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
TWO. THREE. FOUR. FIVE. SIX. SEVEN. EIGHT. AND BACK.
Why wouldn't you listen to french house featuring Jane Fonda workout vocals? It's pretty friggin great. Made by Bob Sinclar and One Half of Daft Punk.
For disclaimer purposes, know the following things:
1) I am a very, very liberal blogger
2) I will keep politics out of this blog as much as possible, but
3) Sometimes these things are just too important, and I have no where else to write about them.
This week in St. Paul, the Republican National Convention is taking place. This, in and of itself, is not a big deal. What is a big deal is the way the Republicans have treated the convention as an excuse to stomp on the Constitution, by limiting the freedoms of speech and press with a force that seems to far outweigh what is right or reasonable. The St. Paul police department has arrested hundreds of demonstrators and reporters (including Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and, apparently, a New York Post reporter who shouted "For Christ's sake, it's a Republican paper!" before being hauled away). As far as I can tell, and for reasons that I will never understand, no major news outlets are carrying the story. It is our job to bring this news to the people. All day tomorrow, I will be wearing a sign that says "FREE ST. PAUL". I hope those of you who are brave enough to stand up to this foolish tyranny will join me. Don't just stand by. This is how we got where we are in the first place. Write your Representatives, your Senators. Make sure that they know that we know they are paying attention. For us to be successful, our elected officials need to know they are accountable to the people that elect them.
For those of you that are interested, check out the Democracy Now! clip below:
So I'm coining a new internet catchphrase: "The Mini-Mix". Probably somebody's thought of it before, but they can go shove it up their ear. So, the mini-mix. What is it? It's a small mixtape of only two or three songs. Why only two or three? Well, not many people come to blogs to listen to full fledged 1.2 hour mixtapes. I mean, who has the time? Mixes are things you make for your friends and your loved ones, not something you go scrawling through the blogosphere hunting for. At least I don't. Don't take this as a diss against mixtapes, because I love them to death, and I think they're an under-appreciated art form, but I just don't have the time or the willpower to download and listen to every hour long mix made by some blogger I've never met in my life. The mini-mix is just an idea I have as a way of combining the mixtape with blogging into a form that's bite-sized and manageable, that you can actually download and listen to, that combines the extraordinary magic of inspired song sequencing with the lightspeed-immediacy of the internet.
So, here is Mini Mix, Volume I, and on it we have:
- Bright Eyes w/ Emmylou Harris - We Are Nowhere and It's Now
- Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton - Reading In Bed
- Death in Vegas - Girls
- The Jesus and Mary Chain - Just Like Honey
You can download the mix by clicking the link below. Have fun. Hope you enjoy our little experiment.
- Mini Mix, Volume I (Total Run Time: 14.4 Minutes)
For those of you who do not know, I am a student at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. One of the scariest things about coming to college in a town that is essentially a forest is the lack of shows (or at least the difficulty of getting to Poughkeepsie to take the train so I can get to the city so I can go to a show so I can crash on a friend's floor, etc) that take place up here. Because of this, I'll take whatever live music I can get and so I found myself in a tiny building on campus waiting for the Bard equivalent of hometown heroes, a band called The Easy Tease. I was a little skeptical at first, not least because the band consists of one drum, one piano, one banjo, and one trombone.
This extremely unusual foursome put on a hell of show. They had the entire hall jumping up and down, exhibiting a unity that I have found to be rare at shows, even when the audience is all of one mind. Sometimes the reminded me of Modest Mouse, other times of something different entirely. In honor of that show, and in honor of me starting actual college on Monday, here are three songs by The Easy Tease. PLEASE PLEASE check them out, and please order the CD. You won't be disappointed.
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