Cloves and Fedoras: Listen and Enjoy Wolfie's Just Fine Debut Album "I Remember But Then I Forgot"

Last week the band Wolfie's Just Fine released their debut album, "I Remembered But Then I Forgot", and it is really good. Now, for those of you that haven't heard of Wolfie's Just Fine, I bet most of you know their lead singer and guitar player, Jon Lajoie.

Lajoie is a comedian and actor from Canada. He has had small parts in movies and TV shows, but he is best known for playing the role of Taco on "The League". He and Rafi(Jason Mantzoukas) were my personal favorite characters on the show. Taco was the younger, stoner brother of Kevin(Steve Ranizzissi). He was always broke, but coming up with new business ventures. Anytime Lajoie was on, it was bound to be hilarious. He also has released solo, comedy music records under his own name. I own these albums as well. I bought them after I heard him sing on "The League". I thought the stuff he did on the show was funny, and the albums are just the same. It's goofy music. He sings folk, rock, pop and rap songs, but they are all very vulgar and very hilarious. He has some great songs on his first couple of solo records. Some of my favorites are "Stay At Home Dad", a Rage Against the Machineesque rock song about changing diapers, feeding his baby and making dinner for the family. He also has a folksy tune about the horrifying "2 Girls One Cup" video, where he almost makes it a love song. It's disgusting and terrifying and awful, but damn it's catchy. He has a fake, almost comically bad rap song called "Show Me Your Genitals", that is exactly what you think it's about. The way Lajoie raps the song is great and very funny. Basically, all his early music and his YouTube channel is based on comedy. He doesn't take himself too seriously, and I like that.

About a month ago, I had heard rumors that he was going to make a "real" album. No jokes, very little swear words and have a real, straight up folk band backing him up. I was intrigued. This wasn't the same feeling I experienced with Donald Glover when I found out he was a rapper who went by Childish Gambino. I thought he would be jokey, but he is a straight up rapper, and he is very good. The feeling I had when hearing that Lajoie was going to put out a real folk album was gloom. I didn't know if it would work. His comedy stuff is so funny and plays to his persona so well, I didn't want him to stray from that.

Then, about 2 or 3 weeks ago, Lajoie released the first single from Wolfie's Just Fine, "It's a Job", and I listened with caution. Instead of the gloom I initially felt, I immediately loved the song. His voice was a perfect fit for this style and genre of music. The backing band was great, never playing too loudly or too softly, they hit the sweet spot. I don't know why I had the gloom feeling at first, because a lot of his comedy music is folk based. So, instead of being dirty or gross, he just wrote and sang regular old folk songs and the single is awesome.

The album came out last Friday and I bought it that day. I have listened to the album three full times now, and it gets better and better to me every time. I love Lajoie's voice on every song. I love the band on every song. I love the lyrics and I love the music. I genuinely love this entire album. It's all folk, but the band does both slow and upbeat folk songs. It's really good guys.

Besides, "It's a Job", there are some other great songs like "I Forgot", "Todd and Janelle", "Never Me", "Marie-Eve" and "Running From My Savior". "I Forgot" is one of the slower folk songs, with a great guitar riff and great lyrics. The song slow burns and the riff running through the whole song is wonderful. It's a beautifully slow, throw back folk song. "Todd and Janelle" is a great, faster love song about two people that don't seem to really like each other. It's the only song with swear words on it, but it's not to shock, it's needed to explain the relationship between the two title characters. The music is faster, with a great drum groove. I didn't like the song at first, but on the third listen, I was on board and it's one of my favorite tunes on the whole record. "Never Me" has a great piano groove and awesome vocals from Lajoie. The song is very Billy Joel esque, but in a good way. I don't care for Joel personally, but I do enjoy his faster piano music and this is Lajoie's best interpretation of a good Billy Joel song. It's one of the more fun songs on the record. "Marie-Eve" is a wonderful love song. It's all the best things about old school folk stuffed into one 3 minute song. This song could have easily been written and sung by a young Bob Dylan. I wouldn't have been surprised had it been on the soundtrack for "Inside Llewyn Davis" had it been released at the time. I love this song. It's probably my favorite song on the whole record. The closer, "Running From My Savior" is so good and kind of boastful. It's a very good mix of rock and folk, definitely leaning more folk, and it finds Lajoie calling himself a God at the end of the song and during the chorus. I like that he can still be boastful, even when making a legit album. It also doesn't hurt that the song is very well written and very well played by the band.

I love this whole album, obviously. I hope Lajoie continues to do both styles of music. I still really enjoy his comedy music, but I really, really like this new direction he has taken. As I've written many times before, it's nice when musicians and singers take chances, and this is a huge risk taken by Lajoie, that totally pays off. I hope this album gets Lajoie noticed and recognized more in the music business. He's a well known actor by now, but he needs to be more well known as a musician.

Remember when listening to Wolfie's Just Fine, if you are already a Lajoie fan, it is not comedy, it is legit music. Don't expect jokes. But, I think if you are a true fan of his, you will really enjoy this album and really like this direction he is moving in. I love the band and I love the album. Go check it out if you are already a fan of Lajoie's, but also check it out if you are a fan of folk music. It's worth a listen, and I think all fans will really like it. I know that I do.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is getting more and more interested in the world of comedy - music fusion. His most anticipated film of 2016 fits this bill. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Michigan's Satellite Camp Upset the Wrong Group of Crybabies

The look the NCAA gave to Jim Harbaugh

As was expected, last Friday the stupid NCAA, and their equally stupid president, Mark Emmert, deemed the satellite camps that Jim Harbaugh was running illegal. They didn't really give a quality reason, but at this point, why would we expect a good answer from the corrupt NCAA. All they and Emmert had to was get some big named SEC, ACC and other Big Ten, high profile coaches, to complain that this was "unfair". They didn't think of it, so it had to be unfair, right? The NCAA's rule book is so thick and filled with some of the dumbest, most inexplicable rules, these satellite camps had to be illegal? Wrong to both of those questions.

There was no rule saying that coaches couldn't hold camps like this over spring break. If the players wanted to give up their free time and the coaches wanted to give up their free time, they were allowed to do that. It lasted for two years. After this second one was completed, these big name coaches came out and started to complain. Guys like Will Muschamp thought it was unfair. Gus Malzahn chimed in with his two cents. Even Big Ten colleagues, like the two biggest douchebags in the conference, Urban Meyer and Mark Dantonio, first complained, then decided that they wanted to bring their players to a camp like this. So, they didn't like it at first, but when they found that they could recruit in the South, in the offseason, they wanted to come aboard. What a bunch of lemmings.

None of these coaches voices mattered. It wasn't until early last week when Satan himself, Nick Saban, came out and said he thought that theses camps were illegal and unfair. As soon as I read that Saban was upset with what Harbaugh was doing, I knew these satellite camps had little to no time left. That was all the NCAA and Mark Emmert needed to hear. The NCAA and Emmert do not want to upset the "mighty" SEC and the "mighty" Nick Saban and their partner in crime, ESPN. These three were the loudest, biggest whiners and dissenters when talking about these camps. Mike Wilbon would openly berate Jim Harbaugh on "PTI" for, "taking these kids away from their families to work on Spring Break". I would always think to myself, had Pat Fitzgerald come up with this idea, he would never be this clever or innovative because he is an idiot, Wilbon would love this idea. But, since it came from a coach at Michigan, he was opposed. Speaking to Nick Saban complaining about this, he is just jealous that he didn't think of it first. He would have abused this to no end, had he set up satellite camps in the Midwest and the North, to recruit and make his team even better. And, the NCAA would have praised him for doing it. He would have done it year round as well. Harbaugh only did it for one week of the spring. Saban would be doing right now, had he thought of it first.

Yes, I'm a Michigan fan, we all know this by now, but I truly believe that what Harbaugh has done, in less than 2 years, has the "mighty" Nick Saban worried. Saban is a great college coach, but he has never really been challenged by anyone at the college level. People usually cower in fear of him. He is a bully to his players, his staff and sports writers, but they never challenge him. But, Harbaugh is openly going after him now, specifically setting these camps up in his territory and I think that has scared him. That's why he came out and condemned the camps. This is the first time since he rejoined the college ranks that he has been challenged by another coach and he is scared. He knew that if he ran to the NCAA and Emmert and complained, they would bow to his request. That is the move of a coward. The SEC is filled with cowards that are terrified of being challenged by an outsider. That is why guys like Muschamp and Malzone complained too. They are scared, especially Muschamp after what the Wolverines did to his "vaunted" defense in the Citrus Bowl this year. Then, to have coaches in your own conference complain, I mean, what a dick move.

I expected this from Urban Meyer because he only knows how to cheat the system. He illegally recruits and passes players with poor grades and lets players with multiple arrests continue to play with no repercussions. He is a world class cheater, so naturally he'd be upset that Harbaugh found a perfectly legal way to recruit in the South, in the offseason. But Dantonio complaining, that is straight up sour grapes. He is as bad a curmudgeon as Saban, but not nearly as good a coach and doesn't hold the levity that Saban has with the NCAA. He is a whiner and complainer and thinks he is way better than he truly is. He has gotten very lucky the past couple of seasons, and looked what happened when his team got in the playoff last year. I believe they got beat 1,000-0. He is not an upper echelon coach, no matter what he thinks and may say. He missed his best, and probably only chance, to win a title last year.

What it all boils down to, the NCAA and Mark Emmert are spineless and they couldn't care less about what these student athletes, whom they make millions upon millions of dollars on, choose to do with their free time. The NCAA wants to now control how these kids spend their free time. This is one of the biggest crocks in the decision making history of the corrupt NCAA. Why would they care about these kids all of the sudden? That was the reasoning, that these kids needed to have some free time away from their sport, but when do they ever really have free time? I've known people that play college sports, and no matter what level of competition, be it division 1 or division 3, they all let me know that it was a full time, year round job. They were either in the weight room, the film room, study hall or had a meeting with their coaches all school year and during the summer. I knew people that lived in the town where they played collegiately in the summer because that's what the coaches wanted them to do. So, no this has nothing to do with the NCAA suddenly worrying about these kids free time or their spring break, they weren't making any money off of the camps and the "almighty" Nick Saban was unhappy with the camps.

The NCAA, the SEC, Urban Meyer, Mark Dantonio and, most importantly, Mark Emmert are so gutless and so jealous and just out right ridiculous in deeming these camps illegal. Decisions like this are why people HATE the NCAA and why we all think the NCAA is corrupt. If they can't make money off of something, they will deem illegal and that is the biggest problem. Yes, I'm pissed that Harbaugh found a legal loophole to recruit the best players to come and play at Michigan, but I'm more pissed at the NCAA for giving in to some whiny, bratty coaches that were jealous that they didn't think of it first.

What a crock.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is angry that he has to be angry about college football in the spring. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty's MLB Season Preview

Here comes Ty to the plate

RD did the heavy lifting for me this week, previewing the already started MLB season. This is his territory when it comes to sports. He knows and he loves baseball more than anyone that I know. Me, I know and love baseball too, but I don't particularly care to start really paying attention until the playoffs. The season is way, way too long for one. Each team plays 162 regular season games. That's insane. I feel like the NBA has way too many regular season games and they only play 82. Almost half of what MLB plays. The season lasts almost 7 months. Ridiculous. So yeah, this early, I don't watch too closely. NBA playoffs are right around the corner and the summer time is when I catch up on some TV and movies I may have missed during the fall and winter. But, I still know enough about baseball to give my take as to how I see the season and the playoffs playing out. My preview won't be as in depth, but I wanted to let you all know how I thought the season would play out and who will win the World Series.

Let's go.

Instead of going division by division, I just want to pick who I think will win and why. First off, I'll do the American League. Before I get this all started, I think the AL is in a slight decline right now. Yeah, the Royals won last year, but they played the Mets and the Mets played out of their minds down the stretch. The AL reminds me a lot of the Eastern Conference in the NBA. So, I think the Toronto Blue Jays will win the AL East. They are one of, if not the, best teams in baseball. Yeah, they lost David Price, but he was not good in the playoffs and I don't think him not being on the team will matter all that much. They still have a good staff and a great lineup. They will hit a lot of home runs and they will shut a lot of teams down on defense. I love the Blue Jays and I love the way they play. Kansas City will win the AL Central, but it will be close. I think Cleveland, not Detroit, will be the biggest threat. This division is pretty good when you look at it. The Royals are the defending champs, the Tigers have Miguel Cabrera and a decent pitching staff, Cleveland has a great small ball lineup and Corey Kluber, who may be the best pitcher in baseball that no one knows and Minnesota and the White Sox both have decent, young players. The Royals will win the division because they have the experience and they have the best pitching staff and the best lineup. They are becoming great again and I enjoy when small market teams beat up on the big market teams. The AL West, on the other hand, is pretty terrible with 2 exceptions, the Astros and the Rangers. The Rangers have the lineup, but the Astros also have a good lineup and they have a much better pitching staff, led by reigning Cy Young winner, Dallas Kuechel. The Angels are getting older and not better. I feel bad for Mike Trout, because he is great, but that team has overpaid for aging stars for much too long and it's crippled the future of the team. The A's are just bad. And every year the Mariners are supposed to turn it around, but they never do. I do like the Rangers in this division. I know the Astros have a better pitching staff, but the Rangers will hit a lot of home runs and it is dreadful to play there in the summer time. They may be the only team in pro baseball with a true home field advantage and that will help them win the division title. So, that leaves me with two wild cards. I'm going to pick Cleveland and Houston. I really like both those teams. For the ALCS, I think it will be Houston and Toronto, and I think Toronto will go to the AL pennant, with relative ease. This, RD and I agree on.

One different thing I want to do is pick a team that will be a "bust" in each league. My "bust" for the AL is the Boston Red Sox. Sure, they got David Price, but what else do they have anywhere on the field or in the pitching staff? Not too much. Hanley Ramirez is a mess. Pablo Sandoval got beat out by some random dude, and then there is really nothing else to brag about. The Red Sox are not as good as some will lead you to believe. Don't let the Price signing fool you.

