Wanton destruction

We had a very satisfying moment here yesterday - we got a new laser printer for the office. Well, that was a good thing in and of itself, as our previous printer had taken to randomly crumpling and jamming like 1 out of every 3 sheets printed. But the real moment of satisfaction came when we brought the old printer out back, and Andee took a baseball bat to it. Scott had a few whacks too. Ah, a little violence against an inanimate object to relieve some work place stress (and built up hatred of said object).

A lesson learned, however: if you decide to go all "Office Space" on a Brother HL-2040 or similar laser printer, it's a good idea to remove the toner cartridge first! Otherwise it can be a bit messy. Although the black smoke-like plume that erupts when it's squarely struck is rather cool.

Sunday krossword

We know we've mentioned before just what big fans we are of Julian Cope's hipper-than-thou Head Heritage website, in particular the Unsung section with all the reviews. Especially Cope's Record Of The Month reviews. Sometimes he picks a disc we already knew about and are happy to see get the extra recognition of a J.C. endorsement (like Vincent Black Shadow, Jex Thoth or To Blacken The Pages). Sometimes it's something we had never really heard of before and then go order for AQ, review, and sell a ton of (like Cadaver In Drag, Orthodox, and Gunslingers). Once in a while it's something we don't know about, and still don't know about, or can't get (and maybe don't exist as a real release?). Occasionally it's an old classic, like the Melvins' Lysol. And then there's the times he creates his own cool compilation and writes up a review about it, like his recent "Glamrocksampler". (Fortunately, in all cases, Head Heritage provides a mp3 stream of the Record Of The Month, for that month only.)

So, 'round about the first of the month, we're always excited to click on Head Heritage and see what's gotten the Record Of The Month treatment this time. Cope's reviews, even if you don't agree with (or understand) 'em, are always entertaining, enthusiastic and esoterically erudite, complete with footnotes.

All this by way of saying that the April 2009 pick is one we were stoked to see: KISS! Remember last year, when Allan reviewed a klassic Kiss album on every AQ list for a month or two? Dynasty, Music From The Elder, Destroyer, Love Gun, Hotter Than Hell, Kiss, Rock And Roll Over? Well, if he didn't convice you that Kiss are kool, maybe you'll believe Julian Kope, we mean Cope. He's made his own Kiss "best of" kompliation called Krossword and reviewed it as the current Record Of The Month. So, check it out! We would have included "I Want You" from Rock And Roll Over, but it's still a pretty killer comp.

And Julian Cope has indeed also included a special Kiss krossword puzzle as a pdf download to go along with it. Haven't worked on it yet, looks pretty challenging, with such clues as "66 down: Confusing vocational surname of post-post-Peter Criss drummer" and "25 across: The colour of Ace's aura, as revealed on the sleeve of his solo LP". It's not all about Kiss, either.

So, something do this lazy Sunday afternoon. Along with browsing more of the Unsung reviews... definitely crack open the Book Of Seth when you get the chance, too.

What'll they think of next?

You've probably already checked out the link to this Van Halen Asteroids game. It seems to be making the rounds of the internets. Pretty amusing, a least for a little while...

On a related subject, today we happened to be wondering, how is it possible that we've had a copy of the cd reissue of the Spanish-language version of David Lee Roth's "Eat 'Em And Smile" aka "Sonrisa Salvaje" in our store for nearly a year now and no one has purchased it yet??

Look it up on our website to hear sound samples of the hit "Rosa Yanqui" and DLR's cover of "La Calle del Tabaco"... then go ahead, "add to cart".

Bogner fun

Our customer Steven Johnson in Baltimore emailed to say: "Hey there Aquarians... as usual your new arrivals email is helping me tear off the sleepy cobwebs of an early Saturday morning after the work week is done. Ursula Bogner made my week! So inspired I was, I took a gander at the Faitiche website for more morsels. What I found may excite you - should you not already be aware! You can play all the tracks on their website. But more importantly, you can play them at the same time! So one can take Bogner to a whole new level - everyone can be a Bogner mixmaster. I am still messing around with combinations, but so far my favorite is tracks 1 & 2 in combination. You can adjust volumes as well. Perhaps you may want to cue "Aqua-world" in to this little bit of web-fun?!"

Thanks Steve, indeed we do, everybody check it out here: http://www.faitiche.de/catalog1_en.html

And while you're there, you can also read more about the fascinating Ursula Bogner... or perhaps we should say "Ursula Bogner"? The skeptical amongst us couldn't help noticing that there's a page on the Faitiche site that gives a definition of the label's name as being "a combination of facts and fetishes, and makes it obvious that the two have a common element of fabrication." Hmm.

The answers to yesterday's quiz

Hope you all enjoyed trying to figure these out! Our band-name-abbreviations quiz inspired a few comments (thanks!), so it seems like some folks did have fun with it.

For those of you who haven't taken the quiz yet, and still want to try, we're going to put the answers in the comments section, below. So you can still go try the quiz (to be found in a previous blog post from yesterday) without having accidentally glimpsed any of the answers yet.

Since yesterday, we also thought of a bunch more band initials we could have used, there's so many more... Ferinstance: VU, VBS, ZP, ZG, ANP, COF, JSBX, TGOS, BIN!, and of course WITTR.

Pop quiz time

Often in our reviews, to avoid wearisome typing, we'll use initials in place of lengthy band names. Of course, we would (or should) only use the abbreviation after mentioning the full band name at least once. Like, for example, if we were writing a review of an album by one of Allan's favorite bands, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, we might begin to refer to them as RHCP part way through the review. Sometimes the abbreviated version is in common use among fans of the band, sometimes it's just us.

Another example would be NWW = Nurse With Wound. Or, ADII = Amon Duul II.

Got it? Ok. Here's a whole bunch more to figure out (in no particular order). Some are probably pretty easy, some really, really tough. Let's just say, that while several AQ staffers aced this quiz, some other folks here could have done better. A lot better.

I think everyone got NWW, but HGP stumped almost everybody... And there's two (maybe three) special unfair tricky ones included below too.

Ready? Grab your number 2 pencils and see if you can guess who these bands/artists are:

1. BCM
2. OTC
3. SCG
4. BOC
5. FFB
6. DSO
7. TITD
8. BBA
9. BOTD
10. 6FS
11. RFTC
12. DRC
13. NNCK
14. BBML
15. BMSR
16. KTAOABC
17. MITB
18. DCD
19. NMH
20. FTB
21. BSBC
22. AMT
23. HGP
24. SRB
25. EITS
26. CFTPA
27. DRS
28. GBV
29. MBV
30. DCFC
31. FSA
32. 3MP
33. GSYBE
34. SRS
35. YLT
36. FOB
37. SBHOTM
38. ATHOTW
39. BTC
40. BPB
41. VDGG
42. TFUL282
43. W&C
44. B&S
45. IAS
46. AMF
47. SBOTHI
48. WCPAEB
49. DMBQ
50. MGR

We'll post the answers on the blog tomorrow. Good luck!