A supergroup comprised of Danny “Daddy-O Grande” Amis of Los Straitjackets, Esteban “Crunchy” Lopez and “Señor” Caleb Ramirez of Los Acapulcos, and Enrique “Truko” Casasola of Los Twin Tones, MCTF is all that you could want out of a Mexicano surf rock quartet. On their self titled debut, the group charges out of the gate with crunchy guitars and running bass lines with the track “Tamales Oaxaquenos.”

Dig it: Mexican Chili Taco Fiesta, "Tamales Oaxaquenos "

Sorry no video this week.

The Flaming Lips have been around since forever. I remember seeing them at the now-gone but legendary Crow’s Nest in Iowa City in the early 1980’s when they were just a moderatly interesting, albeit fun alt-rock band. When I worked at KRUI, they cut a cool faux-rap station ID. They were amusing, but forgettable.

Flash forward to 1990. I had just come back from Eastern Europe and was flopping in a house in De Kalb and somone played In A Priest-Driven Ambulance. It blew my mind and I asked who the band was. When I was told it was the Flaming Lips, I couldn’t believe it.

Since then they have released one trippy album after another. Some have more catchy tunes than others but all are magnificently produced, interesting and often quite tender. One of my favorite bands of all time. “Do You Realize,” is one of my favorite songs. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots came out in 2002, just as my oldest daughter, Molly was getting interested in music and listening to music with Daddy. I used to play this song for her and it remains, “Our Song.”

Today is the 30th anniversary of the best album ever made, The Clash’s, “London Calling.” You beg to differ? You’re probably older than me. I wasn’t really consuming music when these others were released. Besides, even the Beatles were never called, “The Only Band That Matters.”

The “official video” has embedding disabled. So, here is Joe belting out the title track with the Pogues in 1998. I saw him with them that year. Sadly it was the closest I ever came to seeing The Clash live.

Return to Cookie Mountain is a pretty good, if dark album. Their latest release from last summer, Dear Science is just genius. TV On The Radio is one of the best bands out there right now.