Tag Archives: music

05/23/2016 · 1:48 pm

The Glory Of GWAR

Gwar, often styled as GWAR, is an American heavy metal band formed in Richmond, Virginia, United States, in 1984, composed of and operated by a frequently rotating line-up of musicians, artists and filmmakers collectively known as Slave Pit Inc. [Wikipedia]

After seeing GWAR in 1991, my freshman buddy Chris ran into the cafeteria to meet us the following morning. He bugged out his eyes with a grin, making a hard side-glance to push his contact lenses slightly off his irises. They were stained bright red, from GWAR blood.
I met GWAR’s manager, Sleazy P. Martini, at a DragonCon in the late 90s. I timidly asked him, “Gee Sleazy, do you really know GWAR?” He laughed and replied “Yeah, I know GWAR. I’m their FUCKIN’ MANAGER.”

Continue reading →

Comments Off on The Glory Of GWAR

Filed under Bad Influences, Comix Classic & Current, Faint Signals, Girls of BIUL, Idiot's Delight, Magazine Rack, Nostalgic Obsessions, Robot Toy Fetish, Saturday Movie Matinee, Thousand Listen Club, Unfairly Maligned

Tagged as #fbf, 1990, 1990s, 1991, alternative music, Beefcake the Mighty, Cardinal Syn, comedy, comix, Cory Smoot, Danyell Stampe, Dave Brockie, DragonCon, Gor-Gor, Gwar, Heavy Metal, Jizmak Da Gusha, laughter, Metal Blade, movies, Mr. Bungle, music, Nipples Erectus, Oderus Urungus, parental advisory labels, Richmond Virginia, Sexecutioner, Slave Pit Inc., Sleazy P. Martini, Slymenstra Hymen, underground, VHS, Ween

05/21/2016 · 4:19 pm

The 200th Post

Next month marks the second anniversary of the BANDS I USETA LIKE website, and here we are; the 200th post. I’m sure you couldn’t care less, but you helped make this possible, and in the 13 years I ran Mike The Pod online, I maybe cracked a hundred actual articles.

So let’s mark the occasion with a peek at the cover of BANDS I USETA LIKE III, yes?

That’s the magazine that will complete your summer, heading your way around the time you start buying fireworks in bulk. So buy this too. It would be a crime if you didn’t.

Continue reading →

Comments Off on The 200th Post

Filed under Bad Influences, Comix Classic & Current, Don't Know Don't Care, Idiot's Delight, Magazine Rack, Site Stuff

Tagged as Bands I Useta Like, behind the scenes, comedy, comix, corporate crap, laughter, Mike the Pod, music, National Lampoon, underground

05/14/2016 · 2:15 pm

“Last Exit”

When was the last time the name “Pearl Jam” sounded weird to you? Can you even remember when it didn’t sound like a band?

Eddie Vedder

Vitalogy, Pearl Jam’s experimental third album, was finally released in November of 1994. By that time, the record store I had assistant-managed was consumed by Blockbuster. Originally, I worked at “Tracks”, which was where I experienced Pearl Jam’s debut disc Ten, around ten times a day for several months. This resulted in a loathing of that album that burns to the present day. Continue reading →

Comments Off on “Last Exit”

Filed under Bad Influences, Faint Signals, Idiot's Delight, Nostalgic Obsessions, Thousand Listen Club, Unfairly Maligned

Tagged as 1990s, 1994, alternative music, Blockbuster, corporate crap, Dave Abbruzzese, depression, Eddie Vedder, Frank Zappa, grunge, Janeane Garofalo, Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, music, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Gossard, Vitalogy

05/10/2016 · 6:44 pm

Kidd Video

Parallel universes figure into popular science fiction every so often, but whereas now they are used to explain inconsistencies, in the past they were an intriguing alternative to outer space as a setting. The short-lived TV show Otherworld from 1985 is one example, with its no-frills labels (like in Repo Man) and dumb upside-down pistols. A better-known version of the concept is the cartoon Kidd Video, which aired on NBC Saturday mornings around the same time.

