5 On It: NFL Week 5 Recap

No, I didn't forget about last week. After the horrific outcome of last week's Bears-Packers game, I decided to find my happy place and pretend that week 4 never happened. So, since in my mind there were no games, there was no need for a recap...perfect logic.

Logic aside, my happy place ended up being shattered because the damn Bears lost another damn game to the damn Panthers. Let's see what the rest of the week had to offer.

A.D.D. Report: 2014 NBA Off-Season Recap

The NBA left for the summer and so did I. But I'm back, and the NBA will return soon as well.

Fall TV 2014 Review: Forever

ABC has yet another new show? Forever. Ugh, I guess I'll review it. It's a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.

2014 Fall TV Review: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2 Premiere

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. started off as a show I wasn't very fond of.  Now it is must see TV for me, and guess what...it's back!

Also, SPOILERS!!!  I only go into the first 20 minutes of the show, and there is a lot of things that happen in that short amount of time.

NFL Week 3 Recap: 5 On It

Welcome back. Week 3 has passed us, and so far no news of any running backs getting indicted over the weekend. I guess things are looking up for Goodell and Company. Once again, I'm here to give you my top five stand-out moments of the week. Get your popcorn ready (do people still say that?).

2014 Fall TV Review: Gotham

Before there was Batman, there was Gotham.  The dark and seedy city, where crime and corruption thrive.  Our hero in FOX's take on the DC comics classic city, is not the Caped Crusader, but rather Detective James Gordon, played by Ben McKenzie.

AAHH Fest 2014: Set-By-Set Review

Last night, Chicago hip-hop legend Common treated his hometown to one hell of a show, and I was lucky enough to bare witness to it all (well most of it). The name: AAHH Fest. The venue: Union Park. Let's just say I got to cross a few things off my musical bucket list last night.

Here's my rundown of possibly the greatest homegrown hip-hop concert in the Windy City's history.

(Sidebar: Much love goes out to DJs Jermaine, Vince Adams, Timbuk2, and Wayne Williams who all spun masterful sets with nothing but grown folks house and hip-hop jams.)

NFL Week 2 Recap: 5 On It

Man, this season needs to slow down. Week 2 is already in the rear-view mirror, and the Jets are already in full-choke mode. Eli is still stuck on the struggle bus, and Roger Goodell is still on the hot seat. Here's what stood out for us this week.

NFL Week 1 Recap: 5 On It

Oh football, how I missed you so much! Week 1 of the 2014 NFL season is in the books. Here are QuickBlurb's 5 takeaways from a glorious Thursday, Sunday, and Monday...featuring very little Ray Rice.

Happy NFL Kickoff 2014 Day!!!

Man, after a summer of sports limited to soccer and baseball snooze-fests, I am so happy to have football back! Being that I'm a Bears fan, I will be rooting for the defending champs tonight against the Cheeseheads. We only got it for 5 months, so soak it all in people. You're welcome.

Ice Cube ft. Redfoo & 2 Chainz - Drop Girl (Remix)

Umm, normally I don't post songs like this, but Ice Cube on an EDM track is not something you see everyday. I don't apologize. You're welcome.

Russell Simmons & Rick Rubin Discuss Def Jam Origins

I don't know about you, but I can listen to Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin talk about the early days of Def Jam all day. Here would be 3 minutes of that day. Enjoy. You're welcome.

#QuickBlurb 2014 Fall TV Preview: 7 Best Returning Characters

Howdy...um...that didn't fell right, let me try that again.

Welcome to QuickBlurb's first foray into previewing this year's fall television line-up. Before we dig into the unknown, I find it best to help us remember what, or rather, who will give us comfort as summer comes to a close and we turn back into filthy couch potatoes.

Kids Like Us X Beak Nasty Interview @ SummerSet Music Fest 2014

We're a couple festivals late, but fuck it.

A couple of weeks back, QuickBlurb sent our man on the street, Riz, to the rough it at the SummerSet Music and Camping Festival in Wisconsin. Riz got a chance to chop it up with Kids Like Us and Beak Nasty.

These hip-hop upstarts from Minnesota gave Riz a lot of insight on their musical influences (Green Day???), the Minneapolis hip-hop scene (much love for Slug and Ant), their stance on being independent (it's the shit), and other things.

The best part is Riz was coherent enough to get it recorded. Take a listen to the audio. You're welcome.

