Taint Misbehavin'

Secret Life Of Painters "On Aquarium Grass"

Secret Life Of Painters "Meet The Speechless"

Look, it's not like I always just give good reviews to bands who are friends of mine. It just so happens that all my friends are incredibly talented musicians. Take Pheonix's Secret Life Of Painters for instance. These lads and I have one major thing in common, our fanatic love for Bob Pollard & GBV. To a lesser extent I'd say we also share a love of early R.E.M. records, which of course Bob Pollard did back in the day too. So you see it's all come full circle.

Secret Life of Painters play rock music. It's that simple. But rather than lyrics with the words "baby" or "lovin" (except for their bone chilling cover of "Baby I Need Your Lovin") they choose to explore more abstract lyrical terrains. Taking a cue from GBV's Box era recordings like Sandbox and Same Place The Fly Got Smashed, SLP is self admittedly lo-fi, but songs like these deserve no other such treatment. It's rock at it's proudest moment, performed by people who have passion for it and choose to cast all bullshit aside.

The last time I saw all of SLP together was the last time GBV final Los Angeles gig. It's been far too long. These boys need to get their ass in a van and shoot their rock milk all over the youth of America. Sorry. I guess that last metaphor was a little gross.

SLP Myspace

SLP website

Some Thoughts On The Draft...

Normally POP ZEUS! isn't much of a sports blog (this one is good if yr into that sort of thing) unless the Chicago Bears are making noise. Wait until January for that shit. But I'm sitting here watching the NBA draft and I can't get over fact that the Chicago Bulls just drafted Joakim Noah ninth overall. I fucking hate this dude. First off, he looks like an ugly girl with bad hair. Second of all, didn't we already have Tyson Chandler on this team? That didn't work out. This guy is even more effeminate than Tyson as a basketball player. Plus from the looks of him on draft night he looks like he's ready to take this whole basketball career thing seriously. Oh well, as long as I have my Michael Jordan: Come Fly With Me DVDs I'll never have to live in the present.

Alan Parsons Project "Eye In The Sky"

Niece Of Tapir Just Didn't Work

Son Of Bison "Drinking Toll"

Son Of Bison "Leaving Town"

Son Of Bison "Radio's Light"

Son Of Bison are Eagle Rock's local avant folk rock heroes. Heavily influenced by Robert Pollard of Guided By Voices, John Wyatt's succinct acoustic tunes rely on story telling and delicate arrangements to deliver a bevvy of different emotions. Whether that be concession ("Drinking Toll"), depression ("Leaving Town"), or confession (pretty much every song on Thermos).

Wyatt's ability to take on a musical genre (singer/songwriter) that's literally overflowing with banal and trite artists and inject it with a fresh and interesting perspective is applaudable. At the same time Thermos' song arrangements are stark and simple, much like the lyrical content.

Son OF Bison @ Myspace

Vampira Called.....

Ghostface Killah & Amy Winehouse "You Know I'm No Good"

I've really been on the fence about what I thought about Amy Winehouse for a long time. On one hand I like her style, the 60s wall of sound girl group thing, as well as her attitude, basically the bad girl routine with frequent references to hard drug use. On the other hand too much hype can ruin anyone, and her leanings may or not go toward the pop world of Britney and Jessica Simpson for me. It's a good thing Ghostface swooped in to make up my mind for me. An artist I hold respect for validates Winehouse's integrity by sampling her single "You Know I'm No Good" on his Fishscale follow up More Fish.

Either she's a brilliant actress or she really is trouble, because she comes off as a foul temptress who might have a future as a vamp in a David Lynch film. And she's seemingly being embraced by the rap impresarios (Jay Z recently released his remix of her other hit "Rehab"). So while I guess I'm still on the fence about Amy Winehouse (I still can't tell whether I think she's hot or not, probably due to the fact that she wears novelty sized fake eyelashes and puts her make up on with a paint sprayer), but the jury is out on this track at least.

Hulk... Not Good With Words..... Hulk Just Want To SMASH!!

Sunday is TV theme song day here at POP ZEUS!



"Incredible Hulk" theme

Today here is the theme from the Incredible Hulk, because who of us cannot relate to the story. Half man half uncontrollable monster doomed to walk the earth alone, cursed with awesome power. I know I feel like that most of the time. Also because I met Lou Ferigno once and I called him a pussy. I had my hand over my mouth at the time of course. I mean, come on, dude is the HULK. He'd waste me.

