Bastard Field Trip!

It's the event Joe's been waiting for his entire life: the ABBA Museum is finally OPEN.

And before you laugh, just remember that members of both Elvis Costello & The Attractions and The Sex Pistols have admitted to ripping them off.

Gifts For The Lapsed Catholic In Your Life

Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye prayer candles!

Eric, get yours here.

One Nation Under Bob

Still trying to find the presidential ticket that allows me to vote for a hero who is better than I deserve.

In the meantime please enjoy my friend Davis recently hoisting Bob GBV Pollard into the sky.

Have you hugged your indie rock god today?

When I'm Sixty-Four (+6)

Happy 70th Macca.
One of my favorite origin stories. Also has the birthday mention, and props to any lefty who can play a right-handed guitar without re-stringing.

Anyone else seen it yet?

Finally, they made one that made me feel the same way I did when I read the comic books 30+ years ago. Great script, great humor, great visuals. See it in 3D if you can as it makes it feel even more like a comic book. Kudos Whedon!

EC Again!

Sorry for my lack of recent involvement. Thank God I pay Eric to take up my slack. April is the cruelest month at school, unless you count March and February. Anywho, I'm back bitches and I'm taking no prisoners. Next Sunday will mark my next appointment with my idol and godhead, Elvis Costello, who brings his Spectacular Spinning Songbook to the Durham Performing Arts Center. As a nod to the diversity of this amazing guy, here is a list of my concert history and EC's show format for each:

1) Berkeley, CA in 1991. Supporting Might Like a Rose and playing with the Rude 5 which includes Marc Ribot and a couple of the original Elvis' 70s band.
2) New Orleans, LA in May of 1994. Supporting Brutal Youth. Drove from Jackson to see this show which featured the Attractions together again. The next night....
3) Memphis, TN. Saw this outdoor show at Mud Island with some bastard. I only have four words to say about the opening band: Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm.
4) Philadelphia, PA 1999. My girlfriend took us to Philly to see Elvis as a birthday present. Tower Theater was great, and so were EC and Steve Nieve. I got them both to sign the limited edition EC/SN box set, my prized musical possession (besides my Subteens CD that has one of Jay's boogers on it).
5) New Orleans, LA 1999. EC and keyboardist Steve Nieve play a gorgeous set and Elvis actually gets the noisy ass crowd at the House of Blues to STFU when he sings off-mic. You coulda heard a pin drop.
6) Oxford, MS. EC plays at Proud Larry's, a tiny bar downtown, in order to warm up his new songs for the recording of the Delivery Man. Most of those new songs were played twice with lots of classics and deep cuts scattered in. Amazing to see him in a dive. The next day I got Steve's autograph when I ran into him in a record store on the town square. 
7) New Orleans, LA 2005. Elvis with the Imposters at the HofB. Bob Andrews of the Rumour (a New Orleans resident) hops up to play a couple of songs with the boys. My only picture with Elvis is ruined when some jackhole walks in front of the camera. I have a pic of EC and my right hand.
8) New Orleans, LA 2005. A scant month later, EC plays the JazzFest. David Hidalgo of Los Lobos joins for a few songs. Three months later, Hurricane Katrina comes and leads EC to record The River in Reverse, which leads to the next show in...
9) Vienna, VA in 2006. Elvis and Allen Toussaint are touring together with the Crescent City Horns and the Imposters. A very joyful show with great new brass arrangements of the songs, deep cuts from AT's catalog, and a nice salve for the still painful memory of Katrina.
10) Washington DC 2007. Elvis celebrates thirty years in the biz and plays stuff from just about every album. Allen Toussaint is in town and joins in towards the end. An amazing setlist and a great time with yet another bastard. Cover highlight: Hey Bulldog!
11) Cary, NC 2007. A few months after the raucous show in DC, EC and SN perform with the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra. Lots of new arrangements and a peaceful night under the sky enjoying an outdoor show.
12) Cary, NC 2009. Elvis brings his bluegrass band and plays rearranged versions of his hits plus stuff from Secret, Profane, and Sugarcane. Cover highlight: Femme Fatale and Mystery Train.
13) Durham, NC 2012. Sunday Elvis brings his spinning songbook. People from the audience get to spin the wheel and he'll play the song. Included are thematic jackpots like 'Time' and 'I Can Sing a Rainbow'. Recent covers have included Please Please Me, Out of Time by the Stones, and Purple Rain.

