Some Music Notes (Pun Definitely Intended)

In what I thought was going to start off being a slow year music, a few things have come to my attention over the few day:

I got an email from the Gorillaz a few days ago announcing a new album. Totally kick ass news from a band I never thought would never put out another album. They posted their new single, Stylo, on their website:

http://www.gorillaz.com/

It kind of sounds like Safety Dance, but I'm still not really liking it yet. That's OK. Their last album, Demon Days, is one of my favorite albums from recent years. I'll probably get the new album based on that alone. Plastic Beach is due out March 9th in the States.


Prince is continuing the trend of not doing anything cool since he played the Superbowl three years ago. Right after the Vikings' victory over the Cowboys last week he went home to record this abortion:



In case Prince has had the above link deleted (it's likely), the song is Purple and Gold, Prince's tribute to the Minnesota Vikings.

This is the most embarrassing Rock n' Roll sports theme since Ministry released this a couple years back:



At least they knew to sing about a real sports team. Fuck the Vikings.

OK. I have one more, then we're off to something relevant:




Murder By Death is also releasing a new album. Good Morning, Magpie will be released on April 6th. I don't know much else apart from that it will not be a concept album.


JG Thirwell's Manorexia will release their third album, The Mesopelagic Waters, through Tzadik in March.


Chunklet has posted an early Karp demo tape on their website:

http://www.chunklet.com/index.cfm?section=blogs&ID=594

I originally wasn't going to post about another post, but then it was brought to my attention that some douchebag (hopefully, I didn't just call someone from Karp a douchebag) was listing it on ebay for $500, so I wanted to make this download more widely known.

Also, look around the site. In addition to many other cool things, they just posted the (possibly) final show of the reunited Jesus Lizard: NYE, Chicago. The NY show that I went to was easily the best thing I saw last year.


Finally, I'm going to give a shout out to a new band called Stars Don't Sleep. Their singer, Adam Hagar used to live about five minutes away from me in my tiny redneck town in NJ, although had not found me until he moved to the opposite side of the country.

They just released their first EP which you can download for free off of their website. When I get around to it, I will do a full review on Comfort Comes, (which I have recently been neglecting to get this off the ground, but should get back to it because I have things piling up that I should get to while they are somewhat new) although you should really just listen to it yourself. It's right here:

http://www.starsdontsleep.com/songs/

Book of the Week

1-20-10

I haven't loved everything I've read by Grant Morrison. In fact I think most of his recent mainstream work has been below par (apart from All-Star Superman, which I think is probably not only the best Superman comic ever made, but also the best comic of the past decade). I do, however, love everything that he's written for Vertigo.
His first new project since 2005's Viminarama is an eight issue miniseries entitled Joe the Barbarian.

The first issue is a brief introduction of charcters and hints at the story's direction near the end. It's about a disconnected adolescent boy that travels between reality and imagination. It remains to be seen whether this is literal or figurative, but I'm thinking literal.

Morrison is accompanied artist Sean Murphy. Much of the story is told through the art, and the book is filled with gorgeous (sometimes two-page) splashes.

Also, there are several surprise cameos in one of these splashes. One of which is an all time favorite of mine: The Main Man, Lobo. Are you still reading this? Go get it.

Thanos

Marvel just released this image.

Book of the Week

1-13-10

Steve Niles and Bernie Wrightson occasionally team-up to write these pretty cool hardboiled monster miniseries. I think this is a mini. IDW doesn't usually mark that kind of thing.

Anyway, The Ghoul is their latest. Its is in the tradition of Any Which Way but Loose. A cop is assigned an unlikely partner. He's a monster. Its a pretty solid story. Obviously, the art's fantastic. Its got lots of monsters and big guns. Check it out.

Fuck You, Brian Michael Bendis

Marvel recently released The Siege #1, and I am not happy with writer Brian Michael Bendis. Not because the book lacked in quality; it was a pretty decent setup of the miniseries.

I'm also not critical (like many others) that the story's catalyst is similar to that of Civil War. I thought CW was unreadable and maybe could have been better if Bendis had written it. Now, maybe I'll find out.

I'm even overlooking the pretentious in-house ads. Seven years from what? Bendis started his Avengers run in mid-2004. Secret Wars started shortly before that.

What really grinds my gears is the way that Bendis kills off beloved characters without even a thought of how the fans feel. I am not talking about Hawkeye. It was cute when Hawkeye got offed in Avengers: Dissasembled. Hell, it was downright hilarious when he killed him again the following year in House of M.

What I am very upset about is that in The Siege #1, is that the entire Chicago Bears team get blown up. Totally not cool. What? Just because they haven't played that well the past couple of seasons, Marvel thinks they can kill a classic football team on one page and that no one cares. The only silver lining is that we don't know who da Bears are playing. I suppose it could be Dallas. I mean, really. No funeral with Cap and Spidey and everyone crying.

And what about one-shots? Why hasn't Marvel released special books that show different heroes reacting to this. I'm not going to be happy until I see a Da Bears: Rebirth series.

