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Predicting Guardians of the Galaxy’s Awesome Mix Vol 2

Posted in movies, music on January 10, 2017 by Paxton

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This week on Nerd Lunch we did our annual Nerdstradamus episode. We talked a lot of predictions, most of which will be crushed underfoot and proven wrong at the end of this year when we do Nerdstradamus again. Along with the predictions, instead of doing the over-under game we’ve done previously with Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Trek Beyond, we decided to try something different. We all tried to predict three songs we thought would show up on the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 soundtrack.

The first “Awesome Mix” had such a great selection of songs we wanted to try our hand at creating the next one. To date, we had three possible songs that could show up on the soundtrack. Fox on the Run by Sweet, Come a Little Bit Closer by Jay & the Americans and The Chain by Fleetwood Mac all showed up on trailers and teasers. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll show up on the soundtrack or in the movie, but that’s at least a start and gives us an idea of where James Gunn is looking.

So using the three songs above and the 12 songs that showed up on the original soundtrack, I picked 12 songs that I think would make a great Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 soundtrack. If you want to see my picks in a full YouTube playlist, check that out here. CT has also selected 12 songs he thinks will be on the soundtrack. You can check out his Awesome Mix Vol 2 right here.

Without further ado, here’s my song list. The first three picks in this list are the songs I selected on the show.

Little River Band – Help is on the Way – I really wanted Little River Band on this album. Cool Change is a great song as is Lonesome Loser, but I think this track works the best for the movie.

The Guess Who – No Sugar Tonight – The Guess Who are pretty great and they kind of remind me of Sweet. This is such a great song.

The Hollies – Long Cool Woman – A good, bluesy rock song. As you can tell, this is sort of the vibe I was going for. Fuzzy, 70s type rock songs that I could close my eyes and imagine scenes from the upcoming movie.

Here are the 9 other songs on my own personal Awesome Mix Vol 2:

Steppenwolf – Magic Carpet Ride – I love this song. Sort of a great meandering rock and roll ride of a song. So good.

Stevie Wonder – Uptight Everything is Alright – Stevie is awesome and this is one of my favorite songs of his. I also wanted to get some 60s flavor in here similar to the Jackson 5 who showed up on the first soundtrack.

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Krush Groove the novel now exists. FINALLY.

Posted in Beastie Boys, books, movies, music, nostalgia, pop culture, rap, Run-DMC with tags books, Movie Novelizations, nostalgia, Photoshop, rap, Run-DMC, The Fat Boys on September 21, 2016 by Paxton

In the latest episode of the Cult Film Club podcast, we are talking about one of my favorite movies, Krush Groove, from 1985. It’s a fun discussion and a great look back at essentially the genesis of my interest in rap, which was around early 1985 when the first Fat Boys album and Run-DMC’s second album, King of Rock, was released.

Later that year, in October 1985, the movie Krush Groove was released. I did a small review of the movie back in 2010 for the 25th anniversary. Check out episode #36 of the Cult Film Club podcast for my more in depth thoughts on the movie.

What I really want to talk about is, why wasn’t there a Krush Groove novelization? The obvious answer is that it was a movie focusing on the music industry and it may have been hard to translate that since there are at least 3 music video sized interludes in the movie. But that shouldn’t have stopped them. I just finished reading the novelization to Jason X and that book expands the sparse 1 hour and 20 minute movie into a 400+ page novel. You telling me something couldn’t be done with Krush Groove?

So, to correct this rather EGREGIOUS oversight, I created my own Krush Groove novelization based mostly on the design of the soundtrack album cover.

I think it goes without saying that I would have read the sh*t out of this book.

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Two random vintage rap magazine ads

Posted in music, nostalgia, pop culture, rap with tags advertising, music, nostalgia, pop culture, rap on April 22, 2016 by Paxton

I don’t have any more NWA specific scans, but here are two random hip-hop scans.

Here’s an ad for Def Jam records from the early 90s. Notice the separate pics for the members of 3rd Bass (MC Serch, Prime Minister Pete Nice and Daddy Rich) who broke up right before this ad. MC Serch’s pic is from his one and only solo album, The Return of the Product, which was actually a pretty good album. Pete Nice & Daddy Rich’s solo album wasn’t quite as good, but it’s not bad for 90s rap.

Here it is, the coup de grace. An ad for Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch’s second album, You Gotta Believe. It was a followup to their hit debut Music for the People. I’ll admit, I owned this album and I still to this day think the title track is pretty good.

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Vintage ads for NWA solo albums (1992)

Posted in advertising, music, pop culture, rap with tags advertising, nostalgia, NWA, pop culture on April 21, 2016 by Paxton

Here are some more scans from vintage hip-hop magazines.

Today I’m going to show you some ads for NWA member solo albums from late 1992.

Here’s an ad for Dre’s The Chronic from about a month before its release.

Here’s an ad for Ice Cube’s The Predator from right before its release. In fact, the album may have already been released by the time the ad dropped.

This ad is for Eazy-E’s 5150: home 4 tha sick EP. It had already been released when this ad ran. Note at the bottom the solicit for Eazy’s upcoming album, Temporary Insanity. That album was rumored for years and never released. I have no idea if the tracks are still out there or they were mostly used for the posthumous Str8 Off Tha Streets.

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Dr Dre in-depth interview with The Source (1992)

Posted in music, nostalgia, pop culture, rap with tags music, nostalgia, NWA, pop culture, rap on April 20, 2016 by Paxton

Continuing this week to show you scans of old rap/hip hop magazines featuring the members of NWA.

Today we are looking at the November 1992 issue of The Source magazine.

The magazine featured an in depth cover interview with Dr Dre promoting the upcoming release of his solo debut, The Chronic, on Death Row Records.

Dre talks about a lot of things in the article including his new album, the break up with NWA, his beef with Eazy-E and his brand new record label. Very interesting look into the head space of one Andre Young right before he’d change the face of rap with that aforementioned solo album.

He even gets candid about the “Dee Barnes” incident (mentioned in yesterday’s Rap Masters magazine scan), his buddy DOC’s car wreck and The World Class Wreckin’ Cru. It’s a good read.

The article also has two sidebars, both interviews. One is with DOC and the other is with Snoop Dogg who very recently made his debut on Dr Dre’s song Deep Cover and will soon come into prominence due to his heavy appearance on The Chronic.

Here’s the article.

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