The New Mastersounds

Hailing from Leeds, England, are an amazingly tight retro-funk quartet. These guys sound remarkably like the Meters, and that's not a backhanded compliment. The timbre and the grooves are impeccable at best and groovy fun at their worst. Start with 102% and work your way out from there.

Watchmen

I'm on a comics/graphic novel kick thanks to the "Comixology" app. I was never a huge comic book geek, so I don't have much of background or street cred here. Watchmen by Alan Moore doesn't require much comic book knowledge from the reader: it's simply great art. Watchmen is the story of a group of superheroes who loosely get back together together to investigate the murder of a former colleague, "The Comedian." What's unique about this is that it's told as such a way that asks: what would superheroes be like in REAL life? What kind of psychological baggage drives someone to become a vigilante and play dress-up? Amidst the complex intertwining stories is a heavy duty cold-war doomsday plot, too. If you're a comic book fan you've read this already, but if you're not do yourself a favor and give it a try.

Books: Neuromancer

I read this a long time ago and wanted to give it another try. Neuromancer by William Gibson, the man who coined the term "cyberspace," won the sci-fi Triple Crown (Nebula, Philip K. Dick, and Hugo awards) way back in 1984. This one is a tough read due to its immersive nature: you're thrown right into the action in an unfamiliar dystopian future complete with elaborate hacker slang that you need to figure out along the way. It was worth the effort and another read in the near future for me. It's also amazing how far ahead of its time this was, and how much "The Matrix" ripped it off 15 years later including use of the term "the matrix!"

Music: Faith No More (Angel Dust)

Hey, remember the 90's? Faith No More had a big rap/rock hit with Epic off the album "The Real Thing." I was a big fan of that and 1992's Angel Dust which is an awesomely eclectic mix of tracks. Lead singer Mike Patton really shows what he can do on this one (more on him another week). For now, check this out but skip a couple of the edgier tracks which feature a lot of screaming. Instead, enjoy the bizarre lyrics and sweeping, dissonant vocals on tunes like "Midlife Crisis" and "Kindergarten," or the keyboard and synth-heavy arrangements of "Everything's Ruined" and "A Small Victory."

"Sense of security
Holding blunt instrument
I'm a perfectionist
and perfect is a skinned knee."

Music: The Bamboos

April is going to be retro-funk month here. I don't care if something is totally derivative or old-fashioned as long as it grooves, and I love the wave of 21st century bands that are kicking totally oldschool analog sounds. Last weekend I played a gig with a great cover band, Groove Alliance, and the bass player, Jim, mentioned The Bamboos. Oh my word these guys are sickos. On the Sly is a track with a particularly funky 4-note horn line (most of them F#) and a chorus that features great full-band unison hits that don't come across as cheesy. If you can listen to this track without bobbing your head, I don't want to talk to you.

Netflix: Freaks and Geeks

Wanna see where James Franco, Seth Rogen, and Jason Segel got their start? Freaks and Geeks was an 18-episode comedy-drama that involved not only them but writing and directing by Paul Feig and Judd Apatow. This show gained a huge cult following after it was cancelled but now the whole run is streaming on Netflix. Beyond the excellent writing and acting, the casting is top-notch. It's that rare high-school show where most of the actors are actually the appropriate age for their roles. Definitely a must-see in the geek world!

Special Alert: Cartoon Network is showing REAL Looney Tunes classics during the day! Set your DVRs, people. I've had a blast watching "Rabbit of Seville" with the fam.

Movies: The Elephant in the Living Room

Streaming Netflix is a great way to catch documentaries. Once you've watched a couple of good ones they throw a ton of great recommendations at you. The Elephant in the Living Room is a fascinating look at people who keep exotic animals as pets. The stories and stats presented here are weird, eye-opening, frustrating, and sometimes tragic.  WARNING TO ANIMAL LOVERS: there is a particularly grim scene in this one, but I don't feel it was exploitive. Absolutely worth a watch if you like peering into different world that may be just up the street from you:

Music: Bitter:Sweet

Over the last couple of years, I've discovered I like some trip-hop/downbeat/electronica type stuff with a strong leaning towards funky beats with sultry female vocals. Bitter:Sweet is a fun example of the "lounge" side of this genre. It's a little like Portishead meets Austin Powers, so they're a perfect fit for me when I'm not in the mood for the wrist-cutting lyrics of Portishead. The Mating Game's title track caught my attention on Pandora a while back, and the lyrics to The Bomb (on the 2008 album Drama) have a political jab that's pleasantly surprising for a "fun" band:

Here's issue 2, folks. I'm trying to force myself to write regularly by sticking to a weekly schedule. I'm a little late on the blog post here. This will usually be up on Fridays. Enjoy.

Movies: Death Rides a Horse

I caught Django Unchained (which was both as excellent and as brutal as I had heard) back in January and a friend from work recommended the original super B-grade "Django." Alas, it wasn't streaming on Netflix and I was still in the mood for a Spaghetti Western. This lead me to discover "Death Rides A Horse," a semi-obscure classic from 1968 starring Lee Van Cleef as the anti-hero. And he. Is. The. Man. I loved this one. It's a typical but engaging revenge plot and Van Cleef delivers some pretty funny lines without playing it silly:

Music: Dr. Octagon

Not for the feint of heart, Dr. Octagonecologyst (1996) is a one-off album by "Dr. Octagon," the alter-ego of rapper Kool Keith. This is a weird, trippy, abstract, and sometimes graphic set of rhymes. I'm no hip-hop expert, but Keith's rhythmic patterns sound way ahead of their time to me. The flow is frequently conversational and smooth despite the stream-of-consciousness nonsense of the lyrics themselves. "Earth People" and "3000" are definitely the safest tunes to check out for starters. This is by no means gansta rap, but the skits in between some of the tunes are basically adult movie dialogue. Dr. Octagon is not shy with his scatalogical humor, either, but don't let that keep you away from rhymes like:

"Now my helmet's on, you can't tell me I'm not in space
With the National Guard United States Enterprise
Diplomat of swing with aliens at my feet
Comin' down the rampart through beam on the street"

Huh? I dunno, check it out for yourself on Spotify:

Welcome to the first issue of "Casually Geeky" by Scott Grant. The title comes from the fact that I loves me some obscure pop culture but I'm usually too lazy to get overly fired up about it. So, yay Netflix, Spotify, and my Kindle Fire. Feel free to reply with comments, questions, or recommendations of your own!

Movies: The Sentinel (1977)

If you want to check out a weird, occassionally kinky, very 70's horror flick about a Gate to Hell, then The Sentinel's for you. It was better than I expected (decent acting/plot), but with a pretty predictable and anticlimactic ending. There are TONS of bit roles by some now-famous actors including Jeff Goldblum, Jerry Orbach, and Christopher Walken. There's even an infamous scene featuring the use of real "Human Oddities," making The Sentinel one of the few films in history to do this. Click the kitty to check this out on Netflix:

Music: Jellyfish (Bellybutton)

You know when you go back and listen to something you loved and high school and say "Oh man this is awful, what was I thinking?" That's not the case here. First, Jellyfish was already retro when they were around in the early 90's so this album doesn't sound "dated" in a bad way. Second, these guys are clearly pros and the recording quality is fantastic. Style-wise, think Beetles plus Queen plus a little more modern power-pop sound. Bellybutton is the album I had on casette, and it's available on Spotify. The first track is good but slow, so skip that if you're feeling short on attention span today.

Testing setup on my weebly site.