Save My Fictional World Take 2 – Reaper

So, you think you’ve got a weird relationship with your parents? Well, how about if you woke up on your 21st birthday to find out Mom and Dad sold your soul to the Devil before you were even born? Your Mom’s nagging suddenly doesn’t seem so bad, does it?

That’s the premise of Reaper, a freshman dramedy from the CW network. Early hype about the show stemmed from the Pilot episode, which was directed by Kevin Smith (of Clerks fame), who helped tweak the original script and is listed as a show consultant. His humor works well with the levity of the storylines and dialogue, and some of the characters could easily have been in his mockingly reverent religious piece Dogma. But the writers needed little direction with this increasingly fun romp spit from the bowels of Hell.

We follow Sam, the layaway soul in question, as he learns of his parents’ dark secret. Suddenly things make a little more sense, though – Ma and Pa always cut him a little too much slack, letting him skip college, get a dead-end job at the Work Bench (a kind of mash-up of Home Depot and Best Buy) and generally become a slacker layabout. It’s like they were guilty about something… Well at that 21st birthday marker, the Devil (played by the perfectly cast Ray Wise – who brings a wonderful blend of smarmy glibness and unimaginable evil to the mix) carjacks Sam to let him in on his new part-time gig. As it turns out, not all evil souls are content staying in Hell. As they escape, Sam will now get tasked to bring them back. He is equipped each time with a vessel to collect the soul – ranging from a Dirt Devil to a radio-controlled truck.

That’s a lot for one guy to handle. Enter the sidekicks: Sock (the goofball best friend and slacker mentor) and Ben (the most studious of the bunch, and a reverend’s son). These two (who conveniently work with Sam) are quickly let in on the secret, and end up as Sam’s backup and researchers. Since none of the trio really knows what they’re doing (and the Devil sure isn’t going to help), hilarity ensues. The gang is completed by Andi (a fellow Work Bench-er, and Sam’s from afar love interest), Sock’s ex-girlfriend Josie, and assorted family members, demons and annoying managers. Two of the most welcome recent additions are two gay "reformed" demons who live next to the main trio – played by two former members of the comedy troupe “The State” (Michael Ian Black and Ken Marino).

Does it all sound a bit silly? It is - but in the best of ways. Critics seem to be saying that the show has strayed from the original promise of the Pilot episode, getting a bit goofy. Well, I think that the show started with comedic overtones, and continues to improve. And the underlying mythology grows weekly – we know that there is something more to the deal for Sam’s soul that the Devil isn’t sharing, that Sam’s father is hiding something, that Sam may be dating the Devil’s daughter – and leaves you wanting more.

Current Status : 50/50. The CW liked the show enough to order a batch of post-strike episodes, which is more chance than a lot of shows got. But then again, The CW doesn’t have much in the way of scripted programming, so that could have influenced the decision. No word on a fall pickup yet.

What Can You Do? : Start watching the show! It’s pretty easy to jump onboard if you haven’t been watching – plenty of “Previously on…” recaps at the start of most episodes, with the new batch starting up on April 22. Plus, the CW offers some past shows streamed on their web site, or you can download episodes on iTunes. If these last few get a bump in viewership, things could look much more rosy for Sam and the crew – and we wouldn’t want to see rabid fans sending scythes to the network to get their point across…

Save My Fictional World Take 1 - Friday Night Lights

“Reality” TV – I’m sick of it. I mean that ill feeling starting way down in the toes, coupled with an anger that may lead me to throttle a network exec. I mean, seriously, how many more shows do we need about “Bachelor Midget-Throwing Nanny Swappers” or the like? Well, do you know how to stop the madness? START WATCHING GOOD SCRIPTED SHOWS! Don’t say, “Hey that Scrubs shore do look funny”. To save shows from the chopping block, people actually need to watch them. Then tell a friend. And tell that friend to choke a network exec for me – trust me, it’ll all work out in a circle of life kind of way.

