The video must be Joel Trussell's commentary on all the rock bands coming from Scandinavia in recent times. Or is that old history dating back to 2001?

His video for Jason Forrest's track, "War Photographer" is lots of fun. Vikings, guitars, robots, cowbell, what else do you need?

Joel has some development sketches on his blog as well.

I know there are essays out there about "Another Girl, Another Planet" being the greatest pop song ever. (Although my Google search hasn't come up with any, perhaps that theory's dead, and it's still the first sentence of this post.) People have professed their love for this song (scroll down, kid), regardless of the fact that it barely charted. And I will give them that, it's a great song. Catchier than the common cold in a kindergarten classroom.

When I first heard this song, I had no idea it was by The Only Ones. I had some compilation CD that contained a version by The Mighty Lemondrops. And although the Mighty Lemondrops never really caught my interest previously...well, Damn, if it wasn't the best song on the entire comp.

I've since heard a live cover by the Replacements that sounded like it was disintegrating and patched together with duct tape, but that added to the charm. And I can't find fault with the original.

I actually thought the song was built in such a way that no matter who covered it, it would remain intact and brilliant. A piece of perfect pop.

Enter Blink-182, or Blink182 or Blink 182 (spaces, hyphens, whatever. and is it Kid606 or Kid 606? My iTunes gets confused sometimes.)

Anyway the Blink boys come along and pour too much powdered sugar over the top and just ruin things. I could hear it in one listen. Maybe they should have had the nasally guy sing more. There's kids out there who have never heard the song and this is what they get, the NutraSweet version on a greatest hits compendium. Granted, Blink182 is a watered down Green Day, but I liked "Dammit". And Travis Whatshisname is a good drummer. They chose a good song to cover. And I'm not one of those crotchety folks that think every cover sucks, and that covering this song or that song is blasphemy. And if someone samples of mashes it with something else, so be it. I think if there was a demo version of this cover closer to the Dude Ranch/Cheshire Cat days, then maybe it would have sounded a bit better.

At least Limp Bizkit didn't cover it on their greatest hits collection.

I'm not sure I'm ready to jump into the fray in the world of mp3 blogs, but I heard about the recentdeath of Shonen Knife and DMBQ drummer Mana "China" Nishiura in a car accident, and was surprised to see no mention in any of the mp3 blogs over at The Hype Machine. (If there were any comments, no mp3s were posted.) "China" was currently touring with the band DMBQ. She apparently was a session and touring drummer that played with a number of other bands (Teem, Rashinban, Droop, Slower Traffic 5), in many styles.

I will not pretend to know a lot about her, and if you are interested in learning more about Mana "China" Nishiura, then I suggest visiting some of the links in this post.

The only CD I own by Shonen Knife is Let's Knife, but my favorite track is on the soundtrack to The Powerpuff Girls: Heroes & Villains movie. The Shonen Knife contribution is "Buttercup (I'm a Super Girl)", and The Ramones influence is way beyond obvious. But that's okay. The song is a lot of fun.

Shonen Knife - Buttercup (I'm a Super Girl)