SModcast is the meandering palaver of a pair of dudes whose voices are so dull, they don’t deserve to be on the radio (and, hence, aren’t). Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier are SModcast.The best thing about SModcast? It don’t cost nothing.
SModcast 54: SModder’s Day –
In which, fittingly, our heroes talk about childish things.
[CONTENT WARNING] SModcast features harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Listener discretion is advised.
DOWNLOAD: (right click to save)
SModcast 54 (MP3 format) – 50.87 MB
[display_podcast]
SUBSCRIBE
Subscribe to this Podcast via iTunes
Subscribe to this Podcast via FeedBurner
Wanna add your two cents? Spend it here, in the SModcast mailbag.
CLICK HERE FOR THE SMODCAST ARCHIVES
##
Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Romita, Curt Swan, Fred Hembeck… Yes, Fred Hembeck. Destroyer of universes, gentle mocker, ooner of lamps, and master of four-color mirth, our very own Fred Hembeck has been honored with 
Although my interest was certainly piqued, I in no way expected to be as swept up as I became in HBO’s miniseries on the political life of our 2nd president, 
Going in, I had my reservations about 
As far as classic seasons go, I’d have to include the 4th season of 
I’ll never escape a jungle prison with nothing more than bubblegum and a fire ant, but I admit to feeling just a little bit MacGyver-ish when wielding the 
Not realizing just want kind of legs the series would wind up having, Fox originally released the first season of 24 as a borderline bare-bones DVD set. Eager to rectify that mistake (and get fans to purchase a second version), we’ve now got 
Rest assured that not only is Steve McGarrett back in the fourth season of 
After losing themselves in the wilderness of HD-DVD for a year, Paramount has come in from the cold with a full embrace of the high-def victor, Blu-Ray, with a clutch of releases to get up to speed. They all sport the same bonus features as the standard definition discs (save for Bee Movie, which does have some exclusive materials), but fancy-pants cinephiles can now pick up 
There’s always something mildly off-putting about reunion movies featuring the aged cast of beloved TV shows. Maybe that’s because they’re usually frozen in our memories looking and acting like they did when we last saw them, regardless of how time has since treated the actors. Such is the case with the pair of flicks contained on the 
If you made up the story of Raymond Burr’s life, you would call it a an outrageous soap opera fabrication – but the truth is just as outrageous as fiction, as you’ll discover in the biography 
Since everyone and their brother seems to be releasing westerns from their catalogues these past few months, it makes sense that Lionsgate would want to revisit 
I think I’m going to coin a new term for 
If you never got around to picking up either 
Not one, but two more actresses get the featured collection treatment – Sophia Loren and Catherine Deneuve. The 
The one-armed man is still on the loose in the first volume of 
When a TV show is successful, there’s always the a certain amount of curiosity as to whether the characters would transfer to the big screen. Sadly, Don Adams’s Maxwell Smart did not do too well in the transition, which meant the sublime genius that was Get Smart became the tepid disappointment of 
It’s a bit of a grab bag, but 
All good things must come to an end, and so must things that lived a few years beyond their shelf life – the eighth and final season of 
Having long ago given up on watching it since being disappointed when after its first few outings on Adult Swim and the first season DVD, I was curious to see if my opinion would be changed by the second season of 
Oh no! Just when you thought it was safe to hang out at the Quick Stop…
Jonathan Coulton on Jonathan Coulton: “In 2005 I left my day job writing software to pursue music full time. To keep myself busy I released a new song on this website every week for a year in a project called Thing a Week. A few of those songs became big internet hits (my folky cover of Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back”, a funny video called “Flickr”, a song called “Code Monkey”), and I am now fortunate enough to make my living as a musician.
Paul and Storm are a comedy music duo, and they have been performing as a duo since 2004. Before that, they were one half of a cappella band Da Vinci’s Notebook for about 12 years. A Paul and Storm show is part music concert and part standup/improv comedy”“just enough of both to fit neatly in neither category. They like to engage the audience, and are known to award snack cakes and/or other prizes for good (and sometimes bad) behavior. Their show would be PERFECT as a cable special, and would make lots of money for whichever brave channel decides to air them first.
