Bad cover alert: ‘Crazy Train,’ G.I. Joe style

What’s a big-budget action movie without a snotty, anonymous, corporate-rock-still-sucks punk/metal/NIN-ish cover of a classic rock song or TV theme? You had My Chemical Romance doing “Desolation Row” for Watchmen, MxPx playing the Scooby Doo theme, Green Day defacing the Simpsons theme, and zillions more that I can’t remember just now. (Can you think of any good ones? I would love to get a list going.)

Here’s the first contribution of summer 2009 that I’ve noticed so far: In the background of this new trailer for G.I. Joe (above), you can hear CTRL-ALT-suck being applied to Ozzy’s “Crazy Train.” It starts at about 0:30. No soundtrack that I can find yet, so I guess we’ll have to wait to find out whether Disturbed, Papa Roach or Trapt did this one.

Monster-about-to-chomp-babe poster of the day: ‘The Brutal River’ (2005)

Ali Akbar Khan, RIP

In case you missed the obits over the weekend, Ali Akbar Khan, the great sarod player, who along with Ravi Shankar (his brother-in-law) was one of the foremost ambassadors of Indian music to the West, died on Thursday at age 87. I saw him live only once, at Lincoln Center in August 2000, and I still often think of it as one of the few times a big outdoor concert has really transported me.

Khan’s life had a heroic, old-world sweep that may not be possible anymore. Born in what is now Bangladesh, he started as a court musician — yes, like Haydn — and then got into the movie business and parachuted into New York. From William Grimes’s obit:

Defying his father, Mr. Khan moved to Bombay and began writing scores for films, including Chetan Anand’s “Aandhiyan” (1952), Satyajit Ray’s “Devi” (1960) and Tapan Sinha’s “Hungry Stones” (1960). His father, a friend of the director of “Hungry Stones,” went to see the film and said: “My goodness, who composed the music? He is great.” On being informed that it was his son, the elder Khan sent a telegram of forgiveness....

Intent on exposing Westerners to Asian music, [Yehudi] Menuhin brought Mr. Khan to New York in 1955 for a performance at the Museum of Modern Art, where Mr. Khan made what is believed to be the first long-playing record of Indian classical music in the United States, “Music of India: Morning and Evening Ragas,” for Angel. He scored another first when he performed on Alistair Cooke’s television program “Omnibus.”

In this day and age it’s not terribly easy to find Ali Akbar Khan records. There are no longer many record stores large or good enough to stock an Indian section with more than the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack, so you’re down to Jackson Heights or the long digital tail. Amazon has a decent selection, but Khan’s iTunes page is a rare ripoff: There are dozens of $9.99 “albums,” each featuring a single 20-minute raga.

eMusic is a little better, and even with their big price jump it’ll only cost you 40 cents or so per track. Both iTunes and eMusic sell this excellent album of mid-1960s recordings, which I’ve been enjoying for years.

Monster-about-to-chomp-babe poster of the day: ‘Big Alligator River’ (1979)

A.K.A. Alligators, A.K.A. Il Fiume del Grande Caimano.

‘Bastardi senza gloria’

Monster-about-to-chomp-babe poster of the day: ‘Crocodile’ (1981)

A.K.A. Chorake.

Monster-about-to-chomp-babe poster of the day: ‘Grizzly’ (1976)

Museum of propaganda: ‘Censored’

Monster-about-to-chomp-babe poster of the day: ‘Open Water’ (2003)

Sad news about Chris Knox of Tall Dwarfs

The Daily Swarm relays the news from various New Zealand sources:

New Zealand rock musician Chris Knox is unable to talk after suffering a stoke on Thursday.

He had apparently been able to drink water and answer basic questions while being taken to hospital, Kean told The Dominion Post.

And here’s a line from the family’s statement, which you can read on the blog they created for updates and comments:

Chris is not in pain and is responsive to family and friends who are very optimistic and focused on Chris’s well being. He enjoyed his vegetable frittata this morning but I suffered the classic Knox withering look when I mentioned beer.

The Tall Dwarfs’ last album, The Sky Above, the Mud Below, was my No. 2 favorite of 2003.

Monster-about-to-chomp-babe poster of the day: ‘Octopus 2: River of Fear’ (2001)

Monster-about-to-chomp-babe poster of the day: ‘Octopus’ (2000)

Bound to be a babe in there somewhere, right?