Mothra Returns. Gamera Weeps

Danzig - Mother
Pete Wingfield - 18 with a Bullet
Captain Beefheart - Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles

The Who - I'm a Boy
Talking Heads - Born Under Punches
Ween - Learnin to Love

Beck - Asshole
Papa M - Pissing in the Wind
Tarbox Ramblers - Jug Band Music

Andrew W K - Girls Own Love
Weezer - Why Bother?
Pixies - Alec Eiffel

The Flaming Lips - This Here Giraffe
Hall and Oates - Rich Girl
Blank Blank and the Wilson Street Warriors - He-Man Hit Me

Smog - My Shell (Electric Version)
The Replacements - Androgynous
Tom Waits - Lie To Me

The Kinks - Stop Your Stobbing
Creedence Clearwater Revival - My Baby Left Me
Sam Cooke - Bring It On Home To Me
The Minders - Big Machine

Polvo - Tilebreaker
Pavement - Circa 1762
The New Pornographers - Breakin' the Law

Rob Cartelli - Father's Best
We Will Build - Greece, Finally
Akron/Family - Shoes

Two Shades of Tambourines

Long gone are the days of 120 Minutes, Yo! MTV Raps and Headbanger's Ball so I don't see many videos these days but I did want to share this one with you. At work today, we were talking about ASCII art, that amazing old skool computer art created by a bunch of letters and symbols all perfectly placed to make a larger picture. Initially, these works were done by hand but now there are programs that allow text or image to ASCII conversions without stress or strain or hours wasted finding the perfect letters to represent your ASCII Mona Lisa's mouth.
Here's an example of an ASCII bird, in color!

If you search through the internet you can find pages and pages devoted to this amazing art form. There are picture galleries and animation galleries but also Star Wars, The Incredibles and even an ASCII version of Deep Throat.

Apparently, Beck is also a fan because he made a video done almost completely in ASCII art. The song is ok but the artwork is mindblowing, especially half way through when font sizes increase and decrease at will.

"Black Tambourine"


Here's another tambourine while we're on the subject. I love how the guys in the Lemon Pipers aren't even trying to hide the fact that they're lip synching. Stick around after the song for the extremely awkward interview.

"Green Tambourine"

My Three Thoughts

1. Mothra is officially back in town. It feels like half a year since we did a show together and I'm horribly excited to have him back in town and back in the studio. Gamera Jr. has been wonderful as a copilot and it's fun to do a self indulgent noisefest now and then but I'm ready to get back the theme shows and the theme song which I can't bring myself to play when he's away. This Sunday the fierce battles resume.

2. I'm falling in love with Les Savy Fav lately, partially for their unhinged frontman Tim Harrington but mostly because they are carrying the torch for bands like Candy Machine and Fugazi. Tim is famous for accosting the audience at every Les Savy Fav show. He attacked Mothra a few months ago when we saw them in Northampton. We stood close to the stage filled equally with excitement and pure dread as he launched himself into the crowd repeatedly. Mothra held his own pretty well as Tim put his arms through Mothra's jacket and forced him tight against his body. I was amazed at how well Tim was able to still sing with Mothra's hands inside of his mouth. There's a fantastic interview on Pitchfork today with Mr. Harrington. Here's my favorite exchange from the article:

Pitchfork: Have you ever regretted anything you've done on stage?
TH: Obviously, anytime I've fallen. Sometimes I fall hard on my coccyx. I've regretted that...you mean like, ashamed?
Pitchfork: Yeah, maybe. Like waking up the next day and thinking, "maybe I shouldn't have fed that kid my hair," something like that?
TH: No, it all seems like it's OK.

3. We don't get too many visitors here at Battle for the Earth (tell your friends) but I do like to know who is stopping by which is why we installed a site meter. We have some regular readers and many strangers who stumble across here due to various search terms. Lately, strangers worldwide have found us by searching Google for pictures of Guanabana fruits. None of these people stays for very long as I'm sure they're disappointed to come across long, rambling music notes instead of recipes for that delicious treat. On May 1, someone visited us using a search I found very curious. Here is the Google search someone typed in: "the hangovers - all dolled up." This shocked me and made me curious. Looking at the site meter closer, I discovered this user was in Durham, NC. They stayed for 0 seconds but I'm left to wonder who this could have been. The Hangovers was the name of a home recording project of a friend of a friend named Jack Watson and I'm pretty sure he recorded these songs while living in Durham. Jack's been in several bands (Raygun Theatre, The Diplomats) but as far as I know he only recorded two songs under the Hangovers moniker: "All Dolled Up" and "Now She's Coming Out." Who is this mystery person looking up the Hangovers? I'm so intrigued.