Born in the fall of 2006 in the center of the two-man acoustic comedy rock scene, Columbus, Ohio, the self proclaimed Turner and Hooch of Rock and Roll, The Paul Frumpton Experience Featuring Larry – known more colloquially as Jeff Stormer and Jeremy Hoover – are best described as what happens when comedy, music, caffeine, and improv collide in a chocolaty, peanut buttery explosion of good times. Stormer and Hoover met as students of Ohio State University and have been performing for scraps of food and hobo nickels ever since. Jeremy and Jeff’s major influences include Bacon, Booster Gold & Blue Beetle’s irreverent banter, David Bowie’s crotch in Labyrinth, and a deep-seated love of go karts. Finally, we feel obliged to mention all the things that are off limits to the comedy duo… This list includes NOTHING.
Lex Friedman’s musical influences include artists like They Might Be Giants, Moxy Fruvous, “Weird Al” Yankovic, CAKE, Barenaked Ladies, Tom Lehrer, Ben Folds, and Michael Jackson. Lex has left a smattering of bizarre music videos on YouTube, which have been slowly overtaken by videos of his 18-month-old daughter Anya. He occasionally shares new songs on his blog. He currently appears both weekly and weakly as the host of the “Week in Douchebaggery” on Cracked.com. Lex, his aforementioned daughter Anya, his lovely wife Lauren, and his diabetic maltese Charlie all live together in New Jersey, and sincerely hope that you don’t hold that against them. He gives one of them two injections if insulin each day – guess which! Lex also wrote this sentence. To avoid appearing like a suck-up, Lex has neglected to mention other musical influences of his who may or may not be the Iron Chefs of this Song Fu competition. Let’s just say he happens to also love the musical stylings of a guy whose name rhymes with Shmonathan Shmoulton.
My Fu is stronger than you! I am Coleman Bear Saunders, or Cloakie to most. At the age of 25 I work with music everyday at my studio that I recently built. I produce, engineer and compose various genres of music with ninja like precision. I have been picking away at the guitar since the age of 7 after watching my Dad play Johnny Cash tunes in the wrong key while singing the wrong lyrics, although I do the same thing because that’s the way I was learnt, ya hear me boy? I live in Kentucky and the music scene isn’t the greatest, so I turn to the internet to pipeline my Fu to the masses for free. I’m getting tired of music these days, I want some more songs about Dragons and fucking! Songs that take you on a journey and let you experience a different world, like movies do. My dream is to compose and score music for video games, TV, and my ultimate goal, the big screen. This is why the Song Fu competition was made for me. All the challenges that the competition presents to me will be similar to the expectations of future employers. Good luck to all, and may the best Fu win.
Elaine Chao Finnell is a singer/songwriter from the San Francisco Bay Area. In her checkered musical past, she has been a choral singer, a pit musician, an a cappella vocalist, a vocal percussionist, a hip hop beatboxer, contemporary Christian worship musician, and a musical librettist. After leaving the a cappella world in 2001, Elaine shifted into the world of hip hop theater, touring with spoken word artist Aya de León, then going solo and performing in such venues as the Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco and at the Apollo Theater in New York City. She began writing music at the tender age of 17, co-authoring her first musical with Brian Allan Hobbs. Since then, she has written two full length musicals and two plays. She currently plays regularly at her church as a lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist. While not in her musical pursuits, Elaine can be found in a cubicle at a major software company, at home with her engineer husband and their network of Macs, or studying martial arts at a local university.
To Serve Mankind seeks to do just that, via music that makes you think about the world and your place in it differently. Friends since high school, the duo, likened to They Might Be Giants or Barenaked Ladies, have played back yards to front yards and everywhere in between. It seemed like just yesterday To Serve Mankind had absolutely no future, and look at them now, competing in Song Fu against artists such as Paul and Storm and, uh, the Jonathan Coulton. Jeff Little and Bryan Ewing both grew up in Apple Valley, CA, an environment which demands creativity just to stay sane among Joshua trees, dirt, and the Wal*Mart. With a combined vocal range of at least a perfect 5th, To Serve Mankind is ready to take the world… aeriously. Bryan is into Rock, Jeff digs on Funk. Both serve as worship leaders at their respective churches and are married… not to each other… but to one woman each – Bryan to Michelle, Jeff to Jen. Bryan has a son named Malachi, and Jeff is expecting his wife to follow through on this pregnancy thing and produce a daughter, Jane. Jeff, Bryan (and Malachi) love Avatar: The Last Airbender.
The Deal: After 20+ years making music as a hobby, I recently wrote and recorded a song for my daughter. I got a little taste of mild success (hey, my mom liked it). So now I’m taking my music out of the closet, dusting it off, and seeing how it does in the sunshine. Who knew there was so much work in just attempting to do music for a living. I feel like I am opening a Subway franchise (Only opening a Subway franchise seems more fulfilling in a creative way).
