Month: November 2018 (Page 8 of 9)

Dr. Demento: Covered In Punk

Our first pick today for The 2018 PopCult Gift Guide is a tribute album that was released early this year. It’s a testament to the power and glory of Dr. Demento.

In case you don’t know who that is, since 1974 Dr. Demento has hosted a weekly radio show devoted to the occasionally-abandoned art of novelty records, and he’s been a starmaker in the worlds of comedic music and audio bizarreness. The Dr. Demento Show holds a place in pop culture’s humor wing alongside Mad Magazine and The National Lampoon.

His biggest discovery was Weird Al Yankovic, who famously slipped him a cassette of one of his original songs when Hansen visited his high school back in the mid-1970s, but he was also responsible for bringing Barnes and Barnes, Richard Cheese, Judy Tenuta, Emo Philips and others into the mainstream. Hansen not only discovered these artists, but in many cases he nurtured and encouraged them.

last January a punk rock tribute to Dr. Demento was released by Demented Punk Records. Dr. Demento: Covered In Punk was the brainchild of John Cafiero, of Osaka Popstar, a life-long Demento fan who is also a producer and manager. The record consists of punk rock covers of classic novelty tunes that have been played on The Dr. Demento Show. The album includes new recordings by “Weird Al” Yankovic, the Misfits, the B-52’s Fred Schneider, William Shatner, the late Adam West, Los Straitjackets and more

It’s a match made in heaven, as Demento was an early champion of punk rock, playing tracks by The Ramones, The Dickies, The Sex Pistols, Ian Dury and others back before punk entered into the mainstream. Among the songs on Dr. Demento: Covered In Punk are such Dr. Demento Show favorites as “Shaving Cream,” “Surfin’ Bird,” “The Monster Mash,” “Lydia, The Tattooed Lady,” “My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama” and Yankovic’s “Eat It.”

All but one of the 19 tunes on Dr. Demento: Covered In Punk, were recorded especially for the set. Only a never-released Joan Jett & the Blackhearts’ version of “Science Fiction/Double Feature” from The Rocky Horror Show already existed. On the record, Dr. Demento provides newly-recorded commentary between songs, so that it recreates the experience of listening to The Dr. Demento Show. It’s like an extended episode of his show, with all-new music.

The standout tracks are Adam West’s cover of the Phil Harris classic “The Thing,” and Yankovic’s first-ever studio recording of a non-parody cover, The Ramone’s “Beat On The Brat.”

You should be able to order Dr. Demento: Covered In Punk from any record store that carries new releases, or you can turn to Amazon or the record label.

Check out a sample with this music video, Osaka Popstar’s cover of the Barnes and Barnes classic, “Fish Heads”

William Matheny: Moon Over Kenova/”Christian Name”

For our local pick in today’s 2018 PopCult Gift Guide we have a recent album and brand-new single from Mannington-born, Morgantown-based singer/songwriter, William Matheny. Matheny has been on the scene for some time, working solo and in a variety of bands. His musical style has been compared to the likes of Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Marshall Crenshaw, and The Modern Lovers’ Jonathan Richman.

Earlier this year Matheny released an EP, which thanks to bonus tracks has been expanded to full-album length. “Moon Over Kenova” now includes fourteen tracks of Matheny’s trademark witty songwriting and catchy alt-country tunes.

Track Listing:

1) Moon Over Kenova
2) Tonight & Every Night From Now On
3) That’s How I Got to Memphis
4) Blood Moon Singer (alternate version)
5) Just Be Simple
6) God’s Left Hand (Live on Mountain Stage)
7) Out for Revenge (Live on Mountain Stage)
8) Blood Moon Singer (Live on Mountain Stage)
9) Moon Over Kenova (Live on Mountain Stage)
10) Living Half to Death (Live on Mountain Stage)
11) 29 Candles (Live at the Loft, Huntington, WV)
12) God’s Left Hand (Live at the Loft, Huntington, WV)
13) Living Half to Death (Live at the Loft, Huntington, WV)
14) I Wish I Was Back in West Virginia With the Sun Shining on my Face (demo)

In addtion, there is also a new single, with songs not on “Moon Over Kenova.” You can get “Christian Name” b/w “Flashes and Cables” as a 7″ vinyl single with a custom sleeve featuring artwork by Bryn Perrott. “Christian Name” was written by William Matheny, while “Flashes and Cables” was written by Will Johnson, originally recorded by Centro-Matic.

