Black Grape Debate The Immaculate Conception Of Bruce Wayne

Depending on which side of the alt-rock generation gap you fall on, Shaun Ryder might be best known to you as the frontman of the Happy Mondays or as a disembodied head in a Gorillaz video. But as an American teen in the ’90s who cared not about “baggy” this or “Madchester” that, all I knew was that Ryder’s short-lived post-Mondays combo, Black Grape, had by far some of the most entertaining videos to creep into 120 Minutes rotation from the pop charts across the pond. The video for my personal favorite, “Reverend Black Grape,” is appallingly nowhere to be found on YouTube. But almost as good is “Kelly’s Heroes,” which features Ryder and a rapper named Kermit (!) robbing a bank while exchanging non-sequiturs like “Jesus was a black man,” “no, Jesus was Batman!” No word yet on whether Ryder and Bez, his bandmate in both Black Grape and the Happy Mondays, will cause more domestic disturbances with a reunion of their less famous group anytime soon. [YouTube]