Supergroups

Thinking about the DCEU. That developing cinematic universe with the DC superheroes. I've found some of the individual films to be enjoyable by themselves, but they don't lend themselves to the sort of cohesion the dudes in charge seem to want.

It's like . . .

Imagine if someone rolled up five dump trucks of fat cash to Paul McCartney's house at 9:15 in the morning and told him to lead a musical supergroup with Jack White, Angus Young, and Ed Sheeran. They'd be hanging in the studio and coming up with sweet licks, wouldn't they? And some of those ideas would probably have the potential to be great songs, but they might not mesh well together without the concerted efforts of an attentive leader. And that's probably not Paul McCartney in this case. He's already led some amazing bands. He's probably just sitting on the side  now and jotting down notes for his next solo album while the other fellows are spinning off in their own directions.

That's how the DC films feel to me sometimes. I'm stil having fun with them, though. And let's be honest. If this fictional supergroup of Paul and the boys ever became a thing, I'd doubtless have fun with that too.

Bonus Question!

Lockheed from Excalibur versus that beast from the Asia album cover! Battle of English supergroup dragons!

Mmm . . . Lockheed can definitely breathe fire, and I assume that he has more combat experience. He was hanging out with Kitty Pryde and the X-Men for a while before he joined Britain's premier superhero team. The Asia dragon splashes around with a shiny metal ball. Does it have telekinetic control over the ball or something? Can it scry with the ball? Is it like what Jareth does with his oft spinning orbs in "Labyrinth"? I don't know. But I'm giving the win to Lockheed. Even without my X-Men bias, it seems pretty clear.

Last Friday's Show!

Last  Friday's show at Duffy's, featuring our new song "Party Messiah"!

Mottled Up

I didn't know that they actually put that Motley Crue movie into production until the weekend of its release. The guy who told me about it was this dude who'd booked some shows for me in the past, and he actually looked like the movie's Nikki Sixx.

But yeah. Crue was one of my favourite bands around 2006. I read "The Dirt". I read Tommy Lee's book too. Around that time, there was all sorts of talk about a feature film adaptation of the Crue biography with Val Kilmer and Christopher Walken in the roles of David Lee Roth and Ozzy Osbourne. Tommy Lee wanted Johnny Depp to play him because he apparently thought they were quite alike, but the general consensus was Ashton Kutcher. Obviously, Ash basically looked like a somewhat more built Tommy. The dude in this movie looked like a skinnier Ashton. It worked. 

But yeah. It was basically what it should have been. I still would have liked to see those wild casting choices from 2006. Val's basically circled back around to the point where he could convincingly play a dissipated Diamond Dave. For those 2 seconds or whatever.

And if I hadn't heard about it from that dude at the beginning of the day, I would have learned by evening from my band.

But it's still not my favourite movie based around the music of Motley Crue. That honour goes to "Hot Tub Time Machine".

Bonus Question!

Best weird casting for a rock star?

I saw "Walk Hard" after I'd already watched "Darjeeling Limited". I remember sitting beside this girl I liked during "Darjeeling" and noting Jason Schwartzman's resemblance in a scene to Ringo Starr. She mumbled agreement.

I later watched "Walk Hard", which featured deliberately miscast Beatles in one scene, but Jason Schwartzman's Ringo seemed out of place because he  actually looked like a natural fit.

Paul McChristmas

I finally heard that Paul McCartney Christmas song on the radio for the first time in 2018. I don't care. I like it. It also highlights what I love about the guy in later years. He's the type of dude who can just roll out of bed and carelessly toss out something that's more enjoyable than the effortful output of the average musician. It's like watching one of those Robert De Niro movies. You know the ones. I'll take him in "New Year's Eve" or "Dirty Grampa" even if he just stumbled on to the set for a single take. Basically, these guys have a very high floor, and I like how they're at a place in life where they can just roll around on it.

Bonus Question!

If they remake "It's a Wonderful Life",

they should get McCartney back in the theme song game to do "Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Life".

Banging and Bumping

Of the traditional Christmas songs, the one that's always stood out to me is "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". This could be due in large part to a holiday episode of some random stop-motion series from the early 90s called "Bump in the Night". Or something. Anyway, the protagonists had to go to Santa's lair for some mission. Maybe Santa was a robot? He was definitely antagonistic, and he had a snowman army that sang that song like an army chant without actually changing it that much. It just worked, and it's been stuck in my head like that since. So yeah. "God Rest" has got to be my number 1 seasonal banger.

Bonus Question!

Merriest gentleman?

Psy.

Global Village Messtival

This June marked my band's third performance at the annual Global Village Festival at Mel Lastman Square, and in the hour before it, I was wondering if it would be the first one to go poorly. Right as Peter, the lead guitarist, was arriving at my door to ride up with me for early setup, I get a message from my former bassist, who was supposed to make this his last show with us. Because he didn't give himself enough time to account for the construction by his house, he doesn't think that he'll be able to make it to the festival by our planned arrival time. He doesn't even think that an attempt to get there by our stage time would be worth it. Earlier in the week, I'd told his replacement not to bother coming because this guy would be there. But then  he wasn't. I texted the replacement but got no response. I bring the bass anyway. Maybe our drummer can play it? I could drum and sing . . . It's less of a show when I'm in the back though. Then it starts to rain as we're journeying up.

As we approach the festival grounds, I get a response from the replacement: "I'll be there." Not even saying that he'll try. This is around a half hour before we're meant to start, and this guy is making a promise. He even has time to shower before he runs over from the subway station. In that time, the rain abates, and we have the best time we've ever had at this event.

Against the odds because we're gods.

Bonus Question!

Best bassist?

The new one!

Feeling The Beets

I've been watching "Doug" for the last bunch of weeks. I never really watched it in childhood, but it's basically my current  breakfast cartoon. From the start, I was liking the music of the fictional band that plays a side role in the show. I can get quite fixated on fictional music. It really does tend to be pretty good. As I'm writing this, I'm wondering if it's in part because the writers generally only have to make a few songs instead of composing albums at a time? Easier to be consistent in low amounts? And there's also there's also the idea that the songs can  often be distillations of a style instead of examples of it. Devo even said that Weird Al's "Dare to be Stupid" was the best Devo song, and I adored that tune before I'd even heard of Devo. That's not exactly the same thing, but it does do a bit to reinforce my thinking here.

Anyway, the band in "Doug" is The Beets, and they basically seem like what The Beatles would be if they were of the early 90s instead of the 60s. I was vaguely aware of some music videos that had been produced for some of their songs, but I didn't even look for their music on iTunes. I didn't want to be disappointed again by being unable to find the ability to easily add obscure musical ephemera to my library. But something prompted me to search for them on there for the first time yesterday. For their main song at least. And I found it! And others! And now my phone's singing them along to what my mind probably would have sung anyway.

Good stuff.

Also. Does the cast remind anyone else of the Archie gang? Doug's the leading everyman, Skeeter's the eccentric best friend with the weird name like Jughead, and Roger's the annoying Reggie analogue with his dark jacket bully style. He even has a similar name, and he came into a similar level of wealth too.

Mr. Bone and Weatherbee would probably get along fairly well too, though their similarities end with their managerial methods.

Bonus Question!

Best fictional song?

Many good ones! But I've really been listening to a lot of Austin Powers's BBC song in recent months.