New CRACKER album info!

I received a press release for the new Cracker album today. Here's the text:

CRACKER IS BACK ON 429 RECORDS DEBUT!

“SUNRISE IN THE LAND OF MILK & HONEY”
IN STORES MAY 5

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Alt-rock icons Cracker have signed with 429 Records and are preparing to unleash a collection of new songs, SUNRISE IN THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY. Long-time musical co-horts David Lowery and Johnny Hickman have teamed up again with drummer Frank Funaro and bassist Sal Maida and along with stellar producer David Barbe (Drive By Truckers), have created a uniquely eclectic trove of new tunes. Well-worn words used to describe their sound—brash, irreverent, sharp-witted, anthemic and riveting—all descriptives are in full-effect on the new project that bursts with their trademark rock, punk, glam, surf and country aesthetic. Friends John Doe, Patterson Hood and Adam Duritz also make spirited guest turns on SUNRISE…Their 429 Records debut is in-stores on May 5 and the first single to radio is “Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out With Me” (add date April 7).

Taking a new approach to their creative process, SUNRISE IN THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY is a truly collaborative effort for the band. Suprisingly self-disciplined, the whole band would take time out to write together one week every two months between tours over the course of a year. Focusing on a goal of two songs per day, their individual musical influences combined in refreshing and distinctive ways. On the outside it was a straight-ahead work ethic, but the process resulted in the band clicking creatively with a renewed energy.

Says Lowery: “We weren’t kicking back on an island in the Caribbean, waiting for the muse to hit us. We got down to work, found the punk and glam rock in our blood and woke up to Sunrise In The Land Of Milk And Honey.”

Track listing:

Yalla Yalla (Let’s Go)
Show Me How This Thing Works
Turn On, Tune In Drop Out With Me
We All Shine A Light (w/ John Doe)
Hand Me My Inhaler
Friends (w/ Patterson Hood)
I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right
Time Machine
Hey Bret (You Know What Time It Is)
Darling One (w/ Adam Duritz)
Sunrise In The Land Of Milk And Honey

429 Records is a unit of the Savoy Label Group (SLG). SLG is the North American unit of CME (Columbia Music Entertainment), the oldest music company in Japan. The Savoy Label Group has evolved into a leading independent company consistently outperforming competitors in key music categories as monitored by Billboard Magazine. SLG is lead by Steve Vining and CME is headed by Chairman Strauss Zelnick, founder of Zelnick Media which owns interests in and manages an array of media companies.
www.429records.com


I'll be reviewing the album in a few days so keep yer eyes peeled. Meanwhile, you can download the banner below to put on your own sites!

The Beauty Within

I'm absolutely positive that, by now, you've seen the segment of "Britain's Got Talent" featuring Susan Boyle. It was pure and classic television and one of those moments that will surely go down in history. I can't say I wasn't moved by the segment. I had the feeling that I was watching the tail end of a crowd pleasing movie and I'm already betting that a Susan Boyle life story movie (probably entitled, "I Dreamed a Dream") is on it's way to being green lighted.

It is strange to me that so much is being made of her appearance than anything else. There is a definite angle here; average looking middle aged (47) woman with voice of an angel makes good, but really, does she look all that bad? No. Of course not. She looks like most women her age. Seriously. If you don't believe so, you're one of the billions of people who have watched so many TV programs and movies that you think the beautiful people are the majority. Even most of the beautiful people out there aren't... without help.

Beauty is rare, plain and simple. It is. If it weren't there wouldn't be a need for makeup and hair products. A person who can look beautiful without any external help from rise to rest is indeed a four leaf clover. Most people simply aren't beautiful and help is needed to achieve a certain illusion.



The whole situation is reminding me of 2 films that I've recently watched. One is from South Korea and the other is Japanese. The former of the two is entitled "200 Pounds Beauty" and concerns a morbidly obese woman, Kang Han-na, with an incredible singing voice. She provides the singing vocals for a beautiful Pop Star who lip syncs to Han-na onstage, while Han-na sings from underneath the stage. Han-na blackmails a plastic surgeon to do extensive work on her and she becomes "Jenny" a beautiful pop star in her own right.



The other film, Japan's "The Handsome Suit", concerns an unsightly man who runs a local restaurant. Women are regularly repelled by him and he's never had a girlfriend. When a pretty young girl applies for a job as a waitress, his heart is set afire, though he knows he'll never win her because of his looks. One day, a man hands him a card for a suit shop. Since he has to attend a wedding he goes to purchase a suit, only to be led into the back room and let in on a new technology. It's "The Handsome Suit", a full body suit that vaccuforms to the wearer and makes the person incredibly handsome. He becomes a model, but can't win the girl of his dreams.

