Check the Blog of Oa to keep up to date with all the news on the upcoming Green Lantern animated series on the Cartoon Network, set to debut in late 2011.
The Podcast of Oa
Co-hosts William Giancoli and Myron Rumsey take you inside the Green Lantern universe with lively discussion about anything and everything to do with DC Comics Emerald Knights.
Comic Book Reviews
Every month the Blog of OA reviews all the Green Lantern titles from DC Comics. Find out what's been happening with our plot snapshots and whether each book was good enough to light up our five lantern review meter.
Green Lantern 101
Whether you're new to Green Lantern or want to refresh your memory, Green Lantern 101 features profiles on characters that make up the rich history of Green Lantern lore.
The Green Lantern Motion Picture
The Blog of Oa followed the creation of the movie from the early days of pre-production all the way through its release and beyond. Trace the history of the film from early speculation and rumor all the way through the future of a potential sequel.
Raging Bullets Podcast
From time to time we join our friends Sean Whelan and Jim Segulin to talk Green Lantern on the premiere DC Comics Podcast, Raging Bullets. Click here to see what episodes of their fantastic show we took part in.
Green Lantern Gaming
Playstation 3 owners can click here for instructions on how to download and install our free Green Lantern themes for you gaming console. Check out all our coverage of Green Lantern video games from DC Universe Online and Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters to online flash games.
In the third episode of the Podcast of Oa we discuss the conclusion of the War of the Green Lanterns event. We also respond to listener emails about the Green Lantern film and the potential for a sequel and debut the cover track to the latest cd from nerd rock band Kirby Krackle, "Super Powered Love".
Show Notes:
Intro: 0:00:00
War of the Green Lanterns: 0:2:50
Listener Emails: 0:51:17
Kirby Krackle / Outro: 1:20:20
Listen to more music from Kirby Krackle and buy their cds from the band's official website.
Send your comments or feel free to contact the Blog of Oa at greenlantern@stny.rr.com, or leave us a voicemail on our Skype account, blogofoa.
Nerd rock band Kirby Krackle has just released a new animated music video for their song "Ring Capacity" from their second CD, "E for Everyone". The video is really cool, intercutting the band playing along with the events as they unfold in space until the two storylines merge when Hal Jordan and the band charge their rings together before a confrontation with Sinestro. The song is one of their most popular tunes and is one of two Kirby Krackle songs currently available on Rock Band for the Xbox 360 via the Rockband Network, with the other being the Fallout 3 inspired song, "Vault 101". There was a fan effort on Facebook to get "Ring Capacity" on the Green Lantern movie's soundtrack and played during the end credits but Warner Brothers is not interested in doing that.
The band's third CD will be released at the San Diego Comic Con this summer and a third track is currently play testing for release to Rockband.
As a Green Lantern uber-fan, I'm drawn to anything in popular culture that crosses paths with my favorite Emerald Gladiator. One of the things I've been pursuing lately is how Green Lantern has been used in music beyond the rapper who goes by the same name. In this multi-part series I'll be looking at Green Lantern as he appears in music history.
While there are certainly several songs about Green Lantern from filk and geek rock artists, to begin our exploration I decided to focus on how Green Lantern has been referenced in songs that aren't about the mythos at all, although most of what I found were aimed clearly at the pop culture loving audience. One song in particular took some digging to solve the mystery of how the Green Lantern oath ended up as a lyric in a Hi-NRG song about infidelity!
It's no secret to anyone who's been reading this blog that I'm a huge fan of Kirby Krackle and their high energy nerd inspired music. The Blog of Oa was one of the first sites on the Internet to review their second CD, "E for Everyone", which contains the song "Ring Capacity" - quite frankly the best Green Lantern inspired song in history. So well loved has this song become to Green Lantern fans that there is a Facebook page devoted to trying to get the song added to the soundtrack for the upcoming live action film.
"Ring Capacity" gains another level of notoriety for being imortalized in the video game Rockband through the games Rockband Network, a system where any band can author their music in the format the game needs in order to be playable, submit it to the game's publisher and earn some money by marketing their songs to the masses in a interactive way to enjoy music. The ode to Green Lantern has been in testing for some time now and became available today after clearing the testing process. So if you have the game, boot it up and go online and buy it today from either Xbox Live, the Playstation Network, or the Nintendo Wiii. It'll cost you less than a buck - even Hal Jordan doesn't have enough will power to turn that down!
Kirby Krackle is in my opinion the best band in the "nerd rock" genre, with songs inspired by everything from comics to video games. Their latest CD, "E is for Everyone", is really, really good and features a song entitled "Ring Capacity" about a battle in space between Hal Jordan and Sinestro. The song is currently in play testing to be released on Rock Band's Rock Band Network very soon and you can listen to it for free on the band's website or by watching the video in our Video Spotlight section at the bottom of the page.
With things really coming to a fever pitch with the upcoming movie, fans (myself included) are joing efforts to get the song included on the soundtrack and/or during the end credits. To join the effort click on this link to go to the Facebook page and help get it done!
I've been around for awhile (I'm 45) and I have been a firm believer that true Rock and Roll died some time ago and I haven't heard anything on the radio worth going out and buying. In fact, the last time I got excited about a new music release was when Brian Wilson finally released "Smile". But this year I discovered for myself some great music made just for us, the comics/gaming/sci fi crowd, brought to us by the awesome nerd/geek rock bank Kirby Krackle from Seattle, Washington.