In the National League, we will start with the East. The NL East is about as bad as the AL West. There is only two decent teams and they are the Washington Nationals and the New York Mets. Sure, the Mets are the reigning NLCS champs, but they got very hot and very lucky at the exact right time last year. That won't happen again. They have a great staff and they will finish above .500, but the Nationals are going to walk with this division. They are constant underachievers, but Bryce Harper will not let this team take a tumble again. They also have a great pitching staff and a pretty decent lineup around Harper. They finally, and mercifully, fired Matt Williams and made a great hire with Dusty Baker. They will win the division and may win 100 plus games. There is no need to even mention the 3 other teams in this division because they are terrible. The NL Central will be highly competitive once again. It's a three team race with the Cubs, the Pirates and the Cardinals. The Reds and the Brewers are both going through rebuilds and they won't be a factor. What has been a division owned by the Cardinals lately, will change this year. The Cardinals lost a lot from last years team and they didn't so much in free agency. Oh, they got older too. This will most likely be a step back year for them. By step back year, I think they will only win 86 or 87 games. But, the Pirates and the Cubs will be legit. The Pirates have a very good pitching staff and a great lineup, led by one of my favorite and one of the best, and most underrated superstars in Andrew McCutcheon. He's awesome and the Pirates are really good. But, the Cubs are definitely on the rise. I hate to admit this, because I'm a lifelong Cardinals fan, but the Cubs crushed us in the playoffs last year, and they only got much, much better this offseason. They locked up Rizzo and Bryant. They signed Jon Lester last year. They lured Jason Heyward away from the Cardinals to only boost their already potent outfield. And they signed a bunch of other great role players. This could be the year that the Cubs finally break the curse. They are, on paper, the best team in baseball right now, and it's not really that close. They will win the Central and they will win more than 100 games doing it. I don't want to hear whiny Cubs fans trying to tamper expectations either. You guys are the best team and you better damn well prove that. No more excuses for them. It's an even year, so the San Francisco Giants should easily win the NL West, right? Well, I think they will win, but the Diamondbacks and the Dodgers, and maybe even the Padres, will give them a run for their money. Yes, the Giants signed two big time free agent pitchers, but the Diamondbacks got Zack Greinke and they still have Paul Goldschimdt. The Dodgers did lose Greinke, but they still have Clayton Kershaw, and he's a great regular season pitcher. The Dodgers also have a very good lineup, but they are starting to become the NL's version of the Angels. Lots of big names, but nothing to show for it. The Padres have a very decent lineup, but their pitching leaves a lot to be desired. I still think they will be, at least, a .500 team. The Diamondbacks will be the Giants main competition, but they are still a pitcher and an offensive weapon away from truly competing. I really love their signing of Greinke though. The Giants will win the West, but look out for the Diamondbacks in a year or two. So, that leaves us with the NL wildcards. This time around, the Central will only send two teams to the playoffs because I think the Pirates and the Mets will win the two remaining spots. That's right, no St. Louis and no Dodgers. They're both old, but they will both reload and be back on top soon enough. I think the NLCS will be the Cubs and the Nationals. I think this is a very interesting matchup because the Cubs are, right now, where the Nationals were two years ago. The Cubs are the new darlings and almost everyone is picking them. I'm no exception and I think the Cubs will pull it out in seven games and play the Blue Jays in the World Series.

Now, if the Cubs don't win the World Series this year, when will they? They have the best team in baseball, I cannot stress that enough. They should easily beat the Blue Jays in the World Series. As much as I hate to write it, the Cubs should, and will, win the World Series this year. They will break the curse and they will make me not watch "Sportscenter" and fast forward through a ton of "PTI" segments for the next couple of years. The Cubs will win and the sports media will be insufferable in their non stop coverage. It will be so much worse than when the Red Sox won in 2004.

My "bust" from the NL is the Cardinals. They are always good, but they will take a step back. They do have a very good pitching staff, but it's older and Adam Wainwright is coming off a torn ACL. Their lineup will not strike fear in any opponent either. They have no heavy hitters and they have players that get behind in the count way too often, I'm looking at you Matt Carpenter. Stop taking so many pitches and getting behind so early in the count. It's frustrating to watch. The Cardinals will step back and not be as good as they have been the past decade plus. It's due.

As I do with all my other previews, I will also give award predictions. The AL Cy Young will, once again, go to Kuechel. He is a beast. The MVP will be someone from the Royals, probably either Mike Moustakas or Lorenzo Cain. The manager of the year will be Terry Francona. In the NL, the Cy Young will go to Zack Greinke, the MVP, in a surprise to some, Paul Goldschmidt and the manager of the year has to be Joe Maddon.

So, there's my take on the baseball season. Sit back, because there is still a long time to go and I know RD will have something to say about my pick to win the World Series.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. The head editor is not currently speaking to Ty. The Cubs? Really? Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Jerry Sloan is One of the All Time Greatest NBA Coaches

With the news yesterday that former player and coach, Jerry Sloan, is now suffering from Parkinson's disease and early on set dementia, I found myself profoundly upset. I didn't expect this reaction to come from me. When he was coaching the Utah Jazz in the early to mid nineties, I disliked everything about that team. The Jazz were the only team that I disliked more than the Bulls back then.

To give you a point of reference as to where I was in my life at that time, I was a middle school aged child that was a Seattle Supersonics fan. So, naturally, I really, for lack of a better word, hated the Jazz because the Sonics couldn't beat them and I hated the Bulls because, when the Sonics finally beat the Jazz, they ran into the vaunted Bulls teams of the mid nineties. The Jazz and the Bulls exemplified two great, but two very irritating teams to a younger me. In fact, looking back at that time in my life, I think I disliked the Jazz even more than the Bulls.

The Jazz were led by Karl Malone and John Stockton. These two were world class butt heads in my opinion. I still believe that Stockton is the dirtiest player of all time in the NBA and Malone was so arrogant, it drove me nuts. They were coached by Jerry Sloan. As a young kid, he was the leader of this horrible dictatorship that they had going on in Utah. He put those guys out there and he coached them to play dirty, in my opinion at that time. Now, this blog isn't just to bust on the Jazz, but all this is needed to get to the main point. I'm not here to rip apart a guy that is very ill. I promise, I'll get to the good stuff soon, but this preamble is very necessary.

As I keep saying, I did not like this team or their coach when I was a child. I guess a better way to put it would be, I didn't appreciate or understand the game of basketball back then as much as I do now. Looking back at it now, the coaching and the ability to get the best out of the players you have on your roster was done masterfully by Jerry Sloan. Look, all of us, when we were pre teens, hated these teams that our team couldn't beat. We didn't understand the nuance and the spectacular coaching it took to get players that weren't as athletic or as gifted to play better and to game plan better. That all goes back to coaching.

I still, in my 30's, don't care for John Stockton or Karl Malone, but, damn, do I respect the hell out of Jerry Sloan. This didn't just come up yesterday when the news was announced, I've been on the Jerry Sloan bandwagon ever since he led a Jazz team led by Deron Williams to multiple payoff appearances. Those teams, in the early 2000's, had no business even being relevant, but, once again, Jerry Sloan got the best out of a mostly mediocre roster. I mean, look at what happened to Deron Williams when he left the Jazz for a max contract in New Jersey, his career imploded. I feel like a lot of that has to do with coaching. Williams left a great coach to get paid and to play for an inferior coach.

A couple of years after Williams left, Sloan retired. When he retired, much like I felt yesterday, I was stunned and a bit upset. I was sad that an all time great coach was leaving the NBA. There were, and still are, so few great coaches left and when Sloan retired, there was one less great coach. As I started to gain more knowledge of the game and the wit and will it takes to be a coach, that's when I earned respect for Sloan. Granted, this all came after he retired, but looking back, he was a great motivator and a great coach. To will teams with guys like Byron Russell, Jeff Hornacek, Tom Chambers and Mark Eaton to 50 plus win seasons and two finals appearances is incredible. Sure, he had two hall of famers in Stockton and Malone, but basketball is a 5 player team sport and no matter if you have two hall of famers, you have to get the other three starters and the bench players to be equally invested and Sloan excelled at that. He drew up some of the greatest pick and roll plays when he had Stockton and Malone. Those plays were deadly. Teams knew they were coming, but they still couldn't stop it because it was so well run and drawn up. Coaches still use his pick and roll philosophy today. It has lasted decades.

Jerry Sloan's best teams were the Stockton and Malone teams, but as I said before, he also led teams with players like the aforementioned Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer and Andrei Kirilenko to 50 win seasons and multiple playoff appearances. They still ran the pick and roll, with Williams and Boozer, and while it may not have been as devastating, it still worked. It was a thing of beauty to watch when the Jazz would run their pick and roll. Go back and watch some footage of the play, it's wonderful. He continued to coach all the way until 2011 and he was still as fiery and competitive as he was when he was a player and very early in his coaching career. That's another thing that I respected later on about Sloan. He was so competitive and fiery, he would run up and down the court and constantly argue with the officials to stick up for his players. He'd get so fired up at times, it looked like he wanted to be on the court. I didn't like it as a child, but I love it as an adult. So, when he left in 2011, I was shocked, as I said earlier, and he left to little fanfare. He just resigned and was gone. Rumors would pop up occasionally that he may come back and coach again, but they never materialized. I feel like that's a good thing. He did such a good job and stuck with one team his whole career. I like that he left and didn't try to get back in the game, a la Phil Jackson and his current deconstruction of the Knicks.

This news yesterday though, it stinks. Sloan is an all time great, a hall of famer, and now he is suffering from not one, but two horrible, life threatening diseases. I've seen, first hand, what dementia can do to someone and it's not pretty. To throw Parkinson's on top of that, that is a bummer. I hate that an all time great like Sloan has to suffer like this. His body and his mind will soon deteriorate and he won't remember his great career, but fans of the NBA will always remember how great he was. Sloan is a once in a lifetime coach. He was Gregg Poppovich before Gregg Poppovich. He was the surly genius that all other coaches feared. I hope Sloan can somehow get better and live some sort of a normal life, but I just don't see that happening. It's unfortunate. I don't want to lose another NBA legend. We've already lost Daryl Dawkins and Moses Malone, please don't take another NBA legend from us way too soon.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Follow him on twitter @tykulik.

The Greatest American Band Debate: We Miss Deadboy and the Elephantmen and also Ben Kweller

Instead of singling out one band for the greatest American band debate today, I want to talk about one band and one musician, that I'm a huge fan of both, that just kind of disappeared in the last five or six years. I was very high on both when they released new records, but one day, they both just vanished. I still listen to them in my car, but there has been no new music, at least to the best of my knowledge, from these two in a long time. This won't be like one of my previous blogs when I talked about bands I used to like, like Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals and the White Stripes, who I don't care for anymore. And it will not be like another blog when I wrote about bands on the cusp of greatness, like Alabama Shakes and Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears. These two each had potential, but they just up and vanished and I have been craving new music from each of them, but I don't know that it will ever happen again.

First, I'm going to address the band. The band that I'm talking about is Deadboy and the Elephantmen. This band was, and is still, great. This was a two piece band, consisting of guitar and drums. They came out in the early to mid 2000's and really used the two piece phenomenon to their advantage. The White Stripes and the Black Keys both started to gain notoriety in the mid 2000's , and a lot of 2 piece bands starting showing up. I listened to most of them, but besides the Black Keys, Deadboy and the Elephantmen really stuck with me. I really enjoyed their sound. It was one guy and one girl. They did the White Stripes thing, the guy playing guitar and being the lead singer and the girl on drums. They did branch out a bit, letting the lady do lead vocals on some songs. They sounded awesome together.

You may be reading this and saying that you have never heard of this band, but I know that you know at least one of their songs. The song that introduced me to this bad was called "Stop, I'm Already Dead". This song was played a ton, and it is still being played. In fact, it's the opening theme song to the show "I Zombie". It was a great, hard rocking song. They sounded a bit like early Black Keys, so I was on board. I loved the single, and I bought the whole album almost immediately. The rest of the record is fantastic. They play mostly rock songs, but there is also some slower, ballady type stuff on the record. I was really intrigued by their sound and I thought that they could take it in all kinds of different directions. I listened to the record on repeat for a long time. I figured they'd be coming out with new stuff soon because their debut album was awesome.

Eight or nine years later, and there is nothing. I don't know if I missed new material or if they just stopped after one record. I really liked this band a lot and I was hoping for a lot of records from them over the next decade. That unfortunately hasn't happened and I don't know what happened to them. I love and miss Deadboy and the Elephantmen. I truly expected great things from them, but I guess I will have to settle for their one record. At least it is a very good, very solid album.

The next person was one of my favorites. He's a solo artist and he is extremely talented. There were rumors that he'd play every instrument on the recordings of his records. His concert is one that RD and I have mentioned on the podcast a couple of times. That artist is Ben Kweller.

Straight out of high school, I loved Ben Kweller. I saw the video for "Wasted and Ready", and I was enamored. Kweller perfectly blended the lines of rock, pop, and even threw some punk in there for good measure. He also knew how to write a beautiful, acoustic love song. This dude was awesome. His first album, "Sha Sha", is about 35 minutes of some of the best rock/pop music that has ever been released. Every song on the record is awesome. The aforementioned "Wasted and Ready", "How it Should Be", "Family Tree" and "Lizzy" are all great and they are all mixed genres. This album was crucial listening in my town house for me and my roommates, one of which was RD. I was hooked on Ben Kweller after this. Just two years later, he released "On My Way". It wasn't as good as "Sha Sha", but I still loved it. This record was more love songs and more ballads, but, as I just said, it was great. I listened to it, and learned a lot of it on guitar, in about 2 weeks. Kweller was still big in my life as an early 20 year old. I anxiously awaited his next album, and two more years later, he released his self titled album. This was good, but it was a bit of a letdown for me personally. There wasn't much growth. He was really honing in on the pop/rock, and I had heard the same thing for two straight records. I still listened to the album, but I wanted something different from Kweller.

With his next album, I got exactly what I wanted. A lot of people aren't huge fans of "Changing Horses", but I think it is wonderful. I wanted different and "Changing Horses" is just that. This record is pure folk. Kweller wrote and plays everything on this album. He can write one hell of a folk song and he is masterful on slide guitar. I loved this departure from the norm. It was a breath of fresh air. He showed me, and his fans, that he could do something different. He didn't just have to write pop songs, he could really branch out. I think this record is a classic, but a lot of his fans will disagree.

I was hoping Kweller would take more chances. But in 2012, he released "Go Fly A Kite", and it was back to his pop roots. It's still good, but after the masterful "Changing Horses", I couldn't help but feel let down. The best thing about "Go Fly A Kite" was the fact that he released the tablature for the whole album. This made it even easier to learn his songs from this album on guitar. But, since then, Kweller has not released any music. It's been four years now, and I don't know if he quit making music, if he got bored of making music, or if he just wanted to focus on being a dad and husband, but I miss his music. I still have all his albums, but "Changing Horses" and "Sha Sha" are the two I listen to the most. Hopefully, he will return to making music, but you never know, and four years is a long layoff for someone that is not that famous.

I loved, and still love both Ben Kweller and Deadboy and the Elephantmen, I just wish they kept making more music. They were both unique and interesting in their own ways and I could only imagine how much better and more experimental they could have gotten, had they continued to make music. I miss you guys and I hope you reunite, Deadboy and the Elephantmen, and I hope you get the urge to write and record more, Ben Kweller, because the music business and the fans miss you.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Did you know Ty likes guitar music? He even has a favorite kind of guitar. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Villanova and UNC Represent how Great College Basketball can Be

Time to clean out the gym and wait till next year

What a great ending to what has been a very uneven men's college basketball season last night. That game was absolutely incredible. It was close all the way through. Both of the teams belonged in the title game. The older players were the ones who came through biggest in the end. The coaches traded jabs like prize fighters. The players traded jabs as well too. I was enamored with how well this game was played last night. I couldn't take my eyes off the screen, especially the last minute of the game. It was incredible.

Sure, there were mistakes made by each team, but watch any NBA game and you will see some mistakes and lapses of judgement. Basketball is a fun, but can be frustrating game at times, and even the pros make mistakes. The mistakes made in the title game were non factors in the final outcome. Even the refs, some Carolina fans might not agree with me, stayed out of the way and let the players play last night.

