Finally, A Magazine For Joe

Beale Street Blues Boy

Riley B. showed up at the hotel where my company has been hosting a conference. He's in Memphis playing a couple of shows at his club. Wish he'd been holding Lucille instead of a diet coke.

Mexico!

I'm making a run for the border. Catch you gringos next week!

Just In Case You Forgot

Not That YOU Care

Trent Reznor was tapped to score David Fincher's new film, The Social Network (99 on Metacritic!). Perhaps unsurprisingly, it sounds like a soundtrack (background music), but may be worth a listen if you're into bleeps and bloops.

Say what you want about Mark Zuckerburg, but Facebook Took Perseverance.

Fan-Made

Fan-made opening titles for the upcoming AMC series, The Walking Dead.

Talented people what?

Beautiful!

A Norvin is a Norton frame with a Vincent engine. Lovely, innit?

I'm 'Bout To Get Nostalgic On Yo' Ass

Check out the top 100 songs of 1978.  Some better than you remember, some best forgotten, all from your shitty, misspent childhood.

Don't Forget The Polyester!

Deer Tick

Other than a naturally endearing name and chicks in bikinis with guns, this band has a lot going for it, though commercial success probably isn't in the offing. Check 'er out, if you Find The Propensity.

Junk Food Junkie

I loved this song in 3rd grade. What inspired me to go looking for it tonight?

Let's just say it's a timeless song.

Shat

Happy Friday, ladies.

Jason Freeny

I've been a fan of Jason Freeny and his anatomical dissections of balloon animals, Gummie Bears, Lego people and other little creatures for awhile. As evidenced by his web-site, not only can he draw like nobody's business, but he's also a hell of a sculptor and has a wicked sense of humor. Recently he has begun posting regular progress updates of sculptures he creates of toy figures (Nemo, the Toy Story Alien, Mario [above]) and their insides on Facebook. The process is fascinating, and the final products are unbelievably detailed.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, creative people suck, and he is wildly creative. Ergo, he sucks wildly. Of course he has a blog as well.

No Whey

This made me nervous.

This One's For Me, Dave!

Katy Perry has been kicked off Sesame Street.

This segment with Elmo was removed from an upcoming episode after complaints about her revealing outfit started rolling in. (Somehow it showed up on YouTube first. How does that happen?)

Reportedly, parents became concerned when they realized that Elmo never looked Perry in the eye. Okay, I made that part up.

In Case You Missed It...

The drought of Radiohead has lasted too looooong in my opinion. They last toured over 2 years ago, and thanks to a bunch of Czech fans, there's a video of their complete show in Prague. The cool part is that Radiohead gave them the audio masters from the show to go with the fan video. So, if you missed the last tour, now's your chance to see it in the privacy of your own home. Here's the trailer for the concert video...


If you like what you see, you can download the show in various audio and video formats if you point your internet browser to this location on the information super-highway.

Shit...?

Leonard Skinner, Florida State University graduate, dedicated phys ed teacher, bar owner, realtor, and inspiration for the the name Lynyrd Skynyrd is as free as a bird now.

NPR's got a nice interview with his son:

Happy Birthday, Mr. Wells

The father of science fiction would be 144 years old today.

And what would H.G. Wells be doing if he were alive today? I'd like to think he'd be scratching frantically at the inside of his coffin.

Brian Regan Must Be Spying On Me

Because we have conversations like this at our house at least once a week.

AVAST!

I embrace the deep roots of bastardy with a hearty celebration of Talk Like A Pirate Day. Please enjoy an excellent talk like a pirate tutorial, the article that helped vault this holiday into world consciousness, and Los Bastardos Unidos translated into Pirate.

CAPTCHA Art

Do you know what captcha is? Me either. We see this stuff every day. Now someone with a lot of spare time has put it to use and called it art. What say you bastards?

More can be found here...

The Funkiest Motherfucker On The Planet

Meet Mr. Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, session drummer extraordinaire. He's played with everybody (James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Miles Davis, BB King), but he's probably best known for inventing the Purdie Shuffle. You've heard it before; John Bonham played that drum pattern on "Fool In The Rain."

According to Wikipedia, when Purdie worked as a session musician, he would place two signs beside his drum kit. The one on the left read "You done it!" The one on the right read "You done hired the hitmaker, Bernard 'Pretty' Purdie!"

Heartbreakers Live!

Cutting out of work early and heading to Tampa to see my old friend Tom Petty. Yippee!

Who is your favorite LOST character?

Mine is Hurley. And so is Weezer's. A relative return to form, methinks. Fancy The Puddage? If so, you know what to do.

Superchink

Fuck The Poor, I always say.

The Walkmen

Remember when the Walkman came out, and we said "Finally, Tunes Portable!" Here is the newest by the inestimable Walkmen, and Pitchfork and the AV Club are saying things that are just as great - "Best New Music," and "a masterpiece."

Grinderman 2 is also released today, but alas, not in electronic format. It is steaming over on Myspace, though, and it's awesome.