 Get to know Kids Like Us and Beak Nasty more:

KLU Facebook | KLU Bandcamp | KLU Twitter

Beak Nasty Facebook | Beak Nasty Twitter | Beak Nasty Soundcloud

#QuickBlurb Sports: Melo Stays Home

Carmelo Anthony, All-NBA small forward, has decided to spurn the advances of the Houston Rockets, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Chicago Bulls and keep his talents on the floundering New York Knicks. Money Over Everything.

With this decision, Carmelo pretty much has solidified that he will not win a championship in the NBA in the capacity of being a star player. Anthony shared his decision to stay in New York via a written essay released by The Source Magazine. QuickBlurb has obtained an official copy of the release. You're welcome.

"Before anyone ever cared where I would play basketball, I was a kid from New York. It’s where I walked. It’s where I ran. It’s where I cried. It’s where I bled. It holds a special place in my heart…blah, blah, blah. It’s where I could get the most money. Melo likes money. 

Today, I am more paid than I was yesterday and I couldn’t be happier. Yeah, I could have went elsewhere and won more games, but honestly, losing is not that bad. There are so many perks to losing. I don’t have to play D, the coach eventually stops talking, and if we are losing by enough early, I can take the last quarter off. So relaxing. Melo likes to relax. 

Listen, winning championships is cool, I guess, if that’s your thing. I’m a cash guy. Cash Rules Everything Around Me! (Method Man voice). I can’t spend “rings” on Giuseppe shoes and iPhone 8s, that shit costs cold hard cash, son! So what if Patty Mills has a ring, ask Patty Mills if he’s ever been to Jurassic Park. Melo hasn’t because it doesn’t exist, but if it did, best believe that Melo has enough paper to be sitting shotgun next to Jeff Goldblum on the next helicopter to the island to go raptor hunting. Raptor meat is delicious, but your broke asses don’t know nothin’ about that. Melo likes to eat exotic species. 

The best part about re-signing with New York is now that Phil Jackson is there, the pressure is all on him. I can lose as much as I want now, and all the media will say is “The Zen Master built a bad team.” It’s his legacy on the line, not mine. Melo likes misdirected aggression. 

I already have every excuse in the book lined up for why we will lose 50 games next season. We have a head coach that just finished playing a month ago, we traded our best defensive player away for peanuts, and we a team full of guards. Not Melo’s fault. I’ll still get mine. I can see the headline now: “Melo Breaks Single Season Scoring Record as Knicks Reach an All-Time Low For Futility.” Melo likes buckets. 

I would end by telling you all how I plan to elevate the games of my teammates, but I honestly, I don’t even know who my teammates are. I might not even learn their names this season, it’s not like I will need call out their name to dish out an assist. Melo don’t pass. 

To the Chicago, Los Angeles, and Houston organizations, thank you for the free dinners and all the attention. You weren’t really dumb enough to think I was gonna take less money just for an opportunity to win a championship? C’mon, bwahahahaha! Hashtag gullible. 

I’m coming home…with a brand-spanking new, muthaphuckin’, shiny, candy painted Bugatti, bitches! Lala, put that chicken back in the freezer, Melo’s taking you out tonight!"

Ride Home: 7/10/2014

After working the 9 to 5, the one thing that really calms me down is the music I listen to on the way home. My iPod is my favorite passenger. If it wasn't for that small box of heaven that Steve Jobs created, I would be a wanted man right now for a string of road rage murders.

Sometimes it takes a couple of skips for that perfect ride home playlist to formulate, other times the shuffle function knows just what daddy wants. Today was a mix of the two. Enjoy. You're welcome.

June Misses

Happy Independence Day people! Just so you know, I worked pretty damn hard to get this list done in order to provide you all a proper soundtrack to your  BBQ-ing festivities tomorrow. You throw on a few of these joints and your guests will think you have good taste in music, and for that, here's a premature "you're welcome."

A.D.D. Report: The Return!

It's been a long time, I shouldn't of left you!

Black Is The New Orange (Season 2): 9 People Who You Think Are Spitting In Your Food

Last week, Netflix released season 2 of their hit women's prison dramedy, Orange is the New Black. In celebration of the return of Piper, Pennsatucky and the rest of those wacky inmates, its only right that I hit you with season 2 of the Quick Blurb original series, Black is the New Orange. For those who aren't familiar, you can check out season 1 here.