I have been very hard on men's college basketball, but this game hearkened back to the good old days of NCAA title games. First of all, we had two traditional power house programs playing for the title. I do like some of the smaller, non power 5 teams, like Gonzaga and Butler, but I'd much rather watch traditional teams play for the championship. We got North Carolina, who besides Kentucky, may be the most prestigious men's college basketball team, and Villanova who was once upon a time a Big East powerhouse, when the Big East still mattered, and it was tremendous. It was the highest level of college basketball you could get. Each team was senior, or at least upperclassmen, laden. There were some sophomores and freshman, but it was the upperclassmen who were the important players. Guys like Marcus Paige, Brice Johnson, Kennedy Meeks, Ryan Arcidianoco, Daniel Ochefu, Josh Hart and, the hero, Kris Jenkins, all played huge roles and they are all either juniors or seniors. They clearly knew how to play basketball with one another and it showed. This game was so much better than last years freshman laden Duke team versus the slower, plodding Wisconsin team. Sure, Wisconsin had seniors, but they were slow and methodical, in the worst possible way. Duke was good, but I didn't care about that game like I cared about this game. I had no skin in this game either. Last year, I rooted against Duke, this year, I just wanted a good game. I'm not a fan or a hater of either UNC or Villanova, like I said, I just wanted a good game and boy did I get exactly that.

This game was great from the tip. Both teams shot lights out in the first half. Every time UNC would make a shot, Villanova countered with a shot of their own. Carolina would hit a three, Villanova would come down and either, make a three themselves or hit a layup and get a turnover on defense and score quickly again. UNC looked as if they would pull away late in the first half though. They hit three straight threes and built their lead to 7 points with about a minute left in the half, but Villanova, as they've done all tournament, kept their composure, got a late steal on defense, converted that into a jump shot and cut the lead to 5 going into the locker room. Although they were down five, they seemed to have stolen momentum and they looked confident going in down 5. I figured UNC would start to flex their muscles in the second half and feed their big men, but they missed a ton of mismatches, and the guards started shooting three after three, but they went ice cold. Villanova just kept chipping away at the lead until they tied it at 46 with about 8 minutes left. From then on out, Villanova seemed to take control of the game. UNC's poor shooting continued and Villanova built their lead to as much as 10 with about 4 minutes left. I thought they were going to put it away, but UNC actually started driving the lane and their big men started to get easy buckets. They cut it to 4 with about 2 minutes left and this is when the game got really good. Scratch that, this is when the game became a classic. Villanova, who has great free throw shooters, missed some crucial free throws and UNC got it down to two. Villanova then made 1 of 2 free throws and UNC gathered the rebound and called a timeout, down three with 13 seconds left. I assumed that they were done. They hadn't been shooting well anywhere on the floor in the second half and I just figured their time was up. It looked that way with about 8 seconds left when Ochefu dove to steal a pass to Marcus Paige. Ochefu missed the steal and Paige lifted to shoot, but Arcidianoco ran out to defend, causing Paige to adjust his shot. No way it was going in I figured. No way Paige was going to make a double clutch, long three point attempt to tie the game. But, I'll be damned if he didn't hit anything but the bottom of the net. He made that shot look easy. The UNC bench and crowd was going nuts, figuring they pushed this game into overtime. Instead of folding, like a lot of teams would have, Villanova had one timeout left and drew up one of the great plays in tournament history. I also remember looking at my TV screen and seeing that 4.7 seconds were left. I said, out loud to myself, "that's a lot of time, they can get a good shot". Then, they ran this wonderful, classic play. The ball was passed in to Arcidianoco, he sped up the court drew two defenders, passed to a wide open Kris Jenkins and he released the ball. Looking at it, in real time, I thought that it looked decent, but it may pull a bit to the right. Well, as we all know this morning, the shot went in, the confetti fell, the Villanova players rushed the court and the title game was over, just like that. It was incredible.

Like I said, I had no skin in this game, but I jumped out of my couch and proclaimed, "I can't believe that went in! What a game!". I was so fired up, I had to calm down before going to bed last night. This was an incredibly well played and extremely exciting basketball game. This was the most perfect ending the NCAA could have hoped for after how bad the men's game has become in the "one and done " era. I know it's heartbreaking to be a UNC fan this morning, but you have to admit, this was a great, all time classic game. I know heartache when it comes to sports too. I'm a Michigan Wolverines fan and you have to look no further than this past seasons botched punt against MSU, so I do know what I'm talking about when it comes to brutal losses. It sucks now UNC fans, but it will get better. You have an all time great basketball program. The feeling should be the polar opposite if you are a Villanova fan. You should be ecstatic. You should be on cloud nine. You should be thankful to whomever or whatever you believe because your team is the national champions. You guys are the best team in men's college basketball and you won in spectacular fashion. You should, and I know you are, elated, and you will be until next season starts. Villanova is on top of the world right now.

I enjoyed every single second of this basketball game last night. The two best teams were there and they delivered. I'm sorry that I was tough on both of these teams entering this tournament. They both proved me wrong. This was classic and I'm so glad I got to see it in real time. Perfect ending to the men's college basketball season. Now, hopefully I get to see Warriors-Spurs in the NBA playoffs this year because that is the only thing, basketball wise, that will come close to what I witnessed last night. What a great, great game.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Watching a buzzer beater to win the championship ranks right up there with a good bacon double cheeseburger in Ty's world. Follow him on twitter @tykulik.

The SeedSing 2016 Major League Baseball Preview

We will see you back at home in October. (or is it November now?)

Baseball season has finally begun. Our long cold winter has given way to the start of a still cold baseball season. We are talking baseball, competitive baseball. What will the season hold? Will the Kansas City Royals repeat as World Series Champions (no)? Can the Mets get back to the Fall Classic and close the deal this time (not likely)? How will the 2016 Major League Baseball season play out? Here at SeedSing we have all the answers to your specific questions, and a few predictions. Get your bets ready.

Are the Yankees and Red Sox ready to return to dominance in the AL East?

Short answer, no. Longer answer, hell no.

Let's start with the Bronx Bombers. In the off season the Yankees acquired 100+ mile per hour throwing Aroldis Chapman from the Cincinnati Reds. Chapman is the real deal and near unhittable. He is added to a bullpen that was already very good. Any team playing the Yankees can expect to score zero runs after the seventh inning.

The problem is the first six innings. The Yankees have subpar starting pitching, and that will be problematic. Most teams will be able to easily hitting the New York starters, and the defense behind the starters is old and not very good. The Yankees lineup is filled with old aging stars and is a few years away from reloading with the young talent of other teams. The only bright spot in New York, outside of a killer bullpen, is going to be watching sullen cheater Alex Rodriguez chasing down Barry Bonds (75 homers away). Enjoy that New Yorkers.

Up the coast is the Yankees hated rival the Boston Red Sox. 2015 was a disaster for Boston, nothing seemed to work. The Red Sox addressed some of those issues by getting the biggest free agent prize of the off season, starting pitcher David Price. That acquisition made a big splash, and many of the sports media (almost all east coast based) are high on the Red Sox, but Price will not be enough. There is just not enough pitching or hitting depth in Boston. This team is at least one more year away from being in the World Series conversation. The Red Sox will make some noise, but their record will hover around .500 all season.

The ESPN love for the Yankees and the Red Sox will be no match for the Tampa Bay Rays, Baltimore Orioles, and Toronto Blue Jays. Tampa always defies the odds with great young talent. Baltimore has one of the best managers in baseball in Buck Showalter and a seasoned team. Toronto has built a dominant roster coming off a very disappointing loss in last years ALCS. The Blue Jays will dominant the AL East and leave the Yankees and Red Sox scrambling for next year.

It is an even number year so the San Francisco Giants will win the NL West and the World Series?

Not this year.

The Giants, like the Yankees and Red Sox, added a big time pitcher this off season with the free agent signing of Johnny Cueto. With a team mostly intact from their 2014 World Series Championship, Cueto is a big addition. The former Cy Young runner up comes after superstar Madison Bumgarner in the rotation. The problem is that after Cueto and Bumgarner the quality of pitching goes from great to mediocre. Jeff Samardzidja has shown flashes of brilliance, but has not proven to be consistently great. After the top three the Giants have an old Jake Peavy and Matt Cain. The Giants just do not have the pitching to make another even year World Series run.

The other problem for the Giants in the NL West is that the competition has gotten a lot better. The LA Dodgers have the money, star power, and Clayton Kershaw. The Arizona Diamondbacks have made some big moves, like acquiring superstar pitcher Zack Greinke, and have one of the best hitters in baseball in Paul Goldschmidt. Both of these teams will be a challenge for the Giants, and we will see the Arizona Diamondbacks beat back the others for the NL West Crown.

Is the AL West the most worthless, and over hyped, division in all of Major League Baseball?

Yes

Every year we hear about how the LA Angels, of wherever in southern California they want to be from, will once again claim the championship. If it is not the Angels, we hear about Billy Beane and the up and coming Oakland A's. The last few years we also keep hearing about the rise of the Seattle Mariners. In the last few years these three teams have faltered to the likes of the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros. The Angels, A's, and Mariners get the headlines, but the two Texas teams are producing winners. 

The Rangers and Astros will once again battle for the AL West crown. The Rangers are old but tested and the Astros are young and uber talented. The Astros will edge out the team from Arlington and make a return trip to the MLB playoffs.

Does the NL East have the worst teams in baseball?

Close, but not quite.

The NL East is going to be ugly. The Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies, and Florida Marlins are not very good. The Mets are coming off a World Series appearance, but they are not quite a championship caliber team. The Washington Nationals are loaded, but have been perennial underachievers. The NL East is filled with teams that are rebuilding or are in "one year away" mode. The quality of play out east will be barely above AAA caliber baseball. Almost everyone of these teams will struggle all year.

All should struggle except for the Nationals. The team in DC is loaded, and has the best player in baseball in reigning NL MVP Bryce Harper. The Mets heavily benefited from a dysfunctional DC team last year. That will not happen again. With Dusty Baker at the helm in our nations capitol, the Nationals will easily win the NL east.

Is the best baseball being played in the central part of the country?

Absolutely. The NL central and AL central are the deepest divisions in baseball. Both wild card teams from each league will come from the central division.

In the NL central you have the defending champs, and 100 game winners, St. Louis Cardinals. The birds on the bat have the best front office, a great farm system, and a culture of winning. Catching up to the Cardinals is another well built team in the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Bucs have been climbing the ladder every year and are looking to make the playoffs for a third consecutive year. Coming off of an NLCS appearance in 2015, the Chicago Cubs are as loaded with talent as any team in MLB. The NL central will be a showcase for awesome baseball.

The AL central is as equally loaded as their NL brothers. First there is the defending World Series Champion Kansas City Royals. Even with a few off season losses, the Royals still have a solid championship core in place. The Detroit Tigers are rich with talent and experience. Cleveland has maybe the best manager in baseball with Terry Francona and a mix of veterans and younger players ready to emerge. The Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox are teams on the rise, and will not be pushovers for anyone else. 

With all the talent in both the NL and AL central divisions, someone has to win. The NL central is for the Cubs to lose with the Pirates and Cardinals taking the wild cards. The AL Central will be close with the Indians beating the Royals and Tigers for the division with the runners up going to the playoffs.

We answered your questions, now for a few predictions.

Once again, here are your 2016 MLB Playoff teams.

Division winners: AL East - Toronto Blue Jays                 NL East - Washington Nationals

                             AL Central - Cleveland Indians             NL Central - Chicago Cubs

                             AL West - Houston Astros                    NL West - Arizona Diamondbacks

                             AL Wild Cards - Kansas City Royals     NL Wild Cards - Pittsburgh Pirates

                                                        Detroit Tigers                                        St. Louis Cardinals

The Chicago Cubs and the Washington Nationals will win over 100 games each.

The Cubs and Nationals have the talent and the management to have very special seasons. Forget about what you have read, but Joe Maddon is one of the greatest MLB managers. In addition to Maddon, Theo Epstein has built a powerhouse on the northside of the windy city. Players like reigning Cy Young winner Jake Arrieta, reigning rookie of the year Kris Bryant, off season pickup Jason Heyward, and superstar Anthony Rizzo the Cubs are a dream team. Although they have to compete with St. Louis and Pittsburgh, the Cubs also have the dreadful Cincinnati Reds and Milwaukee Brewers (the two worst teams in MLB) in their division. Getting to 100 wins will not be that difficult for this dream team.

The Washington Nationals are in a similar situation as the Cubs. Their lineup, led by Bryce Harper, is formidable. Their pitching is filled with potential. New manager Dusty Baker is a wizard at getting players to achieve their potential. In addition to their manager and roster, the Nationals will benefit from a weak division. The NL east will have some of the worst teams in baseball, and the Nationals will feast on this inferior competition. The nations capitol may see a team with over 110 wins in 2016.

The Pittsburgh Pirates will win the 2016 World Series. 

The Cubs and the Nationals will win tons of games, but they will not even play in the 2016 World Series. Each of these power teams have one huge weakness that will keep them away from the top of the baseball mountain.

In the case of the Washington Nationals their Achilles heel is manager Dusty Baker. Baker has taken many teams to the playoffs (Giants, Cubs, and Reds), but has never won a championship. The issue is that Baker is great at getting players to play above their ability, but cannot game manage well. Talent will win a lot of three game series, but when the playoff starts and series are five to seven games, Dusty Baker's lack of game strategy becomes a problem. It will be a problem for Washington in 2016.

The reason the Cubs will not make the World Series is mainly about experience. Players like Arrita, Rizzo, and Bryant are insanely talented and extremely young. There is not a strong veteran presence in Chicago that can guide these phenoms. It will be wait till next year for the Cubbies once again. Plus we have to take into account the goat and a variety of curses. Sorry Cubs.

So how are the Pirates going to get through these super teams and win the World Series? Pittsburgh is built a lot like the Kansas City Royals. Homegrown talent and nice off season veteran acquisitions. Outfielder Andrew McCutchen is one of the top five players in the MLB and a certified clubhouse leader. Francisco Liriano has found a second life in the Steel City. Manager Clint Hurdle has been guiding this team out of the darkness and has them believing in themselves. When the MLB season is getting to the trade deadline, a second place team like the Pirates will be more willing to trade for veteran talent than a young team like the Cubs or the Nationals. The mixture of a great manager, a superstar player who is also a leader, and a front office willing to take a chance, will lead to the Pittsburgh Pirates beating the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2016 World Series.

Let's say the series goes 7 games. That would be exciting.

RD

RD Kulik is the Head editor for SeedSing and one of the other hosts on the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is sentimentally picking the Pirates in remembrance of a hat he once briefly owned. Do you love baseball, come write for us. 

No, "The Walking Dead" Will Never be Great Again

Time to take a barbed wire stick to "The Walking Dead"

Last night was the season finale of "The Walking Dead", and I wrote about it's hopes of me continuing to watch it afterward last week, and it was so maddeningly, infuriating, boring and a stupid waste of 90 minutes of my life. I understand that I have gotten to watch this show for free for the last seven seasons, and I understand that they don't owe me anything at all, but come on, this was absolutely atrocious and, if you call yourself a true fan, you should feel the same as me.

