Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Also, our neighbors nearly burned down the building Sunday night and we slept through it

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Nothing's really riled me up lately for whatever reason. I guess the Super-Penis Follies were just too intense, leaving me depleted and flaccid. (Actually, as soon as I'm good and sure that the topic has finally died down, I'll spring a series of Penis Polls on you folks. First up: Doctor Octopus or Alfred the butler--whose is bigger?)

I was thinking about saying something about Johanna Draper Carlson's recent ax-grinding session, or maybe her possible attempt to provoke a feud between John Cooke and his former publisher TwoMorrows. But the former led me to write a brief-yet-boring essay on why it might not be the worst thing in the world for young manga readers to pick up some Marvel and DC comics (the short version: I would hope that it would convince these hypothetical readers that they like the medium of comics, regardless of format or genre, thus perhaps encouraging them to eventually try the kinds of comics published by Fantagraphics, D&Q, First Second, etc.). As for the latter, I didn't really have anything to say at all, other than I'm pretty sure I saw that Comic Book Artist cover earlier this year, leading me to think that Cooke is probably not trying to sabotage his former publisher.

Anyway, other than continuing phallocentric discussion and my getting irritated with Carlson, there's not much in which to sink my fangs. Of course, whenever I've made a post like this in the past, it's usually followed by a bunch of crazy shit which provides material for days and days of lazy posting. Perhaps posting a musical-type clip will hasten this process.



This is for you Johnny Bacardi!

3 comments:

Johnny Bacardi said...

You won't change my mind, but those are some stellar harmonies in that Hollies clip, no doubt about it!

I think I definitely need to get some of their music in my collection ASAP.

Boy, that lead guitarist looks like he's every bit of 15 years old...is that Allan Clarke, or Tony Hicks? Or someone else?

By the way, do you like the Move? And have you heard XTC's great Hollies homage "Vanishing Girl" on one of the Dukes of Stratosphear albums?

Dick Hyacinth's Ghost said...

If you're looking to pick up some Hollies, might I recommend the three volume Hollies at Abbey Road series? I only have the first volume, which is a great, great introduction. Plus it's cheap--I think I bought it for $9 new. I'd imagine the second volume is pretty good too, but I've got most of the albums which would be correspond with it. The third volume would be the post-Nash material, which I generally avoid (though I'm very fond of "The Air That I Breathe"). And that's Tony Hicks on guitar, I'm pretty sure.

I like the Move okay, certainly more than ELO. My wife's always citing "I Can Hear the Grass Grow" as an example of how stupid my taste in music is. I really should spend some more time with them, as they bridge the gap between two genres I like (British psych and prog rock, right?).

I really haven't spent much time with XTC or Dukes of Stratosphear. Are they on the Children of Nuggets comp? I've got a copy of it sitting around somewhere; I listened to about half of it and skipped through everything but the Lyres songs. I'll be sure to check them out in the future.

Johnny Bacardi said...

I'll keep an eye out for that at Abbey Road sampler, thanks!

I'll admit right up front that I do like ELO quite a bit, so don't hold that against me! The Move's sound got a little more sophisticated after the first LP, which had "Grass" (which is a great little popsong, tell your wife I said so, heh heh)- eventually Roy Wood started working a lot of classical stuff into his songs, and the next couple of albums and singles did indeed bridge that psych-prog gap. The Move didn't really sound like any other band from that era, if you ask me. I wish there was a good, affordable compilation available; the ones I see on Amazon favor the early days over the later period. I've got the 3-CD Movements collection, which incorporates their first three albums and all the singles. It's pricey, but it's a great way to get acquainted.

The Dukes of Stratosphear was XTC under an alias; they put out two EPs under the name, which were both collected on one CD. I think you'd really like that cut- not only does it sound like the Hollies, but it's a great song on its own merits... and a glance at Amazon just now shows me that it's track one on disc one of that Children of Nuggets set! How about that!