May Misses

I'm back! I know, it's been a minute and I know it's a little late for a recap of music from May, and all I can say to that is S.A.D.U. (shout out to Jodi Dion). I decided to go with a new format this time and present the songs in a playlist. I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier, seeing that embedding 10 individual songs is kind of a pain in the ass.

Hugh Jackman Wants Wolverine/Avengers Alliance On The Big Screen

Hugh Jackman is letting the world know that it'd be "cool" to have Wolverine on The Avengers.  He apparently doesn't read comic books. Why would he? He's super rich and seems like a relatively happy person.

Dudes Who Like Girls...

(From left to right) Allison Williams as Marnie, Jemima Kirke as Jessa, Lena Dunham as Hannah, and Zosia Mammet as Shoshanna

...the show of course. I mean I like girl-girls too...not that there would be anything wrong with that if I didn't...ah forget it, let's get started.

I spent the last few months watching the entire series of HBO's Girls, and I regret waiting this long.  What a fantastic show!

New Music: Redman - Dunfiato

I'm not going to tell you how hot this is. I'm not going to tell you that this is off Reggie Noble's upcoming Muddy Waters 2 release. I'm not going to tell you that the Funk Docta is re-teaming with Method Man to bring us Blackout 3 later this year.

All I'm going to say is listen. You're welcome.

"I don't need no turn up beat, I need some elements...some hip-hop"

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is Bouncing Back

At the beginning of the year I wrote a post about how disappointed I was with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  Today, I am here to officially eat crow.  I wanted them to step their game up, and they have.

#Quickblurb: The Sterling Affair

By now everyone has heard black belt racist and Los Angeles Clippers' owner, Donald Sterling's recorded racist tirade that made Mel Gibson say "c'mon man!" You may have also heard that as a result of said tirade, Mr. Sterling has been banned for life from all NBA functions, and rightfully so.

Who would of thought an 80 year old white American male would have harsh feelings for minorities? Rumor has it that the man tried to sue Fox Searchlight Studios for copyright infringement because 12 Years a Slave was what he named all the contracts he had his players sign (I kid, I kid).

Let's look beyond Skeletor...I mean, Sterling, and come to terms with another villain in this story. I'm talking about the NAACP (yeah, I said it!). Not only do they refuse to take the term "colored people" out of their name, but they were ready to award Sterling with a second (yes, second) lifetime achievement award days before this incident made news! Not only is it ass-backwards to give someone 2 LIFETIME achievement awards, but Sterling had a long documented history of racist behavior way before TMZ put him on blast. I mean a looong history. Here's a list courtesy of Business Insider, because I don't feel like writing that much right now.

Now, according to Yahoo! News, Roslyn M. Brock, the chairperson of the NAACP National Board of Directors, wants to meet with NBA commissioner Adam Silver to talk about...ahem..."the influence and impact of racism" in the league. Come the eff on. Al Sharpton is somewhere calling her a drama queen. How am I, or anybody else for that matter, supposed to take this attempt to piggy-back a hot topic seriously? With the disturbing amount of Black-on-Black violence going in Chicago, they haven't spoken out once as an organization, yet this is an issue of importance they want to jump on

Let's look past the fact that they have spent the last 20 years supplying Sterling with justification for his horrific views by showering him with multiple lifetime achievement awards. That's not even the real crime here. They still have "colored people" in their name, how racist is that? The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. I mean, who was their founding father, Archie Bunker? Its bad for the Redskins to call themselves the Redskins, but no one has issue with this?

All I'm saying is, if someone called me colored, I'd be pissed, bottom line. I have issue with your priorities, Ms Brock. Forget racism in the NBA, the NAACP's next order of business should be a name update (colored people...seriously?).

Upcoming Show: Future @ Concord Music Hall 5/25/2014 - Presented by React Presents

So, this past December I was invited to the Chicago leg of Drake's Would You Like a Tour tour (hey, if 2 Chainz can get paid to rhyme foreign with foreign, then I can say tour back-to-back for free...sue me), which, along with Drizzy, featured PARTYNEXTDOOR, Miguel, and Future. Due to my work schedule, I was only able to catch both Miguel's and Drake's sets.