You can purchase both the “Moon Over Kenova” CD and the “Christian Name” single, plus his earlier recordings and merch at William Matheny’s website, or you can check to see if they are in stock at our local record stores. And you can watch the official video for “Christian Name” right here…

Yeti In My Spaghetti

Next up in the 2018 PopCult Gift Guide is a fun gift that’s great for kids, or for an entire family. Yeti In My Spaghetti is a fun, silly game that can occupy your time for hours on end as your family members try to master the art of Yeti-Spaghetti Zen. We reviewed this game earlier in the year, and couldn’t think of a better kid-friendly gift at a low price.

Yeti In My Spaghetti is recommended for ages four and up, but it’s got an addictive quality that makes it hard to resist at any age. The premise is simple. Inside the box you find a bowl, thirty pieces of plastic “spaghetti,” and a little plastic Yeti. You’ll also find the rules in English and Spanish. They aren’t very complicated.

You lay the “spaghetti” across the bowl, building a platform on which you place the Yeti. Then the players take turns pulling out the “spaghetti” strands, one by one, until the Yeti falls into the bowl.

It’s sort of like a cross between pick-up sticks and Jenga, with the added ingredient of snow monsters and pasta.

In a two-player game, the person who pulls out the spaghetti strand that makes the Yeti falls is the loser. With more than two players, the winner is the one with the most spaghetti.

It’s simple. It’s goofy…and it’s a lot of fun. This is not a game that requires a lot of brain power. There is skill involved, but it’s not like you’re going to have to “phone a friend” or anything.

Yeti In My Spaghetti is a great throwback to the goofy, fun games of my youth, and you ought to be able to find it anywhere that games are sold. Some retailers have it for under ten bucks now.

Comic Book Implosion
by Keith Dallas and John Wells
TwoMorrows Publishing
ISBN-13: 978-1605490854
$21.95

Our first entry in today’s 2018 PopCult Gift Guide is the perfect gift for the fan of mainstream comics history on your shopping list. Forty years ago last summer one of the most traumatic events in the lives of young comic book readers occurred. DC Comics, just a couple of months after launching a bold initiative that saw their books expanded to include more story pages at a higher price was ordered by the corporate execs at Warner Communications to slash their publishing output by 40%, cut their regular books back to the standard 32-page size and lay off several members of their editorial staff. This came to be known as “The DC Implosion,” a takeoff of their ad campaign proclaiming “The DC Explosion.”

In Comic Book Implosion, Keith Dallas and John Wells have assembled an oral history using new interviews, combined with contemporaneous news reports and interviews from the comics fan press (which was quite vital at the time), and sales reports and house ads from the comics involved. They have done a tremendous job creating a definitive record of what was a major turning point in the history of the American comic book.

It’s a fascinating look inside the comic book business of the 1970s, which was in a serious decline and was very close to dying out completely. Not only does this book capture this turmoil in detail, it also sets the record straight on a woefully mis-reported event in comics history.

About ten years ago one of the many comic book news sites ran a very long article to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of The DC Implosion, and it was a remarkable piece in that it was so filled with misstartments, misiniformation and even a basic misunderstanding of when the event happened, that it took years to correct all the errors in fact that had arisen from it. Folks who were ignorant of the true history cited this online article and spread a wealth of wrong info around the web in record time. The piece in question turned out to have been written by someone who hadn’t even been born when all this took place…and it showed.

That’s a major reason that this book is so important. Another is that it reveals hard facts about a time when the comics industry was in great peril. In the 1970s we lost several major comic book publishers as Dell and Gilberton shut down completely, Charlton, Harvey and Gold Key went through periods of using all reprints, and eventually all shut down, Atlas Comics came and went in little more than a year and DC and Marvel watched sales plummet to the point where both companies undertook massive reductions in the amount of titles they published in 1978. Marvel actually cancelled more books that DC did, but they didn’t do it all at once, so it wasn’t as noticeable.

Comic Book Implosion is highly-recommended for anyone interested in comic book history. It’s a great read, filled with tons of information and detail and even has side-chapters on DC’s infamous “Cancelled Comics Cavalcade,” a couple of limited-run xeroxed collections of stories that DC had commissioned during the 1970s which had never been published (they also have a handy guide to the stories from these collections that did eventually see print). Dallas and Wells do a tremendous job of establishing the context and consequences of this fateful and drastic business move. It’s also lavishly-illustrated with photos of the key players and plenty of examples of the comics in question, including eight pages in full color.

