Summer of Reuniting

Summer is always the time for big summer concerts and a few of the big tours have been a little surprising because it is bringing groups back together.

Soundgarden - I never did see them during their first time together, but I did see Chris Cornell solo before he did awful stuff with Rage and James Bond soundtracks. This is not surprising, but I know it will be successful. I just don't think "Spoonman" will hold up as a classic.

Devo - Mark Mothersbaugh is not too busy with Yo Gabba Gabba to dust off the flower pot hats. They have a new album coming out and they apparently ran it by some focus groups to firm it up. I hope that was a joke.

Public Image Limited - Johnny Lydon's follow up to the Sex Pistols (in my mind, this was a better band) is getting together and doing small clubs as well as festival shows. I saw the reunited Sex Pistols 15 years ago and I thought Johnny was pushing it then. However, I would love to see them in a small venue.

The Specials - This might be the third or fourth reunion by now. We get it, your first album was great.

To wrap up, reunion concerts are fun, but they should be followed by about three concerts of young up and coming bands so you do not get stuck in the past.

More Tunes and Vids

Here are some things that are striking my fancy as of late.

Ted Leo's latest video

M.I.A. gets heavy

It is not new, but this OK Go video is amazing

David Lee Roth - Business Genius

Diamond Dave was one of the greatest front men of a mega rock group. He looked damned good in spandex, rocked a black belt and was good with the ladies. One thing that he was known for was a crazy story that many people chalked up to being rock folklore. He was the man that demanded that all of the brown M&M's be taken out of the candy bowl in the Van Halen dressing room. DLR shocked folks when he owned up to this story and then he was labeled an egotistical jerk by many in the press. However, the candy was used strictly for business.

This story has become quite popular recently since it was featured in Fast Company and This American Life. They do a much better job of telling the story than I can (TAL is much more in depth), but it gave me a much better image of Mr. Roth. The quick version, is that he put that demand deep in the contract and if there were brown candies present, the venue did not thoroughly follow the rider and may have missed some very important safety details and Roth would have their manager double check everything.

For a guy that bright, why did he get picked up in central park trying to buy weed?

Really?

Here are some things that puzzle me.

Please Stop It

Why Do People Find Him Funny

This Makes Me Weep For the Future

This Is Just As Bad

Breastaurants

This post may get me a slap from my wife, but let us talk about theme restaurants with boobs as the focus. Hooters, Tilted Kilt and Twin Peaks all fall under the same category, but are these fads? Hooters has obviously been around the longest, but they are in some serious financial trouble. Tilted Kilt is the "Hooters Killer" because I think their theme and food is better, but I just got done with a great dinner in a place that replaced once a 1-year old Tilted Kilt.

The issue with these places is that you have one demographic, dudes. That may account for 50% of the population, but it cuts out dates and family dinners. What these places need to do, is some major marketing and that is what Twin Peaks does. 

Twin Peaks does Jeep Nights, Saturday Car Washes and all of the waitresses dress up for holidays. Is it crude? Of course it is, but they have some of the best marketing that I have seen in awhile. And no, marketing is not a euphemism for bazoonkas.

Heart Attack Website

To prove that I am one with the Midwest, I present to you Cheese and Burger. One of the best sites put together by a marketing group. The good folks up north came up with a way to pimp their cheese but they did it in the most unhealthy and delicious way ever.

I am a big fan of the burger, however I have become obsessed because they have Brock Sampson reading off some of the most insane sandwiches ever conceived. You may have to get a quadruple bypass after checking out the site, but you will love it.

Number 21 is my favorite, in case you wanted to know.

Oh, holy crap! They have one for Grilled Cheese as well. This time the most famous secretary to come out of Scranton, gives you a tour to Obese-ville.

WWF

The future of video gaming is a knock off of scrabble. The game Words With Friends is a free game that is only available on the iPhone platform (iPad and iPod as well), and yes it is a Scrabble knock off. However, the charm to this game is the connectivity. You play real folks but it is not real time. Once you make your move, it alerts the other person and they can play whenever they want.

This can be played on your own time and it is more social than most games out there. I currently am playing folks from grade school, high school, college and various workplaces. I am able to stay in touch with people while trying to beat them into submission (very rarely does that happen). If you have access to one of these devices, try it out. It don't cost nuthin.

Jack in the Crack

Living in the Midwest has made me used to shoveling a lot of snow, radio and TV stations starting with W and awesome accents. There are quite a few things I miss about living in the northwest, including watching sports at a respectable time, awesome pizza and of course the greatest radio station in the land. The one thing that I am surprised that I miss is Jack in the Box.

