Review: Joan Jett's 'Bad Reputation' (45th Anniversary Edition)

Just a year out of The Runaways, Joan Jett put out her first album, and its strongest cuts made it clear that she was refreshed and ready to get back down to work. With its balance between covers and self-penned originals, Bad Reputation recalled early-sixties LPs, as did the songs she selected to adapt. If "Shout" and "Wooly Bully" seemed more fitting for a bar band than a heavy hitter, at least Jett's sneering rendition of Leslie Gore's "You Don't Own Me" gave her something to sink her fangs into and emphasize that she wasn't going to be anyone's dolly bird. She doubled down on that stance with her own compositions, especially "You Don't Know What You Got", "Jezebel", and "Don't Abuse Me". 

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #125 - 101

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's following the White Rabbit from 125 to 101...

124. The Turtles- "You Showed Me" (1968), in which The Turtles take an old folk-rock tune The Byrds couldn't be bothered to release and turn it into something sinister and majestic.

Review: 'Wake Me, Shake Me: New York City, the '60s & the Pop Youthquake'

Everyone who thinks that the world revolves around New York City should... wait, I'm not sure how to finish that sentence. Actually, a quick look at all the movies, TV shows, and books set in Manhattan alone (there are four other boroughs, you know!) kind of supports the idea that NYC is where everything is. And music? How many histories covering New York's punk scene or The Velvet Underground have there been? "A lot" is the answer.

Yet when considering what must be the most fertile period for pop music, the sixties, the New York City scene is often little more than a sidebar. While what was happening in London, Los Angeles, Detroit, and San Fransisco is often portrayed as downright mythic, what was happening on the East Coast islands seems quaint and scattered, at least when you've finished swapping legends about Lou Reed and Nico. And Dylan doesn't quite count as he was actually from Hibbing, Minnesota, and his New York City phase was just one of many. 

Review: 'Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home-The Making of the Film'

The Wrath of Khan may be the best Star Trek film, but The Voyage Home is easily the most lovable. It's the cinematic equivalent of "The Trouble with Tribbles": fun, breezy, a bit silly, and more focused on the dynamics between the crew than matters of galactic gravity. 

I do wish there was a bit more of the Enterprise's crew in John and Maria Jose Tenuto's Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home-The Making of the Film, but this is still a pretty wonderful book that really conveys the film's warm, joyous spirit. The writers provide a clear idea of Leonard Nimoy's sensitive directing techniques, the challenges and triumphs of bringing the film's humpback whales to life, and the key members of the film's crew, most notably Kirk Thatcher, the wunderkind who not only served as associate producer, but also played the punk who gets memorably silenced by Spock and wrote and sang the punk song that so displeases our favorite vulcan.

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #150 - 126

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's meditating transcendentally from 150 to 126...

150. The Monkees- "P.O.Box 9847" (1968), in which Boyce and Hart finally get to produce a Monkees record again after a long hiatus but The Monkees take all the credit.

Review: 'I Am the Night: The Ultimate Unauthorized History of Batman: The Animated Series'

Batman has gone through uncountable on-screen iterations (or, at least, two dozen), and each batfan has their favorite. Personally, I'm a campy Adam West fan. But even I will admit that the best realization of the caped crusader was Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski's. Batman: The Animated Series pleased fans to no end by capturing both the darkness and the fun of the comics, which is something that no other on-screen Bat-property has managed. It was beautifully animated, especially for an after-school cartoon from the nineties. The voice talent was top notch and the stories were often excellent. All the Batman movies or TV shows followed in the Animated Series' wake were merely sucking its fumes.