You can order the book directly from the publisher, or at a discount, from Amazon. You can also order it from any local bookseller by using the ISBN code listed above.

Bastard Battalion: A History of the 83rd Chemical Mortar Battalion in World War II
by Terry Lowry
35th Star Publishing
ISBN-13: 978-0-9965764-1-3
Price: $39.95

This newely-republished historical overview written by local historian (and ace guitarist) Terry Lowry, is the perfect gift for the history buff on your list with an added interest in World War II and local contributions to our military campaigns.

When the 83rd Chemical Mortar Battalion was deactivated on November 26, 1945, at Camp Myles Standish, Taunton, Massachusetts, their record read: 3 Distinguished Service Crosses (all posthumously), 5 Legions of Merit (one posthumous), 9 Soldiers Medals, 39 Silver Stars, 97 Bronze Stars, 5 Croix de Guerre, and 876 Purple Hearts and 91 Oak Leaf Clusters. 3 Unit Citations, 508 days in combat, and an estimated 500,000 rounds fired. They also supported 17 infantry divisions, 3 armored divisions, 2 airborne divisions, and numerous task forces, including Rangers and British commandos, and fought under 6 American Corps, 1 French Corps, 2 American armies, and 1 French Army. They fought on two continents and participated in 6 campaigns, including amphibious and glider assaults.

Their firepower was felt in Sicily, Italy, France, Germany, and Austria. Places such as Gela, San Pietro, Ceppagna, Anzio, Minturno, Venafro, Briancon, the Vosges, Colmar Pocket, Zellenberg, and Riquewihr saw them at their best. The battalion also lost nearly half their number in the sinking of LST 422, one of the worst naval tragedies of World War II. And after all this they were classified as Service Forces not entitled to wear the combat badge they repeatedly earned.

West Virginia contributed over 30 men to the battalion, including the author’s father. Charleston resident Rupert Burford’s unpublished wartime memoir is often quoted, as are the letters and personal correspondence of the many West Virginians and other members of the 83rd.

The author spent nearly ten years researching this book, interviewing numerous veterans, spending countless hours at the National Archives reading official reports, attended reunions, and gathered thousands of photographs. This book is truly a great World War II book and a fitting legacy to the men of the 83rd.

Chapters include: Edgewood Arsenal, Camp Gordon, Camp Myles Standish, Atlantic Crossing, North Africa, Sicily, Salerno, Chiunzi Pass, Venafro, San Pietro, Anzio, LST 422, Southern France, Briancon, Vosges, Colmar Pocket, Germany, Occupation Period, and more….

Bastard Battalion: A History of the 83rd Chemical Mortar Battalion in World War II can be ordered directly from the publisher, or from any bookseller, using the ISBN code above.

The Prisoner Jack Kirby Gil Kane Art Edition
Titan Comics
ISBN-13: 978-1785862878
List Price $79.99 (discount price at Amazon, $49.37)

Drawn by two of the true great comic book legends, Jack Kirby and Gil Kane, this is a facsimile collection of a ‘long-lost’, unpublished legendary comic book based on the cult classic 1967 British TV show, The Prisoner, co-created, written, directed and starring Patrick McGoohan (Scanners, Braveheart).

This giagantic book (size-wise, not page count-wise) is a stunning showcase for two of the greatest comic book legends: Jack “The King” Kirby and Gil Kane. This art-sized hardcover book collects long-lost pages by Kirby and Kane, never before published, based on the cult classic 1967 British TV show, The Prisoner. The art is printed original size, which means the book is nearly a foot-and-half tall and over a foot wide. The high-quality reproduction makes it seem like you’re looking directly at the original artwork.

It also contains facsimiles of the original script by Steve Englehart, and bonus features and creator bios written by Englehart and Bob Wayne. Unlike some of the other “Artist Edition” type books, this volume contains work that was not previously published. Save for a few sample pages published in fan magazines, this is all-new stuff for most readers.  In the mid-1970s Marvel Comics made two aborted attempts to adapt the British cult hit TV Show, The Prisoner, into comics and they’ve remained unseen until now.

The first attempt, written and drawn by the legendary Jack Kirby, was abandoned before the book was even finished. Some of the art in this book is complete, with inks by Mike Royer, while the rest of Kirby’s story is printed directly from his original pencils.

