Category: Music

Confirmed.

This also confirmed: I didn’t give a shit in 1996, and I don’t care now.

Some background info: I recently re-entered college after a six year break to drink, do drugs, and watch a lot of [adult swim]. Anyhow, I am now back on the staff of the college radio station and am part of what is called “music staff.” This is the group of indie elitists who decides what makes it into rotation at the station.

I get to the music staff meeting on Sunday evening, whacked to the gillls on cold meds, and begin sorting through the new cds. As I discover new music that is not really grabbing my interest, I hear someone say a bit quizzically “Weird Al Yankovic?!”

Without missing a beat, I’m all over it. “I’ll do it!”

Beat. Pause. Melissa (music director) looks at me and says, “Y’know… you can just have it. It’s not going to make it into rotation, and if it gets to the stacks, someone will probably play it.”

This causes me to think, “And how would that be bad?” However, I’m not going to turn down a free copy of a cd I want two days before the release date, no matter how elitist and shitty that viewpoint is.

In revenge, I’m planning a fall break freeform shift involving the entire Weird Al discography. Four hours, fuckers- and in the middle of the day when everybody’s listening. That’ll learn you to maybe have an open mind every now and then.

Punknews has a great article up right now about the availability of Nazi bonehead punk band Skrewdriver’s Hail the New Dawn via iTunes.

A very nice interview with CD Baby president Derek Sivers explains how the album came to be available via the Apple download service. Well written investigative journalism that takes about two minutes to read. Definitely worth your time.

For information on how to deal with idiots who feel the need to follow outdated, ignorant, ass-hatted views of racism, sexism, homophobia, and religious descrimination, check out groups like Anti Racist Action, Plea For Peace, and UNICEF (for the children).

Dead Kennedys – “Nazi Punks Fuck Off“
Leftover Crack – “Nazi White Trash“

What An Attention Whore.

Britney Spears’ rapper wannabe hubby, Kevin Federline, reportedly consumed by jealousy over Justin Timberlake’s singing success, is telling friends his debut album – to be released next month – will “pulverize Justin on the charts,” a source told Star maggie.

But now that Timberlake’s ex-love Britney has hooked her hubby up with Jive Records, the former N’SYNC member’s record label, K-Fed has “convinced himself that he’s going to be the next Justin, only better.”

Justin’s PR rep Ken Sunshine reportedly “laughed hysterically” when told of Federline’s grandiose gab.

Someone give this man a reality show. He’s like the stupidity of Jessica Simpson, Rick James’ ego (minus the talent), and an episode of Cops all stuffed into a sweaty wifebeater. UPN oughtta snap this wigger up, post haste.

Ticket On-Sale Date and Additional Bands Announced for the Touch and Go Records 25th Anniversary Celebration at the 10th Annual Hideout Block Party

* 14 bands added to the lineup
* Tickets go on sale Friday, June 16 @ 10AM

As previously announced, 25 Touch And Go bands will be performing on September 8, 9 and 10 as part of the Touch And Go Records 25th Anniversary Celebration at the Hideout’s 10th Annual Block Party. In addition to the nine previously announced bands, Touch and Go Records and the Hideout are happy to welcome fourteen further bands to the lineup, making the listing as follows:

Listing of all bands announced so far (23 of the 25 bands):
!!!
Three Mile Pilot
Negative Approach (featuring John Brannon and OP Moore)
The Black Heart Procession
The New Year
Calexico

Pegboy
CocoRosie
Pinback
Didjits (all original members)
Quasi
Enon
Scratch Acid (all original members)
The Ex
Seam
Girls Against Boys (all original members)
Shellac
Killdozer (all original members)
The Shipping News
Ted Leo + Pharmacists
Supersystem
Man… or Astroman?
(all original members)Uzeda

More bands will be announced in the coming weeks.

Tickets for the 25th Anniversary Celebration go on sale Friday, June 16 at 10:00 am Central. Three Day passes will go for $35. All of the profits from ticket sales will be donated to the following Chicago organizations: Tuesday’s Child, Literacy Works, and the Thomas Drummond Elementary School.

For more details and updates on the 25th Anniversary Celebration, make sure to visit the official website. There you’ll find ticket information, lineup details, answers to frequently asked questions, and more. Visit the site regularly for updates and new band announcements.

