I play drums in the band Borrisokane and we have an EP for free download on Bandcamp!  Give it a listen and let me know what you think.

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(click to hear song)

MNDR

Recommended if you like asking questions to which you already know the answers.

As for the new episodes, they were both solid, though I liked the second one better.  The first followed the staid episode layout of setting up an argument amongst the crew and allowing plot contrivances to sort it out for them.  This time around, the problem was gender.  The men don’t think that the women can help save Planet Express (which is under foreclosure) unless it is to pose in a saucy calendar.  The writers did a nice job setting up some jokes early, like the clause in their contracts, that got big laughs later.  But as a result, the beginning of the episode felt a little formless.  They bounced from one idea to the next before finally crash landing on a barren planet.  That’s when the real plot kicks in, albeit awkwardly.  A rock being, intrigued by their gender disputes, decides to first pit them against each other, and then swap their genders.  When Zapp Branigan shoots the alien (classic Zapp!), the crew returns home in their swapped-gender bodies.  And of course, the men will now be posing for that calendar.  At the end, (almost) everyone is returned to normal and lessons were learned.

Though I had my fingers crossed that Scruffy would still be a woman in episode two and we would follow his trials and tribulations, instead we got a very strange Bender-centric episode.  The Professor creates a machine that makes two smaller copies of the original object, and Bender makes copies of himself and those two make copies of themselves until Planet Express (and later the world) is overrun with tiny Bender copies.  At one point, they are on a molecular scale, manipulating hydrogen and oxygen particles.  The episode seemed at first ready to deal with Bender’s rudeness, maybe have him learn a lesson.  But really it seems the writers just wanted to find a way to turn water into beer.   A lot of jokes here, but nothing quite came together.  After the whole world is drunk, Bender will have to save the day.  And he does.  But it’s done in a way that felt unsatisfactory and tacked on.  What exactly were the writers trying to say by constantly belittling the giant man-child from the beginning?  And then the poor guy dies?  I would have a liked a little more depth (which I’ve come to expect from Futurama), but it was still enjoyable.  That’s the great thing about the show.  Even in the middle-of-the-road episodes, the joke quota is still high.

I know they will mine more emotional territory later in the season.  So for now, they just want us to laugh.

(click to hear song)

TIM HECKER

Recommended if you like walking across frozen lakes.

(click to hear song)

EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY

Recommended if you like lying on your back and counting stars.