Free We Are Scientists Stuff + Beck Puppets
A few things before the good stuff:
1. Thom Yorke's solo album, The Eraser, which was only announced a few weeks ago, and quickly became the most exciting album to be released this summer, has leaked. For the fans who snap up Radiohead tickets in less than four minutes, a summer tour without a new album was a frustrating proposition, and a solo album seemed as good an alternative as possible. If you're interested in hearing what Thom-y sounds like on his own, check out the Hype Machine. Some Eraser can be heard there, as well as some interesting solo performances and covers.
2. As I mentioned before, the road from Seattle to San Diego happened to take me through Bend, Oregon this Saturday, where Beck happened to be playing. I think there is relatively zero chance that I would have gone to see Beck had he came thru San Diego, and I say that as a fan. Just seemed like it wouldn't have been a good concert to see at the inevitable larger venue he would have played here. Fortunately, we made the decision to go to the Bend concert, and from the opening notes of Devil's Haircut, we didn't regret it. Beck has a large amount of great songs that I've listened to so much over the years, that I've pretty much stopped listening to, and having them played for you live all at once was a great way to be reminded that you really like his stuff.
The addition of his PuppeTron entertainment system didn't hurt things either. Throughout the entire concert, a group of puppeteers mimicked the bands action onstage with lookalike puppets, which were then broadcast on the jumbotron instead of the band. This was, in a word, awesome. It was like taking the Flaming Lips Nun-Cam to a glorious new level. To cap it off, for the first encore, the puppets came onstage by themselves and performed a pre-recorded version of Loser.
3. Finally, I wrote a comic while at the University of Virginia. The UVA paper, the Cavalier Daily, had a substantial comics section, and I studied it as detailedly as I did the Washington Posts comics section while growing up. So it came as a huge shock to me when I started reading about a band named We Are Scientists. You see, to me "We Are Scientists" was nothing more than the most mediocre of mediocre comics that the Cav Daily had published during my tenure there as a student.
The wit of "We Are Scientists" the comic strip
Drawn by Nathan Altice, who I never met, We Are Scientists boldly foraged into the abominable copy-and-pasted characters method used by comics such as Red Meat and Get Your War On. It only ran for a semester and a half, before being replaced towards the end of the year. It was not missed.
We Are Scientists the band, on the other hand, has done quite well for itself. Fresh off playing the Indy Jam with the Flaming Lips last week, the band is bringing their Franz Ferdinand style rockin' to Soma on Friday with the Arctic Monkeys, who I've unfortunately not been able to learn to hate. To commemorate the concert, we have some We Are Scientists stuff to give away. Since the show is Sold Out (with tickets widely available for face value on Craigslist) maybe taking some of this stuff away can ease the pain:
-1 copy of their CD "With Love and Squalor"
-1 copy of their CD/DVD Dualdisc "The Great Escape"
-1 copy of their import single "Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt"
& -1 copy of their import single "The Great Escape"
We Are Scientists The Band - Funnier than the comic strip
So here's what you have to do. Since We Are Scientists, no matter how kickin' the band is (and they're none too shabby in actuality), in my mind will always be associated with a mediocre comic, I'd like to hear what your "favorite" mediocre comic is. No obvious things like The Family Circus. That's just a terrible comic. What is your favorite mediocre comic, the one that you just can't possibly imagine how the author is cashing a paycheck for his efforts every other week? Leave it as a comment, and if I pick yours, you win one of the prize packs with all four of the above items. I have two to give away. Go nuts.
MP3s of the above artists:
Thom Yorke - True Love Waits
Beck - Do You Realize??
We Are Scientists - This Scene Is Dead
Comments
oh so easy- mallard fillmore! the comic with the right wing duck? they carried it in the washington times when i went to school there. is that non obvious enough?
also: i saw the pixies at an outdoor theatre in bend- it was an AWESOME show. bend is a super cool town.
Posted by: cat dirt | May 30, 2006 11:03 PM
The Born Loser, no question about it. There can't be anyone out there who would miss this if it were replaced by blank space or a daily car dealership ad.
Posted by: Chris | May 31, 2006 10:08 AM
Curtis, especially around Kwanzaa time.
Posted by: Andrew | May 31, 2006 05:29 PM
Fred Basset.
Posted by: Phil Tha Thrill | June 1, 2006 03:40 PM
eventhough I love siamese cats... I think the comic series "Get Fuzzy" falls in the mediocre catagory
Posted by: Laura Sweeney | June 2, 2006 08:05 AM
get fuzzy is NOT mediocre. sorry, but i feel strongly about that.
Posted by: cat dirt | June 2, 2006 01:44 PM
I'm going to have to disagree with your disagreement. Get Fuzzy has always seemed to me to be a very poor man's Bloom County.
Posted by: Conor | June 2, 2006 02:17 PM
i don't know, maybe this is up there with the family circus, and doesn't qualify, but...
mary worth, hands down.
that has to be THE worst, eat your foot out of boredom, comic ever made. and unless you read it for a month, you have no idea what the hell is going on.
boo.
Posted by: grindstyle | June 3, 2006 09:49 AM
Oddly enough, I am the student that 'drew' that comic. The name was actually a rip-off of the Guided By Voices track, 'I Am a Scientist'. Yeah, I agree the comic wasn't particularly funny a lot of the time, albeit was meant to be more random and critical of the other comics than anything else. Although I do find it interesting that you remember it...
Posted by: Nathan | August 5, 2006 07:58 AM