My love for Jack in the Box has nothing to do with the food. In fact, I really could care less about the greasy grub that it serves up. The commercials are the best thing going for it. Every once in awhile they will show one nationally, but Chicago does not have any stores around here so were on a Jack-Out as far as the ads go. From celebrating stoners, swingers and little people; these commercials are genuinely funny. If their food was half as good as the adverts, they would rule the school. 

I will just continue to eat at Qdoba to support Jack that way.

Casa

There is something to be said about whistling in songs. For some reason it just really anchors the tune in your head and it will not leave for days. The same can be said for hand claps for that matter. The latest song that falls into the great whistling songs category is Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

This song has a heavy dose of X The Knitters and that is a very good thing. The whole hippie vibe was a bit of a surprise and it cements the road trip feel. Enjoy "Home" and may it be stuck in your head as much as this song will be.

Death Trap

Batman is a favorite of mine. To prove my geek cred, I named my daughter after one of the characters from the Caped Crusader's world. The reason I bring up the Dark Knight is because one of the best shows on television for kids and older kids like myself is Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Just because I am into the Great Detective, does not mean it is only for comic heads. In fact I would say that one episode in particular would win over anyone.


Mayhem of the Music Meister is a musical and it really works in the Batman world. The main villain (the Music Meister) is voiced by this guy and it is perfect. The secret weapon in this episode is Black Canary and she is voiced by Grey DeLisle who is a singer and voice actor. She also happens to be married to Murray Hammond from the Old 97's, a favorite band in this household. The episode pokes fun at Batman, however the songs are great and they will be stuck in your head for a few days.

Again, this is not just for comic geeks. Give it a few minutes and enjoy.

Cheeky Monkeys

Pants are pants are pants. Nothing too exciting about them, unless they get splashed when you are washing your hands and you have to explain to everyone that you did not just piss yourself. However, I have seen the light and I now know that pants can be the most amazing part of your day.

Full credit goes to my wife who found out about Bonobos. This is a small little company based out of New York and they have a very interesting back story that can be found here. Bonobos is a really great little company that takes the boring old pantaloons and turns them into a coveted item because of the quality of the garment, the amazing customer service, their humor and they play the scarcity card quite well.

Just so everyone knows, my ass looks great in them (just ask my wife). They fit very well and are the most comfortable pants I have ever owned. If the pants were great that would be one thing, but they combine that with an amazing group of people that trump Zappos in terms of customer service and humor (The customer service folks are labeled ninjas). They have a pair of pants called Redrums for God's sake. They have fun with their product and it shows.

The final card that they play is the evil and ingenious one, the styles do not live forever. The endangered section is a brilliant move on their part and tsome of their styles are very limited (Damn you, St. Paddy's Khakis!). Think of Tickle Me Elmo or Zhu Zhu Pets in their heyday, but Bonobos makes it happen at least once a month or so.

They also make all of their pants with a secret ingredient, crack cocaine. They may not be true, but sometimes it feels like that. I have 5 pair and I want more. God, they are good at what they do.

Naughty Bear

God War III, Just Cause 2 and COD: Modern Warfare 2 are some recent AAA games that have just come out and the one thing that they all have in common is that I have no desire or time.to play them. These are the games that cost tens of millions of dollars to make and 50+ hours to beat and they do nothing for me. I used to be their target audience, but it just got old. Basically these are like the big summer action movies that I have no desire to see as well. To be honest there have not been too many games that have made me excited to pick up the controller, except for Naughty Bear.

This game is so messed up. All you need to know is that this is a game that will give children therapy bills for decades. You play the title character Naughty Bear and you are taking out all of the other teddy bears in your world because you were not invited to a birthday party. Seriously, that is the plot. You use all sorts of weapons and the cute little teddy bears run screaming from you as you attack them with flame throwers and machetes. The clips are hilarious and awful, all at the same time. This is a game I will be downloading as soon as it is available.

Just the eerie Teddy Bear Picnic song on the site should give you an idea of how messed up fantastic this thing will be.

New Tunes

On my way back from a business trip, I was listening to some KEXP podcasts. I have not finished #190 yet, but there were some tasty morsels that I have heard so far. The first song that was fantastic was from the Deadstring Brothers and the it is called Sao Paolo.



This band has a gritty sound and I wish I had heard of them before, since they are right up my alley. Cheryl (the KEXP DJ that put this Podcast together) said their new album (also called Sao Paolo) has a real "Exile on Main Street" vibe and that is enough for me.

The second song was from the band The Tallest Man on Earth and it is called King of Spain.


This is an epic song that I could see on a soundtrack about some bumbling middle age guy finding himself abroad. Or, it is a really good song that totally stands on its own two feet.

To listen to the entire podcast, check out this page.