Knife Throwing Mother of the 1950s

The real question you should ask yourselves - how exactly did she find out she had this talent?

Web Picks

Originally Appears in Issue 3

Declan Aylward is back with three more fantastic web sites for you to browse, proving once and for all he has infinitely more free time than you do.

Hober Thinking Radio
http://hober.com/

While not technically a time-waster, Hober is one of those great web sites that makes any long day go by that much quicker. It seems like there are more and more internet radio stations every time you open up your browser, and more and more of them blasting out the same emo ridiculousness or mass-marketed advertising jingles dressed up as pop songs. Hober is, as the name suggests, music for the thinking web junkie. Broadcast from the city of Takoma Park in Maryland, close to Washington D.C., Hober’s dominant genres are ‘folk and ethnic’ according to their site; about as vague a description as you could hope to get really. Everything from down home blues to some very strange traditional styles from various parts of the world raise their heads for your aural pleasure. Most importantly though, Hober wants you to think, so fire up your iTunes or point Windows Media Player at Takoma Park, pull your rocking chair onto the front porch and prepare for some intellectual musical adventures.

Dead Days
http://www.deaddays.net

Oh great, another web comic about what it’s like to be a college student in America, we can never have enough of those! But hey, hypothetical contrary person, give Dead Days a chance and quit being so negative, you douche. Dead Days did indeed start out as your run of the mill three panel sequential comic printed in a college newspaper about topics close to the heart of every student, namely Xbox, alcohol and a distinct lack of housework. Since then, creator John Rios has left college for the working world, but his nameless protagonists have remained the perpetual students most of us wish we could be. Their adventures range from the wacky to the ridiculous, but it is Rios’ charmingly exuberant style combined with an ability to give a line drawing’s expression more depths of resignation and world weary cynicism than Tom Waits at the bottom of a bottle of whiskey that makes Dead Days stand out from the crowd. The comic was recently slated on the Webcomic Beacon Podcast for Rios’ refusal to use colour, but if you can overcome that prejudice then Dead Days could well help you pass the time while you’re supposed to be doing something much more important. You can even use the shout box to annoy John himself with your opinions on the comic in a very accessible back-and-forth which he seems to pay a lot of attention to.

Major Spoilers
http://www.majorspoilers.com

So you think you’re a nerd? Think again my friend; you ain’t got nothing on the boys from Major Spoilers. The site started in July of 2006 as a way for founder Stephen Schleicher and the rest of the team to bring to the internet news, reviews and interviews about comics, science fiction and other things to make anybody who owns their own Star Trek uniform drool. As well as countless review articles, one of the site’s best loved features is the weekly Major Spoilers podcast. Here, Stephen and his buddies Rodrigo and Matthew discuss, bicker and generally wax lyrical about the latest comics releases, DVDs, other people’s podcasts or even wage philosophical debates over the origin of humanity’s great cultural and religious legends and how they relate to Spiderman. There are plenty of podcasts to be found in the site’s archives and, if everything above didn’t seem quite nerdy enough for you, you can even tune in once a week to follow Critical Hit, the gang’s own Dungeons and Dragons campaign put online for your listening pleasure. Just don’t let your boss hear you chuckling into your monitor or he might ask to get involved.

Let It Be

A Vatican newspaper published an article forgiving John Lennon for saying that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus.

It's nice to see that the Catholic Church are getting over it. Besides, how else can you relate to the kids today? By letting go of a remark made four decades ago, that's how! Outta sight!

'Mary Please' by BJM

Our cover story has garnered some varied responses, but regardless of what you and yours think of Anton Newcombe, we still love The Brian Jonestown Massacre! Here they are doing what they do best.

Brother Sharp

The story of a Chinese homeless man who became a fashion icon online.

If your mother ever tells you to stop dressing so scruffy, you show her a picture of this bad boy and watch her swoon.

Digital copyright issues - through song!

Cute video explaining how copying isn't theft. What do you think about the matter?

Let's Set Sail

You could still smell the fresh paint off Let's Set Sail when they played at our Issue 3 launch night, but since then the band have become proper viral. With a new myspace page, you can now listen to the lovely 'April' and 'Sometimes, It Would Be Nice' anytime you like.

http://www.myspace.com/letssetsailtunes

'Maybe I’m Amazed,' 'A Change is Gonna Come,' 'Freebird' and 'Lipgloss'

Andrew writes about some of our editor's favourite songs.

Pixels

Retro gaming icons are attacking NYC! Quick, send all the change you have to satiate them!

Happy Easter!

Find yourself bored with stuffing your face with chocolate? Why not mess about with this online synthesizer to pass the time.

Hey, if chocolate eggs are in line with Jesus coming back from the dead, then synthesizers are too.

Too Little Too Late

Hilarious short from The Dublin University Filmmaking Society. We think he better call Tyrone.

Spotlight: Planet Earth

Originally Appears in Issue 3

Planet Earth is big name to bestow on a band, but according to their laid back frontman Sam Lewis, there really wasn’t a whole lot to it. “When I decided to take writing songs seriously I thought I couldn’t play under my own name, which is too boring,” says Lewis, the group’s chief singer/songwriter. “The Planet Earth series was just starting on TV and me James and Nick, who now both play in the band, really loved it. So it seemed to make sense.”

The BBC series was the most expensive nature-documentary ever commissioned. It’s scale and size though doesn’t mirror Planet Earth’s sound. Tracks like ‘Goodbye Song’ and ‘Love Scientists’ (both available as free downloads through their myspace) are stripped of all fuss, recalling memories of antifolk, with strong country influences and even a hint of jazz. “I really love the old jazz love songs like ‘I Remember You’ or ‘My Funny Valentine’,” says Lewis. “Both of those songs have a wonderful construction, that seems really effortless but also very well crafted. I wanted to try and write a song like that. Whether or not I succeeded is another matter!”

But is this indicative of the band’s future output? “It’s not to be honest,” says Lewis. “[‘Goodbye Song’ and ‘Love Scientists’] were both simple love songs that I liked, but didn’t really fit in anywhere with other stuff we had written. That’s why we gave them away, because I was sure I wouldn’t have been able to fit them anywhere else. The next stuff we record will be very different I think. More indie-rock, less wordy, with a full band.”

Stuff then like new single ‘Falling Into Love’, which is set for an April 19th release on the Young & Lost Club label. Featuring a shed-loud of the band’s famous friends including Charlie Fink and Tom Hobden of Noah and the Whale, the song retains Planet Earth’s sweet, minimalist charm but fleshes out their arrangement by cleverly adding an organ, drums. plugged-in guitar and a variety of other toys to underscore the gentle melody. In that way it follows in the same vein as their previous single release ‘Bergman Movies’, a fun little sing-along with a sizeable drum beat.

The band will be back in the studio this summer to record their debut album with Noah and the Whale’s Fink on production duty. “I’m really excited about it,” beams Lewis. Us to.

www.myspace.com/planetearthsongs