Pop Culture

I Figured It Out

By The Reverend
March 11, 2004 - 13:06

In light of the news here in the last couple weeks that proves that the US has one of the more intolerant presidents we've had in generations, I figured out what the "W" in George W. Bush stands for: Wallace. Moving on…

STRAPPED IN News out of Hollywood is that Academy Award winner Charlize Theron has signed on to play MTV's Aeon Flux in a live-action adaptation of the animated series. All I know is that I will play close attention to this production if they remain absolutely 100% faithful to the uniform that Aeon Flux wore on the series. One ticket for Aeon Flux the Movie, please.

DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE TO FIND UMLAUTS ON MICROSOFT WORD? 'Tis a fine time to be a metal lover, indeed. I may be waxing nostalgic a bit, but there's been some releases of late that have hailed a return to genuine heavy metal, and I'm not talking about the tripe that we've had to endure for the last six years from nu garbage acts like Limp Bizkit, Puddle of Mudd, Linkin Park, and Korn (Dig those crazy mizzpellings, yo.). While it's not the return to greatness that this 31-year-old would prefer, it is nice to see MTV2 (because you know nothing musical is going to come out of the original MTV anymore) bring back Headbanger's Ball. It doesn't make for good background the way it did thirteen years ago, back when I'd be out somewhere with friends on Saturday nights, mainly because there's still too many wack-ass acts out there attempting to carry the mantle of Sepultura, Morbid Angel, and Testament with limited results. Just for my personal tastes, I can appreciate about a fifth of the current rotation on a typical episode of Headbanger's Ball right now. I'd like to think it's not because I'm getting older, because we ARE still talking about hardcore metal here. I'm still going to punk and metal shows here in Chi-town, so I think I can still bring it (I am laughing as I write this, so try not to take me too seriously).

I've been amped to see Americans finally start to come around with The Darkness, the best British offering since the Page 3 Girls. I brought it up before in one of my year-end pieces, but this band has brought the fun back into high-wattage rock. I don't blame anyone out there that lacks the taste for lead singer Justin Hawkins' falsetto, because even I admit that he goes to the well a little too often with his vocal tribute to Freddie Mercury. But if you listen to Permission to Land, their stellar debut disc, you'll quickly find that these guys are fantastically dedicated musicians with a penchant for catchy hooks and unforgettable melodies. My selfish hope is that The Darkness follows up Permission to Land with their own answer to the Cult's Electric: a rollicking, noisy dive bar romp in the spirit of classic AC/DC. Without getting too serious (this IS The Darkness we're talking about - Son of Spinal Tap is a really easy way to put a label on them while selling their talents way short), I would like to hear a little more growl and a little less wail the second time around.

Another fine example of metal's return to glory is the new side project by drum god Dave Grohl: Probot. It's been covered in extensive detail in just about every entertainment magazine in the last month, but the TV Guide summary on the story of Probot is that Grohl laid down about a dozen old school metal tracks (drums, bass, and guitar), and he shipped the tapes to several metal veterans to write lyrics and lay down vocals. There's nothing tongue in cheek about the results (despite, say, the contribution of Motorhead's Lemmy, "Shake Your Blood"). It's a whole lot of what real heavy metal has been lacking in the 21st century: soul, fire, gumption, and talent. And major bonus points to Dave Grohl for employing the Suicide Girls to rock out in the first video for the CD's release.

AND SPEAKING OF THE BAD METAL… The breakdown of the soundtrack for the upcoming Punisher motion picture was exactly the assemblage of trite corporate rock I expected. The only surprise was that in reviewing the track list that it only took three songs to get to Nickelback's contribution. Christ. Free passes go to Queens of the Stone Age and Damageplan, but it's all donhill from there. I suppose Damageplan is okay, but they were a lot more interesting when they were known as Pantera (kudos to their song featuring Alice In Chains' Jerry Cantrell, though). I'll say this and be done with it: if you thought the soundtracks for Spider-Man and Daredevil were cutting edge (I pray that Evanescence will carry on the curse of the Best New Artist Grammy), you'll be in Heaven with the soundtrack for The Punisher. Punishing for me, to be sure…

YEAH YEAH YEAHS I got to see this band March 2nd at the Metro here in Chicago. I made the mistake of going with a lady friend who had no interest in getting up close to see the show better (general admission), so I was kind of stuck toward the back. Not making matters any better was that I somehow got wedged right behind five or six of the tallest fucking guys at this show. Lesson learned: if I go with this friend to future shows, she's on her own until the performance is over. Anyway, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are led by a young lady, Karen O, who is punk's 21st Century answer to Pat Benetar, and, yes, that is meant to be high praise. Karen has a reputation for pouring beer on herself and just going off during Yeahs shows to fire up the crowd, but she needed to do nothing of the sort to get our audience into it this particular night.

