Yeah, I spent 1997 listening to that Blur album and getting into Elvis Costello, too.

Mandatory upvote for referencing Jean-Jacques Perrey.

Cherry Poppin Daddies apparently were a ska band before they were a lousy swing band, though.

Yeah, I think the whole premise of this article rests on how important/great you think Fat of the Land is. Because if we were currently living that week right now, it'd be the main thing the AV Club was reporting on.

Yeah. Their songs were good and you got the sense that they would be playing that swing music in trashy little clubs with or without record company approval. Their rep was probably hurt more by being tied culturally to crap like the Cherry Poppin' Daddies than any of the music they actually ever recorded or released.

Awww… I like those guys. It helps that you got the sense they'd be making those same records even if there'd never been a swing revival.

Even back then I said it sounded like a lost Jackson 5 song.

I thought it was above the Marvel average for sure. But it's just one movie. The idea that Marvel is on the ropes against an ascendant DC is just silly.

I'm pretty sure if Kirby hadn't created them, they'd have been entirely forgotten by now.

I gotta say, the hype for this album was pretty crazy, to the point where I was already convinced it was an all-timer before I'd even ears it.

My high school garage band decided we wanted to use Surge in cooking, so we marinated a steak in the stuff. The results were predictably terrible, but we still bragged about inventing Surge Steaks for weeks.

That's the most 1997 story I think I've ever heard.

Yeah, I think I didn't watch my first DVD until '99 or 2000. I remember it was October Sky and I could see visible compression artifacts.

It was Leomania, mostly. The people I know who saw the movie multiple times were girls/young women who were obsessed with him.

I mean, yeah the Pat sketches look trashier and more mean-spirited as time goes on. The points being made about Pat not being transgender are true, but also sort of only technically correct. She wasn't transgender, but the audience was definitely being invited to laugh at Pat for being sexually ambiguous. That's…

I know this is old, but I just realized Gladstone Gander is my choice. I love how cocky and shameless he is - he isn't just lucky, he depends on his luck to get by.

"Crap. They've scheduled me to fight the Punisher for the next three weeks. I hate that guy!"

Certainly below average, but I still kind of liked him just for being so unusual.

It wasn't as radical as Zooropa, though. That's one damn weird album.

Yeah, I had the same thought. Like they want to write upbeat happy music but it all comes out broken, because they're miserable intellectuals who could never actually be content just making happy dance music.