Days They Will Turn Into Nights

Guided By Voices "Paper Girl"

By contractual agreement I am obligated to mention Robert Pollard and/or Guided By Voices about once every three weeks or so. Being my all time favorite band, it would be a crime to ignore their magnificent outpouring of material. Today I'll keep it simple and give you one my favorites (this of course being only one out of about a hundred "favorites"), "Paper Girl". This is one of those songs has always been one of your favorites until it got lost in the mix of all the other greats, but then Mr. Pollard decided to pull it out his bag of tricks at a live show and it forced everyone to go back and revisit it. Revisit this place.

The Air Was Thick With Cat Calls (No Pun Intended)

And now the latest installment of everyone's favorite Miami Vice styled action cop show that stars all cats, Whiskers & Mr. Fancy! Epsiode 2: "Introducing Mr. Fancy"

Yo! MTV Sucks

De La Soul w/ A Tribe Called Quest "Buddy"

Eric B & Rakim "Don't Sweat The Technique"



I know I say it a lot, but hip hop really seems to have lost its way. Remember A Tribe Called Quest? Eric B & Rakim? De La Soul? I guess they're for the most part still around, though fragmented. You're sure as shit not going to hear them on the radio or see them on MTV though. I guess you're not really seeing anything on MTV anymore unless its the Real World Road Rules challenge (a pleading note to all americans: PLEASE stop supporting MTV, yr only encouraging them).



I'm not going to go on a rant about where (the majority of) hip hop failed or why it sucks now because i've done that a million times here. Instead I'd like to take you back to a time when Rakim was still making records, De La Soul and Tribe Called Quest were collaborating and MTV was still playing videos by all of them (and Stetasonic!) every day on Yo! MTV Raps. I know.



I live in the past. I even propose that MTV start over completely. Literally. They should start a new channel where they re-broadcast every day of MTV since the beginning. And in about ten years we'll be enjoying Adam Curry's awesome mane cueing up number one Poison videos on Dial MTV all over again.

Do This Like Brutus

Kool Keith "Taking Pictures"

This song is not for those who may find perverted hip hop in bad taste. Everybody knows that I may just be the world's biggest Kool Keith fan, but even the biggest fan has trouble keeping up with the man's many releases. Now they're not all gems, in fact in recent years his output has regrettably been on the decline quality wise. But for every shitty thrown together jam there's a "Poppa Large" or a "I'm Destructive" buried in the rough that makes you remember why you keep buying Keith's records. Such is the case with "Taking Pictures" from 2003's The Lost Masters.

An absolutely foul song, but any fan of Keith's would have it no other way. Keeping with his canon of absurdly deviant sexual desires, Keith implores a young lady here to "see them titties while i slap you with a roll of fitties". I dare any modern poet to string together together words as eloquently as Kool Keith does. I've said it before Keith obviously has a penchance for pissing on people, as he mentions it A LOT. This song is no exception. As long as you do it in "the right place".

Magnum Be I

Sunday is TV theme song day here at POP ZEUS!



Magnum P.I. theme song

If my memory serves me right, Magnum P.I. was an Vietnam veteran who was a private detective in Hawaii. He also like the Detroit Tigers and he had some black dude who flew him around in a helicopter. I never really watched this show all that often but its amazing what you can pick up from just watching the opening credits. Also, I recently saw Tom Selleck on Conan O'Brien's show and eerily, he seems to not have aged at all. He still looks exactly the same. Somewhere there's a painting of Tom Selleck that's growing old and decrepit while he continues to live his life with reckless abandon. Oh, that Magnum!

Hideous Nomenclature

Nomo "One To One"

So I'm going to Chicago for the Pitchfork Music Festival in July, so I decided to do some research on some the acts performing there that I never heard of before. One of such acts is Nomo. At first I thought perhaps Japanese pitcher Hideo Nomo (I call him Hideous Nomo) was going to come up recite poetry about completely blowing games for the Los Angeles Dodgers, but in fact Nomo is a bunch of college aged looking hipsters who play a sort of new wave jazz.

I am a huge fan of horn charts, so Nomo appealed to me immediately. Their horn section sounds sort of like Staxx session musicians playing afrobeat instrumentals, a very modern sounding jazz. The shit just grooves, and ever since I bought their latest LP New Tones I can't seem to stop playing it. Does mean I'm going to trade in all my AC/DC and KISS records for John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman recordings. Well, no. But I'll gladly trade The Elder for anything you've got. A half bag of melted Gummi Bears perhaps?

