Kid Robot Simpsons Blind Boxes -by Zak

Zia Records is now carrying the new Simpsons Mini Figures by Kid Robot! I have not been this excited about a new product line at Zia In a long time. For any Simpsons fan these are definitely a must have. Our buyers are always trying to keep an eye out for new and exciting products and they definitely hit the ball out of the park with this one! These are typically very hard to find, but we have them.

For those of you that don’t know Kid Robot is a toy and design company founded by Paul Budnitz in 2002. They specialize in high quality collectible toys made in limited runs. There are no repeats. Once it’s gone it’s gone. Kid Robot toys are actually works of art made with high attention to detail and a relentless commitment to quality. Like I stated earlier these are hard to find and that’s makes the collect ability that much greater.

The Simpsons minis are actually packaged in a blind box format. This means that they are all packaged exactly the same. There is absolutely no indication of what’s inside. Just like baseball cards half the fun is opening the box to see which character you got. The box itself is a work of art. It’s brightly colored and on 2 sides are pictures of the characters. When you open the box there is a Kid Robot foil bag inside that bag is the Simpson’s character.

The minis themselves are super high quality. They are based on designs by the Simpsons’ Matt Groening. There are 24 characters available. These range from Bart to Duff Man, from Itchy to Comic Book Guy (with Vulcan ears!). On the side of the box there are numbers under each character noting the odds of getting that specific character (Itchy is 1 in every 48; Bumble Bee Man is 1 in every 96 etc…). Most of the characters come with accessories such as Bart’s skateboard and Apu’s price gun.

Bottom line: you gotta come check out what’s new at Zia Records! These toys are awesome! In addition we also are carrying the Adult Swim Kid Robot Blind Boxes as well, but they are almost gone! These are going to go faster so get yours ASAP!

--Zak!

A Little Known Sci-Fi Masterpiece --by Travis M @Tempe

I recently had a chance to see a film called Le Dernier Combat (a.k.a. The Last Battle). It was made in 1983 and directed by Luc Besson. I had already seen a couple of his films, namely The Professional and The Fifth Element. The quirkiness of his work had always impressed me, as well as his attention to his characters. Le Dernier Combat, which was his first feature film, continues in that tradition.

This is a science fiction film like none you have ever seen. Set in a world that looks very Mad Max with the power of a high-art drama and the charm of a Charlie Chaplin picture, Combat is simply in a world of its own. Shot in B&W with no dialogue (a choice that at first appears pretentious, but works its way out to be brilliant), the Luc Besson film will guide you through an experience of the future which is simultaneously humorous, bizarre, and tragic. Imagine fish raining from the sky, quirky French 80’s tunes, a shocking villain played by The Professional’s Jean Reno, and an ending that will never leave you. I can not ponder why a film like this has not been more discussed and included in lists of great science fiction films. If you are either a fan of the genre or simply an audience member ready for an original experience, please watch Le Dernier Combat.

-Travis Mills

Olivia Newton-John, Roller skates, and an Avalanche of Cocaine--by Doctor X

"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran through caverns measureless to man, down to a sunless sea."
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Coleridge supposedly wrote his epic poem "Kubla Khan" during a fever dream born from laudanum, the opiate of its era. The story goes that he had dreamed of many verses, only to be awakened mid-trance by visitors. After he had attended to them he went to copy the poem from memory, but found that all but a few precious nuggets had evaporated into the haze .
Just like the Xanadu of Coleridges' poem, the movie "Xanadu" was also the result of a drug-addled consciousness, this one fueled by the number one hitmaker of the seventies, COCAINE. Some claim that the "Seargeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts club Band" movie was the biggest coke-inspired celluloid disaster of that decade, but those people obviously never saw "Xanadu". If they had, they would've seen the evidence on plain display that Coke was calling the shots back then, and Coke had a hard-on for virgins on skates.

What follows is a transcript of an actual taped conversation between two studio execs as they brainstormed this project into being. This is the first time that the "birth of Xanadu" has been revealed to the public.

Man 1: Hey man, it's good to see you! Sit down. Sit down. Hey , before we get things rolling, you want a little toot?

Man 2: (removing gold spoon on chain from around his neck) Don't mind if I do, man. SNIFF. SNIFF. Oh, yeah, that's the ticket. Thanks, man.

Man 1: No problem, so here's what I'm thinking for the new project. Check it out.... SNIFFF. SNIFFFF Okay, who's hot right now? Olivia Newton-John, right? So she's from Australia and that's somewhere near Greece, right. So she can probably pass. Hell, for all we know her real name is Newton-Johnalopolous!

Man 2: Yeah, I like it! SNNIFFF. SNNIFFFFF.

