Wow.  How long has it been since you thought of Nerf Herder, huh?  Yeah, that's what we were thinking too.  Anyways, the kings of "Van Halen" are back (back together too) with their first record in almost 5 years.  Seriously though, these tracks are really good.  Like, really really good.  Almost stuck-in-your-head-all-day-long ridiculously good.  Bravo.  Sure, it's a little werid to have dudes who're pushing 40ish talking about high school reunions, but we suspend our disbelief.  Honest.

IV hits stores on April 29.

(mp3)    (Stand By Your) Manatee

(mp3)    High School Reunion

Godspeed!

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E-mail Comments: phill[at]thephiller[dot]com

Nerf Herder
“High School Reunion” (mp3)
from IV
(Oglio Entertainment)

Bonus Download: (Stand By Your) Manatee

Release Date: April 29, 2008

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My Robot Friend, the stage name for one-robot band Howard Robot, somehow got caught up in the whole electroclash thing in '02 (approximately that month when New York Mag had WIT on the cover), but forget all that. You should check the laptop-laced double-bass blues from MRF's full-length debut Hot Action!...

My Robot Friend - "Why Won't You Call Me Back?" (MP3)

... and then watch this clip for a new cut from Robot's forthcoming album. It's black and white and red-paint water-ballooned all over. That black ball is a star! And possibly held in place with magnets?

Robot rock:

My Robot Friend - "Robot High School" (MP3)

Robot High School is out soon on Soma Records.

The school's Wilton High, and the latest play to emerge from the Theatre class has become a national cause celebre. The school board and the principal banned it after a classmate and her mother complained that it was "biased" on the basis of an early script. Her brother is serving in Iraq, but it was the death of a local boy there that piqued interest in doing the play in the first place. It's a collage of reflections from people serving there, many the same age as the white middle-class kids who are putting on the show.

It's a verbatim script, but you can see that the real charge is that it's culturally "anti war" - which it is. What is does not do, is denigrate any soldiers or veterans. The sad truth is that the administration and Fox News have convinced a lot of people that even talking about real reactions and feelings of combatants here at home, is "unpatriotic". An absurd bit of Orwellian/McCarthyite nonsense. It does undermine the war effort, but only from the perspective of the White House, not the democracy it's supposed to represent. "Voices in Conflict" includes plenty of patriot-speak, and it's a shame that the head and family haven't see it. Anyway, here's my story which aired on Newshour this weekend gone, centred around the one-off performance at the Public Theater downtown: Downloa d high_school_play_ban.mp3 

MP3:
1 Goddard High School Stage Band - Fire (1:25)
2 Goddard High School Stage Band - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (3:03)

Years ago, I privately released a slapped-together, cheesy, homemade CD titled Poly High: School Bands Play the Classics, which was filled with cheesy, homemade recordings of high school bands playing hard rock hits of the 60s and 70s. One of those bands, the Goddard High School Stage Band of Roswell, New Mexico, I had a particular penchant for. I don't know if it was their wall-of-muddy-sound, or their vocalist's strains, but their 1970 LP, The Goddard High School Stage Band Goes Underground, got a lot of plays at my house.

Lo and behold, I later heard from an original member of the band who gave me a copy of their first and better LP from 1969, where they performed under the name "The Wild Ones." These two tracks stem from that piece of genius.

And while you're listening: who among us can step up to the plate and tell the hidden history of the roving recorders involved with those no-name record labels which traveled the country recording high school bands? Labels like Century, Silver Crest, Custom Recording Specialists, American Record Company, Band 'N Vocal Mobile Recording Service, Russ Enloe Custom Records etc., etc. Most likely, their unique history will remain unwritten.

- Contributed by: Jonathan Ward

Image: This album manufactured by Century Records

Media: 12" LP
Album: The Goddard High School Stage Band Goes Underground
Date: 1969

The teenpop juggernaut High School Musical spawned a soundtrack that ruled the album-sales charts last year, and its summer vacation-themed sequel hits the Disney Channel in August. (A movie about summer break that comes out just as kids are picking out their new bookbags? That's sort of mean, no?) POPtastic! has an MP3 of the soundtrack's long-lead first single, which is probably being played on Radio Disney as you read this; it's called "What Time Is It," and if you've ever wondered what a drama-club reimagining of "Ain't No Other Man" might sound like, you may want to take a listen:

High School Musical 2 - What Time Is It? [MP3, via POPtastic!]

MP3:
01 P reface (4:44)
02 I'll Play For You (3:57)
03 I Felt a Song (In My Heart) (3:08)
04 One Of These Nights (3:05)
05 Crossroads (4:19)
06 Shining Star (2:05)
07 Love Won't Let Me Wait (3:09)
08 Love Will Keep Us Together (2:03)
09 Old Days (2:43)
10 Walking in Rhythm (2:45)
11 Wild Fire (3:41)
12 Philadelphia Freedom (3:21)
13 Midnight Blue (3:12)
14 Dance to the Music (2:57)

I like to imagine that all the kids in this choir had huge ear-to-ear grins throughout the entire concert, but then I myself grin pretty hard while listening to this. From what I'm able to gather, Valley High School put on a number of Sound Unlimited concerts throughout the 1970s. There are multiple albums floating around, all with the cover art printed on a separate sheet of paper and pasted onto the sleeve.

Here's another example. The school is still around. I have no idea what their music department is up to these days.

- Contributed by: Suzanne Baumann

Images: Front Cover, Back Cover

Media: 12" LP
Album: Sound Unlimited