This finale was everything that has been wrong with this show for about 4 seasons now. It was so boring. It was wildly stretched out to inconceivable measures. The story was dumb as hell. All the lead up to Negan was for naught. I didn't care that the original survivors kept getting caught by Negan's crew. I kept checking my phone every 5 minutes to see how much time was left in the episode. I absolutely loathed all the slow, no dialogue parts. I hated the beginning part with Carl and his weirdo girlfriend. Basically, this episode, in my personal opinion, was terrible in every possible way, especially the stupid, moronic, spit in the face that was the ending.

This stunk.

That ending was so, so stupid. The show runners and writers and producers and AMC are getting way too big for their britches with all the stupid ass tease endings that they do on their scripted shows now and this "Walking Dead" finale was the high point, or low point, if you ask me, of this new trend. I thought this finale was ten times worse than the "Mad Men" series finale, and I hated the "Mad Men" series finale. This ending though, what the hell? What a load of dog crap. This was absolutely ridiculous. Sure, there may be some spoilers coming up, but not too many with the dumbass way they ended this season. Let's get into it. 

So, we finally meet Negan, with about 15 minutes left in the episode. Everyone knew he was being played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who is a very talented actor, but his portrayal, I thought, was way too over the top. He gives about a 10 minute speech and, instead of being filled with tension and heart pounding moments, I found it very dumb and Morgan couldn't have chewed more scenery while performing said speech. He said each word as if every single thing he said was as important as the next. In all seriousness, he was basically giving a speech about how he was going to brutally beat up, possibly murder, one of Rick's crew. It was a pointless speech for what he ended up doing. The camera kept panning around from the original survivors to Negan and his crew, and it was frustrating and very irritating. I HATED everything about this monologue. God, it was dumb as hell. Then, to decide who he is going to beat up, Negan plays the old kid game, eenie meanie minie mo, changing from person to person, with the camera showing all of the original crew. Hated this as well. Then, when he finally and mercifully picks someone, they decided to not show the viewer who he picked. They have teased a big name death all season long, and when they finally get to the scene where Negan picks someone, all we see is a fading image of Negan and his bat, Lucille. We have no idea who he may have beaten to death.

Screw you "The Walking Dead" for doing this.

This is a cop out and a slap in the face to the viewer. This show has never done this before, but this season, and last season for that case, has been all about bull shit teasing. This is so maddening. They can't promise the viewer something all season long, then not deliver. If I did something like that to my kids, promised them something, but then not deliver, I would be viewed as a mean parent. Why do shows and show writers think they can continue to do this? What gives them the right? It is the worst kind of cop out that a show can do. The people heavily involved with this show have been clearly persuaded by the uproar over the rumors of Daryl's impending death from the internet. It was rumored all season long that Daryl would be the big time character that would die, then when he got shot last week, rabid fans of the show took to the internet to openly complain that they shouldn't kill him, going as far as to start a petition. So, I think all this gave the writers a tough decision and they chose a tease ending instead of just doing what they had planned all season long. This is exactly what happened last season when they supposedly killed off Glenn, only to reveal in the next episode that he was covered by another guy being eaten by a zombie. That was bull shit and so was last nights finale. As I wrote last week, horrible things are supposed to happen in the horrible world that the "Walking Dead" creators have created. They killed off a lot of important people early on, Shane and Rick's wife to name a few, but they seem to be giving in to the mass media and public now. That really pisses me off. I can't think of another show, in the same vain as "The Walking Dead", doing what they have done over the past three or four seasons. It has been one cop out after another.

Besides this terrible excuse for the ending, the rest of this episode was a pile of garbage. I mentioned the opening scene with Carl and his girlfriend. That was dumb. All the Morgan and Carol stuff was pointless. I didn't care about the guy trying to make Carol suffer. I didn't care about Morgan finding a horse. I didn't care about Carol leaving Morgan's care. I just flat out didn't care about anything the two of them did or said to each other. It was stupid. I didn't care about Negan's crew showing up everywhere Rick's crew went. I didn't care about the preacher. I absolutely hated the "hero's" sendoff they gave to the guy with the mullet, I can't remember his name. I just didn't really care about anything that happened or about anyone in this finale, most of all being Negan. We were told all season long that he would be the "best villain ever on TV". He was going to be like no one we had seen on basic cable before. He was supposed to be great. Well, we got 15 minutes with him that seemed at times rushed, but then, at other times, very slow. He was a very uneven, very boring character. As I said before, I hated the monologue and he didn't scare or fill me with any tension whatsoever. The people most involved with the show built this character up way too much and I felt that he didn't deliver at all. Some of that is the writers fault and some is Morgan's fault. There's all kinds of blame to throw around.

In my article last week, and at the beginning of this post, I told the readers that this finale was going to be my decision maker as to if I was going to continue watching "The Walking Dead" and I can equivocally and without hesitation say that I will not be watching this show anymore. I loathed this finale and I do not care to continue watching. I had hopes that they could return to past glory, but they continued with the terrible and boring writing and stupid teaser endings that they have hung on to for the last four years. I feel like a weight is off my shoulders now that I'm done watching this show. I don't have "homework" on Sunday night anymore. This finale was terrible in every sense of the word and they lost one viewer last night. Good riddance to what has become bad rubbish.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. With his new found free time on Sunday nights, he wants to catch up on recent pop music. The guests on last week's X Millennial Man Podcast have some ideas. Like Ty's ideas? Follow him on twitter @tykulik.

The Greatest American Band Debate: What is Hip and Cool is Always Changing

So, I never really thought I was getting old until very recently. Now, I'm not old by any means. I'm 33 and I'll turn 34 near the end of 2016. But, working with younger kids has made me feel kind of old. I will reference players that I assume everyone knows, even if that everyone includes children that were born in 2010. I made a reference to Shaquille O'Neal and Shawn Kemp during basketball season, and the kids, especially the 5 and 6 year olds stared at me blankly. I didn't realize they have no idea who those guys are and Shaq is a sure fire hall of famer. But, the younger players only know of LeBron James and Steph Curry. At least most know who Michael Jordan is, even if it only means they know about his sneakers, they at least know the name.

But, sports aside, I am getting pretty old when it comes to pop music and music played on the radio. I recently sat down with my 12 and 9 year old nieces, you'll hear them on the podcast tomorrow, and the people they were telling me about, I maybe knew 1/3 or even a 1/4 of their names. I looked at them as blankly as my young athletes looked at me. I consider myself a pretty hip and knowledgeable person when it comes to music. But, with that being said, I do not care for pretty much all of modern pop music. There's a few people I enjoy. I like Hozier, I've written about Alabama Shakes and I'm a humongous Black Keys fan, but I was also told by my nieces that those aren't really pop bands and musicians. Their music is more rock they said.

This was the exact moment when I felt old.

This must have been what my parents felt like when I was listening to Puff Daddy and Mase and I told them that their music was old and stuffy and uncool. I finally understood what they said to me back then. I would get older one day, and what I like will not be popular anymore, if it ever was. I thought they were crazy, but they were right, as they always have been. My nieces threw some bands and singers at me and they may as well have been speaking a foreign language. As I said, they will name all these people on the podcast, but I still don't remember the names. I know of people like Taylor Swift, Maroon 5 and One Direction, which the 9 year old rants about, but those people weren't even really on their radar anymore. They've already moved on from these bands and found new singers and bands to adore.

While this makes me feel old, I also feel like this is a big problem with modern pop music. No one sticks around that long anymore. Sure, some will have two or even three hits, but the majority are new versions of "one hit wonders". There's so many bands and singers that have one hit song, but they never do anything after that. At least nothing that's played on the radio. This doesn't make them bad singers or bad bands, it just means they capitalize on one song and on a very young fan base who's musical taste isn't fully developed yet. This is not meant to be a slight, I just said I listened to Puff Daddy and Mase, but then I grew up and, in my opinion, I got way better taste in music.

I also listened to what my dad said and listened to the music he lent me the older and more mature I became. My dad introduced me to Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, The Beatles and Robert Johnson, among many, many others. This makes me hopeful that my nieces parents will do the same. Their dad is my oldest brother and he and I have similar taste in music. I hope he does what our dad did for me, but I also know that he plays good music, like Radiohead and TV on the Radio in their house, so the girls are being exposed to good music, they just don't recognize it yet, just like I didn't when my father was playing good music in the house.

I know they will come around at some point, with urging from their parents, but it was equally fascinating and upsetting at their knowledge of modern pop music. They both really do listen to everything they can, that's great and very fascinating. They devour as much pop music as they can. It's awesome that young kids still listen to so much music, even if it's stuff I don't care for. But, it's also upsetting because this is the first time that I have truly felt old. I just had no idea of what they were talking about at times and I was that old man berating young kids and their music these days. I feel like I will try and listen to some of the stuff they mentioned, but I know I won't like most of it, even before I listen to it. Modern pop is just not for me, but it has its many fans and its many fans are very young.

Both my nieces give some wonderful insight and they make me happy because they truly do love music. Music makes everyone happy and there is something for everyone. You will get old and young kids music will sound weird to you, but just think of how you felt when you were a kid and your folks wanted to listen to their music. It took me 33 years, but what I thought would never happen happened. I felt old, but it's not that bad. That's what's supposed to happen. As we get older things change and change can be odd and weird, but you will always have your thing and your music. That will never change.

I also would like to thank my nieces for talking to me and trying to open my mind to new music. It didn't work, but they put out an excellent effort. Listen to the podcast tomorrow because it's was a delight to record and I know everyone, be they 80 or 8, will really enjoy the two conversations I had with my two nieces. They were funny, insightful and a lot of fun to chat with, even though they made me feel old.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Like Grandpa Simpson, Ty was once cool, but what was cool to Ty just changed, and now it is scary. Listen to the X Millennial Man Podcast tomorrow to hear the tale, and make sure you follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

We Need to Talk About Superman

I don't want to know how he feels about leaping tall buildings, I just want to watch the man fly

A few nights ago I saw Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and left the theater kind of frustrated. I did not hate the movie like the gang of obsolete film critics so desired, I actually thought the movie was mostly enjoyable. What was so frustrating was the way actor Henry Cavill and director Zack Snyder treated the Man of Steel. There was no humor, very little humility, and no awe to the last son of Krypton. These problems were in Man of Steel and they were present once again in Batman v Superman (I will not keep writing the full title, you know what movie I am talking about). Once I took a few days to think about the movie, and tell my closest friends all about it, I started to realize that Cavill and Snyder were not ruining my love for a big screen Superman, the actual Man of Steel is what is wrong.

I adore Superman. He is far and away my favorite comic book hero. As a member of Generation X I grew up with the Christopher Reeve Superman movies. I even remember seeing the third and fourth films, and not hating film forever (they are horrible movies, do not see them). I was willing to give anything Superman a pass. By the time the "Death of Superman" comic series came out I was too old to be buying comics, but I bought those stories. I watched Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and played the horrid N 64 game. While many of my peers were moving on to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I was watching Smallville.  In more recent years I have started to seek out Superman comics again. I am very fond of graphic novels like Red Son, Kingdom Come, and All Star Superman. Anything related to Superman and I was interested. I was especially interested in any movies that would feature the boy in blue with a red cape.

In 2006, almost twenty years after Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, we finally got a new big screen adventure for the Man of Steel. Superman Returns hit the theaters a year after Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale redeemed the film version of the Dark Knight with Batman Begins. Many people, myself included, were hoping that director Bryan Singer and actor Brandon Routh could bring the big blue boyscout into the 21st century. Unfortunately Superman Returns was a fairly boring rehash of the Richard Donner / Christopher Reeve vision for the last son of Krypton. The only new power given to the Man of Steel was the ability to be a deadbeat dad to a very confused child. Superman Returns was not considered a critical or box office success. The 20th century version of Kal-El was not ready for 21st century audiences.

In order to create a Superman for the modern movie goer, Warner Brothers tapped The Dark Knight Trilogy's Christopher Nolan to produce and Watchmen's Zack Snyder to direct the latest reboot. Relative unknown Henry Cavill was tasked with bringing to life a modern look at Clark Kent / Superman. Man of Steel opened in the summer of 2013 to tepid reviews and fairly good box office. Many of the critics disliked the movie because of it's lack of humor and the overall darkness that surrounds one of America's earliest comic book heroes. The final destructive battle between Superman, General Zod, and the other Kryptonians is often held up as the biggest failure to Man of Steel. How many people died in Metropolis? Why did Superman not take Zod to the moon and fight? Why did Superman kill Zod? I was part of the chorus of people asking these questions. I was blaming Nolan, Snyder, and Cavill for smearing the good name of my favorite superhero.

This brings me back to Batman v Superman and my overall frustration. Christopher Nolan, Zack Snyder, and Henry Cavill once again presented us with a violent and dour Superman. Even Clark Kent is humorless and jerky. I found myself getting bored and annoyed whenever Superman, and his friends like Lois Lane and Perry White were on the screen. Whenever I saw Batman/Bruce Wayne, or Wonder Woman/Diana Prince, or Alfred, I was enjoying a great movie. I personally loved Ben Affleck's performance as a violent and unhinged Dark Knight. Jeremy Irons is now my favorite Alfred ever. The little bit of time Gal Gadot gets as Diana Prince, and the criminally less amount of time she gets as Wonder Woman, are incredible. My only real problems with Batman v Superman were the parts with the Man of Steel. That was frustrating because Superman is my favorite of all the heroes. He is the best of the Super Friends, the greatest of the Justice League, and the comic book hero all others should be judged by. Why can I not get a good Superman on my big screen?

The week before I went out to see Batman v Superman, I watched Man of Steel again. I really enjoyed the movie. It had been a couple of years since I first saw it in the theater, but I feel like time has been good to that movie. The opening scenes on Krypton are awesome. Russell Crowe's Jor-El and Michael Shannon's Zod are great takes on classic characters. The action scenes are easy to follow, and quite exciting. The plot is well executed and the character motivations make perfect sense. I really enjoyed Man of Steel, I just did not care that much for Superman. Then I figured it all out. It is not Bryan Singer, Brandon Routh, Zack Snyder, or Henry Cavill that are ruining Superman. It is the character of Superman that is ruining these movies.

In the comics Superman is all powerful (most of the time) and all good (again most of the time). The Christopher Reeve films focus on Clark Kent and how he fits in a world he barely understands. The best characters in Superman I and II were Clark Kent and Lois Lane. A show like Lois and Clark was more like the 1960's Adam West Batman. The best character was Lois Lane. Smallville focused heavily on the characters around Clark Kent and explored what Superman meant to them. The best character was Lex Luthor. Superman Returns focused on nothing new and interesting and every character was worthless. Do not waste your time on this movie. Many of the great Superman comics looked at what it meant to be the Man of Steel, not who the man actually is. Red Son imagines the last son of Krypton as someone who represents truth, justice, and the Soviet way. The best characters are Lois Lane, Wonder Woman, and Batman. Kingdom Come shows us an older and bitter Superman who is ineffectual because he is out of touch, a Superman who needs his friends. The best characters are Wonder Woman, Batman, and Magog. All Star Superman has the Man of Steel facing imminent death, and it is a joyful and celebratory journey. The best characters are Lois Lane and Lex Luthor. Superman stories work best as a light hearted affair, or one of philosophical ruminations. The greatest stories about Superman focus on the people around him (mostly Lois and Lex), they focus on how Superman effects them personally.