Man 1: Right. So what's Greeker than mythology? They pretty much invented that shit. So what if she's a muse? You know, the goddesses that inspire talent in people. Just like this magic powder here, huh? Am I right? SNNNIIIFFFF. SSNNNNIFFFFF.

Man 2: I love it. But how do we make it fresh? Mythology is yesterday's shit in an old sack. We've got to make it about now. SNNNNIFFFFFF. SNIFFFFFFFFFF. How about roller disco? Everybody is into it, man. She could be the Greek muse who's gone mobile on skates, you know, so she can cover more ground per workday.

Man 1: That is fantabulous! Linda Blair did that Roller Boogie movie, and she is red hot! We need a guy for Olivia to inspire. How about Andy Gibb? SNORT. SNORT.

Man 2: Screw Andy Gibb! I had a meeting with that guy for a project at Fox, and that Hoover did all my Coke while I talked. Bad Vibes. That guy's got a drug problem. SNOORRT. SNNOORRRT. How about a dude that looks like Andy Gibb, but doesn't do all my Coke?

Man 1: Yeah, that'll work. There's gotta be someone out there with a little self control. SSNNOORRTT. SSNNOORRTTT. Alright. So far we got Olivia Newton-John going Greek, Roller skates, mythology, and a dude who looks like Andy Gibb who won't Bogart the drugs. This sounds like a perfect project. I can't think of anything more we could add.

man 2: SSNNNOOOORRRRTTTT. SSSSNNNNOOOORRRRTTTT. How about an old dude? Old people love old dudes. Then we get the young and the old in for one movie. That's most of the population right there. Box office would be HUGE!

Man 1: I love it. We've got to go old. Way back. SSSSSNNNNNNNOOOOOORRRRRTTTTTTT. Hey! What about Gene Kelly? Is he still alive? He did that one movie where he was on skates. You think he still skates?

Man 2: SSSSNNNNNOOOOORRRRRRTTTTTT!!! Oh, that is it man. That is it! We've got to get Gene Kelly. He must be like 70 now, but he should still be able to skate, right? I'll have my girl call his people and tell him hey, "It's Olivia Newton-Johnalopolous, roller skates, greek mythology, and a dude who looks like Andy Gibb but with more self control around your drugs. This is your comeback! Mean Gene is tearing up the screen!" No way he can pass. I mean, I couldn't pass on that!

Man 1: That sounds so right! I'm greenlighting this right now. The only thing more groovy is if we could get ELO to do the soundtrack.

Man 2: You know ELO?

Man 1: Oh yeah, man. I did Coke with those guys way back. Lightshow for days, man..........

And so it was.

Look for more TRUE COKE stories soon right here on these pages.

the anniversary edition DVD of "Xanadu" is available at your local Zia Records right now. It contains lots of extras, but no Coke. Sorry.

No need to re-wind ---by Cameron@Eastern

It’s kind of amazing to stop and think about the impact of DVDs. Introduced to the mass market in 1997, their eventual proliferation incited a paradigm shift in the general attitude towards home theater viewing. VHS tapes were cheap and disposable, the physical media easily worn and damaged. Watching VHS tapes was in no way close to the cinema experience. While many homes had a collection of tapes, the idea of a “film library,”—an idea so many people seem to embrace with the DVD—was the realm of collectors and nerds. While it may be a trend in some circles to cry the death of cinema and the theater experience, this isn’t what I want to touch on here. Just wanted to give a little context for the way that DVDs have shaped our experience with films.

It’s funny now to read the cases for first generation DVDs and see “scene selection” or “no need to rewind” listed as a bonus feature. It’s come to the point now where even the most inane fluff films have a 30 minute behind-the-scenes feature and director’s commentary and are shown in a pristine digital transfer in the correct aspect ratio. These kinds of perks were non-existent on VHS and only occasionally available on the Laserdisc format for a premium cost. Foreign, rare, and independent films were expensive and hard to come by.

We are living more and more in an age of informational glut. I, for instance, was able to verify the date of the DVDs introduction in ten seconds with a quick internet search. Not that every film ever made has been released, or is the easiest or cheapest to obtain, but I can’t help but wonder what this propagation of DVDs has meant to the general public’s view of cinema. Just the other day I saw a commercial for a beauty product (a shampoo, I believe) that utilized quick-cut hip/hop montage editing techniques that were, not that long ago, considered avant-garde and cutting edge (think Pi, and Requiem for a Dream).

We stand at the brink of another media take-over, that of the Blu-ray disc, one I’ll certainly write about in the future, but my mind has been turned to the past. While the average cinema-goer may have the same level as intelligence as one twenty or thirty years ago, they are certainly more sophisticated in terms of understanding the inner-workings of film, and more immune to certain visceral tricks. We’ve gotten more savvy, certainly, but have we gotten any wiser?