Man. This sucks. It’s one month after I visit Chicago for Wizard World. The only cool stuff going on while I’m out there is Lollapalooza, and there’s no way I’d fork out the amount of money required for that just to deal with heat in a frickin’ park. And that’s speaking nothing of the fact that most of the smaller bands will be playing during the day while I’m holding down a table in artist’s alley with my friends Zach and Sarah. I’m more of a “dank club after 10pm with whiskey and cigarettes” kind of guy rather than an “all-day sunshine in the park” fellow.

Something I Learned Today… has a great Didjits post.

from Shake the Sheets:
Ted Leo – “Me and Mia

from Hearts of Oak
Ted Leo – “High Party“
Ted Leo – “Dead Voices“
Ted Leo – “Bridges, Squares“
Ted Leo – “Where Have All the Rudeboys Gone?“

Just got the new Against All Authority cd, The Restoration of Chaos and Order this morning. I hadn’t gotten two tracks in when my youngest, Dom, who’s six, wandered into our combination laundry room / office.

No sooner had he heard a few notes than he started throwing arms gorilla-style like an old-school pit veteran. I think letting him watch Sick of It All‘s “Step Down” video a year ago might have made more of an impression on him than I thought.

Great compliment as to the cd, tho’. If a six year-old thinks it’s punk, then it’s pretty damn obviously punk rock. There’s some great breakdowns to which you can dance, that’s for damn sure. It could use a little more horn, but it gets broken out and AAA gets back to their Destroy What Destroys You roots here and there.

Against All Authority – “The Restoration Of Chaos & Order” (streaming)
Sick Of It All – “Step Down” (video)

Neko Case played at Washington, D.C.’s 9:30 Club last night, and while I didn’t get to see it (being as how I live in Lawrence, KS), I did get to hear it. NPR broadcast it live.

And thanks to the fact that they archive all the live webcasts they do, you can hear it, too. For free. The whole damn show. In really high quality.

Tax dollars go to good shit sometimes, kids. It’s just not pictures of men’s genitals in clothespins and Barney. Occasionally, you can listen to live conerts for free, and then turn around and bootleg them on eBay for twenty dollars a pop.

Shit. Did I just type that?

Setlist:
A Widow’s Toast
Favorite
If You Knew
Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Set Out Running
Outro With Bees
Star Witness
Dirty Knife
I Wish I Was the Moon
The Tigers Have Spoken
Maybe Sparrow
Margaret Vs. Pauline
Buckets of Rain
Deep Red Bells
Hex
That Teenage Feeling
Furnace Room Lullaby
Hold On, Hold On
Wayfaring Stranger
Look For Me (I’ll Be Around)
John Saw That Number

Neko Case live at the 9:30 Club
A nice interview with Ms. Case on Morning Edition.

On March 22, Dicky Barrett, former front man for the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, was fired from his position as host of Indie 103.1‘s morning program, The Mighty Morning Show. The reason for the firing, according to Indie 103.1 station GM Dawn Girocco:

“We have been working with Dicky for the past five months trying to get the show to the next level.. We invested a lot into not only the show, but in promoting and coaching him. Unfortunately it takes a lot of work to build and grow a morning show as well as develop interesting, compelling content. This was not Dicky’s priority, as he had other commitments with Jimmy Kimmel Live, which was, in his words, ‘his bread and butter.’ Everyone at Indie has a tremendous commitment to the station and to the audience. We need to have a morning show that is able to make Indie their #1 priority.”

Barrett disgrees with this statement, and had the following to say in rebuttal:

Jimmy Kimmel is a great guy who supported the Mighty Morning Show, and loved it, even though he helped to build the Kevin and Bean Show on KROQ and is the Producer of the Adam Carolla Morning Radio Show.

The man hired to “coach” me “trying to get the show to the next level” Dan Kieley said “Dicky is a true talent and a radio star” and “it’s a great Morning Show.” I was fired for being unwilling to be, in Dawn Girocco’s words “more mainstream.” It was a great morning show. It is unfair to let people think I walked away to put more work into loudly reading twenty to thirty words a night on Jimmy’s T.V. show. I worked hard on the Mighty Morning Show. I along with Stacey, Chuck, and Liz, built and grew it to what it was. You could count on it (for the most part) to provide you with interesting, compelling content and better music then any other show on the air in the morning.