A second attempt was written by the great Steve Englehart, and drawn by another legend, Gil Kane (Green Lantern, Spider-man, His Name Is Savage, among others). It’s presented with full-page reproductions of Kane’s un-inked pencils, then again in lettered form with Kane’s pages presented next to Englehart’s corresponding script. This entire story remains un-inked, save for one page that was repurposed for a convention program cover (seen left).

Not only do you get to read two previously unpublished works by masters of the form, but you also get to see the process and learn more about what comic book art looks like while it’s being made. One of the bonuses in this edition is an elaborate two-page spread drawn by Jack Kirby and inked by Mike Royer, which has been colored by Mike Allred, just to give you an idea of how much color brings to the finished product.

This book is the perfect gift for fans of The Prisoner, or Jack Kirby or Gil Kane, or just anyone who loves the art form of comics and wants to appreciate the artwork close-up.

Originally slated as a suggestion for “Big Ticket Day” here in The 2018 PopCult Gift Guide, this book has now been so heavily discounted by Amazon that it’s now just a regular entry.

The IT Crowd: The Complete Series

Quite simply one of the funniest sitcoms in the history of television, The IT Crowd is still hovering around cult status in America, and this box set of all four seasons and the series finale special may help change that. This is the perfect gift for anybody who’s a fan of the show already, but it will be especially wonderful for fans of British comedy who have not yet been exposed to the brilliance of this series. The full series is available on Netflix, but this set is a physical object that you can wrap, and it has cool bonus features.

In the gleaming high-rise offices of Reynholm Industries, powerful executives oversee billion dollar business deals. But in the dark and shabby basement, the company’s IT Support Team – bitter slacker Roy (Chris O’Dowd), socially inept Moss (Richard Ayoade), and their new boss, computer illiterate Jen (Katherine Parkinson) – rule their own domain of professional irresponsibility, mega-nerd ecstasy, and random acts of personal insanity.

This is the show that The Big Bang Theory wishes it could be. Rather than a hack sitcom filled with one-dimensional characters who represent what stupid people think smart people act like, The IT Crowd is filled with realistic eccentrics who have real geek/nerd cred, instead of just sporting T-shirts based on properties that just happen to be owned by their corporate parent. These very intelligent characters manage to say things that IT people really say, and they are socially awkward without resorting to TBBT’s cheap “every character is Urkle” approach.

And that geek/nerd cred will win extra points if the person you’re giving this to is a fan of indie comics like the ones published by Fantagraphics. The background of the character’s office is splattered with the work of Jim Woodring, Los Bros. Hernadez, Daniel Clowes and more. There are vinyl toys and posters and comics all over the set.

Creator/writer Graham Lineham has created a world where people have absurd reactions to absurd situations in the most hilarious way possible. One episode in particular, “The Work Outing,” ranks as one of the single funniest episodes of any sitcom produced anywhere in the world, ever. The series as a whole is one of the best-written sitcoms, with one of the strongest casts, that I’ve ever seen.

Bonus material includes commentary on select episodes, an interview with Graham Lineham, music videos, alternate versions of the animated opening, deleted scenes, outtakes and more.

The IT Crowd: The Complete Series should be available anywhere that sells video box sets, but your best bet is Amazon, who currently have it for under $36.

Check out a sample, below…

This month we’re not doing a theme for Monday Morning Art. We’ll just offer up unrelated digital doodlings from your PopCulteer all month as we focus on the 2018 PopCult Gift Guide. Today’s art is an abstract painting, created Sunday morning, which, after completion, looked to be a bit like an aerial view of the fall foliage changing color around a stream or river. Really it was just me pushing the digital colors around until they looked interesting. You may click the image to see it bigger.

In other endeavors, today over on The AIR, we present a two part Monday Marathon. From 7 AM until 5 PM you can tune in to hear every episode to date of Psychedelic Shack, presented by Nigel Pye. Beginning at 5 Pm we will bring you ten episodes of Harrah’s Hard & Heavy, hosted by Mr. Lee Harrah, and we’ll follow that with Lee’s appearance on Six Degrees of Separation, plus two bonus episodes of Word Association with Lee & Rudy. The remainder of this week will see The AIR present the best episodes of our regular shows in their normal timeslots, as we plough through more of the 2018 PopCult Gift Guide. In fact, you can expect three more entries later today, and if you look over to the right, you’ll see that we have changed the layout of this blog somewhat, so you can now see the ten most recent posts, which we hope will make it easier to keep up with the Gift Guide.

