Cult horror director Stuart Gordon, dead at 72.
Hopefully, he won’t be RE-ANIMATED.
Lawd Have Mercy
This is crazy. Also, I was scared they were going to drop it at the end of the segment.
During ROADSHOW’s 2016 stop in Salt Lake City, Utah, appraiser Grant Zahajko met Cary, the owner of a rare red variation of the 1969 Hot Wheels “Beach Bomb” prototype — whose astounding value Zahajko estimated at $100,000 to $150,000. Cary said he had owned the car for 50 years, ever since his father, who worked at Mattel Co., brought home the prototype as a gift when Cary was just a boy. In the spring of 2019, Cary met up with Zahajko again, this time to hand over his “Beach Bomb” for Zahajko to sell on his behalf. Watch the exchange and hear what it has been like for Grant to market the “holy grail of Hot Wheels.”
Big Star Lives On
https://youtu.be/1OSd724L94k
I needed this today.
The Stairway To Stardom
This is either the best or worst thing you’ll see all day.
Favorite YouTube comment …
“Escalator to obscurity.”
The Best Memphis Punk Band You’ve Never Heard Of
Happy Friday, you bastards, you.
In 2012, the documentary I directed about the Antenna club and the vibrant music scene which sprang up around it premiered at the Indie Memphis Film Festival. It had a successful festival run, but a commercial release of Antenna has been repeatedly delayed by music rights issues. With the help of J.D. Reager, we managed to convince Bob Holmes, who had become something of a recluse, to do an interview for the film. For three hours, he regaled us with some of the wildest Memphis music stories I have ever had the good fortune to hear. In order to honor the passing of a Memphis musical genius, I have uploaded the Modifiers segments from Antenna to YouTube and present it here for the first time since 2012.
Thus speaketh documentary director Chris McCoy.
Mellotron Variations
Check out my friend and fellow Memphibian Robby Grant (second from right) rocking out on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts with motherfucking Pat Sansone.
Dude!
This Is How You Shoot A Video
Surrounded by a roomful of adorable dancing young women. And you just know they all smell amazing.
Not a bad song, either. This one’s pretty old, though. I should probably see what these guys are up to now.
New Strokes
I’m hearing good things about the next album, due April 10. I lost interest in The Strokes after First Impressions of Earth (2006?!), but I’d be hard-pressed to find a better debut album than Is This It.
Here’s a video for one of the new singles, “Bad Decisions.” If it sounds a lot like “Dancing With Myself,” it’s no accident. The band allegedly gave Billy Idol and Tony James songwriting credits to avoid litigation.
As near as I can tell, the message in the video is that The Strokes will be evolving musically, so if you want rehashed older albums (clones), too bad. Oh, and the band members’ faces are deepfaked onto actors playing the clones. Timely!
Rachael & Vilray
Feast your ears, bastards! Rachael Price from Lake Street Dive and songwriter Vilray V. Vilray (no surname) perform new tunes written to sound like those from the 30s and 40s. I’m reminded of a line from A Clockwork Orange, which I am currently re-reading for the first time since college …
Oh bliss! Bliss and heaven! Oh, it was gorgeousness and gorgeousity made flesh. It was like a bird of rarest-spun heaven metal or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship, gravity all nonsense now. As I slooshied, I knew such lovely pictures!
And here’s the NPR podcast from whence I discovered them …
Wipers, The
Never heard of these Portland screamers from the late 70s – early 80s. Apparently they were very influential on the whole PNW grunge movement, but we won’t hold that against them.