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Get 'Burned' on USA
With the economy tanking, things are tough all over. Especially for folks who lose their jobs ... especially for people who get fired ... especially if the job you got fired from was working as a spy for the U.S government.
That's the predicament of Michael Westen (played by Jeffrey Donovan) in the USA series "Burn Notice." Turns out getting fired from a spy gig -- getting "burned" -- is a bit different than being laid off from an auto plant. While investigating why he was mysteriously burned and dumped in his hometown of Miami without money or resources, Westen also finds his skill set still very much in demand.
The third season premiere of "Burn Notice" airs at 10 p.m. Jan. 22 on USA.
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Hip-hop history 101
Hip-hop archaeologists know the music's roots reach beyond the Sugar Hill Gang's 1979 hit "Rapper's Delight" -- and past the Fatback Band's 1979 track "King Tim III (Personality Jock)."
To properly excavate hip-hop's beginnings, scholars have to time-trip back to the 1920s, '30s, '40s and '50s, to such blues spoken-word tracks as the Famous Hokum Boys' "Terrible Operation Blues" and Harmonica Frank Floyd's "Swamp Root."
Those tracks and 24 others are available on "The Roots of Hip Hop," available from Harte Recordings on Amazon. Also check out harterecords.blogspot.com.
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Punk band invokes Big Al (Camus)
If French writer Albert Camus were 20-something years old today, he wouldn't be penning works about the absurdity of life titled "The Stranger" or "The Myth of Sisyphus." Instead, he'd be fronting a punk rock band called Big Al and the Shit Rolls Uphill, and he'd be puking his existential guts out over the cacophony of raw guitars.
So, it's fitting that a Jersey punk outfit has named itself Titus Andronicus -- after Shakespeare's obscure but most violent play. And that these punkers amp up the government-issue "your life sucks" credo by quoting Al's "The Stranger." And that they up the absurdity tackled in their lyrics by soaking their songs in keyboards.
And that they titled their new album "The Airing of Grievances" after that arch-existentialist, the "Seinfeld" character Frank Costanza.
"The Airing of Grievances" was released Jan. 20 on XL Recordings.
-- Rick de Yampert, Entertainment Writer
Get 'Burned' on USA
With the economy tanking, things are tough all over. Especially for folks who lose their jobs ... especially for people who get fired ... especially if the job you got fired from was working as a spy for the U.S government.
That's the predicament of Michael Westen (played by Jeffrey Donovan) in the USA series "Burn Notice." Turns out getting fired from a spy gig -- getting "burned" -- is a bit different than being laid off from an auto plant. While investigating why he was mysteriously burned and dumped in his hometown of Miami without money or resources, Westen also finds his skill set still very much in demand.
The third season premiere of "Burn Notice" airs at 10 p.m. Jan. 22 on USA.
LISTEN
Hip-hop history 101
Hip-hop archaeologists know the music's roots reach beyond the Sugar Hill Gang's 1979 hit "Rapper's Delight" -- and past the Fatback Band's 1979 track "King Tim III (Personality Jock)."
To properly excavate hip-hop's beginnings, scholars have to time-trip back to the 1920s, '30s, '40s and '50s, to such blues spoken-word tracks as the Famous Hokum Boys' "Terrible Operation Blues" and Harmonica Frank Floyd's "Swamp Root."
Those tracks and 24 others are available on "The Roots of Hip Hop," available from Harte Recordings on Amazon. Also check out harterecords.blogspot.com.
LISTEN
Punk band invokes Big Al (Camus)
If French writer Albert Camus were 20-something years old today, he wouldn't be penning works about the absurdity of life titled "The Stranger" or "The Myth of Sisyphus." Instead, he'd be fronting a punk rock band called Big Al and the Shit Rolls Uphill, and he'd be puking his existential guts out over the cacophony of raw guitars.
So, it's fitting that a Jersey punk outfit has named itself Titus Andronicus -- after Shakespeare's obscure but most violent play. And that these punkers amp up the government-issue "your life sucks" credo by quoting Al's "The Stranger." And that they up the absurdity tackled in their lyrics by soaking their songs in keyboards.
And that they titled their new album "The Airing of Grievances" after that arch-existentialist, the "Seinfeld" character Frank Costanza.
"The Airing of Grievances" was released Jan. 20 on XL Recordings.
-- Rick de Yampert, Entertainment Writer
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