I had no regrets about missing Future's set until he joined Drake on stage and injected some unadulterated energy into Aubrey Graham's show. The rapper/R&B singer from Atlanta definitely brought it. I told myself that I would check him out if he ever came back to Chicago anytime in the near future.

Well low and behold, the fine folks at React Presents have persuaded Future a.k.a. Mr. Freebandz a.k.a. Future Hendrix a.k.a. Ciara's fiance to make his way to the Concord Music Hall on May 25th and hit his fans with some new music off of his recently released sophomore album, Honest.

Future will be accompanied by another rapper/singer, Rico Love, and fellow ATLien Que, who is riding a strong wave of popularity from his current hit OG Bobby Johnson. This show should provide its audience with a good mixture of sounds from the urban music spectrum, and with as many people as Future has collaborated with, there could even be a few surprise appearances in store.

I'm just looking forward to hearing my guilty pleasure song of the moment, Move That Dope. For tickets, click here and pick your package. Until May 25th, enjoy some Dope. You're welcome.

New Music: The Roots - "When The People Cheer" & "Tommorow" (ft. Raheem DeVaughn)

It's been a while, but finally I have something I can look forward to as far as music goes. While they were busy being the best damn band on television, The Roots found time to record, what sounds like so far, another classic album titled And Then You Shoot Your Cousin.

Set for release on May 13th, this will be their 11th studio album. They have blessed the world with 2 songs that can only be described as, at the risk of sounding corny as hell, MAJESTIC!

When The People Cheer is The Roots sticking to their bread and butter, Black Thought delivering thoughtful yet lethal bars on a smooth ?uestlove directed orchestration. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 
Tomorrow features almost the same formula, subtract Black Thought's lyrics and add in Raheem DeVaughn's vocals. The result is just as effective and beautiful. Since I'm not cool enough (yet) for The Roots and Def Jam to personally send me a CDQ file to post, here's a link to hear it in all its glory, courtesy of Rap Radar.

The Roots - Tomorrow (ft. Raheem DeVaughn)

...and just throw a little more of The Roots' dopeness, here's John Legend joining them for a cover of the Bruce Springsteen's classic Dancing in the Dark. May 20th can't come soon enough. You're welcome.

Tycho & GEMS @ Concord Music Hall 4/10/2014

I was a trance virgin until last Thursday, when I popped my trance cherry at the Concord Music Hall by going to see Tycho presented by React Presents. The doors opened at 8 PM, and there was a line for ticket holders that was long, but the line moved quick. When I entered the hall, blue and green lights danced across the main floor as I made my way to the balcony. Lucky for me, there was also a bar hiding in the balcony. Drink in hand, I found a suitable observation spot as the opening act, GEMS, took the stage.

GEMS is a shadow-pop duo based out of Washington D.C. I wonder if they have had a chance to take a selfie with POTUS yet? Any-who. Clifford Usher and Lindsay Pitts harmonize together over guitar, synthesizers, and thick bass. The whole stage was flooded with purple lights, and when the bass kicked in the strobe lights would flash, putting the whole room in a trance. The crowd pulsed with music and roared after each song. So much energy. It was an excellent show and I plan on seeing them again whenever they come back this way.

Tycho is the musical pseudonym of Scott Hansen, an ambient music producer out of Sacramento (Sac Town for the cool kids). Tycho is backed by a drummer, a guitarist, and a bassist. No vocals, purely instrumental. Like I said before, I am fairly new to the trance genre, so the experience was just different for me. In contrast to the high-energy GEMS, Tycho played mellow, soothing tones. I enjoyed the live drums played alongside the echoing melodies. The crowd swayed as lights pulsed slowly in yellow and orange to accentuate the flowing music. Tycho's set massaged the crowds mentals for the remainder of the evening.

All in all, for my first live trance experience, it was very enjoyable. Through both acts, I was able to see both ends of the trance spectrum. GEMS was there to get that last lap of energy out of you right before Tycho came in to tuck you in, a perfect combination. See you next time.

WacGyver Episode 6: Trumbo's World!

This episode is crazy.  Mac heads deep into the jungle with his good friend Charley to find out what is freaking out the local birds.  Is it a Governor who dresses like a casual Nazi?  Is it Trumbo, a guy who refers to all of his workers as, "My Indians"?

Nope, just a shitload of ants.

The world gets turned upside down when Mac faces his toughest villains yet, an ton of ants.