What we need for scripted shows to survive is ratings, word of mouth and sometimes a good old-fashioned rally cry. There are a bunch of shows “on the bubble” right now – somewhere between renewal and cancellation. Don’t let more crap take their spots – in a world where an entire reality TV channel is a frightening truth, tell them from on high that you want your fake back! I’ve got a few shows worth saving – here’s my first:

Friday Night Lights - Okay, I’ll admit that I was reluctant with this one. I don’t love sports, and the Pilot episode was fairly centered on the big Dillon Panthers football game. But once you realize how well that one hour set up the characters and plot for the entire season, you begin to see how craftily these writers tell their tale. And soon after, you’re sucked in and actually giving a crap – it’s a really quick transition, so don’t get whiplash.

The basic plot follows Eric Taylor (new coach of this Texas high school team), his wife Tami (guidance counselor – yes, at the same school) and daughter Julie (smarty-pants cutie who certainly knows batter than to date an athlete. Hee-hee – yeah, that doesn’t last long). We are treated to (or frightened by, depending on your view) an inside look at how much small town football can mean when there’s nothing else around, and the politics surrounding that existence. Buddy Garrity embodies the ideals of the town, being a former football player, a current team supporter, a sleazy car salesman and father to cheerleader Lyla (who, naturally, is dating the lead quarterback). More deals are made or broken in Dillon, Texas because of football than nearly anything else.

And of course, there’s the team itself – ranging from Jason Street (aforementioned lead QB, who is quickly sidelined) to Matt Saracen (backup QB, with an Opie-caught-in-the-headlights kind of innocence) to the over-the-top “Smash” Williams (a mix between a southern rapper, a Baptist minister and a mama’s boy) to Tim Riggins (a drunk, a slacker, most likely to sleep with your girlfriend – but utterly likeable). And there are too many supporting characters to name – girlfriends, best friends, cute neighbor kids – who seamlessly blend into this tale. The writers give a real sense of community and how it all fits together. And you’ll even learn to forgive them for the occasional “Throwing dead bodies over a bridge” or “Wow, I’m suddenly a born-again religious nut” plotlines. Really, you will.

Current Status: Better than some – NBC is working to get a cable channel to help foot the bill for the show, much like they did with Law & Order and the USA Network (both are owned by the same parent company). This would likely give the cable net first airings, with NBC running the episodes shortly after. The biggest supporter for the show may be DirecTV actually looks to be a frontrunner in helping pick it up right now. The ratings that a show like this gets on a major net may not seem huge, but for a cable/satellite show, the ratings from a built-in audience could be a coup.

What Can You Do?: Buy the DVDs or download episodes from iTunes and get caught up with a great show and jump on now. The other route is to go to savefridaynightlights.tv – who are sending mini-footballs to NBC execs to get the renewal message across. Either way, hopefully you’ll be as excited as a neighbor kid exclaiming “Tim Riggins! Tim Riggins is bangin’ my Momma!”. If you watched the show, you may have already gotten that joke – see how behind you are.

See you soon for more picks…

It Came From The MP3 Vault – Volume 1

When you’re growing up, one of the choices that you make about the life ahead seems trivial: Are you a Music person or a Sports person? Few people seem to straddle that fine line between the two and exist in both worlds – one generally knows a lot about one or the other, and maybe enough to get by in a small-talk-by-the-water-cooler fashion on the second. Since I don’t know what end of a baseball to pick up, you can guess what category I fall under.

Yes, I’ve always had a passion for music, but not a damn bit of talent for playing it. So I like to listen to as much as possible – as many bands, across the spectrum, that I can get my greedy hands on. But there’s so much that I can barely fit it on my MP3 player anymore. And I’ve got a 30gb drive, so do the math on that…

In an effort to weed out the good from the bad and clear some space, I’m trying to crank through some of these albums. I’ll share my quick takes on these albums as I go through them, so that you might share in my pleasant surprises while avoiding the crap.