The Mighty Morning Show ran for about a year, from March of 2005, until last week. Barrett has been the announcer for Jimmy Kimmel live since 2003, which was about the time the Bosstones went on extended hiatus. I never got a chance to hear what the Mighty Mornign Show sounded like, as I’m usually at work when it aired in LA, or out running errands if I’m off. From what I’ve read, though, it seems like the show was pretty popular. Sad to see something like what Dicky describes below happen at what I’ve always found to be a cool radio station. Now, I can’t say I listen to Indie 103.1 as much as I would were it on the air out here in the midwest, but when I’ve tuned in (especially to shit like Jonesy’s Jukebox), it’s been as cool a station as I could have hoped for.

The full story of what happened, according to Dicky:

The station was built to fuck with KROQ (Infinity) by people from KISS-FM (Clear Channel) it was just supposed to be a short lived pain in the ass that that took away a few ratings points, and talked some shit about KROQ – Inadvertently (and you can credit Steve Jones and the other celebrity DJ’s) it became good, and got a lot of national attention, and credible press “the coolest station in America” rolling stone etc. At that point the FCC said Clear Channel who operated Indie 103.1 out of the Entravision offices could no longer do so – All business ties on paper we’re severed – It became a full Entravision property – But the hard right leaning Clear Channel program director and station manager (along with a lot of the behind the scenes technical employees) were already firmly in place – It is in Clear Channel’s best interest that Indie 103.1 exist – the PD, Michael Steele (who brags about “breaking Britney Spears”) and the station manager, Dawn Girocco (a long time radio sales women) are believing their own hype and considering themselves radio geniuses who masterminded the Indie 103.1 phenomenon, so it’s now time to implicate their superior “radio wisdom” and conventional “radio strategy” – #1) Morning shows need to be musically formatted and the music needs to be heavily rotated – #2) All guests must be approved by Michael Steele (Dawn Girocco really, she’s Dick Cheney, Steele’s George Bush) “no guests to controversial soccer moms are listening in the a.m.” – There were other things that were more annoying, then actually detrimental to the show “say the time, and call letters till your blue in the face” – I reluctantly, and unhappily against my better judgment went along with all this for about two weeks, hoping they would come to their senses – During this time they brought in a longtime radio guru, to consult (he also worked at one point for Clear Channel) – His assessment was the show was “really good” and I was a “legitimate talent and a potential radio star” – Not the information these people wanted me to have – When I made an on air remark about not liking the new overplayed Morrissey track I was marched into the President of Entravisions office (Jeff Lieberman, a fan of Mighty Morning show) – In front of me, Jeff told Dawn he was not prepared to “strip Dicky of his opinion” she was obviously and visibly embarrassed – Then he asked her if she gave me the book about morning radio that he gave her to give to me “no, it’s at home” she said, “why the hell, is it there” he asked, she looked humiliated – This was the beginning of the end for me, and the writing was most likely on the wall – Two weeks after that I had a substantial, unauthorized, pro-choice conversation on the air with a South Dakota disc jockey and a few callers, the straw that broke the camels back – This is not the direction supporters of the current administration want the station going in.
– I was fired that day
-I loved doing the show and loved the people who loved it

Thank you,
Dicky

Contact Indie 103.1 and express your disappointment call #877.900.1031 or or e-mail Michael Steele (program director).

the Mighty Mighty Bosstones – “Everybody’s Better“
the Mighty Mighty Bosstones – “Another Drinkin’ Song“

From the Less Than Jake mailing list:

Less Than Jake just completed their new album, In With The Out Crowd, and they’re looking for your input on what the first single should be! Check out the AP Media Page to hear three brand new LTJ songs: “Overrated (Everything Is),” “A Still Life Franchise” and “The Rest Of My Life” — then go here and vote for your favorite of the three tracks. Three entrants will be randomly selected to win:

* A 10-year subscription to Alternative Press!
* An autographed copy of Less Than Jake’s upcoming EP, Absolution For Idiots And Addicts!
* Your choice of any T-shirt from Less Than Jake’s online store!

So help Less Than Jake pick their first single, and win some sweet stuff by doing so! Don’t forget, In With The Out Crowd will be in stores May 16; you can catch the band all summer long headlining the Warped Tour!

Free shit’s always nice, kids. As a matter of fact, here’s some Less Than Jake mp3s for you… FREE!

* from the 10th anniversary Pezcore on Fueled By Ramen
Less Than Jake – “My Very Own Flag“
* from Borders & Boundaries on Fat Wreck Chords
Less Than Jake – “Look What Happened
* from Losers, Kings, & Things We Dont Understand on No Idea Records
Less Than Jake – “Time and A Half“