I don't know if any of you know this, but if you don't Ted Leo is the shit. Aside from the fact that he's just a cool dude who makes great music (Shake the Sheets got me through finals my sophomore year of high school) Ted's one hell of a performer: when I saw him he tore through his set looking both awesome and ridiculous (the former cos he can shred, and the latter because his mouth opens so wide he looks like a muppet. And he pulls it off).

There is, of course, something that I left out. Ted is a pretty hardcore political activist, and he never fails to makes his voice known be it through protest songs (like pretty much all of Living With The Living) or stage banter. This time, however, Ted and his Pharmacists have outdone themselves: in response to the violence at the RNC a couple of weeks ago, Ted recorded and released the Rapid Response digital ep, the profits of which are going to both Democracy Now! (the host of which, Amy Goodman, was the focus of one of the biggest and most widely reported stories coming out of St. Paul that week) and the Minneapolis chapter of an organization called Food Not Bombs. I cannot impress upon you guys enough a) how important this is and b) how awesome Ted is. I'm not going to post any tracks from the EP in the hopes that some of you will go out and buy it, but I will leave you with a Ted present or two. Please, please, please buy the EP.
It's even pretty good.

• RAPID RESPONSE EP (via Touch and Go)

• Ted Leo and the Pharamacists - Counting Down the Hours