What does this mean to the future of movies? What does the ability to watch and re-watch a favorite film on DVD and pour over extra content pertaining to its making and interpretation mean for the future of cinema? I myself have a small library of DVDs that I keep rather obsessively, weeding out films I deem not worthy of my or my families time and treasuring films of worth and value. But sometimes, I wonder if it ultimately hurts my understanding and appreciation of the medium itself. I had a professor of comparative literature and film in college who rarely saw a film more than once. Yet he had a distinct and profound ability to remember their most important and deep moments. I envy his knowledge, observation and wisdom and wonder what the size of his DVD collection is…

----Cameron White
Zia Eastern-Las Vegas

I just got my ass kicked by King Khan

Yep it’s true my ass is grass and King Khan and the Shrines are the Lawnmower.

Do you like the Mc5, Detroit Cobras and James Brown? WELL I DO!!! And now I can channel all 3 of them in one cd…Ladies and Gentlemen I give you a testimonial…The Supreme Genius of King Khan and the Shrines!

This is how it happened, this is how I came to worship at the Shrine…I’m driving to Vegas listing to random music ( I use these precious no cell phone coverage areas to get caught up on bands I’ve been meaning to listen to) and I reach down and decide to finally listen to the King. But it’s more complicated than that…first I see the album cover; it’s like some strange vintage movie lobby card from the early seventies. Band members (presumably) are drawn/painted to resemble would-be's from various Zombie/ blacksploitation films, needless to say…

I’m intrigued. And to give this blog the true vibe it needs I HAVE to listen to the cd while I write. Let’s see how much this Dell can rock?

In goes the cd...and up goes the heart rate. Time to put up my dukes and go a few more rounds with the King! This band is infectious. The grooves are total classics, driving bass lines, ripping guitars and King Khan, right in your face! I swear to god this guy can channel Rob Tyner. 4 songs out of the box before you can even catch your breath. Then we get the softer side of King Khan and you just say to yourself …”self, I wish this band had played my prom instead of that trance inducing DJ who sucked”…man, I NEED to dance, maybe I should call housekeeping?

The truth is I can’t understand a word this dude is saying but I don’t care, I believe them. I believe the screams I believe the pain, i believe the love, I believe it all. God, this laptop needs be louder!

I’m feeling like the characters in that movie “Pump up the Volume” I just got to freak out while I listen to this! I need to shack my arms and jump around this hotel room. I’m trying like hell to blow these crappy ass laptop speaker’s, King Khan seems to DEMAND MORE VOLUME! This music is speaking to me, I’m hitting the keys harder when I type just to make my points stronger, do you feel it? I sure am.

I love this...i’m gonna jump on the hotel bed now until it ain’t fun no more.

---faber

The Local Compilation CD Strikes Back!

One from the Boss…

One of the best things we’ve done at Zia this year was bring back the local Music compilation albums concept that was such an alluring and intriguing aspect of my early shopping experiences. I confess…just like most of our employees, I was in a band. And as a young man in a band of young men in the heyday of the Tempe Music Scene, the things that you strived for were getting a gig at Long Wong’s and landing a track on one of Zia’s local Music comps. Back then they were all produced on cassette and would appear almost randomly (or magically to a Zia junkie like me). I don’t remember exactly how many were done over the years ( 6ish?) but I still have several of those cassette tapes in the bottom drawer of my dresser, right next to our first demo tape (lovingly dubbed by us, the green machine).

So when the first Record Store Day was conceived and actually happened last April, it was with great fun and pleasure we unveiled a very hastily and true to the spirit Zia comp circa 2008. We named this new group of comp Cds “you heard us back when….” The whole concept is rooted in giving local bands a chance to get in front of new people that just might become their fans of tomorrow and to show people what an eclectic playground the local music scene is today. The first cd was sold for just $1.99 (any profits go to charity on these) and had 21 songs from local bands in Vegas (we have 2 stores there now!) Tucson and of course right here in the Phx area. Styles ranged from 70’s style power pop and Rockabilly to Vintage Metal and rootsy Americana singer song writers. Zia even has its own Superhero now as a result of that first comp cd…but that’s another blog.

(side note..they really shouldn't let me do this I’m too long winded)


Several of the bands on the first comp Cd have released full length cds since Record Store Day and we really wanted to show a sampling of these excellent records in our stores, so for the month of August we dedicated an entire listening station in all of our stores with hopes of getting people to sample these talented musicians. So get yourself into your ZIA and check them out!

And finally… here’s where we are today…”you heard us when vol. 2” is being put together now! There are just a couple of weeks left to get submissions in for this version. The new CD should hit stores in October.

And I can’t wait.


---faber