Adult Siblings Versus...Episode 84: Weird Al

 Adult Siblings Versus...is bac with a new epsidoe that's a little different than normal. This week we talk about our childhood experience with "Weird Al" Yankovic, speficially four of his albums we owned as kids.

"Alapalooza”, “Bad Hair Day”, “Running with Scissors”, and “Poodle Hat.” But not "Polka Party." Never "Polka Party."

We need to have a serious talk about cultural appropriation, 1990s Weird Al

More details after the jump.

Adult Siblings Versus...Episode 74: Grease

Whoops, I already forgot to put up the next episode of my podcast. I hope no one was eagerly awaiting it, but if you were then please consider following Adult Siblings Versus on your podcatcher of choice.

Anyway, our latest episode covered Grease and began our annual look at film musicals. Our next three episodes will similarly cover musicals.

It turns out John Travolta is the greatest performer of the 1970s!

More details after the jump.

A Brief Intro to The King of Fighters (Shameless Self-Promotion)

Very recently my band, Zombie Apocalypse NOW!, released a new EP: “ZANVSKOF”. Although it is very short, only three tracks, it is the culmination of over a year of hard work despite numerous setbacks. I’m very proud of this album and feel like it contains some of the best songs I’ve ever written. It’s also the first of what will be a series of EPs coming out by us over a period of time. What’s different about these releases versus our previous ones is that while there’s often been a nerdy tone on our music I had the idea to make full-on themed EPs. Meaning that every EP is inspired by a different subject and, because I’m the biggest nerd I know, they will be pretty dorky ones. I was heavily inspired to do this by the music of Adam WarRock. For those of you not in the know WarRock is a rapper whose song topics tend to cover a wide variety of topics that include comic books, cartoons, TV shows, and even occasionally professional wrestling. He’s pretty fantastic and also a giant nerd so you can guess why I like him. He regularly releases free EPs/Mix Tapes and they usually are based on some top or another (I originally discovered him from his West Coast Avengers and Firefly albums). I loved that idea and wanted to do something similar. Then I remembered that I have a band and I have access to a home studio. So why the hell not?

Anyway “ZANVSKOF” is inspired by the King of Fighters video game series. I had a lot of ideas for EPs but I settled on starting with King of Fighters because I had already written lyrics to a song about my favorite KOF character years before so it seemed like a decent place to start. So now, with the album finally done, you can listen to it from our Bandcamp page and also download it for free (Or any amount. Tips and donations are appreciated).

Twenty Years of sadistically difficult bosses!

But I don’t want to just plug my new album today. It occurs to me that a lot of people, whether folks who frequent this site or even people who like my band, may not know a hell of a lot of stuff about this game series. Thankfully I have a blog and a lot of useless information in my head and therefore I can give a beginners guide to exactly what this franchise is all about.

A brief look at the King of Fighters after the jump.

Shameless Self-Promotion: Help Me Win a Battle of the Bands!

Can you tell which one I am?

Happy New Years, everyone. I hope 2014 has been decent for you so far. I'll be putting up some new stuff very soon but for now I have something of a favor to ask of all of you.

As most of you probably know I'm the leader of a nerdy punk rock band based in Chicago called Zombie Apocalypse NOW! If you've never heard us the best way for me to describe our sound is "If NOFX and They Might Be Giants had a really dorky baby". Anyway ZAN is competing in an online Battle of the Bands for GTR Store. 237 or so bands signed up but only five bands will be selected to move onto the next round. The five finalists are determined by fan vote. This is where you would come in.

If you would be so inclined you can vote for us, provided you have a valid e-mail address. If you are really nice you can also do this every day until voting ends (January 24th). Every vote counts and I would incredibly grateful for any help. Again we only have to finish in the top five to move on to round two (as of this writing we're in 10th place). If we make it we'll compete in a physical Battle of Bands in New York City which would be a huge milestone for us!

