I didn’t realize Elvis Costello’s dad was also a performer. Apples and trees….
Wait, Who?
Richard Pryor, ladies and gentlemen.
Pop/Punk Fix
Good punk/pop from Tucson. They drink the same Buzzcocks/Clash/et alia Kool-Aid as their more talented predecessors, The Exploding Hearts. I also detect some Johnny Thunders and Hives, and this seems to channel Love. Some weaknesses in lead vocals, but strong guitar work and decent hooks compensate. I’d put them on par with The Number Ones from a few years ago. Formulaic perhaps, but it’s still a great formula after almost fifty years. As for lyrics, does anyone care in this kind of music?
The above songs are not necessarily the best from a recent album worth listening through. There are a couple of semi-duds, but even those have some strong points. I think they have two earlier albums, but I haven’t gotten to them yet.
A Documentary Made By Fans, With Fans, For … Fans
Crowdfunded project coming Q4, 2025. Order yours today! Of course, you might want to see the film first.
How Much For The Whole Collection?
This is the same guy who did the Clockwork Orange location tour I posted not too long ago. I’m slightly obsessed with his channel at the moment.
Friday Fanaticism
One of the great tenors of our time.
Pop-Punk Candy
Mrs. Renfield put me on to this sugar rush of an album (really more like a longish EP). Many tracks are one-idea songs, but who cares when the hook’s good and they don’t belabor the idea: all but one are under two minutes. It so happens this band/person/whatever played Gonerfest last week, although it was an afternoon slot on a 90-degree-plus day, so can’t say I’m sorry I missed them. But this stuff hits my sweet spot. Good hooks throughout. Here’s another:
Fat Bear Week
October 4-10 is Fat Bear Week! Your vote decides who wins. The single elimination tournament contestants will be revealed 10/02/23, on explore.org’s Brooks Live Chat Channel. Vote for your favorites.
Fat Bear Week is a subjective competition. Many factors lead to success in brown bears. Cubs and subadult (teenage) bears grow proportionally more each year than even the biggest adults. Mother bears must feed themselves and their cubs so the family can survive winter. An older bear can have difficulty finding access to its preferred fishing spots due to competition with larger and younger bears.
The bears you are watching on the cams in Katmai National Park, Alaska, are brown bears. Grizzly bears and brown bears are the same species (Ursus arctos), but grizzly bears are currently considered to be a separate subspecies (U. a. horribilis). The difference between a grizzly bear and a brown bear is fairly arbitrary. In North America, brown bears are generally considered to be those of the species that have access to coastal food resources like salmon. Grizzly bears live further inland and typically do not have access to marine-derived food resources.
Besides habitat and diet, there are physical and (arguably) temperamental differences between brown and grizzly bears. Large male brown bears in Katmai can routinely weigh over 1000 pounds (454 kg) in the fall. In contrast, grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park weigh far less on average. There have been no documented cases of grizzly bears weighing over 900 pounds (408 kg) in Yellowstone.
Grass Roots
Just learned that it’s Creed from The Office on that guitar intro.
The Smoke
The Smoke seemed destined to be the greatest British band of the 60’s. Read on for their sad tale of record industry greed, radio station indifference, distribution mishaps, managerial exploitation, personal tragedy, substance abuse, mental instability, and an apathetic, capricious and philistine public…
Just kidding! They seem to be a classic 60’s case of one-hit wonders. I’d never heard this song until it popped up in my YouTube feed the other day. It became a big hit in Germany in ’67 (the year I moved, so I never heard it), but in England its progress up the charts was knee-capped by the BBC for drug references (the BBC did such a great job keeping young Brits off drugs). The most remarkable thing about this band is that not one of them did anything noteworthy before or after this song. Usually when you look into British bands with a hit during this period, you’ll find that at least one or two of them before or after played with someone you’ve heard of. But not these guys. Anyway, it’s a pretty good song and worth hearing.