The Best Cheese Paper In Town

Cheeseburger "Tiger"

Cheeseburger (the band, not the delicious hot sandwich) sound like a rowdy drunken night on my back porch. Right up to the point where lead singer (who has a fondness for rainbow suspenders, dig this blender) asks "what the fuck is goin on" in the middle of their rager "Tiger". The sound of their self titled LP is that of three guys who got really drunk and decided to stage and all out riff fest.

Cheeseburger's sloppy rock n roll is manufactured only the way New York City scenesters can do it. One part Iggy, two parts Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and enough "I don't give a fuck" attitude to warm the heart of even the most jaded of hipster. Plus their music video features their frontman stumbling around in a fuzzy tiger costume and gettting hit with pies. Well done!

The Hunter Has Become The Hunted!

Deerhunter "Octet"

Having just recently picked up Deerhunter's LP Cryptograms, I'm in a bit of a quandary. I like the record, but does this mean this band hunted down Deerhoof and killed them? Because I enjoy Deerhoof and wouldn't want any harm to be bestowed upon them. Then I saw a picture of the band's frontman, Bradford Cox:



Never mind. It wouldn't even be a fair fight. Anyway, the record Deerhunter has recently recorded and put out there for mass consumption is an ethereal, artsy fartsy masterpiece and I love it. Shades of Sonic Youth darken the corners of this LP while it's droning soundscapes build up to crescendos of Slint like proportions. Sure to be topping my Last.fm charts for the summer months to come. Just a note to Bradford Cox: Don't talk any shit about Vince Neil, okay? Cause that guy is a hothead and he'll totally cream you. He killed a guy named Razzle once!

Soul Attack

Stevie Wonder "We Can Work It Out"

Aretha Franklin "Eleanor Rigby"

Here are two fantastic Beatles covers by Stevie and Aretha. Back in the sixties artists would cover each others songs all the time, even when said songs were relatively brand new. It was like a community where all the songs belonged to each other and anyone's interpretation of it was fair game. Nowadays the same thing happens in the pop world, except they use samples, and most of the time quite uncreatively. This is why I'm moving to France, where the only music is played by accordian grinders wearing striped shirts and berets with tiny monkeys on their shoulders that dance. Oh how I long to be free.

Thundercats HO!

Sunday is TV theme song day here at POP ZEUS!



Thundercats theme song

Snarf? Snarf, snarf snarf snarf snarf snarf snarf. Snarf snarf snarf snarf snarf, snarf snarf snarf snarf. Snarf snarf snarf snarf snarf snarf snarf snarf snarf snarf snarf snarf snarf snarf snarf snarf snarf! Snarf snarf, snarf snarf snarf snarf snarf snarf snarf snarf snarf snarf snarf; snarf snarf snarf snarf. Snarf snarf snarf snarf snarf snarf.

Snarf!

Echuta?!? How Rude!

Radiohead "Skttrbrain (Four Tet Remix)"

Radiohead "Paperbag Writer"

Upon performing my weekly rounds at Amoeba (where I drop at least a dime on unnecessary cd purchases) a few visits ago I came across this Radiohead release. With its cryptic title and confusing japanese sidebar, I wondered if I was in the middle of one of those boring dreams where nothing really exciting happens. Except you end up meeting Robert Palmer and talk about sea urchins. Then you wake up and curse your boring life where even your dreams are banal. This was no dream however. I passed because of its high price tag.

Then just today, during my latest trip to the record store I found it in the new release used bin, a treasure trove for dorks like me who impulsively swoop up anything they might remotely be interested in just cause its at a reduced price. I swear to god now I know how women feel when they're shopping for clothes because I'm the same way with music.

Anyway, I don't know where most of the tracks on Com Lag came from, a few of them are live versions of tracks from the mighty Hail To The Thief. All in all it's a nice little Radiohead compilation for fans only. I dig the sparseness of Paperbag Writer and Skttrbrain here. Radiohead is using so many bleeps and bloops that they've just named R2-D2 the seventh member of the group. The sixth member, of course, is YOU. THE AUDIENCE!

Give yourselves a hand.