Post your concert obsessions!

Jack MFing Davis

The A.V. Club posted a chat with Jack Davis that's certainly worth a look.  (Davis is pitching a new book.)

His name may not be spoken in the same breath as Harvey Kurtzman’s or Wally Wood’s, but few artists made as profound an impact in as many corners of the EC comics empire as Jack Davis. His supple style lent itself as well to the gritty battlefield stories of Two-Fisted Tales as to the gleeful grotesques of Tales From The Crypt, and when Kurtzman convinced EC head William Gaines to let him head the company’s new humor magazine, Davis left a formidable stamp on Mad as well. Unlike many of his peers, though, Davis spun off his comic-book work into a highly successful illustration career, doing covers for Time and TV Guide as well as iconic movie posters for the likes of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, which, according to Fantagraphics’ new career-spanning collection Jack Davis: Drawing American Pop Culture, netted him an annual salary that at its height stretched into seven figures. Now in his late 80s, Davis has naturally slowed down in recent years, but the book has provided the occasion for a well-earned victory lap, which brought him to New York’s Society Of Illustrators for a talk with The A.V. Club.

Check it out!

Anybody Else ...

Bad As Me?

Failure To Participate in this survey is grounds for disbastarding.

Merry Beckmus?

The latest celebrity couple is Beck + Malkmus, collaborating on the new Jicks album Mirror Traffic. Tour to include Nashville in Rocktober.

The Flaming C In Lego

Watch as Brick Artist Nathan Sawaya creates a stunning statue of [Conan's alter-ego] The Flaming C right in front of your very eyes!

Giving You The Bird

Brad Bird's acceptance speech for winning the Winsor McCay Award at this year’s Annie Awards. Watch the whole thing.

New Radiohead Album

Radiohead have just announced that their new album is complete and will be available this Saturday February 19th!! Sweet.

It's called "The King of Limbs", and it will be available in two formats. You don't get to choose the price this time around though.

I Fucking Love Gervais

Apparently, he's catching some shit for being irreverent.  I'm just sorry I missed it.

High Bastardic Convergence?

What better occasion than 11/11/11 -- NIGEL TUFNEL DAY?
Just throwing it out there. I think it's a Friday.

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!"

What Eye Thing?

One of Eric's recent comments led me to this fabulous website uncyclopedia. You should go spend some time there and learn something. It's funny as hay-ul!

Here is an article about my personal musical hero... Thom

That Reminds Me ...

Dave's post reminded me of a business card of sorts that Mr. Martin used to distribute back in his stand-up days.

More Nick

Following The Previous selections, find some more of the fabulous Nick Lowe. You're welcome Bastards.

74 is the new 40

Leonard Cohen is one of those guys I gave up on ever seeing live several years ago. I was pretty excited when he embarked on a tour last year that has met with critical raves and resulted in the excellent 'Live in London' album. Still, it looked like the tour was going to finish without me getting a chance to see him. Until........it was announced yesterday that he will be playing in November in DURHAM at our (relatively) new Performing Arts Center, just minutes from my place. Tix go on sale next Friday- wish me luck. Any of you other bastards want to come see history?

The One Who Calls Himself 'Shadow Hare'

I guess what struck me about this piece is how close it is to what Jay has been doing around Memphis lately. I don't want to say too much here and give anything away, but hats off to all those in masks and spandex who make our communities a little safer.