• They do extended, overblown cover songs of other people's material
• They do an extended, overblown cover of their own song ("Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited")
• There's narration and recorded-in-the-street chatter in between the tracks, none of which has anything to do with anything
• They interpolate classical themes (Bach, Tchaikovsky, etc.) within rock songs
• Do you see that album cover? Do you see it?

Yet, in spite of all this, Shazam is a terrific record. Coming at a peculiar age in British rock music—at the heels of psychedelia, and at the beginning of prog and what eventually became metal—it's heavy, thudding, brickish, and blown out. It's theatrical and flamboyant. It's grandiose. It's funny. It's phenomenally dumb.

The Move went on to acquire Jeff Lynne, who then started Electric Light Orchestra with main Move-man Roy Wood—who then went off to start Wizzard—and while they came close to the thudding thomp of Shazam on their subsequent records (listen to "Brontosaurus," or the outstanding "Do Ya?" which Jeff Lynne later reworked with ELO), they never topped it.

Dangerous Minds put this up yesterday, and it's great. It's a 1983 episode of some wretched, low-budget cable TV show from Eugene, Oregon. While it's enjoyable enough to watch for its dated production values and awkward banter, there's a solid interview with Jonny and Dee Dee Ramone. The two come off great, while the interviewers just look like airheads. A time capsule of punk spirit butting up against the rest of the world. Just watch.

Jimmy Webb turns 65 today (meaning those AARP benefits are gonna start rolling in) and before you say Jimmy Who-whaa?, let me rattle off a few song titles for you: "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "Galveston," "MacArthur Park," "Highwayman." Webb wrote all of these, and the list goes on and on. Sure, a lot of Webb's material falls into the easy listening end of the spectrum (and Richard Harris' rendition of "MacArthur Park" is still fascinatingly, unrelentingly awful), but any person who wrote this song deserves a little recognition on his big day:

Franke and the Knockouts were only together for a few short years, but don't cry for frontman Franke Previte—he went on to write "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" and "Hungry Eyes" for Dirty Dancing, so it's safe to assume he has been living out the past couple decades by swimming in gigantic piles of money, Uncle Scrooge-style. Meanwhile, drummer Tico Torres went on to join another Jersey band by the name of Bon Jovi. Franke and the Knockouts' catalog was just reissued last week—the Greatest Hits disc back in print for the first time in 10 years, and their original albums back in print for the first time since the early '80s.

If you've seen The Future Is Unwritten, an up-and-down documentary on Joe Strummer, you've heard the great clips of Joe proselytizing and sharing great tunes form all over the world. Those bits came from Joe Strummer's London Calling for BBC Radio.

I've found a collection of the broadcasts online and they are absolutely terrific, offering all kinds of new musical threads to follow.

Some place called PRX has eight hour-long episodes of the show streaming for free. The only catch is that you've got to create an account but the process was un-intrusive and totally worth it.

The first episode is wrought with a bunch of totally unnecessary commentary and background—basically a reason for another producer to stick his name on Joe's product. After that, however, the show is all Joe's.

Aside from all the great tunes, Joe does have some divine little runs of almost poetic spoken word. It's too bad licensing issues would probably prevent the show being turned into a box set. And of course, the greatest tragedy of all is that Joe's not around, still cranking out episodes.

Set your dial to: Joe Strummer's London Calling

(Side note: anyone ever listened to Bob Dylan's satellite radio show? Sure would like to know if it's any good.)

Who's excited to see the Wedding Present do Bizarro tomorow?

Me, me, me.

Michel Gondry is a genius. There's no other way to say it, no way around it: When the dude is at the top of his game (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Dave Chappelle's Block Party, The Science of Sleep) he's absolutely unfuckwithable, and even when he's not at the top of his game (Be Kind Rewind, Human Nature), his films are still jaw-droppingly unique and enjoyable and good-hearted. The dude's creativity is just astounding, and nowhere is this more evident than on his recent self-released DVD, Michel Gondry 2: More Videos Before & After DVD 1 (the "DVD 1" being, I assume, The Work of Director Michel Gondry).

I mean, look at this. I dare you not to be astonished.

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