Here’s the first batch:

Operator – Soulcrusher – Do you remember when Chris Cornell wasn’t eating crepes at his new home in France (I Mean, FRANCE? Really?), or playing in the crappy supergroup that turned him into a pussified version of a rock star? There was that little band called that blew the doors off the joint? Yeah?
Well, the title track off of Soulcrusher came out shortly after Audioslave broke up, and I had this brief glimmer of hope that Cornell’s inner badass had resurfaced in some new project. The vocals could easily have been vintage Soundgarden, but the DJ would tell us otherwise. Operator, hmmm? I got the album in hopes that the rest of the songs could live up to the hype. It did.
Verdict: Rockin’ out mit der Schnitzel out (Keeper).

Citizen Cope – Every Waking Moment – Okay, I was looking for the album with the radio single “Bullet and a Target” on it. This isn’t the one - I just figured they were on their freshman effort. I can’t vouch for what the other disc sounds like, but I couldn’t even make it through this one. Slow and bland, not much holding it together.
Verdict: Stinks like bad cheese.

Lyle Lovett And His Large Band – It’s Not Big It’s Large – This one was for my girlfriend originally. Never cared one way or another about the man – just knew he was an odd looking bird with tall plumage. But giving this a listen – a mixed bag of up-tempo big band sounds and some slow churners - the man does have style. I may just be a convert after all.
Verdict: Oh, it’s large (Keeper).

Papa Roach – The Paramour Sessions – Liked these guys when they first came out, but their first efforts seemed a little disjointed. Lost track of what they were doing, just assuming they were defunct. But heard “Forever” from this disc on the radio, and I was surprised at their growth. I’m sure some would say the noise level has been too toned down, and now they whine about love and loss too much. But it’s nowhere near the degradation that Staind saw between releases, not do they suffer from any kind of emo-whining. Overall, a solid rock disc.
Verdict: Devil horns up high (Keeper).

This was fun - I think you'll be seeing these more often...

Modest Mouse Possess Virginian Woman, Make Beautiful Music

Okay, raise your hand if you thought there was a new Modest Mouse song playing on the radio lately? Don’t be shy, raise those arms. Well, I was along for that ride, but I never knew the song title – and of course the DJs would never actually say what the song was. So in search of a title, I went to the WRSI web site looking for the playlist. And there it was – “Bag of Hammers” (as in “dumb as a…”) by Modest… no, really? Not Modest Mouse? Or for that matter, not even a male vocalist? Huh.

So who was it? A singer by the name of Thao - her last name is Nguyen, but that’s as unnecessary as a surname for Prince, thank you. Her band is The Get Down Stay Down, and all together they sound a whole lot like the aforementioned rodent band – in the best of ways. Looking them up this morning, I found that their new album, We Brave Bee Stings and All was just released. It’s Thao’s second album, but the first with this band.

Listening to a couple of quick snippets on their MySpace page, I’m hooked. Check them out now, while they might still be on the club scene – I’ve got a feeling they’re going to take off quick…

Dig For Fire - A Tribute To Pixies (Review)

Pixies were the ultimate influence for a lot of today's indie rockers. Their overlapping-if-not-harmonious vocals, brilliant lyrics (touched with insanity) and groundbreaking instrumentals blew minds and speaker stacks everywhere. Pixies were the godfathers (and godmother) of alt-rock for a generation to come, with even Kurt Cobain name-dropping their music as motivation towards his masterworks.

That said, paying tribute to a band like this could be one of two things: 1) An incredible honor, being able to bring these influences full circle back to the source, or 2) A nerve-wracking journey of self-doubt, hopefully ending with a rendition to be proud of. I’ve got a feeling there’s a good mix of the two on each track - which can either lead to a faithful-to-the-original cover, or an experimental vision that morphs the song into an entirely new entity. There are some hits and misses, but the CD is a respectable and entertaining effort to capture that Pixies spirit.

