I don't know if I should call Brian Walsby a drummer/cartoonist or a cartoonist/drummer, because he's really good at both. But I can tell you that his new book is excellent. Click through for verbiage past and present about Walsby, his music and his visual art.

Way back in the early 1990s, I remember some talk about an album in the works to drum up awareness and support for Leonard Peltier, the American Indian Movement member imprisoned for the murder of two FBI agents killed during a 1975 shootout. Peltier has been a cause celebre in left-leaning circles for years, with many musicians and artists claiming he did not receive a fair trial.

But time went on and the album never materialized. In fact, I'd forgotten all about it until last week, when a link turned up. "Exiled in the Land of the Free: An Album for Leonard Peltier" is now available for free download, and the contributors' list includes some Triangle content -- two tracks by Corrosion of Conformity (one of them backing up Rage Against the Machine's Zack De La Rocha) and another by Superchunk. Check it out while you can.

(Thanks, Sue.)

Head on over to the blog Raleigh Philosophical Society, where there is a discussion in progress about songs that namecheck the City Of Oaks in the lyrics -- including songs by the Connells, Corrosion of Conformity, Avett Brothers, James Brown and others.

If nothing else, it's a good antitdote to "Shine, Raleigh, Shine" (the City of Raleigh's regrettable attempt to come up with a "theme song" back in 2007).

(Thanks, Matt.) 

Guitar Hero: Metallica, the next installment in the massively popular computer-game series, will debut late next month with a track list heavy on 1980s-vintage Metallica favorites. There is a local angle, however. The track list includes 21 songs by other acts, Metallica's ancestors and descendants, including Judas Priest, Foo Fighters -- and Corrosion of Conformity, the seminal Raleigh hardcore band.

"Albatross," from COC's 1994 album "Deliverance," is the song on the game. "Deliverance" peaked at a modest No. 155 on the Billboard 200 sales chart; but the album has been a steady seller over the years, still moving between 5,000 and 10,000 copies per year. Its current sales total is 461,000 units, according to Nielsen Soundscan. So if the Metallica game can drum up a bit of interest in COC's catalog, "Deliverance" is just 39,000 copies away from earning a gold record (for 500,000 sold), a major milestone for a band that's never gone out of its way to be particulary commercial.

That'd be way cool.

(Thanks, John.)

ADDENDUM: Writes Jake Seaton from NBC-17, "I believe this is the fourth Triangle band to be featured in a music simulation game. First was Valient Thorr in GH2, then Between the Buried and Me in Rock Band 2, then Ryan Adams in GH: World Tour, now this."

SECOND ADDENDUM (3/13/09): COC "Blind."