The Yeahs keep it simple with a drummer (Brian Chase) and guitarist (Nick Zinner) to back up Karen O, and this was as effective in a live performance as it is in the studio where their last gem, Fever To Tell was produced. I got the impression from some of the press this well-hyped act received in the last year that they were a bit uptight, beer spillage notwithstanding. But Karen O was all smiles during the better part of the show, and she was never afraid to engage the audience. The only weak link in the show was Brian Chases' drumming. Chases has created some fantastic beats in the Yeahs' last two discs, but there were too many times that he failed to keep the appropriate tempo up during some of the speedier jams. I think what compounded this opinion for me was another much smaller show I saw February 28th at a little punk dive here in Chicago, the Fireside Bowl. A friend brought me along to see his former bandmate's current project, the Flying Luttenbachers. I was familiar with the drummer because he used to jam with my buddy, but on this night we were there to see his current project. Drummer Weasel Walter has been well known in the Chicago underground for over a decade, but for the last year now he's been based out of San Francisco. Since junior high, I've seen some drummers for the world's biggest acts perform, and I would not hesitate to put Weasel Walter up toward the top of my all-time list. I won't even hesitate to mention Walter in the same breath as John Bonham and Keith Moon - he's that good. Perhaps having just seen the Luttenbachers in action spoiled me with the Yeahs' performance. But I definitely want to see theme again, only this time I wont have a date, platonic or romantic, dragging me down.

CROSSOVERZZZZZZ… I was going through my Superman books last night doing some reorganizing in my library, and I was sifting through what I had bought since 2000. I haven't bought all that much from 2002-03, but I definitely stayed with Superman when Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuiness were doing what they now do (sometimes) in Superman/Batman, and I thought Joe Kelly got off to a good start on Action Comics, but that took a turn for the worse by the time we were inundated with "Our Worlds At War." Going through these books that included that storyline, I was really not surprised to see how little the story held up now that I had a chance to reassess it. And now that 2004 is well under way, can we look back at this sprawling intergalactic epic and say that it had any lasting effect that resonates in DC's books to date? Aquaman's currently with us (and enjoying some well-deserved success in his own book, I might add), and other than that I can only recall Wonder Woman's mother Queen Hippolyta as making a noticeable departure from this mortal plane. And despite the empty gesture of "destroying" Topeka, Kansas, the Kent family remains as always to keep the Man of Steel hip-deep in hugs, positive reinforcement, and apple pie.

So why does DC insist on dragging down their most successful books with yawn-inducing crossovers? The Superman titles were enjoying commercial and critical success in 2000 with an infusion of new talent, and DC squandered it by basing yet another company-wide cataclysmic pile of dung around the very books that were most in need of newfound glory. From a bottom-line standpoint, I have to assume that there's the idea that fans will pick up other titles they don't normally get to follow a story for a couple months. But if I am a Superman fan and I have to pick up one or two issues of Wonder Woman to maintain a sense of continuity, how am I possibly getting the best that the creators of Wonder Woman have to offer when they're just as immersed in a company-wide storyline as the talent behind Hawkman, Green Arrow, and Teen Titans? I just have a tough time believing that Batman fans start picking up Action Comics when the shackles of yet another universe-shattering crossover prohibits either title from displaying its genuine strengths.

Only the truly gifted creators can take these restricting, confining crossover storylines and make something work within their own book. Geoff Johns did this a couple years ago with the "Last Laugh" crossover that every DC Universe title was forced to entertain. Johns' eponymous team in JSA was in the middle of a major multi-part story in its own book (the JSA's introduction to the super-villainess, Roulette), and they had to completely switch gears to come up with a story that required them to fight a bad guy under the Joker's influence. Credit Geoff Johns and Peter Snejbjeg for coming up with a fantastic one-off story that featured Stargirl and J.J. Thunder & Thunderbolt creatively dispatching a Joker-style Solomon Grundy. Unfortunately for the readers, we rarely get to enjoy that sort of creative success within the parameters of a typical DC Comics crossover.

Looking back three years later, I can safely declare that "Our Worlds At War" was absolutely useless, and Jeph Loeb himself couldn't convince me otherwise. If this summer's "Identity Crisis" story by Brad Meltzer, Rags Morales & Michael Bair keeps it within a self-contained title, I'll be probably pay a lot more attention than if it was something that I had to follow in books I don't normally buy. New rule: If I have to grab a checklist from my local comic book store to follow a storyline, count me out.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12