Kirby Krackle's 2nd CD launches this week
March 9th marks the release of their sophomore album, "E for Everyone". I got my copy this past weekend and I think I've already worn it out! Since discovering this new genre of music I've been seeking out other like minded bands, but what makes Kirby Krackle stand out for me is their smart lyric writing and the production value behind their music. And you know that when the CD cover features drumsticks as Wolverine claws and a GL ring created guitar that this CD's going to be a treat.
Kirby Krackle just plain sounds great, and they aren't making fad songs to play off of our interests to sell some cd's at cons - they make music inspired by the things we love because each one of these guys is one of us and they love the same stuff we do.
"E for Everyone" kicks off with the energetic "Vault 101", an ode to "Fallout 3", one of the greatest video games of the past few years. I don't know how many hours I spent last year wandering the Wastleland in search of bottle caps and blasting mutants and this first track captures some of that experience we had venturing out from that vault with our trusty PipBoy on our arm. The song captures the player's need to believe that, despite the world gone to hell in a handbasket landscape, there's hope out there somewhere for a better tomorrow. As the chorus goes, "And in a world gone mad I've got to believe...there's something better."
The CD's second track is a great "day in the life" look at the world from Wolverine's point of view. From fighting in the Savage Land, dealing with the Hand and the Wrecking Crew, this song really shows the band's understanding of the character. And for those people like myself who ordered the CD, the included booklet of lyrics cleverly takes Wolvie's signature claws into account. The song rocks and the lyrics give us a glimpse into the character and how some of his life experiences may affect him more than what he reveals to world around him.
"Secret Identity" is a fun look at what the life of a superhero inside of all of us and how we'd all like to don costumes and kick ass at the end of the week, after we mow the lawn and trim the hedges of course! This is a great song that could easily be used in a film like "Kick Ass" with a lot of pop flair.
"Roll Over" is a fast paced bombardment of pop culture references shouting out to everything from the Thundercats to the Smurfs to Skrulls. It's a fun play on the "Roll Over" song I remember singing to with my son when he was little, with some great riffs and a rap interlude that kicks it hard. I'll admit that I questioned my geek cred when I didn't get all the references in the song!
The fifth track, "Henchman", is a rocking light-hearted look into the interview of an aspiring henchman. Balancing accomplishments ("I fired lasers from a sub / one year I blew a whole bridge up") to inquiring as to the retirement fund options and health plan our singer's point of view of someone who has risen up the ranks from "peon to goon" mirrors the same type of nervous "need a job" interviews we've all had with a delightful villains' slant.
Best GL song...EVER!
"Ring Capacity" is the song that helped me discover Kirby Krackle. A single that I missed out on when it was sent out for free last summer, "Ring Capacity" is a hard rocking song that puts you in Hal Jordan's head as he encounters Sinestro in deep space. The clever chorus counts up and down the charge level of Hal's ring as he deals with his greatest foe. I've got a small collection of Green Lantern themed songs and "Ring Capacity" easily knocks J-Sin Stars's "Green Lantern: Hal Jordan" track of the top of stack for best Green Lantern inspired song. I really hope that this track makes its way to the new Rock Band network and it would be amazing if this track somehow found its way into the soundtrack of the upcoming Green Lantern movie.
Check out the band's live performance of the song:
"Can I Watch You?" is a funky look at the Watcher. How can you beat a lyric like "You love my baby head / And my piercing white eyes / So say if you want to / You can call me Uatu"? Not even possible! Pure gold! And who knew he could make zucchini souffle?
Of all the songs on the disk "Take it from me" was the only song that didn't grab me. And that's not a knock on the song at all - it's a good rocker. I just missed the Mega Man bandwagon by a few years so the references are completely lost on me. Again - that's nothing against the song, it just doesn't resonate for me personally.
"Great Lakes Avengers" demonstrates the band's ability to write a clever lyric about a guy with pretty pathetic powers and his attempts to get into a good super team, but alas he's too lame to be considered by anyone but the GLA. Turned down by everyone from the Fantastic Four to the Green Lantern Corps to the Justice League and not willing to join the likes of the Doom Patrol, Alpha Flight, the JSA or the Birds of Prey ("you're a dude!") our protagonist finally decides that the GLA might be right for him after all.
Every CD has to have a ballad or two, and "Dusty Cartridges & Long Boxes" is the love song between two geeks sharing their common interests. The song has kind of a Kenny Loggins / James Taylor vibe to it. And what girl geek wouldn't swoon at a lyrical line like "CGC say 9.3 but you're a 10 to me..like Bo Derek." It reminds me personally of years ago before my wife and I were married, two young naive Star Trek geeks spending every moment surrounded by memorabilia and other fans, reveling in our geekness while falling in love.
"E for Everyone" ends with "Going Home" - a song which should become the anthem for everyone making the pilgrimage to a con where you've crammed your vehicle beyond capacity, of course never realizing that you'll be bringing home more stuff that you left with and have to leave stuff behind. You and your bud's hit the road, Root Beer and Twinkies stuffed in a cooler as you hit the road for mecca. This song captures the fan experience like no other and deserves a music video to set it off - in fact G4 needs to use this in their Comic Con coverage this year - you hear that Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn!?
"E for Everyone" will be available by various digital download stores, but you can also order the CD directly from the band. It's worth a couple of extra bucks to get the art and lyric book - and this is a band worthy of our support. If you find yourself becoming a Kracklehead like I have you'll also want to seek our their first CD that's also filled with great music any geek would want on their MP3 player.
Green Lantern and other related characters are copyright of DC Comics Inc. and are used without permission. Blogofoa.com is a fan website and does not claim any ownership over the Green Lantern or any other copyrighted property.
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7/18/2011
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