Moody Blue Sunday Sandwich

2 hours of blissful noise.

Ted Leo - Me & Mia

The Mountain Goats - There Will Be No Divorce
The Shins - Your Algebra
Polvo - Twenty White Tents
Animal Collective - Unsolved Mysteries
Fugazi - Cashout
Liars - Plaster Casts of Everything
John Coltrane - Dearly Beloved
Burial - Endorphin
Tangerine Dream - Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares
Genesis - More Fools Me
Lymbyc Systym - Invocation
Bjork - I See Who You Are
Radiohead - Nude
Jean-Claude Chapuis -Luminescence
Friends of Dean Martinez - Armory Park/Dwell
Sonic Youth - I Love Her All the Time
Mogwai - With Portfolio
Theme From "The Wicker Man"
Bettie Serveert - Leg
Electrelane - Bells
John Cage - 15 Minutes of Repetition
Beck - Get Real Paid
Six Finger Satellite - The Greatest Hit
Neutral Milk Hotel - April 8th
Panda Bear - Carrots
Matmos - The Struggle Against Unreality Begins
Archers of Loaf - White Trash Heroes
The Cure - Play For Today
Billy Bragg - Waiting For the Great Leap Forwards
Sportsguitar - So Healthy

Guided By Voices - Echos Myron

The Glory of Lurv

Damn you Dirty Dancing! You have cast your spell on me and I can't get you out of my head. Some films you miss out on and as others grow attached and obsess and trade lines you sit idly by and figure you have lost your chance. You will never feel the same way about it that they do. Those jokes are so deeply embedded in those who were there from the beginning that they are part of their DNA. You have arrived late to the party and can either scramble to play catch up or abandon ship. I figured I was in the latter camp when it came to Dirty Dancing but when I finally got around to watching it, the masterpiece of 80s filmmaking sank its claws deep inside of me and has yet to let go. I get it! I see why this film is a classic of escapist cinema. I may have missed out on 21 years of good times and giggles watching these two star crossed lovers circle each other like carnivorous birds but it didn't ruin the experience for me. I'm just surprised how quickly this film took over my psyche.

Do you know how I know the sickness has invaded my every pore? It's because when I watch the video for "She's Like the Wind" I don't gawk and roar with laughter at Swayze the singer's over emoting. No. Instead I swoon as Baby and Johnny practice dance moves, jump on a log and swim in a lake. What kind of voodoo has kicked me in the head? Take a gander for yourself. If you have a soul, you too will find yourself flooded with conflicting emotions as you watch this. It's like viewing home movies starring someone else. The feelings this stirs up make me feel like I was there, like I was Johnny or perhaps Baby and lived through this magical summer at Kellerman's. I am converted and it feels so good!



I feel about Dirty Dancing the way I felt about The Karate Kid. I left the theater after that one ready to do some serious kicking and since having my life altered by Swayze and Co. I want to lift my dance partner over my head and smash a car window to get to the keys I locked inside. I want to help carry a watermelon into a party for sweaty minimum wage slaves. I want to live dammit!

And of course, thinking about The Karate Kid makes me think of Peter Cetera and how he is one of the guiltiest of pleasures. "You're the Inspiration" and "The Glory of Love" are inescapable smash hits that will echo through my skull for all eternity but what is the deal with the way Cetera sings? It's really odd. Check out this story about a throwdown he was in back in 1969 at Dodgers Stadium: "Four marines didn't like a long-haired rock 'n' roller in a baseball park," Cetera recounts, "and of course I was a Cub fan, and I was in Dodger Stadium, and that didn't do so well. I got in a fight and got a broken jaw in three places, and I was in intensive care for a couple of days. The only funny thing I can think about the whole incident," he says, "is that, with my jaw wired together, I actually went on the road, and I was actually singing through my clenched jaw, which, to this day, is still the way I sing." He's so much cooler than I thought. What a badass. Set the wayback machine for 1986:

Dancing Down in the Dirty Dirty

This past weekend I watched Dirty Dancing for the first time. It was recently given to me as a gift so I am now the proud owner of the Ultimate Edition which is 2 discs of who knows what. Disc One is obviously the film but what the hell is on Disc Two? Bonus features as far as the eye can see I guess. The film looked gorgeous in wide screen and I don't know why I waited 21 years to see this masterpiece of nostalgia. I truly enjoyed it more than I thought I would but had a few thoughts about the experience:

1. When people find out you haven't seen Dirty Dancing they absolutely lose their shit. "You've never seen Dirty Dancing?!?! How can that be possible?" is a pretty typical response. I don't get this comment when I tell people I haven't seen Citizen Kane or Gone With the Wind or Kingpin but somewhere along the line I missed the mandatory screening of Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze's hot young bodies grinding on each other. One of my few regrets, I assure you.

2. Not enough dirty dancing. I thought this movie was going to be wall to wall bumping of semi-clothed uglies but most of the dancing in the film was tasteful and well rehearsed. As far as I could tell there were only 2 scenes of true dirty dancing but even those scenes paled in comparison to the horrors I witnessed at my middle school dances. Some people learn the birds and the bees from their parents or books or gym teachers forced to put in a semester of Health classes to fulfill their requirements but I learned all I know about knocking boots from nameless 8th graders writhing on the floor of the all purpose room the the sounds of Salt N Pepa.

3. The soundtrack was mostly great as it was filled with scorching doo-wop and soul songs from the sixties but once in a while an overproduced, synth heavy 80s track would pop up and ruin the mood. Coming of age films set in a certain period of time should only feature songs from that era so the viewer can suspend all disbelief and fully supplant themselves into the movie world. The dance scenes set to the Ronettes and the Five Satins make sense and work well but then a giant piece of 80s cheese smacks you in the face and risks derailing the film entirely. The modern (at the time) gems include such classics as Eric Carmen's "Hungry Eyes" and Patrick Swayze's "She's Like the Wind" but nothing touches the horrendous and unavoidable "(I've Had) the Time of My Life" by Righteous Brother Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes. It's an utterly execrable tune even out of context but as a soundtrack for the final scene it is inexcusable. Even worse, Swayze's character Johnny Castle mouths the words to Baby as they dance together. So we're to believe Kellerman's has hired some time travelling DJ who has brought the freshest sounds from the future back to 1963? Hardly. I guess the badass dancing Swayze showboats is supposed to make us forget about the incredible logic gaps but I found it very off putting. I also hated that they used a 10 minute Latin horn remix of this atrocious song to close out what was an otherwise enjoyable film. It was almost as embarrassing as the Judd Nelson dance scene in The Breakfast Club but not quite.

I'm glad I finally saw Dirty Dancing and can get all the disbelievers off my back. I will now cross it off my list of films that everyone else but me seems to have seen already. Next stop: Caddyshack.

And now for fun, MST3K's classic "Patrick Swayze Christmas."

Gumby Comes

"Hi!" says Gumby. "Holy Toledo" says Pokey. "I will eat you both" say Gamera.

The Double - Up All Night
Sonic Youth - Starfield Road

The Flaming Lips - Buggin'
Spoon - You Got Yr Cherry Bomb

Teenage Fanclub - Star Sign
The Lemonheads - Being Around

Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop
Dolly Parton - River of Happiness

Frank Zappa - Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance
Of Montreal - Jennifer Louise
The Fiery Furnaces - Evergreen

The Monkees - PO Box 9847
The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever
The New Pornographers - To Wild Homes

Modest Mouse - Breakthrough
The Cribs - Girls Like Mystery

Vampire Weekend - M79
Matmos - Z.O.C.K.

Monarch/Wye Oak - I Don't Feel Young
Elliott Smith - Waltz #2 (XO)

Hot Chip - Over and Over
Belle & Sebastian - To Be Myself Completely
Fountains of Wayne - Hey Julie

The Magnetic Fields - I Thought You Were My Boyfriend
Ratatat - Loud Pipes
Brian Eno - Taking Tiger Mountain

Ween - Sweetheart in the Summer