I am not frustrated with the people bringing Superman to the big screen, I am frustrated that these people keep trying to make movies with Superman as a main character. The last son of Krypton is more interesting because of what he is to others, not because of who he is personally. Superman is super because of his unmatched power, and unmatched humanity. That does not make for a very interesting protagonist. Why does Batman distrust someone like Superman? That is an interesting tale. How does Lois Lane deal with being in love and having a relationship with someone like the Man of Steel? That is a story worth telling. How does the existence of Superman effect genius sociopaths like Lex Luthor? I would leap tall buildings to see that particular film. The people who are directly impacted by the Superman have the more interesting stories to tell. They should be the main characters in any film concerning the big blue boyscout.

We need to accept the fact that there will never be a good stand alone Superman movie. The character is too much a part of our cultural identity. When producers like Christopher Nolan, and directors like Zack Snyder try to give the Man of Steel some depth, we end up with a dour film and have a Metropolis leveled. Batman v Superman was a great film when Superman was not the focus. The final climatic battle saw the Man of Steel working with the Dark Knight and Princess Diana of Themyscira, and it was glorious. We could see Superman's awesome powers being complimented by the two other heroes. Superman is my favorite comic book hero ever because of what he means to everyone else. His purity does not need to be tinkered with. DC can own the superhero world by focusing on everyone else. We will always know that Superman is in the back ground to help out. The world of superhero movies is better off with the Man of Steel backing up all of the World's finest.

RD

RD is the Head editor at SeedSing. He will keep seeing Superman movies, and he will keep reading Superman comics, because Superman is the best. Do have a better superhero? Well let us know.

D'Angelo Russell, Nick Young, and the Disaster that is the LA Lakers

Current state of the LA Lakers

I was going to write about one of my favorite TV characters today, but that will take a backseat until next week because I have to talk about this insane LA Lakers story that broke yesterday. If you don't already know, rookie D'Angelo Russell released a recording of him talking to teammate Nick Young, I refuse to call him by his stupid nickname, of Young basically saying that he cheated on his fiancée.

Now, where to start with this whole can of worms? First of all, what Young may or may not have done or been accused of doing or joking about what he said he did, it was wrong. Don't cheat on people that you have promised to spend the rest of your life with. Only scumbags do this and it makes you a terrible, gross person. Cheaters are some of the worst people on Earth. I HATE everything when it comes to cheating. It's gross and causes a distrust you can never earn back, no matter what you do and say.

With that being said, let's get to part two. What D'Angelo Russell did was one hundred percent unethical and is every bit as wrong and as bad as cheating on your significant other. You want to talk about losing trust and faith from people, go out and secretly record a conversation with a friend and a colleague. See how much trust you can get back when you do something this shady. This is so wrong on every level. Why would Russell record this conversation? What did he stand to gain from this? Does he want to be with Young's fiancée? Does he not really like Nick Young and did he think if he leaked this conversation people would think he was a saint and a hero? There are so many questions that I would love to personally ask Russell. Let's look at each of these questions I posed here.

Number one, why record this? The only reason I can really think of, he wants Young off the team because Russell was the number two pick in the last draft and was told that the future of the Lakers would be built around him. Well, I don't know how many free agents the Lakers will attract now, when the "future" of this team is secretly recording contracts. If I was a big time free agent next year, like Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Andre Drummond, DeMar DeRozan, Al Horford or Harrison Barnes, I would stay away from the Lakers with a very wide breach. I wouldn't even give them a meeting, as long as Russell is still on that team. Now, these guys most likely wouldn't say stupid shit like Nick Young did, but I wouldn't want to walk into that locker room everyday fearing that someone was secretly recording me. No way.

Question two, what did he think he'd gain from this? This one, I have no idea. I don't know if he thought he'd be looked at like a good guy or a guy that catches cheaters in the act, like that host from the show "Cheaters". Side note, that show is entertaining as hell. This one question, I believe, only Russell knows the real and true answer and he will never reveal it to the public.

Question three, does he want to be with Young's fiancée? I'd say, sure, why not. She is a famous rapper with a lot of money. She is also an attractive young lady. She has a lot going for her, so why wouldn't he want to be with her. But, how many girls that were cheated on go out and be with the guy who told her that her old boyfriend was cheating? As I said before, Russell recording this conversation is as bad as what Young said he did. Why would she trust Russell when her fiancée and his teammates can't even trust him. It's a no win situation.

The fourth question seems, at least to me, was the main reason he released and recorded this conversation. He wants Young off the team. Young is a ball hog that plays no defense and has shown no signs of turning his game or attitude around. He plays with a swagger that he doesn't have. Young thinks he is a star, but he is one of the worst players in the league. He is supposed to be a shooter, but he is not very good at that. He should be in the D League, but he is a starter in the NBA for some unknown reason. Young isn't good, but neither is Russell. One, he's a rookie. Two, he also shows no sign of wanting to play defense or share the ball and he's a point guard. He'd rather drive to score than drive to pass. He is a very, very poor man's version of James Harden. Russell has shown flashes, but he has a very long way to go before he is any kind of threat in the NBA. He is not very good right now and he will need a lot of time to develop his game. He is not on other rookies from his draft class level like Karl Anthony-Towns, Kristaps Porzingis, Devin Booker or even a Trey Lyles. Those guys are so much better and have improved so much more over the year. Russell needs a lot of work, a lot more than the guys I just mentioned.

All this brings me to my main point and main problem with the current and future state of the NBA. D'Angelo Russell is 20 years old. He is still a kid, but he was given the keys to this historic franchise at way too young an age. He has also been surrounded by the Kobe Bryant retirement circus. How is any young player on that team going to develop when Bryant still wants to be the main star and story of the franchise? It's impossible and that's the way Bryant likes it. He doesn't care how bad or how much of a hole he has put the Lakers in, as long as everyone tells him how much they love and adore him. But, aside from Bryant, the only other players that are any good on this team are Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr. Young stinks, as I have mentioned a couple times, Roy Hibbert stinks and is a billion years old, Brandon Bass best days are behind him, Lou Williams doesn't want to be there and hogs the ball too much and the rest of the roster is filled with guys that should be in the D League. And, the front office gave the keys to a lying, sneaky and conniving 20 year old when they drafted Russell number two overall last year. This was a HUGE misstep from a front office that has made misstep after misstep for the past three or four years. The Lakers have been a joke for a couple of years now, but they are becoming a dumpster fire. They seem to be worse off than the much maligned and much ripped apart 76ers right now. If I were a big time player, I'd rather go to the 76ers than the Lakers right now. At least on the 76ers I know my teammates won't be secretly recording me. If I were a player in the upcoming draft, I would hope and pray that the Lakers passed on me. I can't think of a worse situation for a player like Buddy Hield or Ben Simmons than to be drafted by the Lakers and have to be on the same team as D'Angelo Russell.

If I've said it once on this site, I've said it one thousand times, don't draft teenagers to be your franchise player. Teenagers and early 20 year olds do stupid shit like secretly recording conversations with their teammates because they think they can gain something from it. The whole NBA is guilty of this new trend of drafting based on potential, but with potential comes childish behavior. Like I said before, if I were a big time free agent I'd be very wary of signing with the Lakers this summer because I would not trust or want to play with Russell. He has lost any credibility that he had, if he had any at all. These established players don't want or need to worry about what a child does and this story will make it very tough for the Lakers to become relevant again. No big named free agents will sign there because of this and, as long as Russell is still there, it will be tough for the Lakers to compete again. I don't buy his "apology" that he gave yesterday, and when you get me siding with Nick Young, you've clearly done something horribly wrong and horribly shady. I'm not a Lakers fan and this story makes it that much easier for me to dislike this team. They are interrible, big time hole that may take years for them to dig out of. They stink and their players are shady people.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He will be very happy when Kobe and is 9% shooting nights are gone from the NBA. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The Greatest American Band Debate: The Moldy Peaches

For the greatest American band debate today, I'm going to nominate a band that is way off the realm from almost any band I've written about to date. You could call this band genre-less or you could say that they span many, many different genres of music. They play folk, rock, metal, ballads and they even rap on a few songs here and there. They also only put out one official album. They had LP's and EP's, but they only truly released one record in their short run. Now, I absolutely adore this band and they were also the first band that I heard that made me think, professional music can be easily done, if you know how to manipulate equipment the right way. They also did everything themselves. They recorded, produced, wrote and released everything on their own dime, to the best of my knowledge. This band will not be a popular pick for some, but as I said, I adore this group and I'd be remiss if I didn't recognize how influential they were and how they gave me true and real hope of becoming a professional musician. The band that I speak of is the Moldy Peaches.

I LOVE the Moldy Peaches. I first heard them when I was a teenager and my love has only grown from there, and they only have one real album. I cannot stress that fact enough. I don't know how they crept in my mind and stayed there for so long with such little material, but dammit, they have stuck around. I still listen to their self titled album in my car to this day. Sure, they released live and rare stuff that only hardcore fans of the band like myself own, but their self titled is the only real commercial record they have. And it is great. They have had as many as 11 unofficial members in the band, including Toby Goodshank, who I saw recently and he is great, but the Moldy Peaches is primarily, and most importantly, all about Kimya Dawson and Adam Green.

Everyone by now knows of Kimya Dawson. She is a folk singer that did all of the original music for the movie "Juno". She kind of blew up after that soundtrack and movie were released. It was well deserved because she has a unique voice, can play decent guitar and writes poignant, beautiful and silly songs. She has continued her musical career post Moldy Peaches very well. She tours and records new stuff to this day, but I will always love the Moldy Peaches stuff the most.

Adam Green may not be as well known as Kimya. Yes, he still plays and records, but he hasn't gotten the acclaim that his former girlfriend and bandmate has achieved. This is partly his doing and partly the industry's doing. He's very talented, but he is also heavily involved with drugs and art and making weird short films that make no sense. He does art with Macauly Caulkin. In fact, they have had a show and boutique of their drawings and paintings and they are very, very bizarre. Green has also played music with a lot of people including Ben Kweller, Binki Shapiro and Har Mar Superstar. He is a much better musician than artist or filmmaker, in my opinion. He, much like Dawson, knows how to write and craft sweet, but very silly and very weird songs. And, also much like Dawson, I enjoy his Moldy Peaches stuff the most. I have seen him live, and we discussed the show on a previous podcast, but, that show was weird and he walked off stage after playing wrong chords and singing wrong words. But, while I enjoyed the majority of his show, before he walked off stage, this was were I decided to buy not only his solo album, but the Moldy Peaches album.

So, this wacky and wild show was my gateway to one of my favorite bands. I went home the next day, listened to Green's solo album first, enjoyed it, then listened to the Moldy Peaches record and immediately adored it. It played on repeat in my car stereo and apartment for the next two or three months straight. Friends and family would come over and be very confused with what I was listening to, then that confusion would turn to, typical Ty, listening to some weird folk music. Everyone, with my brothers Seth and our editor RD being the lone exceptions, blew off this weird band I was suddenly enamored with. That didn't stop me. I listened to this record so much, I knew all the words to all the songs within a week. I love every song on this record. There are some great tracks like "Lucky Number Nine", "Nothing Came Out", "Downloading Porn With Davo", "Steak for Chicken", "Anyone Else But You", "Little Bunny Foo Foo", "Who's Got the Crack" and "Lazy Confessions". In my mind, these are all classics. These songs span all kinds of genres of music and they do it quite well, considering that they seem to be recording on either a tape recorder or an old school eight track recorder. I love that. "Lucky Number Nine" is a great, folksy opener to the album. It's very simplistic in it's skeleton, it's just drums, guitar and bass. But, Kimya Dawson's vocals are very good and Green's backing vocals are great. It's an awesome song. "Nothing Came Out" is also a very slow folk song, but it's also dirty and silly. Quintessential Moldy Peaches. "Downloading Porn With Davo" is raunchy, pop punk, silly and awesome. I'm not a big fan of pop punk music, but the Moldy Peaches do it extremely well. "Steak for Chicken" is so weird and absurd, but the music is classic rock and roll, with Green playing some really good, really underrated guitar. It's like Andy Kaufman wrote a song and the Moldy Peaches recorded it. It's a perfect marriage. "Anyone Else But You" is probably their most famous and sweetest song. You may think you don't know it, but you do. It's the song that Michael Cera and Ellen Page sing to each other at the end of "Juno". The song shows love from both the man and woman's perspective, but the woman is more aggressive and the man is a bit of a whipping boy. I absolutely adore this song. This song should be played at every wedding everywhere. It's wonderful. "Little Bunny Foo Foo", the old traditional kid song, is turned into a punk rock song, with Dawson yell singing the vocals by the end. I love it. "Who's Got the Crack" is everything that is great about Moldy Peaches. They sing slow and fast. They pay their instruments slow and fast. And the song is one of the most absurd and one of the dirtiest songs I've ever heard. It's incredibly vulgar and weird, but it is also tremendous. "Lazy Confessions" is a return to slower folk music and I absolutely love Dawson's vocals on this song. The whole album is great, but these particular songs are my favorites.

I love how weird and how primitive the Moldy Peaches were. Both Green and Dawson are still kind of primitive in their solo stuff, but nothing compares to what they did in the Moldy Peaches. Dawson has achieved more success, which isn't surprising, but I'm kind of shocked that Green isn't more famous. Anyway, I love the Moldy Peaches and I could not continue with this greatest American band debate without mentioning them. Don't listen to them with your kids, but listen by yourself and I can almost guarantee that after three or four listens, you will get what I'm saying and you will become a fan.

Did I mention that I love the Moldy Peaches.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Do you have a greatest american band nominee? Tell us all about it. While you think of your favorite band, follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Will "The Walking Dead" get Back to Being Great?

"The Walking Dead" has been exciting as watch this paint peel.

This Sunday, AMC will have a 90 minute "The Walking Dead" season finale. Some big things are supposed to happen in this finale we've been told. Some big name character will die, we will get to meet Negan finally and the group will be left in some kind of disarray. This seems to happen every finale, at least in the past three finales, with "The Walking Dead". Sometimes it hits, like when Beth was accidentally killed by that crazy cop at that hospital two finales ago, but it also misses. Case and point, I don't even remember how last season ended. I think Daryl may have lost his crossbow, but I honestly cannot remember anything else. I could also be wrong about Daryl as well.

For a show that started so incredibly strong, these past three seasons have been very dull and, quite frankly, boring. Yes, I'm still watching, as is most of the country, but it's staring to feel like homework and I'm beginning to not enjoy it so much anymore. They came out of the gates on fire. That opening scene in the series premiere, where Rick wakes up in an abandon hospital, and realizes something is not right in the world, is absolutely incredible. It only grew from there in the first season. The show was great, with great scenes, but it wasn't just a zombie show, it also dealt with the survivors. The show asked and tried to answer questions that included, how do we survive in this kind of world, and do we really want to survive in a world like this? I didn't want to watch this how at first, but I'm very happy my wife convinced me and I was immediately hooked. I couldn't wait for what they'd do next.

Then, in either season two or three, they found a farm and that's when the show started to turn. Yes, it was still very good and there was some excellent episodes, but when they went looking for Carol's young daughter, those specific episodes, it became very tedious. I thought, this is just a small part and they will get through this boring stuff very soon and, at first, they did. The stuff in the jail was great, Morgan returning was great, they seemed to have righted the ship. But, in the coming season, they found Alexandria.