(l-r) Ash, Whiz, Kidd, Carla. Yes, the nerd with yellow hair is called “Whiz”.

Everything I’ve mentioned thus far sucks to varying degrees (well, except Repo Man). But because of that “parallel universe” icing, the crap tasted sweeter than cake. Continue reading →

Comments Off on Kidd Video

Filed under Animation Analysis, Don't Know Don't Care, Faint Signals, Girls of BIUL, Idiot's Delight, Nostalgic Obsessions, Zappalogy

Tagged as #tbt, 1980s, corporate crap, Frank Zappa, Kidd Video, music, music video, NBC, New Jersey, Otherworld, parallel universes, Saturday morning cartoons, Throwback Thursday

04/23/2016 · 2:02 pm

“Dental Hygiene Dilemma”

Thanks to the generous social programs in my fair city, I recently got my teeth fixed, ending over a decade of busted-molar jokes and references in my work. In essence, I no longer feel like I have a mouthful of bloody razors. Once everything healed up, I couldn’t believe how much better I felt overall. Not that I consider myself a lion, but I couldn’t keep from thinking of that old fable with the thorn in the paw. Now I can chew food with my entire mouth, instead of just a small section, gingerly. It’s the little things in life.

If your teeth don’t hurt, or you have easy access to a dentist, thank your lucky stars. I’ll let you in on a little secret; us artists are merely holding on to whatever choppers we can before we croak. There is no “insurance” or “healthcare” for us; it does not exist. These are the breaks. If you want security, you go into insurance. Not drawing cartoons.

Wanna watch a dental hygiene movie?

Unless, you know, you sell out, to a company. Continue reading →

Comments Off on “Dental Hygiene Dilemma”

Filed under Bad Influences, Eatable Things, Faint Signals, Movies You Missed, Saturday Movie Matinee, Thousand Listen Club, Zappalogy

Tagged as 1969, 1970s, 1971, 200 Motels, alternative music, Billy Jack, Cal Schenkel, Charles Swanson, comedy, Coven (band), despair, Don Preston, Frank Zappa, Howard Kaylan, Jeff Simmons, Jim Pons, Keith Moon, Läther, laughter, Mark Volman, Mothers of Invention, movies, music, sellouts, teeth, The Turtles, Uncle Meat

· 10:20 am

“Retrovertigo”

In 1999, four years after their previous album, Mr. Bungle released California. My friend George and I were/are slavering fanatics of Mr. Bungle. That shirt that says “There’s a tractor in my balls again”? I had that. I wore it so often I destroyed it, even after it survived a GWAR show in 1997.

This is the same one I had. The big B on the back was once stuck to my skin with GWAR semen and blood. Who amongst you would admit to such a thing?

So let’s just say we were very excited about Bungle’s third album. The band’s website teased this excitement, with minute-long samples of each track on California. This was 1999. I was using my first PC, the one I got from Gateway, which came with a set of Boston Acoustic speakers that I now use with my Xbox 360. Good, long-lasting speakers, my point here would be. Continue reading →

Comments Off on “Retrovertigo”

Filed under Bad Influences, Faint Signals, Nostalgic Obsessions, Thousand Listen Club

Tagged as 1990s, 1999, alternative music, Bands I Useta Like, behind the scenes, California, Clinton "Bär" McKinnon, Danny Heifetz, despair, experimental rock, Greatest Of All Time, Gwar, Mike Patton, Mr. Bungle, music, Trevor Dunn, Trey Spruance

04/21/2016 · 8:08 pm

A Fart In The Face

Earlier this year I crossed a boundary with the dog.

This is a different dog.

I’d eaten some godawful fried thing or another, and feeling a buildup of gas, I leaped over to the dog, crouched directly above his face, and knocked a king-size fart across his nose.

Triumphant, I turned to face the dog, expecting adoration for this generous gastric flotilla. Instead, the dog regarded me with a reproachful look, the kind I expect people receive when they jiggle their comatose grandmother’s breast for a family photo.

