Month: August 2008

Graham Day: Last Man Standing

Twenty-three years ago I ran across an album called Revenge Of The Prisoners by some paisley-looking bunch of Brits called The Prisoners. Any band naming themselves after my favorite cult TV show was well worth the five bucks for the LP and I wasn’t disappointed. At all. Amazingly gritty sound full of attitude – all of 1966 coming at you at 200mph. Too full-on for mere revivalism. The band fell apart a couple years later (though reforming on occasion) and lead singer/guitarist Graham Day continued on with the equally as furious Solarflares.

The Solarflares disbanded in 2004 and since then I hadn’t heard anything from Day until out of idle curiosity I searched on him and found that he had a new band: Graham Day & The Gaolers. One album, Soundtrack To The Daily Grind, was released last year and there’s an EP out soon.

Here’s “Glad I’m Not Young.” Welcome back!

R.I.P. Duke Of New York

hayes_escapeny.jpgI have a vivid memory of watching the 1971 Oscars telecast and being disinterested in much of the proceedings (well, except for anything about The French Connection) until Isaac Hayes came on and turned everything upside down. I imagine it’s like watching the Ed Sullivan show night after night until suddenly Elvis shows up.

The other thing that stands out in my head is Hayes’ role as crime lord The Duke in Escape From New York. Campy? A little, but maximum bad ass cool in a movie full of attitude. Hot Buttered Soul is on repeat play today… R.I.P.

Mad scientist mansion

Spotted just off I-70 in Vail, Colorado:

vail_observatory.jpg

The steampunk backlash (and backlash to the backlash) might be going full-bore right now, but that’s not stopping this guy from building this amazing copper-roofed mansion with built-in observatory. I can only hope that static accumulation on the roof powers some sort of Tesla superweapon that can pick off nearby golfers.