This is So Cool

Jeez, my kid gets Broome Bituminous. That hardly seems fair.


Rockers to sponsor under-10 team

The team runs out to Motorhead's Ace of Spades
A Lincoln boys football team have won a sponsorship coup with a difference after striking a deal with heavy metal band Motorhead.

The Greenbank under-10s B team have the internationally renowned band's name on their shirts along with the band's motif - a skull named Snaggletooth.

The North Hykeham team also run out to the band's famous Ace of Spades track.

Team manager Gary Weight said the deal came about as he used to know lead singer Lemmy.

As a somewhat reluctant soccer mom, I'll admit it: I am sooooo jealous.

UPDATE: How did I miss this thing? (h/t Tom - 大肚腩)

Separated at Birth?

With apologies to SPY, which I read for its whole run, pretty much.





















Dick Cheney and Tik Tok?

I blame Comandante Agi, a commenter of watertiger's, who noted: Is Cheney asleep again? Time to wind his pacemaker again...

One difference: Tik Tok has more hair. And more organic parts.

On The Biz

The NYTimes profiles an indie film called "Before the Music Dies."

Maybe you’ve seen the trailer. A guy in a cheap suit jacket, brandishing a big microphone, approaches some unsuspecting young women after a concert. He is making a documentary, allegedly. His manner is naïve, but the questions he asks are plainly insulting. Still, the women are kind enough to play along. He says something weird about bra-burning. They respond politely. Nice.

But this isn’t that fake documentary “Borat.” It’s a real documentary, or at any rate an earnest one: “Before the Music Dies.” The interviewer, eager to make a point about the idiocy of popular music, has found these enthusiastic young women outside an Ashlee Simpson concert. He asks them if they are familiar with Bob Dylan. (At least a few of them aren’t.) He explains Mr. Dylan’s appeal, or tries to: “He used to inspire people to, like, drive to Washington and burn their bras.” Apparently Ms. Simpson has no such incendiary effect. Case closed.

“Before the Music Dies” is the work of a couple of concerned music fans, Andrew Shapter and Joel Rasmussen, who set out to document the decline of “raw, undeniable talent,” as Mr. Shapter puts it, “the kind that doesn’t seem to be around as much in these days of instant pop stars.” The satellite radio network XM is broadcasting the film as an audio documentary. (For more information, visit beforethemusicdies.com.) And the film is touring the country in do-it-yourself style; it is being shown in clubs, at colleges, and in private homes; tomorrow night a guy named Ryan in Minneapolis is inviting people over to watch it.

In the end, author Kalefa Sanneh doesn't really think the film succeeds, but as someone who ruminates amateurishly over the nature of the music business, it might be worth seeing.

Babyblogging: Partay!

Thers has been working on a big project, which means that I've had lots of "quality time" with the offspring lately. A photo record (and working on youtubing Rosie's dancing, which is truly hysterical) follows.



Root beer! Man, she's getting grown-up looking.



I like seven, don't get me wrong. But I'll be happy when climbing the furniture isn't his first goal.



We're thinking of getting him a drool bucket, a la Miles Copperthwaite.

Videoblogging: Lullaby Edition

This is one of my kids' favorite lullabies. Seriously.



I didn't even know there was a video.

Thank You Sir, May I Have Another?

I'm astounded by the kindness and generosity of my friends. Courtesy of Eli, I received CDR of this impossible-to-get album:

As for the eponymous group itself, Bram Tchaikovsky was born Peter Bramall on November 10, 1950, in Lincolnshire, England. He started playing guitar in his teens and was already in a group by the mid-1960's. In the 1970's he formed the All-Time Heroes, with James Roper playing bass, Majo playing keyboards, and Keith Line playing drums. They recorded some demos and also landed themselves a spot supporting Man on tour, but by this time they had become Roper. They changed their name again, reverting to a shorter version of their first name, Heroes, and put out a cover version of Bruce Springsteen's "Growing Up".

Bram originally auditioned for the Motors in February, 1977, and although he failed the first audition he was soon taken on, thus ending the career of Heroes. In 1978, while Andy McMaster and Nick Garvey had the Motors idling while they wrote songs, Tchaikovsky formed Battleaxe with Micky Broadbent playing bass/guitar/keyboards and Keith Boyce (formerly of Heavy Metal) playing drums. They put out a Garvey-produced single, "Sarah Smiles", on the Criminal label before signing to Radar. "Sarah Smiles" would later appear on their first album.

Now known simply by the name of their leader (whose split from the Motors was permanent, but apparently amicable), Bram Tchaikovsky set about recording Strange Man Changed Man in November and December, 1978, and January, 1979, at the Pebble Beach and Basing St. Studios. Mike Oldfield joined them to play tubular bells on the track, "Girl Of My Dreams", which broke into the US Top 40. Co-producer Garvey provided some backing vocals and the bass on "Lady from the USA", while former Heroes sideman Roper took some of the photographs for the album cover. Peter Ker and the members of Bram Tchaikovsky co-produced the album with Garvey.

Wow. I am just speechless. Thanks, sweetheart.

Rock the House: John Hall

It would be remiss of me not to note that the 110th Congress will have a number of interesting firsts: first female speaker, first Muslim member, and first 70's pop star.

John Hall wasn't supposed to win: he did it with very little support from the people who are supposed to support such things. (I'm talking to you, Rahm Emmanuel.) As the lead singer of Orleans, he made his mark in mid-70's soft rock. He's a longtime supporter of renewable energy, and was a primary mover in the group MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy) in the late 70's. He's a guy with a sense of humor. He went on the Colbert Report as a candidate, once the Congressional Republicans stopped talking to SC. He's a smart local politician with good instincts. Maybe he got washed in by the Blue Tsunami, maybe people just liked the idea of a rock star congressman. In any case, he beat an incumbent in a race that wasn't even on the radar for a lot of people, and we here at PowerPop congratulate him.



And he still sings.

Now. How do we get Rick Nielsen to run?

Babyblogging: Testing, Testing, Testing

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Our fabulous California relatives sent us their old digital camera. Apparently, these things are supposed to focus. Who knew? Anyway, just some preliminary tests.

For the Boy

...who's having a rough couple of days. His favorite.



Many thanks to Powerpopulist for finding this one.

(And look for Babyblogging later: we got a new camera, courtesy of Uncle Dennis!

More Thanks!

To NTodd, who sent me a sweet gift for the big Four-Oh: two classics, and a book I've seen around but not had a chance to read yet.
..........

I love this record. When I was about nine, I knew every word to every song, which is a little creepy, if you think about it, what with "Nowhere Man" and "Run for Your Life" on here. I think my older bros were just trying to screw me up. It might surprise people to hear this, but I really didn't have this on CD. NTodd notes on the gift slip that it's the best Beatles' album, in his opinion, "the first one to show Harrison to be the real star." I'd tweak that definition a little, but there's no question that this is the fulfillment of the Revolver promise. It is also my favorite Beatles record, for what it's worth.
..........


This record hardly needs props from me. It's important because it fundamentally changed what rock was deemed able to achieve. It's not so much that any one song is perfect or profound (although a decent argument could be made for "A Day in the Life"), but that it's a tapestry of voices, of snapshots. Truly an astounding accomplishment. The most recent record I can think of which achieved anything remotely resembling it is probably Green Day's American Idiot.
..........


I am really looking forward to reading this book.

Thanks, sweetcheeks! *mwah!*