In protest, I am not going to advise a boycott. I think its going to be a really good story. Actually, I don't really care if it does suck. I'm so nerdy, I'm just giddy thinking about Cap, Iron Man, and Thor back together.

What I advise people to do is for Bears fans to go to Marvel offices and disrupt work by doing the Superbowl shuffle through the halls (possibly naked). If don't know the dance:



If that seems like too much, send mail to:

brian1138@aol.com

Also, anyone who thinks that that is the siiliest sports song should watch this:

Book of the Week

1-6-10

Savage Dragon is a book for that is for people who love comic books. Its not a something that will convert a non-reader, but people who are familiar with the genre and serial storytelling should be picking it up.

There's really no good jumping on point. Maybe issue 1, but it's not really necessary. Like the old Marvel Comics, you can jump on anywhere (maybe even this issue which is a Part 2) , feel like there's a lot of stuff you may not know, but enjoy it the same nonetheless.

Hell, I don't remember a lot of what's happened. It's been going on since 1992. There have been ups and downs, but after 160 issues (including the miniseries and zero issue),I'm in for the long haul. The book is episodic and long term plot lines are there to reward old readers as opposed to alienate new ones.

Erik Larsen knows the genre, and unlike Marvel or DC doesn't have to worry about keeping characters stagnant to sell movies and merch. The character is constantly evolving and...

SPOILER ALERT

...is not even in this issue. I mean, there are two Dragons in this issue, but one is a clone and the other is from an alternate universe. Our Dragon got offed six issues ago. Will he be back? Probably, but who knows? Larsen has gotten rid of core characters (and even core timelines) in the past. Whatever happens will serve the story.

Larsen will often try different art or storytelling methods. Sometimes they work. Sometimes they don't. This issue is one long fight sequence. It totally works. There's enough dialogue and plot throughout the banter to keep this issue interesting and move the story along. In fact, I didn't even realize that the whole issue was one fight until it was pointed out on the letters page.

I'm very happy with the way this book has picked up since Larsen stepped down from being the head of Image. Although, I do think he brought a lot of quality books and some prestige to the company, his own book suffered in scheduling, story, and art. Since he's gotten back up to speed, Savage Dragon it the best its been in years , and with this issue, it gets even better.

You Need to Hear This

I'm only on my second post and I still haven't really posted anything about comic books, and this is in some aspects negative. So I am kind of abandoning yesterday's mission statement. Sorry. But I am going to write about music stuff that's not on my music website. So that's kind of true. I would never (probably) mock a band on Comfort Comes. That' not really professional, unless I worked at Chunklet (which would be awesome).

This video is pretty awesome. I'm usually a little behind when it comes to pop music, but I recently stumbled across this video. The band is called Attack Attack. They're from Ohio, the same state that fucked up the 2004 Presidential election and got Dimebag Darrel killed.

This may be the worst song since Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend. Not that I haven't heard any atrocious songs in the past few years, but it takes something more for a song to cross the line from so terrible that it has a redeeming entertainment value. The most klassic example of this is KISS's Beth.



If you haven't listened all the way through, you really should. Every recent fad is thrown in there somewhere. So many great cliches ; the synchronized hair flipping, hardcore breakdowns, dance breakdowns, and autotune at the end. It's all great. Also, if you can handle it, check out http://www.myspace.com/attackattack for their cover of Katy Perry's I Kissed A Girl and Shred White and Blue.

Wikipedia says they have a new album coming out this year, which I can't really in good conscience recommend buying, but maybe check YouTube sometime in the future for a laugh.

If you have listened to too much Attack Attack and would like to hear something good, try this:

Mission Statement

Hello, there.

Because I feel there aren’t enough opinions on the internet, I’ve decided to start up a blog. I’ve been planning on doing it for a little while now, but have only recently been motivated enough to start it up due to a lack of employment. I can only masturbate so much. Not really.

Originally, I was going to. make this exclusively about comic books, but I figure that being my blog, I’ll write about anything that interests me. Kind of like Entertainment Tonight, but instead of tonight, it’ll be more like entertainment whenever I get around to it. But I’ll keep it primarily about comic books. Maybe. Who knows? Maybe if I get that sponsorship, this could turn into a blog about Doritos flavors.

I’ll probably also mention movies and novels of the non-graphic kind from time to time. If anyone wants to read what I think about your shitty band, you can look here:

http://www.comfortcomes.com/author/henry-krinkle/

Also, on this site, I can do things that I can’t do on the music site, like post songs without permission. Just kidding. But not really.

One more thing: I plan to mostly only discuss things that I like. There’s a lot of negativity on the internet and it’s kind of lame and easy to trash stuff without having to deal with someone face to face.

I can go on and on about why I don’t like Blackest Night in print, but I think if I met Geoff Johns, I would probably be friendly and discuss the things that I really like. Also, I hate Lead Zeppelin and the new Batman movies, so we probably differ on opinions anyway.

So, that’s that. We’ll see how this goes. I’ll see you in the future, assholes.