The theme of both movies is, ultimately, be yourself and stay who you are because you end up turning your back on those who already love you when you chase frivolous dreams.

Both movies were hits and not because of the moral. People flocked to these films because we all feel like we could be successful if we were more handsome, or pretty, or had that something that other people would die to possess. It was the duty of these films to let the audience have these fantasies, but to tell them in the end that fantasies are nice, but you have to make the best of who you are. Any other message would be simply irresponsible.

...Which brings me back to the Susan Boyle subject. We're now seeing a woman who is wholly herself. She doesn't seem to have any personal illusions for fame and fortune. She says she's never been kissed. I believe it. Not because she's homely, mind you, but she doesn't seem to be the type to casually kiss. She's a proper person. A normal person. An AVERAGE person. Damn, maybe that's just as rare. I don't know anymore.

This woman is in for a little bit of a ride, I think. She'll make an album, be a media darling for a while (these whiles are getting shorter and shorter in the Internet age) but in the end she'll ultimately go back to her village and cat and talk about the times she had. Back to anonymity. For a woman that simple and sweet, there should be no other ending.

Shockedelic Wear

I've joined with Cafe press to make available "The Shockedelic Cafe" Clothing Line.

Click on the shirt to go to the store. In time I'll have a widget that will make shopping even easier. Buy BUY BUY!!!!!

Yalla Yalla - New CRACKER Video!

From the forthcoming (May 5th, 2009) album, Sunrise In The Land Of Milk And Honey. Preorder it here. This is the first video, Yalla Yalla.



From the Youtube page, by David Lowrey:

"Yalla" is a common arabic expression, loosely meaning "hurry up" and often used by american soldiers in place of "hurry up" or "let's go". Like every war Iraq war soldiers have developed their own unique slang based on their experiences. Oftentimes these slang words creep into our nations vocabulary many years after the original conflict. ."Yalla" or "Yalla Yalla" may not become as common as RADAR, AWOL or SNAFU but it will certainly be used by soldiers for many years to come. This song takes no position on the war in Iraq*. It is a exploration and a celebration of a certain kind of bravado and swagger one finds in the speech of soldiers. I find it nicely matches the kind of swagger often exhibited by rock, blues and hip hop singers. I suppose that is why it was so much fun (and relatively easy) to take this arcane slang and anacronyms and build a song out of it. If I got some of it wrong, well i apologize. There seemed to be some disagreement among my small sample of soldiers (and marines) about the pronunciation or precise meaning of some of the terms i use. case in point whether anyone really refers to Camp Anaconda as Bombaconda, or the precise definition (and spelling!) of a "pogue". My questioning at the Atlanta airport set off a heated argument between two servicemen. It's all in good fun, so don't kick my ass. please.

Finally most of this footage was taken from YouTube. Who knew the internets were full of soldiers marines, sailors and airmen dancing, lip syncing and headbanging to their favorite music? IF YOU ARE IN THIS AND DON"T WANT TO BE: politely write us and we will edit you out.

David Lowery

* Due diligence: I opposed the war in Iraq. I viewed it as a distraction from the fight in Afghanistan. However now that we are in Iraq I believe we shouldn't leave until there is a stable and humane government in that country. I'll leave the notions of timetables, troop levels etc etc to the professionals.

Gothic Strawberry Ice Cream Nightmare Daydream!!!

We all have to cut back in this depression/recession. I'm no exception. Like everyone else, I'm trying to get less money to go just as far. I've made one extremely frivolous purchase, however. I took a week to decide whether I should or not and I decided it would be my personal (5 month early) Birthday present to me this year (I am planning one more personal Birthday present closer to my Birthday, but more on that this June). Was it a Television..? A new game system..? A full home renovation..? That one I actually need, but no.

No, no, no. What I bought was much more frivolous than that and having them has made me very happy, so this also counts as a mental health purchase. I bought Tommy Feburary6 and Tommy Heavenly6's Greatest Hits box sets. They cost 6,666 Yen each (that's nearly $70 each, but I scored them for $64 each) and are about as deluxe as a box set can get.

