What? No Plates? Even Elvis Has Plates.

I saw an ad for these Michael Jackson lithographs today and was disappointed on so many different levels. You mean to tell me that the "King of Pop" couldn't receive his own plate set or commemorative gold coin. Seriously, I was hoping for the plate set. Although, after seeing this commercial, I'm as interested in owning these as the people in the ad are.

Doolittle Turns 20...

...and Pixies will celebrate it by playing the album in its entirety. In November. the band will play 14 shows across the U.S. promoting their 1989 masterpiece as well as some of the b-sides from the album. Tour dates are listed below.

Sub Pop: Acting Locally, Thinking Globally

Earlier this week, Harmonix revealed the Rock Band Network. A network that will allow record labels, artists, game devlopers, sound engineers and fans to create downloadable content to add to your Rock Band library for a price ($0.50-3.00) that you will set. The song submitted then will be reviewed by developers for playability, lyrical content, copyright infringement, etc. If accepted, you can have your very own song on Rock Band. This, quite simply, is one of the biggest things to happen to music in the last decade (along with Napster, MP3 players and, well, the rise of music games in general). What makes this so great?

One Hit Wonder Or One Hit Blunder

Today's Subject: "Afternoon Delight" by Starland Vocal Band


It's about time. Finally, someone wrote a song about nooners. Not just about nooners but about saying we can have sex twice today. Throughout the history of Pop music, there have been songs about masturbation, lust, unrequited love, lesbians and whatever else you can think of. It took Starland Vocal Band, however, to say that we want our loving in the afternoon.

Soundtrack Jihad: Footloose vs. Xanadu

In my recent travels throughout the city, I found myself purchasing two DVDs for a mere six bucks. Late Friday night, I made the decision to revisit these two films back to back for three things: 1) their contributions to Western cinema, 2) their awesome soundtracks and 3) to make sure, I still enjoyed these films and didn't waste six bucks (get $94 more and you can buy 100 tacos).

These two films were Footloose and Xanadu.

The Summer Of Beasties Is Postponed

If you hadn't heard the news yet, MCA of Beastie Boys has a cancerous tumor on his left salivary gland. Luckily, it's localized and easily treatable. Due to this, the Beasties are canceling their summer performances and pushing the new album back while MCA has surgery and recovers. H & J would like to wish MCA a safe surgery and a speedy recovery because he's "cool as a cucumber in a bowl of hot sauce."

Ipecac Turns 10

It's seems like only yesterday that I was a fresh faced kid with dreams of the big city. So I quit my job at the local pizzeria, grabbed my guitar and moved to the city. There, I was working on my career as singer-songwriter while dancing on bars at Coyote Ugly...oh wait, none of that actually happened to me and that happened a year after hearing the first Fantomas album.

...And Now For Something Completely Different

Here are a couple of free downloads that you will hopefully enjoy.

Beck: Helping Make The Internet Safe, One Video At A Time

Beck has been a personal favorite for years. With each album, he is able to reinvent himself as an artist and musician while still sounding very much like Beck. Now, he's on the path to reinventing his recent album, Modern Guilt, as well as The Velvet Underground's debut album in the form of videos on his website, Beck.com.

The Dead Weather - Horehound

Horehound is the debut album from The Dead Weather, a supergroup featuring members of The White Stripes, The Kills, Queens of the Stone Age and The Greenhornes, is more than just another fuzzy, Jack White side project. It's a surprisingly good album in a time where the few supergroups that have formed in recent history have made nothing but mediocre albums. The key is The Dead Weather sound nothing like the bands the members come from.

One Hit Wonder Or One Hit Blunder

Today's Subject: "Whoomp! (There It Is)" by Tag Team


"Tag Team back again..." The thing is where did they come from to begin with. The world may never know but according to Wikipedia, it's Miami so I'll agree to that. In 1993, "Whoomp! (There It Is)" spawned a catchphrase, a jock anthem and a reason to use whoomp in everyday conversation. It also became one of the most overplayed and slightly annoying one hit wonders in Rap and music in general.

5 Awesome Musical Moments In Film

Lloyd Dobler holding a boombox over his head while blasting "In Your Eyes" outside of Diane Court's window is an iconic musical movie scene. It is, probably, one of the most iconic music scenes in film history slightly rivaled by Mr. Blonde cutting off the cop's ear while Stealers Wheel's "Stuck In The Middle" played on the radio or Linda Barrett slowly rising out of the pool and opening her top to The Cars' "Moving In Stereo" These are a small amount of great music moments. With so many great moments, there are probably half as many that are overlooked. Here are five of those awesome and sadly overlooked moments.

14-18: Teenage Music Geekdom (July Mixtape)

Side 1
1. Diary Of A Madman by Gravediggaz
2. All Mine by Portishead
3. Sick To Death by Atari Teenage Riot
4. Shimmy Shimmy Ya by Ol' Dirty Bastard
5. Beergut by Fishbone
6. Bobby & Joe by Hepcat
7. Your Woman by White Town
8. Vow by Garbage
9. Sweet Shop Avengerz by Bis
10. 20 Nothing by Skankin' Pickle

Side B
11. Hell Of A Hat by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
12. Birthday Cake by Cibo Matto
13. Lorraine's Car by Cake Like
14. Tyler by Toadies
15. The Nurse Who Loved Me by Faiure
16. Eddie Vedder by Local H
17. Skull Of A German by The Jesus Lizard
18. Pay For Me by Whale
19. Elbow Room by Hurricane
20. Hooligans by Rancid

Mario Van Peebles...Rapping In A Movie...Really? Why?

In the last 25 years, the portrayal of Hip Hop and Rap in film has been one of a tougher image. With the exceptions of CB4, Disorderlies and Fear Of A Black Hat, all of which were comedies, rappers have either beat up people, come from the mean streets or hustled to get ahead all while taking a break to rhyme for a scene or two. Rappin' contains none of this. Instead, it's an unintentional comedy about an ex-con gettting out of jail and becoming a rhyming Robin Hood. That says it all and should be the end of this but much like the movie being mentioned, it goes on and on.