CD new releases April 14, 2009: Dukes of Stratosphear! Simon and Garfunkel live! Handsome Family! Goffin/King! Monks! More!

CD releases of note this week. Click the links to order from Amazon.


The Complete Tony Bennett / Bill Evans Recordings


25 O'Clock by Dukes Of Stratosphear


Psonic Psunspot by Dukes Of Stratosphear


One Foot in the Grave by Beck


Live 1969 by Simon & Garfunkel


Honey Moon by The Handsome Family


Honey and Wine: Another Gerry Goffin and Carole King Song Collection by Various Artists


Black Hearted Love (incl. 2 non-album tracks) by PJ Harvey and John Parish


Heaven All Around Me - The Later King Sessions 1961-1963 by Little Willie John


Destroy That Boy! More Girls with Guitars by Various Artists


The Early: 1964-1965 by The Monks

DVD new releases April 14, 2009: Spirit! The Who!

DVDs of interest this week. Click the links to order from Amazon.


The Spirit (Two-Disc Special Edition + Digital Copy)


The Who: Maximum R&B Live

Pop links: Ditko! Harvey! Veronica! Toth!

Read a vintage horror tale illustrated by Steve Ditko.



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Check out Stan Lee and Stan Goldberg's "Harvey."



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Dr. Hermes explores the secret origins of Archie's Veronica.

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Fortress of Fortitude begins a week of Alex Toth posts.

Vintage Doctor Who paperback covers pt. 2












Pop links: Zappa! Neko Case! Beatle vision! Frank Springer! More!

Hear a story about the new Frank Zappa collection Lumpy Money on NPR.

It combines music — released and unreleased — that Frank Zappa recorded in 1967. One session produced the Mothers of Invention album We're Only in It for the Money, the group's third release. The other was a surprise.

Zappa was a 26-year-old, self-taught composer with long hair and a funny goatee when he walked into a Capitol Records studio in Los Angeles and handed an orchestra charts for Lumpy Gravy.

"At one point, he turned to me when we were listening, just to playback," Gail Zappa says, "and he said, 'Did I write that?' It was so shocking."

It's almost as if Frank Zappa was writing avant-garde classical music in Top 40 segments, says Rolling Stone's David Fricke, who wrote the liner notes for the new set.

"It just blew my mind," he says.


This has always been my favorite period of Zappa's work.

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Also on NPR: A live performance by alt-country/pop singer Neko Case. She's great.

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Via On My Mind: This is a really nifty-looking Beatles art book/CD holder compiled by the great Bruce Spizer (who's penned a series of great tomes looking at the Fabs' vinyl releases). But will we really need it for storing our CDs once we plunk down big cash for the upcoming Beatles stereo and mono boxsets featuring remastered sound? (And when I say "we" here, I mean "me").



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From Plaid Stallions, the summer 1979 Ideal Toys catalog.



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Golden Age Comic Book Stories shares a few Atlas Western tales with art by Reed Crandall, Jack Davis, Bob Powell and others.



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Fred Hembeck pays tribute to late comics artist Frank Springer.

More on the Dollhouse debacle

Entertainment Weekly has more details about the "Dollhouse" episode Fox has elected not to air this season.

Fox bought and paid for 13 hours of Dollhouse (from sister company 20th Century Fox), one of which turned out to be the scrapped pilot that Whedon wound up reshooting. Which means Day's episode, "Epitaph One," is the 14th -- which the network didn't buy. And isn't going to buy. "We currently do not have plans to air 'Epitaph One,'" says a Fox source, who added that this decision does not reflect the network's feelings about the show or whether Dollhouse will be renewed. An official announcement about Dollhouse's possible return for next season will be made at the network's upfronts in May.

Confusing. So, even though this ep is somehow extra, the fact that the network is choosing not to air it is:

A. Because they have no faith in the show and intend to cancel it.
B. To force fans to buy the "Dollhouse" DVD set.
C. Both of the above.

Upcoming pop culture DVDs: Doctor Who! Land of the Lost! 60s Peanuts collection! Weeds! Woodstock! More!

Here's a look at upcoming DVDs of interest. Click the title links for more info and to pre-order from Amazon.