Run At The Dog are high energy, rock/pop, category-sluts with multi-gendered vocals and intricate arrangements. They are like Abba meets Faith No More meets Mos Def meets the Mormon Tabernacle Choir meets Steely Dan. The songs of this Minneapolis 5-piece are always written right away, with no respect for the calculating mind. Audience members are unsure whether to dance, laugh, or panic.
Even though they’ve done just about everything possible (including throwing the kitchen sink at it) to tear down the beloved characters and stories of their relaunch, time and unfortunate editorial machinations have only made the Keith Giffen/J.M. DeMatteis/Kevin Maguire run of Justice League International look all the more enjoyable by comparison. Ignore all of that Uber Final Infinite Crisis of Something Or Another business and pick up the first volume of 
Ah, but I will say this – thank jebus for the relaunched Booster Gold. Slowly but surely, the series has been fixing the bastardizations wreaked in the past few years within the DC universe, and reintroducing some of the FUN and ENJOYMENT that’s been missing in comics today. Let me say, unequivocally, grab the first collection, 
Even though I think there were diminishing returns following the spectacular, pre-franchise outing and its first sequel, it’s still welcome to have brand new, deluxe special editions of the five films featuring Detective Harry Callahan – aka “Dirty Harry”. 
You know a major feature film is fast-approaching when the studio starts releasing the classic material to DVD, and such is the case with the rapid fire release of both the 
If it had an arc like the plant its characters peddle, than season 3 of 
If Indiana Jones has made you interested in finding out what real archeology is all about, I can recommend no more enjoyable series than Time Team – the Brit show which performs digs across the UK, and is hosted by Blackadder‘s Tony Robinson. A perfect introduction to the series is 
This weekend, the space nerd in me will be delighting in reading 
It’s always a pleasant surprise when a series whose release has been pleaded for by fans gets put out on DVD, and it’s even more exciting when there are actually a decent amount of bonus materials as well. Such is the case with the complete first season of 
Hopefully, you’ve already picked up all four volumes of the Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus, as they should be required reading for any comic fan. If you’ve already wisely purchased those, you’ll also want to get 
You know, few shows are feature characters as relentlessly flawed as 
Although it never lit up audiences, you can at least say that the TV series based on Stephen King’s 
Although it quickly disappeared from screens when it hit in the mid-90’s, the attempted re-launch of 
Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt’s 
It’s goofy and good-natured and well within his safe zone, but there’s something undeniably tired about Will Ferrell’s latest loveable boob pic 
Continuing their spotlights on great British actresses (having already dedicated sets to Judi Dench and Helen Mirren), we now get 
Give it enough time and even the most marginal of films enters into the realm of classic, and it’s with that in mind that we’ve now got a special collector’s edition of 
The least effective officers of the California Highway Patrol are back on their bikes in the second season of 
The latest release from The Weinstein Company’s high-falutin’ “Miriam Collection” is the tragic tale of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis, 
With a powerhouse producing team – including Ridley and Tony Scott – I expected quite a bit from the new mini-series based on Michael Crichton’s 
I tried – jebus how I tried – to find something funny in 
PALM SPRINGS – Can you believe that an article in the Washington Post can expose a problem and inspire a swift resolution? Last year Neely Tucker’s “Mannix Was the Man” questioned why this TV detective show wasn’t out on DVD. The story was picked up by numerous papers across the countries in the following week. Fans of the show wrote the studio demanding a Mannix fix. This groundswell of support has been rewarded with Mannix: The First season being released on June 3.
A lot of actor talk about how they can’t stand to see their movies. Connors sounds like an excited fan eager to snag the boxset. “I wasn’t crazy about watching myself at the time I was doing things. You look at it and you get despondent in that you should have done something different. You shoulda, coulda done it better. But now I look at it and say, ‘Wow! God, we were young in those days. Look at that: I’m running.’”