Oddly though, the most high profile bands in this project – They Might Be Giants, OK GO and Mogwai – produced three of the weakest tracks on the disc. None were outright stinkers, but just not up snuff with the rest of it. TMBG’s take on “Havalina” starts great – the pure fact of an accordion in use in a Pixies song could’ve clinched it, but the too-deep vocals didn’t mesh, and the song became just mediocre. OK GO cover “Gigantic”, and from their past works I expected more speed and levity. What we get is a slow and plodding version that employs too much background noise, ending in a giant cacophonous puddle. Which brings us to Mogwai with “Gouge Away”, speaking of noise. The distortion that often worked well for Pixies is the downfall for these guys – it’s overuse nearly drowns out the song playing in the background, vocals and instruments alike.

But the real treasures on the album come from the names I didn’t recognize, which was a pleasant surprise. The Rosebuds do “Break My Body” as an almost spoken-word effort, and the subdued female vocals over up-tempo guitar hit really well. On the same note, Joy Zipper’s take on “Wave of Mutilation” worked on the same level – slow and steady female vox, but this time staying a little closer to the subject material, a great combo. Some of the best efforts have a completely new structure, though, Like the Bedroom Walls doing “Stormy Weather”. Yes, the same slow build is there, gaining speed to add to the tempest of the tune – but the accidentally-on-purpose guitar (never quite hitting that chord), the (I believe) xylophone and the brooding vocals add a great touch. On almost the opposite end of the spectrum, did anyone order a dance remix? Well, the Fashion Victims provide one with their “Hey (Double Dragon Mix)” opus. The mix of techno backbeat, rock guitar and synth with lounge swagger works surprisingly well. And as strange as that all sounds, the vocalist actually seems to best capture Black Francis’ trademark laugh and growl - y'know, when he's not crooning...

All told, this CD provides common ground to showcase some amazing talent. I can’t wait to get my hands on some original material from a lot of these bands – and most of them are highly visible between MySpace and their own sites. For more info about this particular album, as well as more American Laundromat projects, go the the ALR website:
http://www.alr-music.com/

That's it for now - more coming soon...

Happy St. Paddy's Day - Earlyish!

Hi, all! I know that St. Patrick’s Day has much more significance than a simple reason for getting drunk. Let’s face it, though – that’s what most people associate it with. So this list is a reflection of that, not my personal views. (But it make things much more fun this way ;) This is a list of seventeen, in honor of the days of March for the holiday proper…

Songs About, Or Conducive To, Drinking

1. I Gotta Get Drunk – The Little Willies
2. Gin and Juice – Snoop Dogg
3. Have A Drink On Me – AC/DC
4. Night On The Tiles – Big Bad Bollocks
5. 40 OZ. To Freedom – Sublime
6. Alcohol and Pills – Fred Eaglesmith
7. Whiskey In A Jar – Thin Lizzy
8. Beer – Murphy’s Law
9. More Beer – Fear
10. Too Drunk To Fuck – Dead Kennedys
11. Three Point Two – Hot Buttered Rum String Band
12. Drunk Again – Reel Big Fish
13. Nightrain – Guns’n’Roses
14. Portland, Oregon – Loretta Lynn w/Jack White
15. Corn Liquor – Southern Culture On The Skids
16. Plastic Cup Politics – Less Than Jake
17. Blind In Texas – W.A.S.P.

Now that you're armed with a setlist, enjoy the weekend in style. In the meantime, I'll try to get back on track with those reviews I was supposed to be doing...

My Solemn Oath - Idol Style

Okay, so I just had to say this really quickly. To my loyal one to one-and-a-half readers - I promise to never report any news about American Idol of any sort, unless it somehow makes me laugh. You will never find results, who has been eliminated, or if some moron has once again humiliated himself on national TV to the delight of train-wreck lovers everywhere.

Phew! It feels good to get that out. I've been inundated with news about this show for the last few days, and I just wanted you to know you won't find it here...