insert entirely or partially new lyrics over an original tune?

Hulu? I Do

Holy shit! Have you guys checked out Hulu?

Hulu's ambitious and never-ending mission is to help you find and enjoy the world's premium content when, where and how you want it. We hope to provide you with the web's most comprehensive selection of premium programming across all genres and formats – television shows, feature films, clips, and more. Additionally, we want to give you more choices of when and where you can enjoy your favorite programming, while creating innovative experiences that let you watch and participate in online video in new and exciting ways.

Some of the TV shows I'll be watching include The Bob Newhart Show, The Incredible Hulk, WKRP in Cincinnati, and Arrested Development. One of the cool features of Hulu is embeddable episodes, like this one, another distant memory from my childhood.

LBU Is Two Today

Well, another one's gotten by us. Congrats, bastards.

Monday morning frivolity

God Bless Amazon.com. I guess they'll sell just about anything. Check out this product and be sure to read the absolutely hilarious customer reviews at the bottom.

In honor of Easter, I present......Jesus of Cool

In honor of Easter, here's Nick Lowe's long out of print and recently re-issued (or, shall I say, resurrected) 'Jesus of Cool'. When it was originally released in the late seventies, the label called it 'Pure Pop for Now People' in the U.S. Nick wrote the song 'American Squirm' in honor of the situation ("I love to make an American Squirm....."). There are several bonus tracks, of which I included three choice singles. If you're interested, just Follow the Preacher.....

Number One's Not Telling Us Anything We Didn't Already Know

No. 4: You Can Break Your ...

I Can Feel Myself Rot

The Return of the Living Dead Soundtrack (original) is great! Not only does it have one of (if not the) best Cramps songs ever, it also features the Damned, 45 Grave, TSOL and Roky. Face The Pallor.

Boston Dynamics BigDog Robot Is Creepy

Carries a payload of 340 pounds and can right itself when it slips on ice ... or is kicked ...

Charlie Bit Me

Best Beer Web Site In The World? Yes.

Stumbled onto this site last night and thought you bastards might be interested. Everything - and I do mean EVERYTHING - you might want to know about beer is here. Consult Beer 101 for The Basics, Beer Advocacy or Beer History; check out the most recent tastings & reviews; or consult a schedule of BeerAdvocate Fests, Events & Gatherings in your area. You can also subscribe to the BeerAdvocate magazine, buy a (very affordable) t-shirt or discuss your favorite beverage on the forum. The site makes a point of distinguishing beer snobs from beer geeks, aligning itself with the latter.

You'll be required to create a free account, but with 39,500 beers in the database, it's fun to see how your own favorites stack up or look for something new to try.

Enjoy, you functional alcoholics.

Seriously, Shit

Not to make LBU into a celebrity obituary blargh ...

From CNN.com:

Author Arthur C. Clarke, whose science fiction and non-fiction works ranged from the script for "2001: A Space Odyssey" to an early proposal for communications satellites, has died at age 90, associates have said.

Clarke had been wheelchair-bound for several years with complications stemming from a youthful bout with polio and had suffered from back trouble recently, said Scott Chase, the secretary of the nonprofit Arthur C. Clarke Foundation.

He died early Wednesday -- Tuesday afternoon ET -- at a hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he had lived since the 1950s, Chase said.

More over here.

Shit

We lost another one, guys.

Read more here, after your tears have dried.

Can anyone recommend a good barber?

My brother used to go to a barber in London whose business card read "Dino's: Gent's Hairstylist for Long Hair and Short Hair." Which I guess covers just about everyone.

In the spirit of Dino's I thought I'd pass along a couple of related photos I have taken over the years. One professes a Dino's-esque profession of expertise; the other a novel, but much appreciated way to draw in the lunchtime crowd.

Mental Floss presents five drinking stories that will put yours to shame

For you history buff bastards, a few hearty chuckles and a few tsk-tsks to be found here.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, Bastards

Ray Davies - Working Man's Cafe

Wow, you guys are in for a treat! The styles dip and weave a bit, Bowie-like at times, a few angry growls, much classically Kinkish. Lot of social commentary, some wit and relentless hooks.

Tom Waits, Marvin Hamlisch, Mike Douglas: Why the 70s Were Kind Of Awesome

Its all here: the smoking on stage, the awkward interaction between guests of different 'stripes', the sleaze of 'SHOWBIZ'. And I love it. Best exchange:

Mike: Do you consider yourself a poet or a singer?
Tom: I'm a Methodist.

Enjoy, Bastards!

Here Ya' Go Lurker Redux

Honorable mentions to Bill Shatner covering Jarvis Cocker here (which, admittedly, is not exactly within the spirit of your question), the Flaming Lips covering Kylie here, and the White Stripes covering The Carpenters here, but this one gets my nod:

Hulk Teaser Trailer

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

Here Ya' Go, Lurker

Egregious...yet satisfying.

My Boys

Da Teens. Their crowd seems to get younger and younger ...

Some Random Musical Lunacy

I love how serious Pete is taking this at the beginning.

What are your favorite whimsical adventures by serious musicians? Something more original than Far Away Eyes or Rocky Raccoon, please.

