creatures from outer space (and Kansas)

I got The Aliens album, Astronomy for Dogs, for a friends birthday the other day. I thought I'd take a quick listen before I passed the goods on and it wasn't bad at all. It's a decent take at pop rock but doesn't really compare with the Beta Band ( of whom three ex-members make up the new group). You can check out a few of their tunes including the radio friendly 'Robot Man' on their myspace

Gordon Anderson, the original bassist in The Beta Band, was admitted to a mental institution not long after the band signed their first record deal. The band went on without him and did fairly well until they split up in 2004. Anderson is now joined in The Aliens by two other members of The Beta Band, Robin Jones and John Maclean. Apparently Anderson has also found God since his rehabilitation and attributes his new found zeal for life to his religious beliefs. Good man Gordon.

On the subject of God, I was watching Louis Theroux on the tellybox tonight and he was documenting three weeks in the lives of the Westboro Baptist Church, Kansas. As you can imagine this church are a free-thinking, libertarian, honest-to-goodness congregation, except for the fact that they hated anyone who wasn't a member of their congregation. This was vintage Theroux, as he hung around annoying them and teasing details from a community that is brainwashed in its religious thinking by a patriarchal individual, who's a short-tempered bollix to boot. Oftentimes Theroux's choice of subject matter is so extreme that the viewer is immediately convinced that his subjects are lunatics, but it's easy to pick out fringe groups like these. In reality their thinking is no more warped than many mainstraem religions. Anyway enough of that heavy shit, if you want to watch Louis' podcast you can get it here

It's time to lighten the mood with a bit of The Beta Band for your collective viewing pleasure, all thanks to the wonders of youtube. This might entertain some as we await armageddon's arrival and when finally the members of the Westboro Baptist Church are saved. Good luck to them.