“What’s the matter?” I asked the dog in plain English, as though he would reply in kind. “Don’t you, a dog, enjoy the smell of shit?” Continue reading →

Comments Off on A Fart In The Face

Filed under Bad Influences, Don't Know Don't Care, Faint Signals, Idiot's Delight, Worst Of All

Tagged as 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, advertising, Coke, corporate crap, despair, dogs, farts, laughter, movies, music, perfume, sellouts, whores, YouTube

03/17/2016 · 12:00 am

Tool

Check it out, I wrote my very own Tool song:

Continue reading →

Comments Off on Tool

Filed under Bad Influences, Comix Classic & Current, Don't Know Don't Care, Faint Signals

Tagged as #tbt, 1990s, 1993, 1996, Alex Grey, alternative music, Aperfectcircle, Bands I Useta Like, Bill Hicks, comic, depression, despair, industrial, Maynard James Keenan, metal, Mr. Show, music, parental advisory labels, posers, Puscifer, suicide, Throwback Thursday, Tool, Transformers

02/19/2016 · 1:58 pm

The Thankless Life

A harsh truth of reality: not every movie gets a sequel, and this isn’t a bad thing. Only one thing grants a movie a sequel; money.

Money and passion are often confused by consumers. They feel the same, in many ways, and they produce similar results. But for creative people, money and passion are completely different creatures. The latter is fuel, and the former is a means to an end. You can possess a passion; money, you can only hold. Continue reading →

Comments Off on The Thankless Life

Filed under Bad Influences, Faint Signals, Late To The Party, Movies You Missed, Nostalgic Obsessions, Saturday Movie Matinee

Tagged as 2006, Bands I Useta Like, behind the scenes, Betamax, Bumfights, Ceaseless Fables of Beyonding, comedy, Consumption Junction, despair, Facebook, Gary Coleman, Indecline, John's Arm:Armageddon, Killing of a Chinese Bookie, laughter, Marvel comics, Mike the Pod, Mila Kunis, movies, music, Star Wars, Stuff (magazine), The Betamax Rundown, underground, Vincent Van Gogh, YouTube

02/15/2016 · 12:17 pm

“Tunak Tunak Tun”

I’ve admitted before that I am not fond of the medium of “music video”. I have observed it from its infancy; I lucked out and happened to be present when MTV started broadcasting in summer of 1981. If you enjoy being awkwardly sung to by a band, or like to be teased with sleazy, half-naked sluts, MTV was your White Knight, bubby.

Everyone wants to break into the movies, so it’s easy for a coked-up director to cajole an otherwise sensible group into painful, cringe-worthy antics. Then another director would react by crafting the most pretentious, arthouse video possible, all long takes and black-and-white aesthetics. “They’re like mini-movies,” say the line-toers, ignoring that music videos typically appropriate and condense everything meaningful about film. Some people will say anything to promote their clients.

But like Tijuana Bibles and Bumfight videos, there is still a vein of good under mountains of terrible. For every ten thousand glamor-shot videos of the latest solipsistic pop bimbo, there is one that reminds you why the medium exists in the first place. Maybe it’s not merely a quick-and-dirty promotional tool; it is like a “mini-movie”.

Continue reading →

Comments Off on “Tunak Tunak Tun”

Filed under Faint Signals, Late To The Party, Thousand Listen Club

Tagged as 1998, 2000, Bhaṅgṛā, Daler Mehndi, India, Internet, memes, MTV, music, music video, Pakistan, pop music, Punjabi

Tag Archives: music

The Glory Of GWAR

Like this:

The 200th Post

Like this:

“Last Exit”

Like this:

Kidd Video

Like this:

“Dental Hygiene Dilemma”

Like this:

“Retrovertigo”

Like this:

A Fart In The Face

Like this:

Tool

Like this:

The Thankless Life

Like this:

“Tunak Tunak Tun”

Like this:

Latest

Bands

Categories

Archives

Soundtrack

Tag Archives: music

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Latest

Tags

Bands

Categories

Archives

Soundtrack