Ryan Adams Redux

This guy feels like I felt listening to R. Adams Esq., and Noel Ishouldknowbetter singing that song.

(Surely the real death knell for this guy's dignity is when the mascot puts a consoling arm around his shoulders as they trudge off the court.)

By the time I get to Phoenix

Here, from our friends at I Am Fuel, You Are Friends, is a pretty cool video of Noel Gallagher of Oasis performing his mega-hit Wonderwall, but covering the arrangment of the song that Ryan Adams featured on his album Love is Hell.



Here's Ryan's version. Not much to look at, but you'll be able to hear what Noel was going for.



And here's Oasis live, playing the more familiar version.



By the way, Noel has said that he doesn't want to perform the song anymore unless its the Ryan Adams version. Evidently he said that's the way the song needed to be. There's an mp3 of the Noel version at the Fuel blog.
I'm off to Phoenix for a few days of R and R with the folks. I'm putting Joe in charge of supervising Jay who in turn will mentor Lurker who will oversee Andrew.

One Of My Favorite Mats Moments

Here's the Replacements playing "Talent Show" on the short-lived International Rock Awards in May of 19 and 89. The network censors were aware of the lyric, "we're feelin' good from the pills we took," so the button was pushed and the offending line was cut. (You see Westerberg roll his eyes when it happens, but I don't know if he actually heard it or just knew that he would be censored.) To exact his revenge, instead of singing "too late to turn back, here we go" at the end of the song, Westy sings "too late to take pills, here we go" - not once, but three times - and every one makes it by the censors. God, I loved this band ...

Anyway, there's also this.

Shit

A sad day, indeed. Gary Gygax, creator of Dungeons & Dragons, has run out of hit points.

Read it and weep here.

364 Days To Go

To celebrate the one year countdown to release, Zack Snyder has posted some first looks at a few Watchmen. And may I just say Gawd-Dayum! This film may well meet or exceed my expectations.

Lurker, you got an opinion?

See the rest here.

Thank You! Good Night!

So long, fundy. Apparently, America prefers a more evolved president.

One who isn't a basser?

The Happy Talk Band

I will be on the road for the rest of the week, so there may not -- gasp -- be a catchy Friday this week. In lieu of that, this is a live video of the Happy Talk Band, out of New Orleans. The CD is excellent. So much so that I will try to feed the poor this weekend in celebration. The band website with more tracks is here.

The Three Trillion Dollar War

A salon article/book review reveals the actual cost of our war of choice in Iraq. If you'd like to get angry today, be sure and check out the article.

"To put Stiglitz and Bilmes' $3 trillion in perspective, it's worth comparing it to the cost estimates Bush officials bandied about before the war began. The authors present a damning "Nightline" transcript in which one official, Andrew Natsios, blandly told Ted Koppel that Iraq could be completely reconstructed for only $1.7 billion. (With the war now costing $12.5 billion a month, Natsios' estimate would have been accurate if he had stipulated that it would pay for four days' worth of reconstruction. Which, considering the delusional nature of most of the Bush administration's pre-invasion estimates, may have been how long it thought it would take to rebuild the country.) Other officials settled on a figure of $50 billion to $60 billion. Larry Lindsey, Bush's economic advisor, went way out on a limb, suggesting that the war might cost $200 billion -- a figure derided by then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as 'baloney.'"

Blue and Pink Project

For some reason, I love photo blogs. Here's a nice exhibit featured on NY Times, cool use of color and kids. More great photography blogs:

Amy Stein
Zoe Strauss
Jonathan Gitelson
Todd Deutsch Love his work, but alas, not updated often.

Not That Any Of YOU Care

From Wired:

Trent Reznor has been telling the whole world how happy he is to be free from his record label. Now the Nine Inch Nails mastermind has unveiled a post-label strategy that takes Radiohead's In Rainbows concept further by leveraging BitTorrent and releasing songs under a Creative Commons license that permits purchasers to remix the tracks.

The full version of the new Nine Inch Nails album, Ghosts I-IV, contains 36 songs split into four volumes. Reznor (and/or his representatives) uploaded the first volume into BitTorrent, where it can be downloaded free.

The entire 36-song version can be purchased digitally (in the MP3 format) for a mere $5 from Amazon MP3 or the band's website, NIN.com. At this point, the site has slowed to a crawl due to the tremendous response to Sunday's release -- Reznor says they're adding more servers to cope with demand.

I bought the whole enchilada but can't download it 'til I get home. The article doesn't mention it, but these songs are all instrumental. So anybody who had a problem with Reznor's lyrics in the past (myself included) can listen guilt-free. The article also doesn't mention that Adrian Belew contributes guitar on a ton of these songs. NIN music for the non-NIN fan? Who knows ...

At the very least, check out the folder of goodies that Fell To Pieces. There's a 40-page pdf of GORGEOUS photos, plus some other schtuff.

Never Mind the Broads, Here's the Replacements

From the excellent music blog I Am Fuel, You Are Friends comes this slew of great Paul Westerberg and Replacements B-Sides, outtakes, and live performances. Some of this was pretty rare to me, especially the Mats outtakes and the Paul b-sides. Check it out and discuss!