Ha Ha Ha

Bastards. United.

Long time Bastardo Joe meets newest Bastardos Matt and Eric.

It was great catching up with the Nashville chapter. Matt picked my friend Philip and I up from our hotel and we went to [insert bar name here]. We only had a couple of hours to get together, so we only had about 11 Dogfish Head 90 min IPAs apiece. Eric was nice enough to buy for the group. Matt said he's got the next round.

As we all know, two bastards together at once counts as a quorum, so we had a super quorum and had the authority to do whatever the fuck we wanted to. But we forgot, so whoever was the old pooh bah is still the new pooh bah. We did have it together enough to name Emerson, Lake and Palmer as the official band of Los Bastardos Unidos. Above is a photo of the unanimous vote. A motion to officially name Jay as a douchebag failed 2 to 1. I'll bring it up again when Dave and I get together.

Pixies!

Well, that was fun. I met up with a couple of old Memphis friends (one of whom brought his hot little 25 year old girlfriend) and we blew it out Friday night for the Pixies at the Ryman. We couldn't get rid of the two extra tickets we had Friday (couldn't give them away!), so naturally we decided to head back for the second night and got two seats on the floor for $20. The second night's show was the 'Doolittle' album played in its entirety, plus a couple of encores. See set list, which I snagged after the second night's show, above.

Both nights they were in fine form. Frank was all business, but looked and sounded great. Kim Deal also sounded really good. She carries so many of their songs. Joey Santiago jams and David Lovering is a fantastic drummer. The Ryman is a great place to see a show. All in all a great time (more on the Bastardo convergence later!), but I'm paying for it today!

Some Bastards are more Bastard-y than others

SOME of us have seen the Pixies live before, but ONE of us saw them two nights in a row. At the Ryman. Bastard.

Album Cover Fun

Severe case of the Friday Fuckoffs led me here. I think more of these parody the Clash parody than the Elvis original.

I'm jealous of the bastard get-together!

Nashville, Pussies!

Doing an ol' fashioned boys weekend in Music City with the Pixies at the Ryman Friday night. Apparently, I also have tix for LSU / Vandy Saturday night, which should be inneresting. I'll be either very drunk and happy after FSU's win, or very drunk and sad after FSU's loss. Should be fun either way. Any bastards that might be in the vicinity of those two areas and want to catch up for a beer, shoot me an e-mail.

Sadly, I will have to miss the ol' fashioned book burning here in Pigville. I think I'll firebomb a couple of dentists offices in Nashville just for good measure.

I Could Watch This All Day

Amen, Brother

Football Anyone?

Football season is officially underway tomorrow night, fellow bastards. Any of you care to make any predictions? I'll start:

AFC Championship: Colts vs. Chargers   Colts Win
NFC Championship: Packers vs. Saints     Packers Win
Colts vs. Packers and the winner is............ Colts

As far as college goes, the Vols will be lucky to win 6. Otherwise, Ohio State and Boise State in the BCS Championship game, and God willing the Broncos finally mess up the BCS and win so we can get a playoff!!!

So how do y'all see the season shaping up?

The line forms on the right, dear

Watched the French prison film A Prophet recently, but this song was what really stuck with me, and the haunting voice of Jimmie Dale Gilmore.

This Ain't Exactly "The Watchmen"

Jay, did you start writing your own comic? Actually this shit's real y'all. See, it's right over here

Ha Ha

Comic strip based on old Nancy Drew cover. Click to embiggen.

Medical Breakthroughs

After a summer's worth of debauchery, here's how a bastard rejuvenates.

Part of a Nutritious Breakfast, pt. II

Christina Hendricks...

Part of a Nutritious Breakfast

Happy Labor Day

You bastards try to stay out of trouble.

I'm pretty sure Jay wrote this song...

And people say country music has lost its emotional heft...

Grinderman

New single featuring Robert Fripp. There's a video (nudity!)for it here Album is out 9/13. I loved the first Grinderman album, as crazy as it was.

Grinderman - Super Heathen Child (with Robert Fripp) by MuteRecords

Jason Isbell AND the 400 Unit

Back in '03 or so, I saw the Drive-by Truckers and everybody was talking about "the fat kid," who had just joined the band. That fat kid was one Jason Isbell, who at the time was around 23 (but looked 17), had a propensity for trucker hats, and was a bit on the heavy side. He also happened to significantly raise the band's game with 2 or 3 exceptional cuts on each album over a 3 album stretch, including "Decoration Day," "Goddam Lonely Love," and the great "Danko/Manuel" (listen below). After a seemingly acrimonious split with the Truckers (and bassist-wife Shonna Tucker), Isbell has gone solo, releasing two albums to lukewarm critical acclaim.

I haven't been able to find the standout track on either album that compares to his better Trucker's work. New one, "Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit," is growing on me, and he plays live tonight here in Pigville. Naturally, I'll be there. Fancy are The Pants I'll have on!


Danko/Manuel, from "The Dirty South" (Truckers)


"Good" from the new album


Big Star Cover!