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Doctor Who, Episodes 11 & 12: The Rescue / The Romans
Out July 7

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Doctor Who: Attack of the Cybermen (Episode 138)
Out July 7

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Peanuts: 1960's Collection (A Charlie Brown Christmas / Charlie Brown's All-Stars / It's the Great Pumpkin / You're in Love / He's Your Dog / It Was a Short Summer)
Out July 7

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Sherlock Holmes: The Great Detective
Out June 30

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Tom and Jerry: The Chuck Jones Collection
Out June 23

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Get Smart: Season 3
Out June 9

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Weeds - Season 4
Out June 2

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Land of the Lost: Complete Series (Limited Edition Gift Set)
Out May 26

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Land of the Lost: The Complete Series
Out May 26

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Gunsmoke-Season 3 Vol. 2
Out May 26

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Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music Director's Cut (40th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition with Amazon Exclusive Bonus Disc)
Out June 9

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Limited Edition T2 Complete Collector's Set (for the Endoskull) [Blu-ray]
Out May 19

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Girl on a Motorcycle
Out May 19

New Green Lantern: First Flight trailer

I was just sent this official link for a trailer for the upcoming straight-to-DVD Green Lantern animated film, plus a new pic.



Dollhouse canceled? Last episode held hostage!

It sounds like Joss Whedon's "Dollhouse" is getting the axe. And you'll evidently have to wait for the DVD set to see the final episode--Fox doesn't plan to air it.

Reports New York Magazine:

As Joss Whedon's Dollhouse continues to improve with every episode, we've just learned that the show's thirteenth episode — its first-season, and apparently series, finale — will not air on Fox, as planned, but will instead be available only on DVD, according to the Twitter feed of Whedon favorite Felicia Day, who purportedly has a role in said episode:
Man, day getting worse and worse. Found out my Dollhouse ep, #13 isn't gonna air. Only on DVD. Such a great part too. Thx Fox. :(
Thx all, to clarify seems like they'll air #12 as the finale and not air my ep #13 at all? So weird :( Ask @foxbroadcasting I guess?


As I mentioned here a while back, I was very disappointed in the show and felt it had a ridiculous, unworkable premise. But, if all this is true, this is extremely shabby treatment by the network. I mean, why not run the last episode instead of holding it back so curious fans have to shell out for the DVD set? Tacky.

Pop links: The Goons! Paul, Linda and the Duke! Hulk toons! Metal Men!

Booksteve has a whole mess of cool YouTube finds: Check out the Goons and Peter Cushing on "This is Your Life," John Wayne meeting Paul and Linda McCartney at the 1971 Grammy Awards and more. Good stuff, Steve!

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More video: Jon's Random Acts of Geekery presents a couple 1960s Hulk TV cartoons.

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Comics scribe J.M. DeMatteis talks about the upcoming Metal Men comic he's doing for DC with Keith Giffen and Kevin Maguire. I may need to check this one out.

"What's struck me so far is that there's a certain innocence to the Metal Men that I find refreshing — and each one has a character template that's instantly accessible: simple enough for anyone to understand and yet with lots of room for us to layer in as many personality quirks as we'd like," he said. "Also, despite the fact that they're robots (or maybe because of it) there's something warm and lovable about them. You can't help but like these guys."

What happened on Lost last night?

Get a full rundown on the Lost Season 5 blog!

Vintage Marvel Comics house ad


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Guess I'll be skipping Harper's Island

From The Los Angeles Times:

The 13-episode “Harper’s Island,” which premieres on CBS Thursday at 10 p.m., has billed itself as a television event. And it is: network television's first attempt at a by-the-book splatterfest. Agatha Christie, meet “Saw” for its final-moments-of-torture-porn screams, dripping viscera and blade-meets-living-flesh sound effects. Between the beheadings, bisections, eviscerations, live burnings and hangings, the traditional gore boundaries of network TV are lost amid the blood trails and body count. If only they could have figured out how to do it in 3-D.

Pop links: Phil Silvers! Wolverton! Aqua-shrine! Dinky Enterprise! Bye bye Dr. Who! The Phantom's terrible new costume!

Watch an episode of the "Phil Silvers Show" from 1957.

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Check out this preview of Basil Wolverton's "The Wolverton Bible" from Fantagraphics.



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See one family's awesome Aqua-shrine!



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Plaid Stallions boards the Dinky Enterprise.



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"Doctor Who" actor David Tennant chats about his last days in the role.



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The Sci Fi Channel previews costume designs for its upcoming "Phantom" TV movie and I join other fans in saying "yuck!"



Nice hoodie, dude.