Listen to it here!

DJ Snake ft. Lil' Jon - Turn Down for What?!

The anthem of my summer has come. I was on Reddit late Tuesday night and I came across a strange post. A video, by DJ Snake & Lil Jon, Turn Down For What,  that is so infectiously crazy that I couldn't help from dancing or hitting the repeat button.

The vid was up on the web for 2 days but is now set to private. Hopefully, you will get to see it's glory but until then I'll fill you in. The video starts out by flying up on a high rise to reveal a man on the roof. He is grimy, in sweat pants, and about to get wild. The song builds up to the chorus with Lil Jon yelling "Fire up, get loud, and let the body shots!" ((BASS DROP)) "Turn Down For What?!" Then the song goes off. The guy in sweats jumps up and body slams his junk into the floor, crashing through the ceiling and bringing the party at the same time. Crashing through the ceiling begins the turnt up twerk fest. He wildly gyrates in every way, crumping on the couch, and violating the t.v. All the while there is a girl in the room freaking out. She calls the cops and is on the line. Sweatpants dances over grabs the phone and yells "Turn down for what?!" which melts the officers FACE OFF just like the Nazis at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. THEN he takes the phone and slams it on his junk, disintegrating the phone.

and guess what... that was the first 30 seconds of the video. It only get weirder and wilder from here on.

Lil Jon only says the two phrases but DJ Snake takes over with turntable excellence mixing and scratching over the thick bass line. With all the bass drops in the song and screwed up dance faces in the video I could only expect this song to be a club hit.

Crank it up, get loud, and get nasty because Johnny said so.

***UPDATE***

Here's the video link, courtesy of WorldStarHipHop...you're welcome.

WacGyver episode 5: The Heist

In this episode of WacGyver we skip the "Opening Gambit," and get into Mac's enemy of the week, Jack Catlin.  Catlin is a diamond thief, who apparently loves his day job as a casino manager.  Mac needs to figure out a way to get into that casino and steal back some already stolen diamonds.  Join Chris, Tim, and special guest Joe Degand for, "The Heist!"

WacGyver episode 5

Lovely Ladies of New Zealand

It looks like I need to move to New Zealand.  I love Peter Jackson, Flight of the Conchords, and apparently their high export of female singers.

Primarily, I'm a rock and rap guy, liking mainly mid to extremes of both, and a little of the pop side from time to time.  I'm basically an old curmudgeon who scoffs at the possibility that any music made after 1999 could be better than what came before it.  So I turned into an old guy.  At least I'm aware that it's probably just me.  About 3 years ago, all of that changed.  

February Misses

Welcome to March. It's still cold and snowing, so ain't nothin' new other than this music that I'm about to hit you with. February started off slow. The first few weeks of the month, finding 10 songs that were good enough to post about seemed like a challenge, but around the mid-way point, the ball started rolling and the jams started to be unleashed.

I don't know if it was because of Valentine's Day, but February released a lot of good R&B. This list is very R&B heavy, and that's with me leaving off solid tracks from Alicia Keys and Marsha Ambrosius. The February Misses are also somewhat nostalgic, with homage being paid to Michael Jackson, Anita Baker, The Fugees and Shalamar. Enough talky-talky, go ahead an check out what you missed. You're welcome.

Trade Review: Batman Earth One

Writer: Geoff Johns

Artist: Gary Frank

Earth One is a series that does re-interpretations of DC heroes origins. Superman and Batman have both gotten the treatment, and Wonder Woman's is due soon.

Everyone knows the story of Batman.  His mother and father are murdered right before Bruce Wayne's young eyes, and from that day forward he dedicates his life to fighting crime.

The story opens with Batman pursuing a man in a tuxedo across the rooftops of Gotham City. Batman tries to fire a grappling hook over to the next roof, but the gadget fails.  He hastily attempts a jump and falls short, catching himself on a wobbly air conditioner before crashing to the streets below.  Limping away from the alley, Batman sees a crime in progress and does nothing about it. This lets us know that he's still a little rough around the edges.

We are brought back in time to Wayne manor, where a party is being thrown by Thomas and Martha Wayne in anticipation of Thomas being elected Mayor of Gotham City.  We are introduced to Alfred Pennyworth, who is Thomas's friend from a war or something, but definitely not there to be a butler.  Thomas tells Alfred that he doesn't trust anyone, and that is why he brought him all the way to Gotham City.  Lil' Bruce runs through announcing that, "THEY'RE GOING TO BE LATE!" and now Thomas has to go, leaving this party and Alfred, who is NOT a butler, to continue to rage on at Wayne manor.

