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From the Print Archives: Conversation with Scott McMicken of Dr. Dog
Mike McKinley
February 13, 2012
I'm really digging Dr. Dog's Be the Void, and I think Adam King's review really gets to the heart of where the band's at: "All these songs are entities unto themselves; all breathing and pulsing and living in a corner of reality where voids and emotions and melodies walk the streets."

It's nice to live in the present with a band like Dr. Dog. When they put out a record, it's an event. It helps define a time period in your life.

So, over the weekend I went digging back through the print archives to find Adam's conversation with Scott McMicken from back in July 2008. It's interesting to go back and see where the band was at right as they were about to release Fate. Check it out here.

And here's the band killing it on Conan last week with "That Old Black Hole."






photo by Richard Gastwirt Funky Monday: Rahsaan Roland Kirk - "Fly Town Nose Blues"
Mike McKinley
February 6, 2012
It's Funky Monday... because Friday has been owning that shit for way too long.

Sure, this qualifies for "Funky Monday" -- see also:

"Spiritual Monday"
"Over-the-top Monday"
"I'm Human Monday"
"Playing a Fucking Horn with My Nose Monday"
"Funny Monday"
"Down and Dirty Monday"
"Restored Faith in Humanity Monday"

Etc.

I love this musician. Dig Rahsaan Roland Kirk playing "Fly Town Nose Blues" from 1973.





Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. play "Simple Girl" on Conan
Mike McKinley
January 31, 2012
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr made their late-night TV debut on Conan last night with a performance of "Simple Girl." The duo pulled out all the stops -- check out the string section and bow ties.

Funky Monday: Brother Jack McDuff - "The Vibrator"
Mike McKinley
January 30, 2012
It's Funky Monday... because Friday has been owning that shit for way too long.

Check out organist Brother Jack McDuff and his band getting loose on the opening track to 1969's Down Home Style. He calls this one "The Vibrator"...



Wilco & Popeye - "Dawned On Me"
Mike McKinley
January 25, 2012


Wow... Wilco and Popeye, together. Here's the press release:



POPEYE & WILCO: KING FEATURES' MIGHTY MARINER MIXES IT UP WITH WINDY CITY'S ADVENTUROUS ALTERNATIVE ROCKERS

New Video Combines Song from America's Foremost Rock Band withA Return to Classic Animation in the First Hand-Drawn Popeye Cartoon in More Than 25 Years

NEW YORK and CHICAGO -- January 25, 2012 -- Well, Blow Me Down! King Features and dBpm Records are combining creative forces for a series of firsts with the release of a new cartoon and animated music video for Wilco's "Dawned On Me" featuring Popeye the Sailor Man and the Chicago band.

The new video can be viewed in its entirety (above) and at wilcospinach.com.

Wilco's sweet, whimsical love song comes from their latest album, the 2012 Grammy-nominated The Whole Love. The video is directed by Darren Romanelli, the fashion and pop culture innovator who conceived the collaboration between Wilco and King's flagship character.

This collaboration between American icons is one of the first music videos Wilco has released since 1999 and it presents the band to the masses in a fresh, new way: as animated images, side-by-side with Popeye and his friends Olive Oyl, Swee' Pea, Wimpy and Bluto.

As one of the earliest animated characters, introduced in 1933 by Fleischer Studios, Popeye has become one of the most enduring and iconic cartoon characters of all time and is forever entwined in the evolution of animation. The music video marks the first new Popeye cartoon since "Popeye's Voyage: The Quest for Pappy," the 3-D CGI primetime TV special and deluxe DVD release produced by King Features Syndicate for Popeye's 75th Anniversary in 2004. In what has become a primarily digital world, this new video marks the first hand-drawn, frame-by-frame rendering for Popeye cell animation since the Popeye and Son series from 1987.

This certainly isn't Popeye's first foray into love territory: the Sailor Man first met his "goil," Olive Oyl, in Elzie Crisler Segar's popular Thimble Theatre comic strip in the 1930s and their legendary love only grew and captivated the imagination of fans all over the world. The couple even made People Magazine's list of the Greatest Love Stories of the 20th Century.

In this new video, Popeye vies for Olive Oyl's affections with his usual nemesis, Bluto, and with a new challenger, Wilco front man Jeff Tweedy.

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