It’s a pleasant surprise to find just how much I look forward to each new installment of 
Based on the lackluster American iteration, I’ve largely avoided the show Trigger Happy TV. That proved to be foolish, as I just should have sought out the infinitely more intelligent – and dada funny – British original created by Dom Joly. It’s like an absurdist Candid Camera, and Joly is a compelling social observer. Drop everything you’re doing and pick up the 
It seems there’ve been a dozen collections over the past few years, but 
As with any potentially long-running DVD release, I feared that the first volume of the chronological Three Stooges might very well be a one-off. Thankfully, my fears have been allayed with the arrival of 
Nothing makes a weekend pass faster than having your own private Modern Marvels marathon, and you can certainly do that with 
Even though I thought the flick was abysmal, I enjoyed reading through the massive 
Unfortunately, much like the film itself, there’s not much to get excited by with John Williams’s score to 
It’s a damn shame that he’s still largely unknown in the US, but I’d recommend you rectify that by picking up 
Long before V or The X-Files, producer Quinn Martin gave us 
Slowly but surely, the DVD releases are catching up with the current episodes. The 2-disc 
The subjects of their quests are still as mythical as they ever were, but 
As someone who was not particularly ever a fan of the original Rambo films, Stallone’s resurrection of the Reagan-era icon in 
While everyone remembers the sinking of the Titanic, my enduring interest in early 20th century shipwrecks extends to the sinking of Cunard liner Lusitania, which was torpedoed by a German U-Boat in 1915, and was one of the pivotal, galvanizing moments in the first World War. The Discovery Channel special 
Get in a martial arts mode (just in time for the release of Kung Fu Panda) with a new pair of releases from the “Dragon Dynasty” label – 
Ride ’em in! Get a view of classic Clint Eastwood with the first volume of 
Meanwhile, Marshall Matt Dillon continues to keep the crooked in line in the second volume of 
Doc Hammer was born in 1626 in Hamar, Norway, under the name Erik VonHamer. Being the son of a humble cobbler, not much was expected of the young man, other than to cobble and to not complain about all the cobbling. But Doc was destined for greater things. At 17, with nothing more than really well made shoes and a dream, he made his way to Antwerp to study oil painting under the great Rubens. Within a year, the two were at odds. Rubens spoke (infrequently) of Doc as “that creepy skinny kid,” and Doc spoke of Rubens’s work as “kinda unattractive if you really look at it.” By 1648, Doc had relocated to Leiden, where he found his master in Rembrandt. It was there, in his 23rd year, that Doc met “She Who Was To Deliver The Kiss Of Eternal Youth.” After a spicy courtship, “She Who Was To Deliver The Kiss Of Eternal Youth” and Doc were married. By 1650 Doc had grown weary of immortality and committed an unsuccessful suicide by burying his never-corpse in the basement of a Dutch cottage. In 1870, Doc again resurfaced. Using the name Vilhelm Hammershoi, Doc resumed his painting career with mild success. After thanking his bride for “the immortality thing” and nicely reminding her that he had “heard every one of her stories like a billion times,” “She Who Was To Deliver The Kiss Of Eternal Youth” and Doc split up in 1916. Again, Doc literally went underground until, now using the name Armond Hammer, he resurfaced and made a whole mess of money selling overpriced meds to the Russians. Sick of all the baking soda jokes, Doc faked his death. Biding his time till the MC Hammer thing had blown over, Doc again resurfaced as “Doc Hammer.” Today, Doc still paints in oils and writes, voices, and does other crap for The Venture Bros. (a show you can watch on cable TV).
Matt Lees was born and raised in sheep-lovin’ Wales. At 12-years-old his family decided to move to everything lovin’ Canada and start a new life. Not an easy feat for any person, let alone a less-than-manly pre-teen. Eager to fit in with the Canuck teens he threw himself into the arts. He began an obsessive love affair with music. Writing and singing to express his emotions, he needed to learn an instrument to complete his sound. In the beginning he learned piano but, being lazy, he didn’t want to lug a piano everywhere. Guitar seemed like the easiest choice… plus, chicks dig guitar players. Ego in hand, he now fronts a self-titled band. The MLB fuses a pop-rock sound with a modern blues feel. Playing mainly in Ontario, Canada, Matt has also shared his music with audiences in Europe – even the French! Matt loves long walks on the beach, puppies, sharing his feelings and the smell of dew in the morning. He is currently ‘sticking it to the man’ in the real world while preparing to record and release his debut album (aka scrounging funds and searching for a cheaper studio).
I picked up the guitar 20 some years ago and still don’t know one scale or the names of most of the chords. After a year of playing I formed a band called The Narrow Way. We wrote such classics as “Polka Hell” and “The Shades of Limbo”. After refining my chops, I then formed a band called Mechanized Death, which was named after that infamous car accident safety movie from the 70’s. We wrote such inspired classics as “Roadkill”, “Tunafish” and “I Don’t Care”. After Mechanized Death, I went solo and now have written hundreds of songs… I even sold one to a morning radio talk show (ahhh… the fame). Lately, I won song of the day at Garageband.com…So I guess my star is still rising.
