Ah yes, the Mavericks. They're one of those bands that a couple of my friends keep telling me I should check out, but for one reason or another I've never taken the time to get into them. I like the sound of these two tracks you posted.

This album is a little earlier than the Mavericks that most folks here in the UK know. The band had a colossal hit over here in 1998 with "Dance the Night Away", which Wikipedia tells me is from the album Trampoline. But yeah, these two tracks sounds good.





Ha ha...now this takes me back. My girlfriend's brother back in '94 was a big Stereolab fan and used to play them to me often. I smoked a lot of weed to this album!

I always really liked what Stereolab was doing at the time. I thought their mix of repetitive, hypnotic Kraftwerk-esque rhythms, psychedelic lounge music backing, and the kitchy French chanteuse vocals was a great combination. The song "Ping Pong" was the hit that you used to hear at indie discos over here in the mid-90s.

But you know, as much as my gf's brother and I listened to this album, I never felt the urge to go out and buy it. Maybe because it's not particularly song-based overall? But I'm just spinning the whole album again on Spotify as I write this and, actually, I think that I made a mistake. I'd sort of forgotten how much I enjoy this album.

I think I'm gonna order myself a copy of this...maybe on vinyl, if its available (it seems appropriate to listen to Stereolab on vinyl, somehow). Thanks for reminding me how good this album is berkley!

Since we seem to just be naming our favourite canine characters and sidekicks now too, I'm just gonna leave this here...

So, I recently read X-Men issues #96–103 for the first time.





These issues find Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum really finding their feet with the new X-Men. Issue #96 opens with the team mourning their fallen comrade Thunderbird, with Cyclops in particular feeling very guilty about his death. This issue also sees the arrival of the bonny lass Moira MacTaggert and almost immediately a burgeoning romance between her and Banshee is evident – though Professor Xavier also seems romantically interested in her. The name "Moira MacTaggert" really rings a bell with me, though I'm not sure why. I strongly suspect that she must eventually become a superhero and I hope someone reading this will be able to let me know.

There's an ongoing sub-plot building in the background of issues #96 and #97 concerning Dr. Steven Lang and his anti-mutant programme, Project Armageddon (but more of that later). The main source of action in issue #96 comes from the appearance of the monstrous Kierrock the Damned, although it's a bit of a WTF moment – not least because the creature was unleashed by Cyclops throwing a tantrum and shooting his eyebeams off everywhere earlier in the issue, inadvertently destroying a weird ancient monument. Cool monster design for Kierrock by Cockrum though.

Taking of cool designs, Cockrum excels again with some great spaceship designs among the alien armada that Professor X sees in his dream in issue #97. There's an appearance in this issue of a villain named Eric the Red, but he's pretty underwhelming and the less said about him the better.

I really liked the Christmastime story in issue #98, which sees the return of the Sentinels. I'm not sure how I feel about Nightcrawler using an Image Inducer to disguise his appearance and make him look like a regular human. I mean, it's a very comic booky type thing to have, but somehow not being "out and proud" about being a mutant kinda goes against what Professor Xavier and the other X-Men stand for. Though I do absolutely accept that Nightcrawler looks so obviously non-human that having the team getting around with him in public without attracting unwanted attention would likely be a problem.

By issue #99, Dr. Lang has captured Wolverine, Banshee, Jean Grey and Professor Xavier and imprisoned them all on an abandoned S.H.I.E.L.D. orbital platform. Taking the adventure into outer space is a nice change of pace and it's very cool to see Cyclops, Storm, Nightcrawler, and Colossus commandeering a Starcom space shuttle in order to rescue their teammates.

The big reveal of issue #100 is that Dr. Lang has created "X-Sentinels", which are android duplicates of the original X-Men. The appearance of this group of evil doppelgangers is a gripping dramatic touch, but it's a shame that they turn out to be androids. I was thinking when they first appeared that they were gonna be clones (I've been reading too much Spider-Man, I guess).

Lang is eventually killed by Jean Grey and, as the X-Men all escape the orbital platform in the space shuttle, Jean is bathed in solar radiation, resulting in her dying and transforming into a new persona, the Phoenix (complete with new, ready-made costume). Comics, eh? We don't really get to see what Pheonix can do in these issues because she immediately passes out and is taken to hospital where she's in a critical condition for a while. Cyclops keeps vigil at her bed side while the other X-Men go on holiday to Banshee's family castle in Ireland. Yeah, because every Irishman has a hereditary castle, of course.

Predictably, there turns out to be a lot of funny business going on at Banshee's family castle and the team are soon attacked by Black Tom (who is Banshee's cousin) and the Juggernaut. Speaking of the Juggernaut, I had no idea that he was Charles Xavier's half-brother! Every day's a school day. Anyway, there's a really exciting battle between the X-Men and the villainous pair in issues #102 and #103, at the end of which Black Tom and Juggernaut appear to perish. The appearance of a group of Leprechauns during the fight – yes, that's right, real Leprechauns (this is Ireland, after all) – is a bit of a WTF moment, but hey…you know, comics, right?

Overall, these were some really enjoyable issues. Storm's problems with claustrophobia make for an interesting and fairly original Achillies heel for a superhero to have, although I think its perhaps a little bit overplayed. But yeah, for the most part, I really enjoyed reading these comics.

I know this album well, as a friend of mine back then was very into Bob Mould's various musical phases, including Sugar. For me, Copper Blue was probably my favourite album that Mould has produced.

This could be referring to the old Golden Age Black Widow (Claire Voyant). In his 2008 mini-series The Twelve, J. Michael Straczinsky retconned her to be a lesbian and there were definitely scenes depicting her kissing another woman. Maybe that was the first time Marvel showed a lesbian kiss? Although 2008 sounds a bit late for that, but then again, maybe not.

Yeah, I think I will give the Blasters a listen. I quite like the few cowpunk bands that I do know, like the Beat Farmers and (to a lesser extent) the Long Ryders. It's a fascinating sub-genre seeing punk and new wave energy colliding with country & western.