The Wayne family goes to the theater to watch a movie.  As soon as they get in, the power goes out. A theater employee enters letting everyone know that because of the outage, the theater is closed.  He asks for everyone to come through the front of the theater.  Bruce tells his parents that they should stay.  His parents tell him they'll try another day, but Bruce wants his Oompa Loompa now, and runs out the emergency exit into the alley.  Typical rich kid stuff.

In the Alley, Bruce runs into a hoodie wearing tough who tells him to "watch where he's going."  Bruce tells that dude he doesn't have to do anything, because "My parents are the richest people in Gotham City!"  Thomas and Martha run into the alley where hoodie Joe Chill is now holding a gun to Bruce's head and demanding money from them.  For whatever reason, he impatiently throws Bruce to the ground, lunges toward them, and then murders them.  This was a dude who was just walking by.  I'd hate to live in Gotham City, but you'd think rich people would be able to arrange a screening of Zorro at a much better theater.  It is supposed to be a "modern telling" and all.

So there you have it.  A brooding Dark Knight is born.

We learn that Alfred has been named Bruce's legal guardian, even though he'd literally arrived right before they were murdered.  Martha had never even met him.  Thomas was amazed that he had actually come to visit.  This was probably Alfred's worst vacation.  He sits down with Bruce to console him, but Bruce is having none of that.  He demands to know why he should even listen to Alfred, which is met with one simple reply, "I'm your butler."  What?  He wouldn't even listen to his own mother and father, who cares about a guy claiming to be a butler?

Batman has begun. It seems that the man he was chasing at the beginning of the book was a corrupt cop who worked on his mother and father's murder, and then retired a few weeks later to live the good life.  There were some discrepancies in the police report, and Bruce needed answers.  Was the defining moment in Bruce Wayne's life actually an assassination?  Were the radical politics of the Wayne family a threat to the corrupt system that was currently running Gotham?  Batman has emerged from the shadows to expose it all.

I really wanted to like this book, but I had some real problems with it.  For me, it was basically the CW TV pilot equivalent of an origin story.  Johns really tries to pack in as many Batman nods as possible, and it is very distracting.  There are nods to Arkham, Batgirl, and The Riddler for little to no reason.  The Penguin is the Mayor, and was the man Thomas Wayne was trying to dethrone.  Harvey Dent makes a brief appearance, and in this story has a twin sister.  Harvey Dent becomes Two-Face, so now he has a twin.  Get it?  Yeesh.

This is just a lot of added stuff for a book that really needs to show us Batman learning to be Batman.  Not the worst thing I've ever read, but not great either.

I'd say skip it, and if you are interested in a Batman origin story, go read Batman: Year One by Frank Miller.

WacGyver Episode 4: The Gauntlet!

In this episode, we learn that a map can be a sled, a weapon, and can even patch a hot air balloon!

Even RDA doesn't believe it!

WacGyver Episode 4!

iTunes Decoded: USQN

Uncovering this track was a pleasant surprise. Reflection Eternal (Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek for those not in the know) featuring Jay Electronica, Mos Def, and J. Cole. I almost forgot about this track, it was featured on Reflection Eternal's highly slept on Revolutions Per Minute album. This was in constant rotation for me during the summer of 2010. Mos & Kweli plus a hungry Jermaine and Jay Elec plus Hi-Tek on the beat equals a certified jam. Enjoy. You're welcome.

 

Week Sauce: 2/9/2014 - 2/15/2014

We're halfway done with February people. I can almost smell Spring (sniffs the air and makes The Rock's face). I'm sure Mother Nature will have a few parting gifts for us as we exit winter. Any who, here's the best and the worst from the past week. Seems to be more worst than best, but to quote the great Keith Murray, "it beez like that sometimes." You're welcome.

iTunes Decoded: Track 16

Alright. So a while back, we'll say 2009-ish, my desktop crashed. I ended up getting a new laptop, but at the time, I was not technical disaster ready, so I never backed up my hard drive. That's right, all my pictures, documents, and music were just lost. Through a YouTube tutorial, I discovered that I did have back up for my music in the form of my iPod.