SWEATY BALLS

Kyuss "Tangy Zizzle"

Queens Of The Stone Age "Sick Sick Sick"

I have always been a big fan of KYUSS. I type their name in all caps because that's the way the lord intended rock bands of their bad ass magnitude to be expressed (other examples include KISS and AC/DC). Once KYUSS went the way of the dinosaur, I was left with Queens of the Stone Age. Now they may not be KYUSS, but I've always had a lot of fun with Queens of the Stone Age. I was one of the few who actually really enjoyed their last offering, 2005's Lullabies To Paralyze.

That said, I'm really looking forward to their new record Era Vulgaris. The band has always given me what I've expected in the past, and haven't disappointed yet. So here's to ya, Queens. Strive for the day that your band's name may be celebrated in all caps. New to the all caps posse: SLAYER, JUDAS PRIEST and HUEY LEWIS AND THE NEWS.

Out In The Streets They Call It Murder

Horse the Band "Murder"

Horse the Band "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"

Horse the Band hails from Hollywood, but they were recommended to me by my rock star friends from England, Enter Shikari. They told me if I liked death metal as well as video game music I'd love these guys. Well, after a few listens I was sold. Horse the Band, despite once again having a horrible band name (is the world running out of good band names? Its a possibility) rocks the shit out of a tiny casio sounding keyboard with growling vocals and heavy guitars.

The band obviously has a fondness for early nineties cartoons, as they do a cover of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme song. I realize this could have been used on Sunday, which is TV theme song day here at POP ZEUS!, but its also a track by a new artist. And if I had done that the world would have stopped turning, fell off its axis and everything we know would fall into dissarray. This is much safer.

Dance Into The Fire

Volcano, I'm Still Excited! "In Green"

Volcano I'm Still Excited, despite having a rather despicable name, have won me over with their fantastic single "In Green". It truly warmed my cockles. Unfortunately I found out about the band a bit too late, as they seemed to have disbanded in order to become filmmakers. Ex-members of Volcano recently finished the film The Puffy Chair, which has been making the festival rounds as of late. Sheesh. Every rock star wants to be a movie star. And every movie star just wants to do mountains of cocaine and drive their Mercedes into the front of a children's clothing store during business hours. Is that really too much to ask? God bless America.

Everwhere You Look Everywhere You Go There's A Heart, An Ear To Hold On To

Sunday is TV theme song day here at POP ZEUS!



Full House theme song

The following is a true story. Once I was at a bar in Los Angeles and I went into the bathroom to urinate. Got me so far? So there I was peeing in a urinal with two vacant urinals on either side of me when who walks up and unzips but none other than John Stamos, aka Uncle Jesse from Full House. Mere seconds later, another person walks up to the other empty urinal and its Bob Saget, aka Danny Whatshisname, also from said bad late 80s tv show. At this point the gears in my head are turning and I'm no longer concentrating on my duty at hand, so I look at the both of them and say "Well it looks like we got a Full House in here guys!". Their responses were annoyed groans. This is just one of many Hollywood stories that can be found in the upcoming book 'Kevin Makes An Incredible Ass Out Of Himself In Front Of Celebrities', on sale now at a retailer near you.

Dead Cats, Dead Rats

I thought I'd take this Saturday to direct my beloved readers of POP ZEUS! over to another thing i'm involved with over at Superdeluxe.com. Super Deluxe is an offshoot of Adult Swim where several extremely talented comedians and filmmakers have gathered to produce short series and films for your guffawing enjoyment. Don't ask how they ever let me be involved in it. Anyway, one of the shows I worked on is called Whiskers & Mr. Fancy and its a cop action show with all real live cats. My own cats are "actors" in the show. Obviously they slept their way to the top. Or just rubbed their butt on it. The top, that is.

Check out Whiskers & Mr. Fancy here.

For The Record, I Thought He Was Called The Papist

The Capes "Mexican Broads"

The Capes "Supergirls"

The Capes "Firstbase"

The Capes "Tightly Wound"

South London's the Capes are not afraid to be embarassingly poppy. They come across as a Rentals for the 00s and if they don't tickle your sweet tooth then you must already have a mouth full of cavities. Ha ha ha ha! ZING!

England sure seems to be pumping out a lot of bands like this lately. Indie rock sounding groups who straddle that fine line between straight ahead pop and guitar swing. I for one am happy about this recent phase. This is the kind of music poeple make summer mixtapes for. Then at the end of the summer they wonder what the hell they were ever thinking and why on earth did they hook up with that goth girl they met at the Hot Chip concert. And why were they ever listening to Hot Chip in the first place. Fortunately we have the internets to document every waking moment of every human being's life now, so you can go back and figure out where you went wrong.