Wed. August 3rd, 2011

Hot List:

- The Bad Sports: I finally caught these guys at the Final Glenn Danzig's house show. If you haven't heard these kids, you need to get down with some Denton, TX power pop. Get a hold of their records, while they are still easy to find. The great Ryan Brush & less-great Ryan Sweeney will be doing a 7" for them this fall.

- Fantasy Football: The NFL lockout was similar to being a kid at your best friend's house when his parents got into a fight. You don't know who's right or wrong - you just want it to be over so you can awkwardly pretend it never happened. But now it's through. The millionaires and billionaires can go back to watching us all gamble away our wages on their games. Why do we love it? Because we are fools with an insatiable hunger for sports.

- Vanishing Point: It's perhaps the greatest car chase film ever made. I had the opportunity to catch it on the big screen on Sunday. It's pretty much everything you need in 70's auto-sploitation. An ex-army/ex-cop/ex-racecar driver takes his white-hot Dodge Challenger cross country in a blur of blue pills and beautiful blonds, all the while running from the law and listening to the perfect soundtrack of the doobie-era.

- Voting: Tomorrow is the big day in my little part of this democratic republic. The mayor & our fully incapable city council are up on the chopping block. It's really like a holiday for me.

- Dave Cloud: It's the Springwater king's birthday. Blow out the candles, big guy. In the last decade or so, I've had countless chances to watch Dave & the GOP shroud rooms with noise-drenched magic. Here's a crowd pleaser of his his first album.