I followed the step-by-step directions, and voila! I was able to recover all 10,000 plus of my songs and put them on my laptop. One hiccup, 25% of the tracks lost all their descriptive info (title, artist, album, etc.). They were either re-named a track number (ex: track 12) or a non-descriptive 4 letter code (ex: BVTH). Nonetheless, I was happy to have my music back, so I dealt with the missing info. In other words, I was too lazy to manually enter in all the info myself. 25% of 10,000 is a lot of damn songs.

So here I am 5 years later and I have finally grown tired of playing the guessing game. I haven't been able to find Erykah Badu's I Want You in forever, and that's one of my all-time jams. I will now update all of my unknown track info, one track at a time and document it for your reading pleasure. This is the first installment.

Tough Love: 10 Anti-Valentine's Day Tracks

No, I'm not feeling "some type of way," its just last year I assumed that all of my audience was in a happy love bubble when I hit you with Roofie Rhymes (looking back, that's a corny ass name...ah well, you live and you learn). I now understand that most of my audience is miserable, so it's only fair that I hit you with some break-up/hate jams. Get your Kleenex and alibis ready, its about to get shitty. You're welcome.

Trade Review: The Thunderbolts! The Andy Diggle Arc

Writers:  Andy Diggle, Daniel Way, Rick Remender

Artists:  Roberto De La Torre, Carlos Magno, Scott Hanna, Paco Medina, Bong Dazo, Miguel Sepulveda, Pop Mhan, and Carlos Rodriguez.

I will be reviewing 3 Thunderbolts trades for this post: Burning Down the House, Dark Reign: Deadpool/Thunderbolts, and Widowmaker.

The Thunderbolts is probably the most interesting Marvel series for a book with very little name recognition. This series started when all of the Avengers die saving the world from the evil Onslaught, and a new super hero team rises from the ashes to fill the void left in their absence.  This was a group of unknowns, who are revealed at the end of the first issue to be the super villains The Masters of Evil in disguise.

WacGyver episode 3: The Real Gypsies of Budapest

A lot of bad coming at you in this episode, Hijinks from the Middle East to Budapest, including some use of old film footage that makes The Power Rangers look like The Avengers.  All terrible.

"You making fun of my life's work?"

We dug deep in this episode, so click below and give it a listen!

WacGyver episode 3

Classixx @ Double Door Chicago on March 7, 2014

One of the many perks of blogging, besides my annual salary of $0, is the fact that I am constantly discovering new and exciting music outside of the realms on mainstream. One group that has slowly created a buzz on my iTunes playlists is the California nu-disco/electro duo known as Classixx.

Classixx is made up of childhood friends Tyler Blake and Michael David. That's right guys, 2 men...4 first names. For the last 4 years, Classixx has been blessing followers of the electronic music genre with a very energetic sound. Their tracks display influences from all over the music map from old school hip-hop to 60s folk music. Classixx has offered up production and remixes for a wide range of artists, including Mayer Hawthorne, Major Lazer, and Lana Del Rey.



Classixx released their debut album, Hanging Gardens, in May of 2013, and are now embarking on their first major tour in support of the album. Guess what people...they are making a stop in Chicago! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Tyler and Michael will be at Double Door on March 7th. Take a listen to some of their music posted, and if you like click here to buy tickets to the show. Have I ever steered you wrong? Don't answer that. Just listen to the music, buy some tickets, and we'll talk about it at the show next month. You're welcome.

Outside the Chin: 5 Reason's I'm Glad Jay Leno is Done

When the Winter Olympics close in Sochi, Jimmy Fallon will officially become the 5th host of NBC's The Tonight Show. I welcome the change for a few reasons:

• The Roots are the shit!
• The Fallon/Timberlake connection might be the best variety show duo since Sinatra and Martin.
• Jay Leno never did it for me...he kinda sucks.

The Leno sucks reason is definitely the stand-out explanation. I'm not saying it because I'm a die-hard Jimmy Fallon fan, I'm not. Leno's entire tenure on The Tonight Show was shrouded in mediocre-ness and shadiness. Here's some of The Chin's worst moves.

Week Sauce: 2/2/2014-2/8/2014

Welcome back to my random and rapid-fire rundown (alliteration, bitches) of the most buzz-worthy events of the week. Let's get to it shall we.