Thursday, August 18, 2011

Comics Review: Incredible Change-Bots Part Two

INCREDIBLE CHANGE-BOTS TWO
Jeffrey Brown (Top Shelf)
Somebody watched a lot of cartoons when they were a kid... Here's a hint: it was Jeffrey Brown, but that's a given with the second installment of Jeffrey's Incredible Change-Bot series. The story line parallels that of the multi-million dollar franchise of movies, cartoon shows and cool morphing toys: Robots, however inadvertently, invade Earth and one poor bastard Bot gets left behind. In Jeffrey Brown's version, the two robot factions, Awesomebots and Fantasticons, struggle for control of their home planet. In Part One, these Bots crashed on Earth in an attempt to flee their embattled planet of Electronocybercircuitron. After an epic battle on Earth, in which the Awesombots were victorious, both parties departed for greener pastures. Shootertron is the ditched Fantasticon who finds himself deserted on our planet and that's where Part Two picks up. The Change-Bots once again crash into Earth and meet up with their long-forgotten pal. The Bot nation needs to learn how to get along to survive on their adopted planet. The results are quite funny and the one-liners are fired off like lasers (bew, bew) but with more frequency. Although I found the book funny, the humor is not aimed at adults specifically—at least not at the expense of younger readers. There's some groaners in there for sure, but if you appreciate bad puns you are in luck.

It seems like Mr. Brown has a lot of fun drawing his Incredible Change-Bots. There's a child-like playfulness to them (the colored markers help) and each Bot has it's own personality in addition to it's unique morphing ability. Kids and adults will find Shootertron and Company not only cool-looking but endearing, and in keeping with the Transformers tradition the story is to be continued... "probably".

Check out the Reglar Wiglar interview with the creator Jeffery Brown.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Reglar Wiglar Interview: Comics Artist, Jeffrey Brown

Jeffrey Brown is a very busy man. Not only is a film that he co-wrote currently in production, he's also held the titles of music video director, NPR contributor, children's book author, comics creator, diarist, husband, father and probably a cousin to someone somewhere as well. Mr. Brown is living proof that you can make a career out of drawing pictures of robots shooting lasers. Ok, maybe he doesn't draw pictures of robots shooting lasers exclusively, but still, that's pretty cool. So, if you are someone who draws pictures of robots shooting lasers, DON"T STOP NOW!

Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Music Review: The Mediums

THE MEDIUMS
Shiny Void Blues LP (E.V.P./I.T.C)
Chicago garage psych masters, The Mediums, come heavy with the blues-based freakouts. Seems like the Mediums have moved on from the straight-up 60s garage rock sound and into a more blues-based concept. Easily recognizable riffs pop up only to veer left or right at the last minute. Side two is when the sonic fury really comes to bear with frenzied guitar riffage breaking out hither and yon and then back hither —Joey Germ

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Monday, August 08, 2011

Music Review: Bachelorette

BACHELORETTE
Bachelorette LP/CD (Drag City)
Annabel Alpers is Bachelorette and as such she creates spacy, dreamy soundscapes that seem to transcend her earthly bindings. Alpers, who is from Auckland, New Zealand (down under and over), wrote and recorded the music for this record while on tour across several continents. Whatever geographic location gave inception to the songs, they seem to float untethered to any natural or imaginary borders. Alpers fuses together organic and electronic elements to create her music, which might technically be called techno or synth pop, but the strongest instrument is her own hypnotic voice. Overall, a completely digable album that cleverly sneaks into the brain where it hides and lies dormant until the most unsuspecting moments—P.C. Jones

Friday, August 05, 2011

Music Review: Birds & Arrows

BIRDS & ARROWS
We're Gonna Run CD (307 Knox)
Birds & Arrows are a husband and wife (Andrea & Pete Connolly) duo that's recently expanded into a trio with the addition of cellist, Josh Starmer. B&A play a whimsical brand of folk music which includes, but is not limited to ballads of love and songs of yearning. Based out of Chapel Hill, NC, the group has been gaining press nods recently and with good reason. They create catchy tunes with sweet vocal harmonies that pontificate on universal themes and feelings that are sure to strike a chord in hopeless romantics everywhere. I know it makes me want to get married... again—Warren Jeffs

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