Ben Rossow is seeking to inflict upon the world his unique brand of acoustic pop/punk/folk music. Hailing from Mora, Minnesota, this northern songsmith and his collaborator, Pete Morgan, have recorded and performed under the name “Ben & Pete.” Ben plays acoustic guitar and makes noise with his mouth, while Pete generally attracts songbirds with his delightful vocal stylings, and sometimes adds keyboard effects to distract potential enemies. Influences range from Bob Dylan to Weezer, Cheap Trick to The White Stripes.
Airplane vs. Ambulance are a four-piece synth-punk band from Abbotsford, BC. The band’s sound has been described as a blend of pop hooks and indie sensibility, and the’ve crafted their own unique take on modern rock.
East Carolina was formed in 2006 when friends Aaron (vocals, keyboards, accordion, etc) and Stuart (electric guitar, bass, keyboards, etc.) realized that, though often praised individually for their musical prowess, together they would be a virtually less-stoppable musical force. Combining in their music elements of alternative and classic rock, comedy, jazz, hilarious banter, polka, and more, East Carolina creates music that is unique, pleasurable, and often unclassifiable. Their original songs range in topic from Spanish love gone wrong to social anxiety to properties of gasses, and beyond. East Carolina is thrilled to be participating in the Masters of Song Fu competition and looks forward to sharing their songs with all of you.
Hello. I am Jeremy Edgington. Call me germ. I live in Springfield, Ohio and I was born here in 1972. I started playing guitar at about 13. I took it seriously only off and on. I love to play. I hate to practice. I just jam. I got began enjoying “deeply listening” to music at a really young age. I was into Kiss when I was in Kindergarten and first grade. I had all of their albums. Second grade came along and out with Kiss, in with Def Lepard! Then came Van Halen and so on. I have a nice recording studio. Buckethead is a huge influence on me. I play bass and guitar. I do drum programming. I also program background ambience. I use the guitar for just ambient noises in songs, too. I will someday release a CD. Maybe…
Relic’s Jetboat are a modern folk band – this isn’t about acoustic guitars in the coffee shop, it’s songs about modern folk and the events or stories around us. They bring a party band attitude to their songs about Garage Sailin’, Gordon Downie, Ogopogo and The Beachcombers. The songs cross genres as they represent the music that we hear these days. From country to reggae, punk, celtic and rock, the band has been described as “The Barenaked Ladies with an edge”, or this review of the band: “These guys could get a job doing Muppet Music. From Canada, they perform their individual style with ease and an abundance of satire. They take us back to a time of musical innocence when people got off on groups like the Beach Boys.”
Shannon is a woman of keen intellect and she is a little cuter than average, but not photogenic, so her picture will not necessarily reflect her attractiveness. She likes to ride vintage bicycles that clunk and whistle so that people in the city know she’s approaching and take notice. When she’s not working her ass off at her corporate job that pays huge cash, she likes to belittle her husband (sorry, fellows, she’s married) and re-arrange her coaster collection. She wants to make it big in Song Fu so that she can finally have an excuse to quit her career and bask in the adoration of her fans. At this time, she only has two fans (three, if you include the kid in the street that sometimes rides by on his scooter and stops for a minute when he hears her playing the guitar in the back yard, or maybe he’s looking at her dog in the window; she’s not sure).
I trained as a film critic at Glasgow University, then as an actor at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and then worked in a call centre for three years. Figures. Fed up with offering people death insurance, I taught myself how to edit film and got a job in a Glaswegian production company editing fishing programmes. When the allure of that finally wore off I went freelance for a while before setting up my own company, TheCage.TV Ltd. All through this time I’ve been writing songs to play live and record, in the olden days on MiniDisc and four-tracks and nowadays on Garageband. Currently I’m the only member of the band so it’s essentially solo work, though in theory anyone can contribute.
CABIN FEVER #25: If At First You Don’t Succeed – Our demented duo return after a short hiatus and, due to rustiness, the episode gets off to the worst of starts – mics aren’t switched on, audio is lost, and everything that can go wrong does until take 3. Undaunted, they manage to squeeze out an hour of infotainment regarding 13-year old geniuses, incarcerated donkeys, and the diplomatic power of Hello Kitty. All this, and they also manage a second installment of the much-lauded “taste test” segment, focusing this time on the almost mythical wax candy: Nik-L-Nips.
