The Weekly Awesome!

I've received literally thousands of emails from folks around the world begging me to start up some regular features on this blog; something that they can return to again and again, knowing it will always be there to comfort them in times of need, to celebrate with them in times of joy, and to steal twenty bucks from their wallets in times of passed-outedness. Okay, loyal readers whom I've made up... you've got your wish. I present to you the first regular column of Zombie Fights Shark; note how it combines, artfully, my love of music, my love of listing things and my love of doing stuff that require a bare minimum of effort. Ladies, gentlemen, I give unto thee...

The Weekly Awesome!

Music Notes

In this portion of The Weekly Awesome!, I'll be discussing whatever needs to be bandied about in the current world of music. It could be anything really, as long as it's vaugely music related: Madonna's current tour, for example, or how much I hate rap, rappers and those who like rap and rappers. Because I'm generally snotty about my opinons and also usually five years or so behind what's currently popular, you can expect lots of snide remarks about The Strokes and much trumpeting of the hot new indie sensation that calls themselves The Shins.

Songs of our Week

This part will be a list of a few songs that are currently within my narrow field of vision, plus an explaination of why they are the living end. And, yes, I realize how painfully "bloggy" this all is. Tough. My house, my rules. Herewith, the inaugral SooW:

1. "Heroin" by The Velvet Underground

It smacks painfully of 1991 to be into the Velvets these days, but some things are cliched for a reason. This song, which is less of a song and more of Lou Reed describing a typical day in the East Village, pretty much typifies what they were all about and it rocks and it makes you feel like you're life is boring like the phone book, which, I'm fairly certain, is what a good rock song is supposed to do. Because The Velvet Underground have more live records out than Dave Matthews and The Fall combined, you can find a whole bunch of different versions of this song and they're all good.

2. "Welcome to the Working Week" by Elvis Costello

This is back when EC was still an angry young man and interesting, as opposed to now where he seems content to stroke off Burt Bacharach for a bunch of albums and make cutesy cameos in Austin Powers movies. Seriously, it's a good thing John Lennon died when he did because Elvis Costello now is totally what he would have turned into and that would have been deeply deppressing. Anyway, this song is good.

3. "High School Confidential" by Hasil Adkins

There are, I'm sure, thousands of crazy guys out in the woods with guitars who do nothing but record hours and hours of weird music on crappy equipment in frightening shacks. It's nice to see one of those guys actually get discovered and put out some albums.

4. "I Am... I Said" by Neil Diamond

I hate everything his sleazy ass stands for, but... this song is bewitching. It's like that urge you get to throw your keys back in the car just as you're about to slam the locked door. You know you shouldn't, you know it's a stupid idea and you'll immediately regret it, and yet, there you are in the Costco parking lot waiting for a locksmith.

5. "Pulled Up" by Talking Heads

There is a real dearth, these days, of songs that make you want to jump around your apartment on a sugar high with a cute girl whom you've just cooked an awesome dinner with and will most likely be seeing naked later on. This is one of those songs and it should be stored in a vault somewhere so we never lose it.

So that's the new column. See ya'll next week, my lovelies.