Tune in at The AIR Website, or on this neat little embedded player…

John Lennon: Imagine – The Ultimate Collection/Complete Fan Bundle

For the die-hard John Lennon/Beatles fan on your holiday shopping list, we have two (or more) versions of Lennon’s most commerical solo album, Imagine. This qualifies for BIG TICKET DAY due to the sheer amount of goodies included.

The Ultimate Collection features brand new 5.1 Surround Sound and Stereo mixes of the Imagine album, Singles, Extras and Out-takes from 1971, Raw Studio Mixes live in Surround Sound from the centre of Ascot Sound Studios, minimalist Elements Mixes, the Evolution Documentary that explores the growth of each song from demo to final mix, and interviews with John & Yoko by old friend Elliot Mintz – to create the Ultimate Deep Listening Experience for the Imagine album.

Released separately is the video release, John Lennon & Yoko Ono: Imagine / Gimme Some Truth, which collect both films fully restored and remastered. This collection of two films by John and Yoko, Imagine and Gimme Some Truth (on DVD and blu-Ray) . Both physical formats include exclusive, never-before-seen extras and have been hand restored, frame-by-frame, from the original film reels and remastered for HD and Blu-ray.

The DVD or Blu-ray alone aren’t big-ticket items, but if you have a really devout Lennonista on your gift list, you can spring for the Complete Fan Bundle, which includes not only The Ultimate Collection AND either the DVD or Blu-ray of the films, AND, the vinyl release of Imagine, remastered, with a full disc of extras, pressed on clear vinyl.

Imagine The Ultimate Collection retails for $74.99 and can be found anywhere that sells music (and boxed sets). The Complete Fan Bundle includes The Ultimate Collection and the 2 LP clear vinyl plus the video, and can be ordered from Discover Music, where you can choose either the DVD or Blu-ray for $130.

BLUE LIGHTNING – E-Z APP TRAIN CONTROL Train Set

For our next BIG TICKET DAY offering, we’re going to recommend the Bachmann BLUE LIGHTNING – E-Z APP TRAIN CONTROL train set. We saw this operating system a few years ago at Toy Fair, and we really impressed. This is an HO Train Set that comes with all the track you need, plus the wall power supply and a working deisel locomotive with four cars, plus this set will work with Bachmann’s E-Z-APP controls, which allow you to use a smartphone or tablet to control your train.

We’ll go to the company’s description for full details:

Enjoy wireless touch-screen control of E-Z App®-equipped trains through your smart device for Android™ or your Apple® (iOS8 or later) smart device and the FREE E-Z App® download. Now you can have speed, direction, lighting, and sound control at your fingertips. Additional features include simple locomotive consisting with speed matching and bonus Christmas programming that that allows E-Z App®-equipped train operation that is synchronized with holiday music.

Features of E-Z App® Touch-Screen Train Control include:

Wireless control with any Android™ device (running Android™ 4.3 or later) or any iPhone®, iPad®, or iPod touch® device (running iOS8 or later)
operates from up to 100 feet away with Bluetooth® Smart technology
realistic, dynamic engine sound broadcast through your smart device
requires 16 volt DC or DCC track power for operation
ready to launch and use instantly after downloading the FREE Bachmann E-Z App® from the Google Play store or Apple App Store
no configuration or additional equipment required

This E-Z App®-equipped train set features:

E-Z App®-equipped FT diesel locomotive with touch-screen wireless control and operating headlight
40′ box car
gondola
off-center cupola caboose
56″ x 38″ oval of snap-fit nickel silver E-Z Track® including 12 pieces of curved track, 3 pieces of straight track, and 1 plug-in terminal rerailer
wall power pack
illustrated instructions

We held off on recommending this set until the App was available for Android devices as well as Apple products, because more people can take advantage of the cool features this way. The way this works is that the device connects via Bluetooth technology to the engine itself, which adds to the fun and gives you more precise control over your train, plus it lets you combine old-school toy trains with high-tech wireless technology.

The BLUE LIGHTNING – E-Z APP TRAIN CONTROL train set is $315 if you order directly from Bachmann, but you may find discounted prices at other online or local retailers. Remember, Google is your friend. Recommended for the tech-savvy toy train fan on your gift list.