Now, not to be this guy, but I'm totally going to be this guy, when they found Alexandria in the graphic novel, that's when it went from good to great, but the TV show just couldn't seem to find the right footing. Where the graphic novel still focused on the question of how to survive and live in this world, if that was even a good thing, the show decided it was time to start making up love stories and talk about the people to the point of tedium. They tried so hard to give Rick a relationship with some lady, who's husband was an abusive alcoholic, that I couldn't have cared less about. She also had some weirdo son that Carol befriended, I couldn't have cared less about that as well. They did too much of the point-counter point talking that worked well for them early on, but they had established a new world, and the talking made for very long and very boring episodes. I wasn't even really all that moved by the lady who ran Alexandria husband died in the finale. Spoiler alert, he was killed by Rick's new love interests crazy husband, in a fit of rage trying to fight Rick, then, with the "blessing" of the "mayor", Rick brutally murdered that man. I didn't care about any of that. The best thing about that finale was Morgan walking in right after Rick shot this guy. But, we had to wait an entire off season before we got to see anything from Morgan again. If that specific finale was supposed to make me feel something, all it did was make me angry. I didn't care about Rick and his new girlfriend and I didn't care about the original crew's plan to take over Alexandria. All I wanted, and they teased it all season, was to see Morgan, and all we got was that final shot. That was a bummer.

Then, last season happened. That last season was incredibly boring. I literally didn't care about anything that happened. I watched the season while I played on my phone, or wrote for this site. It was on, but I was half in and half out. I didn't care that Maggie was pregnant. I didn't care about the "Wolves". I didn't care that Carl had some new, weird girlfriend. I didn't care about Rick's girlfriends weird son and his relationship with Carol. I didn't care that Carol was becoming some badass that acted like a soccer mom. I did care that they barely used Michonne last season. She is awesome and when they used her, it was to be Rick's police partner. She had no huge story line or anything that important happen to her. She is the best one on the show and she was criminally under used during that season. I was ready to give up on the show after that uneventful finale I mentioned earlier, but I figured I'd give it one last shot. This show was great at one point and I thought they could do it again. I told my wife that the season premiere would be my gauge if I was going to continue or not.

Well, the premiere was very good. They got back to their roots. They focused on the story telling with the original crew. They had some awesome fight scenes. They made me care again. I was back on board. But, the second episode was pretty boring and pretty uneventful. The rest of this season has been wildly inconsistent. They've had some great episodes, but they've also had some duds. It's been very up and down. Some good stuff, the humongous fight scene in Alexandria was great, Rick finally has a cool girlfriend in Michonne, Michonne is being used more, a scene between Maggie and a guy from another town involving a trade for goods and services and meeting Negan's crew. Some bad and boring, Abraham and Rosita breaking up, the under utilization of Morgan, Rick going completely off the deep end, the character of Jesus and Carol's change of heart back to being a loner and all of the sudden a god fearing person. I just can't get my finger on what they are trying to do. In last week's episode, another spoiler alert, it ended with a gunshot in Daryl's direction and the shooter saying, "it will be okay". Some were outraged because they assumed that Daryl is dead. First of all, Daryl was never in the novel, so who cares if he is gone. And second of all, if they do kill him off, they can bring him back, just like they did, in super cheap fashion, with Glenn last season. I don't get the upheaval. People are supposed to die in a show like this. That's what happens. They also said a big name character would die. Someone important is not going to be in the upcoming season. Deal with it. We will finally get to meet Negan in Sunday's finale as well. I'm mixed on this, because I want to meet him, but I'm also wary of all the writers and showrunners saying that "he will be the best villain on TV ever". Don't say things like this, let the viewer decide. That's what they did so well early on, but now they feel that they have to sell everything and that scares me.

So, yes, I will watch all 90 minutes of the finale and I hope that it's worth it. If not, I will most likely give up on this show. It started so well, but it's been very hit or miss for the last four seasons and it's becoming tough to care and watch and pay attention every week. Hopefully they do something big and regain my full attention, but I don't think that will happen. Hopefully Negan is a great, once in a lifetime villain, but I wish the people involved weren't pushing him on me so much. I want "The Walking Dead" to be great again, but I fear it's time is up. We'll see this Sunday.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. In case of a zombie outbreak, Ty will hole up at Chesterfield Mall. Make sure the chopper is on time. Before the apocolypse you should follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Oklahoma's Buddy Hield has Earned the Top Pick in the NBA Draft

This is the number Buddy Hield has worked for

I've done enough previews and predictions recently about the men's tournament and I was on and off with my predictions. The Big 12 and the ACC both made me look stupid. Syracuse made us all look dumb. Gonzaga really crapped the bed. Kansas blew their most recent, best shot at a title. And on and on and on. But, we have our final four of Villanova, UNC, Syracuse and Oklahoma. Today though, I'm not going to do a prediction, I'm going to talk about one player that has looked absolutely incredible and why he should be the number one overall pick in the upcoming draft. That player is Oklahoma's Buddy Hield.

I love everything that this kid has done throughout this whole tournament. I'm not an Oklahoma fan, but I'm sure as hell a Buddy Hield fan. In an era of "one and done", I couldn't be more happy that a senior, who came back to school to better his game and himself, is dominating this tournament. In fact, if you look at the final four, most of the teams important players are all upperclassmen. That's awesome. But, the best upper classmen, by a very wide margin, has been Hield. He simply cannot be stopped on the offensive end of the court. Just look back at his 8 threes and 37 point performance this past weekend against Oregon. Everything he did, be it getting open, driving to the basket, cutting to the basket, moving without the ball to get open, everything was exceptional. He looked like a man among boys, and Oregon has an older team. He played a wonderful game against Oregon. Heild also came up huge against VCU. He had a slow first half, but without him in the second half, Oklahoma would not have made the final four. He wasn't shooting well from the outside, so he drove to the basket more to score, but he also drove to pass. He did what was needed to help his team win that game. Then, when his shots started to fall, it was over for VCU. He was outstanding, especially in the second half of that game. When they played Texas A&M in the round of 32, he took total advantage of a young, inexperienced team. He scored when he wanted, he passed when he wanted and they won with ease. He was easily the smartest player on the court for, not only that game, but all of their games. And in their first round game, against CSU Bakersfield, he scored the most nonchalant 20 plus point game I'd seen. At one point, he had 4 or 5 points, I looked up ten minutes later and he had already surpassed 20 points and he did it with relative ease. He toyed with CSU Bakersfield.

Now Buddy Hield will he get to go up against a pretty good Villanova team. The Wildcats play good defense and they just beat a team that Oklahoma could not beat in Kansas. Now, Oklahoma did not beat KU this year, but Buddy Hield went off all three times they played. Nothing compared to the first showdown, the double overtime, 40 plus point performance he put up, but he still played pretty great all 3 times against a very good team. I'm very curious to see how he comes out against Villanova, but I can almost guarantee, he will get 20 plus points. This kid is just a flat out scorer.

Now, before I continue to go on about Buddy Hield's offense, he plays formidable defense, but no one knows that because his offensive prowess is phenomenal. But, he can more than hold his own on defense. He made a great block in the VCU game, perfectly timing his jump and swatting an easy layup. He is a good defender. But, he is a once in a lifetime scorer. This kid fills it up and then some. He also does well against top competition. I mentioned the KU games earlier, but he put up big games against Texas, Texas A&M and LSU among many others. He scored against everyone, no matter how they defended them.

This, among many other reasons is why I think Buddy Hield should be the number one overall pick in the draft. First of all, it's so stupid that the league has gone towards this "one and done" culture, drafting based on potential, rather than what they've shown over four years. The GM and owners all want teenagers that they can mold. But, what about guys like Tim Duncan, Shaquille O'Neal, Draymond Green and Steph Curry. All these guys spent, at least, 3 years in college and they are all great pros. In Hield's matchup against LSU, and the preconceived number one pick, Ben Simmons, Hield absolutely torched him, and he looked like the best player on the floor by a wide margin. Hield led his team to a victory, and when things got close, Hield was the one that came up big and scored the big baskets when they were needed. Hield was in control of that game and never looked flustered. Simmons, he was scared to shoot at the end of that game. He looked intimidated by Hield and his confidence. Hield looked light years ahead of Simmons, but it won't matter come draft time.

The very sad thing about this draft, Hield has had to play lights out all year just to be considered a possible lottery pick. When you look at guys "big boards" or "top draft prospects", it's filled with unproven talent like Ben Simmons, Brandon Ingram, Skal Labiessere, Jamal Murray, Amile Jefferson, Damantos Sabaonis and on and on. Buddy Hield has finally made his way into the top 20, but why isn't he number one? He has clearly proven that he is the best player in men's college basketball, but to the "experts" that talk about the draft, his name almost never comes up. What the hell? Why aren't Hield or Perry Ellis or Denzel Valentine on the top of draft boards? All three have had very successful careers that span four years of college. They are all more ready to play in the NBA than any of these 19 year old kids. I don't care what Bill Simmons or Chad Ford has to say, I'd much rather have a 22 year old that has proven himself than a 19 year old that has only 20 or 30 games under their belt. They've gotten better against better competition and have very much improved their overall games. If I were the 76ers or the Lakers or the Nets, I'd take Buddy Hield in a heart beat before I'd take Ben Simmons, especially if I wanted to win sooner, rather than later. He can help turn a team around in his first season because he has a lot more experience than a teenager and he has been through harder and tougher times. These teenagers have never been told no or been criticized by a coach because they are prized recruits and you only get them for one year, so they have to treat them with kid gloves. Buddy Hield had to go through rough patches with his team and coach, making him a much tougher and a much better prepared player than a spoiled five star, blue chip recruit.

Take a look at last years draft. Some of the "one and done" players are decent, Karl Anthony-Towns and Justise Winslow come to mind, but some of the others still need four or five more years before they even sniff an all star team. Guys like D'Angelo Russell, Jahlil Okafor and Tyus Jones could have all benefited from, at the very least, one more year of college basketball. Basically, for me, I prefer players that have experience and maturity. They make for very good NBA players much quicker than a 19 or 20 year old does. Just look at recent 3 or four year college guys like Ray Macallum and Damien Lillard. They are the two main cogs to a Trailblazers team fighting for a playoff spot when they shouldn't be even close to a playoff bound team. Then, look at the 76ers, a team that only drafts based on potential. They are historically bad because the majority of their team is immature and has very little experience. They can't or don't know how to compete with grown men in a grown man sport. So yeah, if I had the number one pick in the 2016 draft, I wouldn't even flinch. I'd grab Buddy Hield and I'd be happy and comfortable to know that my team will be better much sooner since I have a more seasoned college player that has been through thick and thin and knows how to handle himself as opposed to a teenager that has never been told no. Experience is so much more important than potential, especially in basketball.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. If any NBA scouts are looking for an early thirties well seasoned rec league player, Ty is available to help your team. Make sure you are one of Ty's followers on twitter @tykulik.

Duke Basketball Learns Bad Sportsmanship from the Top

Even the real Ducks were laughing at Duke last night

So, I was watching the Duke-Oregon game last night, and much to my delight, Oregon was pulling away late and they ended up winning by 14 points. It was glorious on so many levels. It was great for a Duke hater, such as myself, to see them get beat by double digits. It was great to see that punk ass Grayson Allen have a miserable shooting performance, and overall bad game. It was great to see that another one of these teams led by "one and done" players get ousted by an older, more experienced team. And it was great to see that dip shit Coach K sit and grimace as his young team was getting their asses beat. The only positive for them was the play of Brandon Ingram, but I even found joy watching him try to do everything and missing shots and getting his shots blocked. This game couldn't have gone any better for me, as I was hate watching this game. I don't care about Oregon either way, but I HATE everything about the Duke basketball program. Anytime they lose, that's a win for me.

What happened at the end of the game made me even happier and showed me Duke and Coach K's real personality. They know how to act like winners, but they sure as hell don't know how to take a loss. You have to be as gracious in a loss as you are in a win, but Duke basketball is the epitome of a sore loser. So, what happened, at the end of the game, Grayson Allen was moping and dribbling hard because he was upset at the outcome. Totally understandable. I've been on the side of a loss more than once or twice in a basketball game in my life and it really stinks. But, when the Oregon guard, I believe his last name is Brooks, went to give Allen a "hug" and say good game, Grayson Allen, the whiny, bitchy little baby showed up. He pushed Brooks off of him and went and whined to his coach that the Oregon guard was a sore winner. This, coming from one of the dirtiest players in men's college basketball. This coming from the same kid that intentionally trips players on opposing teams. Also, people say he was tripped by an Oregon player last night, he was not, he slipped making a move, then tried to make it look like a trip. Go back and watch the game, the defender's foot was nowhere near Allen's feet. Not even close. He lost his footing, then tried to cover it up, like a douchebag. Allen was also seen trash talking earlier in the game when he made a block. Yeah, you blocked one shot, good for you. But, where were you when Oregon was dunking all over you? Or where were you when Oregon was making three after three on you? That's right, you were playing non existent defense and their guys were destroying you on offense all night. You were a liability Grayson Allen.

Now after the game and the hug and push off, did the mighty Coach K confront his player and tell him that he needs to conduct himself in a proper manner? That's what a responsible and respectable coach should do, right? You have to discipline your own players when they act out and make a spectacle of themselves, correct? Well, Coach K did quite the opposite. He decided, in the line to shake hands after the game, it was his responsibility to confront this player that was just trying to say good game to Grayson Allen. He grabbed him and gave him a lecture about winning with class. He told him that what he did was wrong and classless. He said that his players would never do something like that had they won the game.

I say, SCREW YOU COACH K, YOU SUPREME ASSHOLE. You are the worst when it comes to everything. Sure, you are a legendary coach, but I didn't realize that you felt the responsibility to tell one of Dana Altman's players how to act. This kid does not go to Duke and has no ties with your program, so why are you lecturing him? What gives you that right? This is the exact definition of a sore loser, and it was on full display from a Hall of fame coach last night. If I was Dana Altman, I'd be absolutely livid with what coach K did last night. Imagine if the shoe was on the other foot and Altman did this to one of Duke's players, had Duke won. Major networks like ESPN, Bleacher Report, SI, ESPNU, all of them would have been crushing Altman. But, when it's the mighty Coach K, they all brush it off. What a crock.

Plus. for Coach K to have the gall to give this kid a lesson on winning with class, I mean, come on. He has coached some world class sore losers like Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley, JJ Redick and now, Grayson Allen. The list of punk ass, whiny little brats that he has coached could go on for miles and miles. Did he ever lecture these kids in a situation where it could be seen by everyone, absolutely not. He has been too busy heaping praise on their "tenacity" and "will to win". This one little act showed me pretty much everything I needed to reaffirm my hatred and displeasure with Duke and, more importantly, Coach K. Grayson Allen is a brat, this has been well established by me on the site, but he is a child, and he isn't even close to being the best player on the team, that's Brandon Ingram. Allen definitely deserves some blame for his actions last night, but Coach K deserves to be roasted by, not only me, but every respectable journalist there is because his behavior was childish. If my four year old did something like this, I would have put him in timeout for talking out of place. Coach K had no right telling another coaches player what he thinks and how he should conduct himself. This was a low class move by a very, very low class coach. I don't care how many titles, games or gold medals you have won, because you acted like a world class asshole last night. You showed all of us Duke haters who you really are and you gave us even more ammo to attack your character.

