William Shatner : TV God , cultural guru , champion of space and time and schmaltzy singer. He has done it all - movies - tv - commercials - book - albums and he came back in 2004 under the production and writing prowess of Sir Ben Folds to create an album of originals and a cover or PULP's masterpiece 'Common People' ...which does him just fine and dandy...who croons on this song with the Shat? None other than Joe Jackson. Also involved on tracks John Mark Painter , Aimme Mann , Matt Chamberlain , Lemon Jelly and my Fave track on the album - a ditty called 'I cant get behind that' with guest vocalist and my personal jesus -Henry Rollins and to make it even more interesting Mr. Adrian Belew plays guitar on the song. Awesome. Great. Fantastic. Surreal. Laughable. Sincere. Always Fun. That pretty much sums up this smartly written , well played album the Shat came out with. After all these years of ol Bill being ridiculed for his 70's spoken word lounge albums... the Shat is the one left last laughing now. Ps , he has turrets syndrom which is why he has the unmistakable pause when he talks. So he doesnt show a stutter.

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Manchester Orchestra ( great name btw ) is a five piece out of the suburbs of Atlanta , Georgia. I first caught these backwater indie darlings on the live broad cast from Coachella 2008 last month. The band is a moody kind of corn gazers with a good dose of brit rock to keep the swagger full and in view. Or for the comparative crowd ; it sounds like David Bowie and Brian Molko singing with a super group of REM , early Allman Brothers and The Verve backing them up on a Southern Porch out yonder drinking white lightning from a jar. Poppily beautiful at worst , wave crashingly textual at best. The songs here are from 2005's 'Nobody Sings Anymore' and Im like a 'Virgin Losing a Child'. The song "Brother" is an 'Annuals' song.

http://www.themanchesterorchestra.com/

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