Comics: you have to put in the Tori Amos/Neil Gaiman connection, of course (does he count as indie?) and I'd also cite, in a slight tangent, the "Heroes and Villains" Powerpuff Girls CD, which, as you know, RAWKS.

Comics: you have to put in the Tori Amos/Neil Gaiman connection, of course (does he count as indie?) and I'd also cite, in a slight tangent, the "Heroes and Villains" Powerpuff Girls CD, which, as you know, RAWKS.

Oh yeah - did Neil and Tori ever actually do anything together? I know he's written some songs that were recorded by a folkie RenFaire kinda group.

So. Random thoughts while watching music on Televison all night.

Grammies: Prince still rocks. Plus, did you see that smirky fuck-I-can't-believe-that-bitch-ain't-sharing-the-mic-with-me look on his face during his Beyonce duet?

Grammies means you can create the world's most expensive garage band covering The Beatles. Also, I get to poke JZ in the side and go, "That's Vince Gill. You like him. He's the one who berated the CMA audience for booing the Dixie Chicks."

Missy Elliott is fucking OUT THERE. Shit, her stuff is cool and sooo avant garde really. Possibly the most interesting musician of the last five years.

VH-1 Classic, We Are The Eighties: They do a whole set of new wavey hits by first generation punks. Pretty interesting explaining what was going on to JZ. "That's Debbie Harry's solo album Koo Koo that she did with the guys from Chic. I've never seen this video before. Oooh, look it's the "Genius of Love" Video. Cool animation. That's by the rhythm section of the Talking Heads. Huh - look it's Captain Sensible doing 'Wot.' This was a huge hit in England, though it's basically doofus brit rap. Actually he's one of the all-time great punk bass players and guitarists too. It's a total freak hit."

VH-1 Country. I've been watching this for a couple months now and come to a conclusion. I get the folks that bitch that it ain't "real country" - it's not. The only bit of Hank in there is their hick accents. But you know what it is? It's power pop with Telecasters instead of Rickenbackers. With better lyrics. Yep. I'm watching folks like Brad Paisley ("Little Moments"), Chris Cagle ("Chicks Dig It"), Terri Clark ("I Wanna Do It All"), Dierks Bentley ("My Last Name"), Keith Urban ("Who Wouldn't Want To Be Me"), Martina McBride ("This One's For the Girls") and...it's just good pop music with guitar bands. Interesting. I've been thinking of New Country as sort of along the lines of sixties Motown. But this is guitar band pop with Tele's.

Also, Toby Keith is not just a jingoistic jerk. He's a smarter songwriter than his "let's kick some Arab ass" politics -- he's not your average redneck. He's right in the Merle Haggard mode. (cf., "Okie From Muskogee")

Also, I like the Rodney Crowell song where he namechecks Tom Waits and Seamus Heaney. ("Earthbound").

Hey, was Keith Urban the Australian guy who co-presented Van Cliburn with his award?

And did I zone out? Wasn't Annie Lennox supposed to perform?

Happy 40th Anniversy of The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show!

Entertainment Weekly had an article on "Are The Beatles Still Relevent" or something. Talked about how a lot of young people are into The Beatles, and how for them it's sort of an "alternative" thing. (EW requires you to have a subscription or buy an issue to get access to their web site.)

I've actually been listening to The Beatles a lot recently. I finally bought "The White Album" which I think is my favorite. I loved The Beatles as a kid but not so much as an adult.

I now look at The Beatles as a very talented pop group that happened to be at the right place at the right time - twice. First at the early phases of "youth culture" as a market force, and then as part of the counter culture. Sorta.

Anyway, the music experts can feel free to fling fruit at me....

So, I'm reading the article in the New York Times Magazine about the Virginia Beach guys (Neptunes, Timbaland, etc.), and this little bit made me laugh out loud. On the bus.

The rapper and singer Melissa (Missy) Elliott, 32, is another prominent Virginia Beach-area native, and among her many collaborations with Timbaland is the 2002 hit "Work It" (which introduced the phrase "ga-donk ga-donk donk" into everyday speech).

That's in "everyday speech"? I've never heard it before!

And I was already giggling due to "Melissa (Missy) Elliot," because everyone knows it should be "Missy (Misdemeanor) Elliot"! Silly NYTimes.

OMG! NYTimes writers/staff are the Grammy voters! It all makes sense now.

So. Random thoughts while watching music on Televison all night.

You missed a great Samurai Jack. Atmospherically, it was made-for-Hec.