The theme here is each box set is a High School class in Tommy. Tommy February6's box is entitled "Strawberry Cream Soda Pop Daydream" (also the title of the new track on the CD / DVD and Tommy Heavenly6's box is entitled "Gothic Melting Ice Cream Darkness Nightmare". Each set arrives in a heavy, glossy slipcase that's dimensions are 14 1/2" high X 9 1/2" wide X 2 3/4" deep. The insides of the set are covered in polka dot print. The box itself contains everything one needs to be enrolled in Tommy's classes. Each set includes A lyric booklet, a 16 page Composition notebook that actually serves as a picture book (4 pics per page), a big sticker sheet, 10 photo clear files and a quality loose leaf binder with enrollment information embossed on a metal plate. Oh, yeah, each set comes with a DVD and a Blu Spec CD.

Now, this whole Blu Spec CD thing... I don't know if you've heard of this or not, since it's really only being utilized in Japan right now, but it's basically this: a standard Red Book CD master is burned with a BluRay laser instead of a standard laser. This, it's reported, creates virtually no jitter to the actual pits the laser reads in a CD, so the playback is of a higher quality. Did I notice any real difference? I really can't say I did. I have a mid to high end playback setup, so I should be able to pick up a marked difference, if there was one. Maybe a side by side comparison will be in order.

I did, however, notice that the DVD's did look remastered. The images were a bit clearer that I've been used to on past Tommy DVDs.

I'm glad I bought them, all in all. Yeah, it set me back a bit, but I got the feeling that when the economy recovers, these limited edition sets are going to go up sharply in price... or not.

Usually a greatest hits package flags the end of a career, however a cruise by CDJapan reveals the Tommy train just isn't going to stop. Tommy Heavenly6 3rd, as it's titled there, is going to be released on April 29th, 2009. Click on this link to CDJapan to Preorder it.

The Shockedelic Radio Show Episode 5:01 "Love Is Like Helium"

The Shockedelic Radio Show
February 25th, 2009 - Episode 5:01
"Love Is Like Helium"

Click this here link to download this new episode of The Shockedelic Radio Show to your Computer. It's an mp3 file (80 minutes long, about 38 or so megs) that you can transfer to your MP3 Media Player, burn to a CD or just listen on your computer. If you prefer to just have it stream to your computer via WinAmp or Windows Media Player (or whatever streaming player you use), click On this particular link.

Legal stuff:

It's a very litigious society, so please understand that this MP3 Podcast is presented as a radio show promoting new and lesser well known artists. All of the music here is copyrighted and the copyright proprietors retain ownership of the material presented here. No rights are given to the downloader or listener or are implied as such. In short, listen to the show and enjoy it, but don't go dissecting the program. If you hear something you like, track it down and purchase it. Supporting the artist is crucial. Make sure you do your duty.

Wanna subscribe to this on iTunes? Do this:

Open iTunes
Go Advanced > Subscribe to Podcast
Type the following into the Pop Up Box (exactly like this. No Spaces.):
http://www.geocities.com/Schmilsson1969/Shockedelic/shockadelic.xml

There you go! You'll be in tune with the rest of the Universe now!

Happy 100th Post!!!!!!!!!!!

Damn! The big 100th post! Whadaya know?

I know, you're thinking.... Where the hell have you been? Ah, life is complicated. I have a lot to say, but I just can't seem to put finger to key these days.

There're lots of new Jpop albums I'm thrilled about. The Beat Crusaders have a new best of collection (with DVD!), as does Tommy Heavenly6/February6. Yeah, more on that one in a later post. I'll probably do that when I actually receive the overpriced sets. Yes. Sets. There's two of them... one for each alter ego. I'm also grooving to the new Hot Leg album, "Red Light Fever". Hot Leg is former "Darkness" lead singer Justin Hawkins' new band. Maybe this is the album The Darkness should have done after their debut instead of the album they did release. Maybe they'd still be together.

I've seen lots of really good movies, too, with the most endearing one being the Swedish horror fable, "Let The Right One In". I loathe Vampire movies as a rule, but this one is very special.

I've not been too excited about any of the Oscar picks for Best Picture this year. Nothing stands out. I liked "Slumdog Millionaire", but while it was very well made, it is by no means an Oscar worthy film. I'm surprised "Gran Torino" was snubbed, at the very least, in the best actor catagory since Clint Eastwood was brilliant in fairly complicated role. I suppose Heath Ledger will win for Best Supporting actor, but let's face it; he was okay at best. It would be better Robert Downey, Jr. gets it for "Tropic Thunder". Seems that's a bit of lip service for his best actor snub for Iron Man. Who knows, though?

I don't have much else to say at this time. Look for a new Shockedelic Radio Show in a couple of weeks. Until then, visit my Youtube page for a journey into my past.