If you decide to help us out you can vote for us here. If you are hesitant because you've never heard us I'll provide a streaming link to one of our albums but I'll put it after the jump to avoid clustering up the front page. I really appreciate any votes that come our way. Thank you!

Click below to hear Bandora's Box by Zombie Apocalypse NOW!

Bandora Music Video

I'm well aware that a lot of readers on this blog aren't really all that interested in my music, judging by the lack of response.  But even so I'm compelled to share this anyway. So about a year ago my band, Zombie Apocalypse NOW!, released an EP called "Bandora's Box" and the best received track was "Bandora" a song I wrote about the Green Ranger and Rita Repulsa. Yeah, from Power Rangers. Did I mention I'm a nerd?

Anyway I always thought it'd be neat if a music video for Bandora using footage from Power Rangers was made and a shot while ago the put my extremely amateur editing skills to the task and did just that. I don't know, maybe with some visuals to go along with the music it will make it a little more appealing. We'll see.

If you like the music (and the video too I guess) please do my a favor and share it with your friends/family/co-workers/strangers.

Zombie Apocalypse NOW! Video (Shameless Self-Promotion)

In yet another instance of self-promotion here's a video I just whipped up of my band Zombie Apocalypse NOW! playing at an annual event in Holland, MI called "Wo-Stock". Check it out.

By the way the web address is slightly wrong. You'll want to click here for the Facebook page.

Housekeeping: KZOO Music Scene and SMCS Podcasts

Happy Holidays, everyone. And, in case I don’t get to post before then, Merry Christmas. I again apologize for the severe lack of updates throughout November and December. As I said before I was working on, and failing to complete, a novel for National Novel Writing Month. I’m hoping to get back in the swing of updating more often; I’ve said several times in the past that I want to dedicate more of my life to this blog and the best way to do that is to keep writing after all. 

But today I want to get some housekeeping stuff out of the way as there are a few outstanding issues I wanted to make you aware of. 

Number one is that earlier this year I was hired as a featured writer for KZOO Music Scene, a local music website. However within the last month I was promoted to Head Writer and thus I now oversee a staff. I mention this because if you’d like to see something written by me that’s not inherently nerdy go check the website out. My articles are listed as being written by some guy named “Jason S. Leverett.” Also you can find profiles on a bunch of local Kalamazoo bands and also other Michigan bands as well so if you’re a music lover it’s a cool site to check out even if you actually hate my writing style (But if you did then why are you here?). 

Number two: I’m happy to announce that the Saturday Morning Cartoon Show Podcast is back! Long time readers will note that I periodically do a companion blog for the weekly radio show I co-host in Kalamazoo and the resulting podcast. Since this past summer, through no fault of my own, they stopped uploading. Happily they’ve begun again, though they’re not in order and there’s a ton of them missing. Still there’s Life with Louie, Eureka’s Castle, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends and others so there’s still some good stuff to find. Click here for the link. Remember: click the “RSS feeds” tab once you find the SMCS archives for the new entries. 

Those are the two important things but since I’m doing all this self-promotion anyway I’d like to remind you all that I’m in a band. That band has a new page full of music you can check out. Click here if interested. Again Happy Holidays, everyone. I’m hoping to get a several reviews out of the course of the next week. 

@JasonBetaMagnus

Shameless Self-Promotion

Well something like this was bound to happen sooner or later.  Let’s face it: this blog isn’t the only pie I have fingers in.  I’m theoretically a writer so one would assume that eventually I’d have some project to share at some point.   So in case you somehow missed it during the last year I was (Am?) in a band called Zombie Apocalypse NOW! but its currently on hiatus as the three remaining members are all living in different cities making it impossible to properly book shows.  But I’ve launched a blog detailing our brief history (Or it will once it gets going).  Now I’m not sure how many of you are into this sort of thing but I think it’s a decent enough read.  Basically it’s a collection of stories…well actually right now there's barely anything there, I guess.  But more content is coming!

Click here for the blog.

The Doomsday Pumpkin
The official logo of ZAN