I have something to say to Coach K, you stink and I hope Duke never wins another title while you still are the coach there. You over stepped your bounds last night and I hope you realize that what you did was childish and wrong. Screw you Duke and screw you Coach K. I'm so glad you got your asses beat by Oregon last night. It was a glorious hate watch.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. The chaos of the tournament has been wothit just for Ty to see Michigan State and Duke both lose in spectacular fashion. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

LeBron Keeps Himself from Being One of the Greatest Players of All Time

How can LeBron be unhappy in Cleveland?

I was reading stories on Bleacher Report and ESPN and SI.com yesterday, to make myself angry I'm sure, and I came across one where LeBron James said that he hopes one day in the future, he gets to play on a team with Dwayne Wade, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony. He said he wants to play with his friends and he feels that this ultra super team could be created with him taking a significant pay cut. He also seems to believe that they could play together for one or two years and win a ring or two. Then, I was watching "PTI", as I do everyday, and Kornheiser and Wilbon brought up this same topic and they had very differing ideas. Wilbon seems to think that this is totally okay and had no problem with it. Kornheiser was the total opposite. He said that LeBron is always looking for a better situation than he is currently in. He said that LeBron is never happy with his current team and he is always looking to pair with a super star or two.

I couldn't agree with Kornheiser more.

I know that Wilbon can't fully tell the whole story because he is, for the most part, a basketball writer and he has built relationships with these guys, but he is also, notoriously, very biased towards teams and players he likes personally. He won't say a bad word about Derrick Rose, Jahlil Okafor, anyone from Chicago really, and he won't talk bad about the Cubs, Blackhawks or Bulls, no matter how good or bad they are. He is a very, very biased journalist, and that shouldn't be how he carries himself in his profession. Kornheiser is also biased for any team from Washington, but at least he has the guts to call out super star players.

I totally agree with Tony Kornheider about LeBron and this current story. Why would he say something like this right before the playoffs? Each team has about 12 regular season games left and while he should be preparing to lead his team to the finals again, he is opining to play basketball with his friends. Also, since he returned to Cleveland two years ago, they have let him do whatever he wants to do. He wanted them to trade Anthony Bennett and Andrew Wiggins so he could play with Kevin Love. The front office obliged. He "wrote" some phony coming home letter, trying to win back the fans that burned his jersey when he first left. The front office and Sports Illustrated obliged. When he complained about Kyrie Irving not passing enough last year, he went out and passed up every shot to "prove" that he was the teams true point guard and then bad mouthed Kyrie Irving on Twitter the next day. The front office didn't say a word. When they made the finals last year, he couldn't say anything that wasn't glowing about Tristan Thompson, basically spitting in Kevin Love's face. The front office did nothing about this. This season, they started out 30-11, but LeBron was upset with David Blatt and he wanted his buddy, Tyronn Lue, to be the head coach. Within a week of LeBron openly complaining to the media, Blatt was fired. Once again, the front office obliged their star player. I remind you, Blatt helped lead this team to the finals last year and had a 30-11 record when he was let go. Lue hasn't really set the coaching world on fire, going something like 14-8 or 15-7. Those aren't Red Auerbach numbers by any standard. LeBron still goes out and openly complains to the media about Love and Irving daily. He claims it's hard to play with Love "clogging" the lane. Bull shit. Love just sits at the three point line while LeBron dribbles for 20 seconds and shoots. He complains that Irving isn't a true point guard. Sure, he doesn't pass all that much, but he is a phenomenal ball handler and a great scorer. Also, LeBron, you wanted these two guys. You told the front office to keep Irving and to go out and trade for Love. It was your idea. He then had the front office get rid of Anderson Varejo, sign Tristan Thompson to a max contract, trade for Channing Frye, re up Matthew Dellavedova and not worry about the draft. But, none of that was good enough for him because they didn't sign Joe Johnson after the Nets bought him out. He really wanted Joe Johnson, and he let the media know it.

So, in less than two years, he has gotten his way, like a spoiled rotten little brat, but he still isn't happy with what he has created. I'm not the first, and I won't be the last to say it, but he is the star player, coach and GM of the Cavs. When they do all this, at his beck and call, it makes him the guy pulling all the strings. Don't get me wrong, I think LeBron is one of the greatest players of all time. He is a champion, multiple MVP winner and will go down as one of the best of all time. But, since his return to Cleveland, I'm beginning to believe that he is a whiner, a prima donna and possibly, the most uncoachable player of all time. Then, this story comes out. Sure, it sounds nice, but I guarantee, within two months, he would be unhappy with his role on this super team. He would clash with Chris Paul because they are both ball dominant players. They both need the ball in their hands at crucial moments. Paul is also very hard headed and would definitely fight with LeBron. He is very old, in basketball terms, right now too. Carmelo Anthony is a ball hog and has proven that he can't come up in clutch moments. This would drive James nuts. I also think the amount of iso ball and threes that Anthony takes would take it's toll on James very, very quick. He has already played with Wade, and they won two championships, but he was old during their last trip to the finals as teammates, and he would be extremely old if they team up again. Wade is also only good for about 50 quality games nowadays, so just imagine how few games he would be able to give his all in a couple of years. This all sounds good and well to James now, but I know he would get frustrated and fed up quicker than he has in his return to Cleveland.

What it all sums up to, I'm sick of James complaining and blaming everyone else for the faults of the team he has personally created. Quit opining for stars and deal with the hand you picked. Sorry that the Warriors and Spurs are historically good and one thousand times better than your Cavs team, but these are the guys you wanted. And stop saying this stuff to the media because it opens you up for criticism, which you don't handle well. Stop bitching and moaning like a baby and be happy that you get to play a game for a living and you make millions upon millions of dollars doing it. You also already have two rings. Charles Barkley would trade his whole career away for one of those rings. Also, Michael Jordan never openly complained about his teammates and he also won with guys like Steve Kerr, Bill Wennington and Luc Longley. Jordan would never want to make a super team just to win a title, he would will lower level pros up to his level and win with them. This complaining and whining is why you will never be as good as Jordan. This current story also proves why you will never be at Jordan's level. You are a great, great player, but you are also a world class whiner and you always think the grass is greener elsewhere. It's very off putting.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. His basketball knowledge was acquired through years of rec league trash talk. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Thank You Phife Dawg

I was going to write about one of my favorite bands today for the greatest American band debate but, I woke up and received a text from a friend of mine that Phife from A Tribe Called Quest had passed away. I know, I wrote a very extensive piece on ATCQ as one of the greatest American bands, but Phife's passing deserves a piece solely based on him.

I love ATCQ, but I really loved Phife. As I wrote in that blog, he was, by far, my favorite member of the group. I loved his delivery. The way he rhymed was ferocious and fiery. He could spit so fast, but you could also understand what he was saying. He was a killer on some of their most popular and famous songs. Go back and listen to him on tracks like "Stir it Up", "Stressed Out", "Can I Kick It", "Buggin Out", I mean, the list could go on and on. He had a delivery like no one else then or now in rap music. He's said that he didn't like his voice at first because it sounded so high pitched, but I loved it then and I loved it when it got gruffer. He was the best in one of the best groups of all time. Sure, he and Q Tip fought all the time, but who wouldn't get angry with someone that they've been friends with since they were toddlers. In the excellent Michael Rappaport documentary, "Beats, Rhymes and Life", I found myself siding with Phife over Q Tip in every argument that they had. He seemed like the more reasonable one of the two.

It's a shame that he's gone too because he never really did any solo work. He released one solo album in the early 2000's that's okay. But, he was working with renowned DJ, J Dilla, on a new album. That would have been tremendous. I knew that he had a lot of health issues. He had to get a new kidney awhile back and he was a severe diabetic. His diabetes was so bad, he'd miss shows and appearances because he couldn't function well enough to perform. He said himself that sugar was a drug to him. He couldn't get enough no matter how much he had. He even talked about things like Dr Pepper in his lyrics, so you know he loved sugar.

All this being said though, I thought he had so much more time left to live. He said in a recent interview that he was "in a good spot" and was "feeling pretty good". I took these words to heart. Being a fan, I just wanted him to be okay. I wanted to hear more music from him. I wanted ATCQ to get back together and perform some more live shows. I assumed all this was on the table. But, then I woke up to that text. Naturally, I had to check for myself and Google and Twitter confirmed my fears that he was gone. This is a real travesty. It's not on level of what happened yesterday in Brussels, but for the music world, this stinks. Phife will be missed deeply by myself and countless others. He was a true emcee and one of the best of all time.

Go back and read my piece on them, I heap the most praise on Phife, and it's not even close. I know I will be listening to ATCQ the rest of the day. It will make me sad, but also happy that, at the very least, I have five albums to hear Phife's great and timeless work. RIP Phife Dawg, you were a true legend and will go down as such in the future. I miss you already.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing. Follow him on twitter @tykulik.

The Movie of 2016 Will be "Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping"

The Popcorn is buttered. Now we wait

I know that there are some big movies coming out this summer. First of all, this week we have "Batman VS Superman: Dawn of Justice", which I'm not excited about at all. Go back and listen to the podcast from last week for my thoughts and complaints about it. Some big time superhero/action movies I am looking forward to come out this summer as well. Movies like "X-Men: Apocalypse" or "Captain America: Civil War". There's even some comedies that I am pumped for like "Ghostbusters" and "Keanu". But, I saw a trailer for a movie last week and it immediately stomped my excitement for any of those movies.

This movie is the one that I am most looking forward to seeing, and that's just based on a 2 minute trailer. The movie is the new Lonely Island movie, "Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping" (trailer NSFW). I am so very excited to see this movie. I love all the superhero, action and other comedies I mentioned, but none of them come remotely close to my excitement for "Popstar". The first trailer was released last week, as I said before, and it is riotous.

Andy Samberg plays the main character that is a Justin Bieber clone that calls himself Conner4Real. First things first, I love me some Andy Samberg. He was one of my favorite all time cast members while on "SNL". I absolutely adore the movie "Hot Rod", which I will touch on later. He was excellent in smaller roles in movies like "I Love You Man" and "The To Do List". He was awesome in the HBO tennis movie "7 Days in Hell", which I wrote about a long time ago. And he's so great on "Brooklyn 99". He has made so much stuff that I enjoy, even when he shows up in a crappy movie like "Grown Ups 2", I find his one scene the best scene in a terrible movie. Needless to say, I'm a huge Andy Samberg fan.

The other two members of the Lonely Island, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer, I am also a big fan of. The three of them make some hilarious parody hip hop as the Lonely Island, I own all three of their records. Go listen to songs like "I'm On a Boat", "Like A Boss", "Turtleneck and Chain", basically any music they put out. It's not only funny, but it is some damn good hip hop music. It's a parody, but it is good. The three of them are like a goofier version of the Beastie Boys, just not as talented as the Beastie Boys. But, I really like all the other stuff that Taccone and Schaffer have had their hands on. I enjoyed all the stuff they wrote and directed while a part of the writing and directing team over at "SNL". Go back and check out YouTube videos of Taccone dancing during bands rehearsals that were going to be on "SNL" that week. It's pretty hilarious. Taccone is also great in the smaller roles he takes on. He was excellent as Cupid on an episode of "Man Seeking Woman". He was great on his three episodes of "Parks and Rec" as the CEO of the internet company that takes over Pawnee in the future. He's funny and weird as Spazz on "The League". Basically, he falls in the same territory as Samberg for me. I like pretty much everything he is in and he makes it funnier and better when he shows up.

Akiva Schaffer is less in front of the camera. He is more of a writer and a director, but I pretty much like everything he does as well. I kind of enjoyed "The Watch", which he directed and whenever he directed an episode of "SNL", I could tell it was his because it was extra funny. He happens to be my favorite rapper of the three of them too. But, nothing compares to Shaeffer directing for "Hot Rod". I love, love, love this movie. It is so weird and goofy and absurd and hilarious, all at the same time. Schaffer directed this movie to perfection. He had all the actors, be it Samberg, Taccone, Danny McBride, Bill Hader, Ian McShane and even Isla Fisher, act as bizarre and as absurd as they could and they knock it out of the park. I will defend "Hot Rod" until the day I die. It is one of my all time favorite movies. It is so odd, but so damn good.

All this though, brings me back to "Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping". Schaffer directs and acts in the movie and Taccone and Samberg, more so Samberg, star in the movie. As I said before, Samberg is playing a version of Justin Bieber, but he plays it hilariously. The trailer is only two minutes, but I was able to glean from it that Connor4Real is a spoiled star and he's been that way since he was a baby. There's a scene in the trailer that shows him drumming like a pro, but he is a baby that can't even keep his head up straight. It is so funny. Connor is also a brat with an entourage that never says anything bad to him, or tell him no. He has so many people working for him and they are all yes men and women. Another scene shows him shooting baskets, he takes a no look shot, misses terribly, but everyone there tells him he made it. Again, hilarious. Joan Cusack plays his over bearing "momager" and she seems like she will be great in her role. Sarah Silverman is his publicist, and she looks super funny as well.

But, it is all about the Lonely Island guys. Samberg plays the title role and he is going to nail it. I just know he will because he is a good actor and he is a hilarious actor and this role is perfect for his comedy and his acting. I'm so excited to see him totally nail the role. Schaffer and Taccone are also super funny in the trailer as his childhood friends and future bandmates. Taccone plays his DJ who is just coasting on his friends fame. He too is a yes man and he also follows and does anything Connor tells him to do. He is the quintessential friend that is just happy to be involved and will do anything to stay friends with his ultra famous childhood friend. Schaffer plays a character that is in the boyband when they are younger, but he then moves to the woods and becomes Connor's songwriter. The scene where they show him in his woodshop, wearing all kinds of Carhartt gear, with a humongous beard, holding a birdhouse, is so funny. The screen flashes the words, "And his songwriter", and that's the next thing we see. It cracks me up every time.

As I'm sure you gathered by now, I am so, so pumped to see this movie. This has replaced all the other movies that I was excited to see. I'm still excited to see them, but not as excited as I am about "Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping". This has all the makings of a classic for me. It has over the top, silly humor. It will be raunchy and it stars three of my favorite comic actors, writers and directors working in Hollywood right now. I cannot wait for this movie and I will see it opening day, no matter what the critical reviews are. The critics hated "Hot Rod", but I love that movie and I saw it twice in the theaters. So, "Popstar" will be seen at least once by me in the theaters.

That's a promise I can, and will, easily fulfill.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He likes to dance in his underwear while he watches Saturday Night Live, sadly we have no recording of his moves. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Predicting the Rest of an Unpredictable Men's College Basketball Tournament

The current state of everyone's brackets

As I've done with my NBA preview, my NFL preview and my college basketball preview, I'm going to look back at what was right and wrong since the first weekend of the madness that is March is through. You can go back and read my five things I thought would happen before the tournament started and you can listen to our mini episode of the podcast to hear my initial thoughts.

Right out of the gate, I was way off about Michigan State, as was almost everyone else. They really laid an incredible egg against Middle Tennessee State. I don't want to hear about other reporters saying that MTSU was wrongly seeded and that they are a really good team either. Sure, they won 20 plus games, but just look at what happened against a very mediocre Syracuse team yesterday. Michigan State would have dismantled that same Syracuse team had they taken care of business on Friday, but they didn't. MSU got out played, out hustled and out coached by a very inferior team. This has to be the biggest upset in the history of the tournament. Sure, NC State had no business beating Houston when they had Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler and Norfolk State beat a much better Missouri team in 2012, but this win by MTSU was, at least in my lifetime, the biggest upset ever. MSU didn't even choke away this game, MTSU just straight up beat them, never trailing. I assumed that MSU's size and experience would make, not only this game a walk through, but that they'd coast to the title. I was way wrong, but so was pretty much everyone else. MSU blew it and they lose a ton of players to graduation. This was a major shake up that busted millions of brackets all over the country.

Then, there were my thoughts on the ACC that I was way off base on as well. Of the 16 teams remaining, 6 are from the ACC. That's impressive. Miami beat Wichita State with relative ease. Sure, WSU made it close, even taking a one point lead in the second half, but Miami started and finished that game strong and they deserved to win. Notre Dame, on the other hand, has been incredibly luck in their run to the sweet sixteen. They were down 12 at halftime to Michigan, then Michigan went ice cold and they started to make some clutch shots and Michigan still had a chance at the end until Zak Irvin took a terrible three. Also, Michigan wasn't even supposed to make that a game. Then, yesterday against Stephen F Austin, they needed a miracle tip in with one second left. SFA should have won that game and all they needed to do was box a guy out and they'd still be in it. I still don't trust Notre Dame. Syracuse got lucky with their draw. They were bigger than Dayton, then they got to play MTSU. They don't impress me at all. Duke was down at halftime against UNC Wilmington and it took the refs giving them every single call in the second half for them to win in round one. Then, they come out and shot a ridiculous percentage from three against Yale, push their lead all the way up to 27 at one point in the second half, then let Yale get back in it, getting as close as four points. Duke can't rebound and they will lose soon. Virginia has looked good. They play a slower style of basketball and they play suffocating defense. They've had an easy draw, but they have looked pretty good in their two wins. They could make final four noise if they keep this play up.

The team I was hardest on, UNC, has looked really, really good. They look like the team that was the preseason number one pick and a lot of people's pick to win the title. They cruised in round one and then they absolutely throttled Providence in round two. They look scary good right now, especially since Marcus Paige is making shots. I regret not having more respect for them. They could get to the title game if they keep it up.

My two play in 11 seeds really let me down. Michigan looked sloppy against Tulsa, but they won. Then, they came out on fire in the first half against Notre Dame, but fizzled in the second half. They should have won, but they couldn't finish, that was their problem all year long. Wichita State looked really good against Vanderbilt in their play in win, but they came out completely flat and ice cold against Miami. They put themselves in too big a hole and they could never get out of it. I was let down by both these teams. Northern Iowa also had a huge choke last night when they let Texas A&M make up a 12 point deficit in 40 seconds. I said, on the podcast, I thought they could make a run, but they really blew it last night. That was probably the biggest choke job I've ever witnessed. At least Gonzaga, another double digit seed I liked, has looked pretty good. They've won both their games handily and now they get to face an inferior Syracuse team for a shot at the elite eight.

The Big 12 has been a let down for me. I thought that they'd represent 75 percent of the final four. Sure, Kansas and Oklahoma are still there and they look good too. KU has had no problem with their first two games and they should coast to the final four. And Oklahoma, while VCU put a scare in them, made in on the heels of Buddy Hield. He has to be the player of the year now after MSU and Denzel Valentine's shocking and embarrassing loss. Without Hield yesterday, Oklahoma doesn't win that game. He is a scoring machine. But, the Baylor's and West Virginia's of the world really blew it. Baylor got outplayed by Yale. Baylor was bigger, but Yale out rebounded them. Side note, if you want to see something truly great, go back and watch the Baylor postgame conference when a reporter asked a Baylor player how they got out rebounded by Yale. This player's response is priceless and hilarious. Baylor would have crushed Duke had they taken care of business, but now we will never know. West Virginia looked bad in their opener. SFA did anything it wanted at anytime against WVU. I thought WVU had final four potential, but has Bob Huggins ever really done anything of note since leaving Cincinnati except for blowing winnable games. That game was a joke and WVU looked pretty terrible.

I was also wrong about a Big Ten team winning the title. I thought it would be MSU in a cake walk. I was wrong and so was the majority of everyone else. The Big Ten still has three teams left, but who really believes Maryland or Wisconsin will win the title? I know in my preseason preview I picked Maryland, but that was a straight up guess and after watching them this past weekend, there is no way they are a championship level team. And Wisconsin got very lucky in both games. They were ice cold against Pitt, but Pitt was even colder. Then, they hit a buzzer beater to beat Xavier. That play was beautiful, but it should have never happened. That charge that was called on Xavier was one of the worst calls in a basketball game at any level. That ref wanted to determine the outcome of the game and that should never be the case. But, that terrible call let us witness one of the best in bounds plays of all time. There is no way either of Maryland or Wisconsin wins the title. Indiana, on the other hand, I do believe in. I had them picked to beat Kentucky and they looked decent doing it. They made big plays when they needed to and got stops when they needed to. They are the Big Ten's best shot at a title this year. 

Where we stand now, we have 6 ACC teams, 3 Big Ten Teams, 3 Big 12 teams, 1 Big East team, 1 SEC team, 1 Pac 12 team and 1 mid major. The way I see it now, the Big 12 is not getting all three in, but they have an excellent shot at 2. Iowa State will probably lose to Virginia later this week, KU should have no problem with Maryland, then they will get the winner of Miami-Villanova, which should be another cake walk for them. Oklahoma gets a very young and inexperienced Texas A&M team they should beat, then the winner of Oregon, the most overrated one seed of all time perhaps, and Duke, who I have ZERO trust in. They can win their next two games with ease. Unfortunately for the Big Ten, Maryland will probably lose to KU, Wisconsin can and should beat Notre Dame, but then they get the winner of Indiana-UNC who would crush them, and that leaves Indiana, and they have to face a red hot UNC team right now and I just don't see them beating UNC. The ACC's best shot, of the 6 remaining teams they have left, is either UNC or Virginia. I think Miami will have it's hands full with Villanova. Duke will probably lose to Oregon. Syracuse is going to get destroyed by Gonzaga. But, Virginia should beat Iowa State, setting up a showdown with Gonzaga, in what would be a great game. And UNC, if they beat Indiana, will coast over either Notre Dame or Wisconsin. UNC has the easiest and most likely path for an ACC team. Sorry Pac 12, Oregon will not represent your conference in the final four. St, Joe's should have won last night, but either Duke or the winner of Texas A&M-Oklahoma will end your season. Same thing for the SEC. A&M is too young and too inexperienced and they also got incredibly lucky to still be in this tournament, their season will end soon enough. Villanova will be its usual choking self soon, probably against Miami. They will find a way to lose because that is what they do. Which leaves me with Gonzaga. I love Gonzaga this year and they have been very impressive thus far. They will beat Syracuse which will most likely set them up against Virginia. I think they can easily win that game and go to the final four. They are playing top notch basketball at the right time.

So, if I have to pick a final four with the 16 remaining teams, I will go with KU in the South, Oklahoma in the West, UNC in the East and Gonzaga in the Midwest. I think from those four teams, KU and UNC will play for the title and I think KU wins. That's how I see it now. I will admit that this tournament has been fun to watch. While it may not always be appealing to your eyes, at least there's been buzzer beaters and upsets galore after the first weekend. Hopefully, that continues throughout the rest of this wacky and wild tournament.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He takes gret solace in the fact that not only his, but every realistic person out there, has a busted bracket. It is madness if you are not following Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Batman v. Batman v. Batman. A Millennial View on the Dark Knight

Just hanging out waiting for a new Batman movie

With the new Batman and Superman movie coming out soon, which I'm not looking forward to, I went back and watched almost all the "Batman" movies and I have to say, at least for my generation, the Christopher Nolan trilogy is, hands down, the best.

Don't get me wrong, I love the two that Tim Burton did. He created a visual of Gotham City that was 100 percent what I imagined it looked like. Michael Keaton as Batman was absolutely phenomenal. Those movies were great. Keaton was awesome, Jack Nicholson as the Joker was great, Christopher Walken was good, Michelle Pffeifer was very good looking and played Catwoman very well and Danny DeVito's portrayal as the Penguin still scares me to this day. Those were all very good, but they were before my time. I didn't see them until I was in my teens, so I didn't understand the relevance and revival of the "superhero" movie. Tim Burton brought the superhero movie back from the dead after the disaster that was "Superman 3" and "Superman 4".

The first Batman movie I saw, and was excited to see, in the theaters was "Batman Forever". I was excited about this, not for Val Kilmer as Batman, but the fact that Jim Carrey was cast as the Riddler. I also thought that Tommy Lee Jones as Two Face was a weird choice that could be either good or bad, no in between. Needless to say, "Batman Forever" was a disappointment. I did not enjoy anything about this movie. Kilmer was very blah as Batman, Tommy Lee Jones was downright terrible as Two Face and Jim Carrey just couldn't find the common ground between the campiness of the TV show, starring Adam West, which I really enjoy, and the seriousness of the real world that Batman lives in. He tried, but he failed. I was pretty upset that I wasted my parents money and my friends time by making them see this movie with me.

Then, Joel Schumacher made the god awful "Batman and Robin". This movie has been beaten to death, and rightfully so. "Batman and Robin" is an abomination. It is one of the worst movies that has ever been made. Everyone knows it and everyone agrees. It's a pile of garbage. Every decision from the director, writers, producers and actors is baffling and terrible. It is so, so bad. But, the one good thing that came out of the trash heap that is "Batman and Robin", they had to completely scrap whatever Schumacher had planned next and basically start all over again.

They waited a pretty long time, but in 2005, Christopher Nolan released part one of his trilogy, "Batman Begins". This movie came out around the same time that "Star Wars Episode Three" came out. I think readers and listeners of the site and podcast know which movie I was more excited about. But, I didn't really know who Christopher Nolan was. I had heard of him and had seen the movie "Memento", which is great, but I was a bit concerned how he would handle a superhero movie. I also didn't know all that much about Christian Bale. I hadn't really heard of him at that point. I knew he was in "American Psycho" and that he was in the very underrated "The Machinist", but other than that, I couldn't have picked him out of a lineup. So, I was cautious with my optimism about the new direction. Then, I saw "Batman Begins" and it totally revived the Caped Crusader from the dead. This was a very good, well written and well acted movie. What I enjoyed most about the new direction was the fact that Nolan didn't focus on making a superhero movie, instead, he made a crime drama that happened to have a superhero as the main character. Nolan also brought to life how psychotic and how weird Batman truly is. I mean, as a child he saw his parents murdered and then he grows up to become a vigilante that dresses like a bat. That's pretty insane. Nolan and Bale brought that to life. Nolan's version of Gotham was darker than Burton's. He took what Tim Burton created and improved on in dramatically, in my opinion. I love Burton's vision, and he created this world, but Nolan made it better. I also really enjoyed that Nolan didn't feel that he had to have a big time villain as the bad guy in part one of his trilogy. Sure, Ra's Al-Ghul was there, but Scarecrow is the bad guy in this movie and he is terrifying. The scenes where he makes people go crazy are very scary and when Batman turns the tables and infects Scarecrow with craziness, one of the coolest, yet scariest scenes in a movie that I've ever seen. Nalon also set up that in the next movie the Joker would be there. Also, before I get to the next movie, Gary Oldman is awesome as Commissioner Gordon. Great casting choice.

A couple of years later, we got "The Dark Knight". This movie is a masterpiece, a la "The Godfather" or "Goodfellas" or even a movie like "Heat". Nolan took the crime drama and used it so perfectly in "The Dark Knight". This is such a wonderful, classic movie that my son will look back on like I look back on "The Godfather". Bale is, once again, tremendous as Batman. He exudes the psychotic, yet classy side of Bruce Wayne so well. He toes that line to perfection. But, the absolute star of this movie is Heath Ledger as the Joker. I mean, he won an Oscar for this role. How many "superhero" movies can claim that they have an Oscar winner? Ledger's portrayal of the Joker is timeless. He is crazy and ruthless and solely focused on his goal of destroying Gotham City. Scenes like when he makes a "pencil disappear", classic. Or, when the movie opens and there's the big bank robbery and bad guys are killing other bad guys, awesome. The scene where he slides down a mountain of cash, pours gasoline all over it and burns it, wonderful. His cronies look at him with a bewildered look and he plainly and straight faced tells them, that he doesn't care about money, he only cares about destruction, is so great. But, the best scene is when he is in the jail, talking to Batman telling him that they are the same person, I mean, the speech he gives is incredible and the viewer finds themselves agreeing with the Joker. Batman is crazy and it took a speech from an equally crazy villain for all of us to realize it. Batman and the Joker are the same person, with the only difference being that Batman claims to fight for justice, where the Joker just wants destruction. It is such a bummer, on so many levels, that Heath Ledger passed away, because his version of the Joker could have appeared in the third installment of the franchise. He was never killed in "The Dark Knight", in fact, Batman refuses to kill him while holding over a ledge, instead pulling him back and making him suffer the consequence of what he's done and what he has created. "The Dark Knight" is legendary.

I didn't know how Nolan would follow up his true gem, but I feel he did an excellent job with "The Dark Knight Rises". I know it's hard to follow a masterpiece, just look at "The Godfather Part Three", but Nolan did it right. In "The Dark Knight Rises", we were introduced to the real Bane, not the stupid one in "Batman and Robin". This Bane, played by Tom Hardy, was a well thought out character that had a backstory and everything. The great thing about Bane, he was very similar to the Joker, where they both wanted the same thing, destruction of Gotham, but they both tell Batman that they are the same person. Batman is just as crazy as the Joker and Bane and it took Nolan telling us this in two movies and I love it. Bane is such a cool bad guy. This movie had another great opening scene, where Bane and his cronies hijack a plane mid air, is so cool. I was immediately on board for the next 2 and a half hours. I couldn't wait to see where they took this movie and how they ended it. It was so good the rest of the way. Anne Hathaway was very good as Catwoman. Gary Oldman was crushing it again as Commissioner Gordon. Joseph Gordon Levitt was very good as John Blake, AKA Robin. Marion Coittilard was good as the villain Talia Al-Ghul. but, no one was as good as Tom Hardy as Bane. He was the absolute star of this movie. And, much like "The Dark Knight", I found myself siding with the bad guy, Bane, in this movie. I actually wanted him to "take control" and to crush Gotham City. I really enjoyed "The Dark Knight Rises", no, it's not as good as "The Dark Knight", but it's damn close.

Christopher Nolan revived Batman from the dead. Christian Bale did his part, but it was Nolan's directing and writing that really made these three movies great and made them classics for my generation, the millennials. I will watch these movies for the rest of my life, and I will enjoy more each time. Nolan made relatable bad guys that people have rightful reasons to root for and I love that. These three particular Batman movies are classics and will be talked about for the rest of time when superhero and just flat out movies are talked about. They are the best.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He will tell you all about on tomorrow's installment of the X Millennial Man Podcast, make sure you lend your ears. Read more from Ty on his twitter @tykulik.