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NAAAP Calls for Greater SensitivityApril 1, 2008... In a press conference in Baltimore today, the NAAAP called for greater sensitivity in the language used to describe a popular condiment and preservative. Speaking to reporters, NAAAP spokesperson Omar Little said, "Omar know that shit derive from the French, vin aigre. How motherfuckers ain't call that shit sour wine?"
While the press conference was the NAAAP's first public pronouncement on the subject, several media outlets and organs of government have already adopted policies about the use of the controversial word. Mia Culp of the Campus and Alternative Press Association (CAPA) noted that her organization has had a formal policy about this issue since 1988. "CAPA members are encouraged to use the term sour wine, except in instances where a person is being directly quoted," said Culp. "And even where a person is being quoted directly, CAPA members are encouraged to use the alternative spelling, vi**gar." "Given this country's checkered past," said Culp, "We need to be extra sensitive about the language we use." Permadink | |Memories of YVRMarch 16, 2008... Spent a few days in Vancouver last week.
Met a reluctant Vancouverite at a conference. She's only there, she said, because her school's there. This place has no grit, she said. Across the street and down the block from where I stayed, the Clifton Hotel offers daily and weekly rates and shares space with a porn shop and a pawn shop. * * * * * There's no art in Vancouver, the reluctant Vancouverite said. Stumbled across this great improv(is)ed installation near Stanley Park on a Sunday afternoon. When I passed by again, Winnie and his hunny pot were gone.
There's a furniture store called Kilback in Vancouver. Furniture sales is odd career choice for a person with the name Kilback to make, but chiropractic would've been odder, I suppose.
There are a lot of young people in Vancouver. They are seeking shelter from the rain in Slickity Jim's and Habit and listening to dark stuff like Wire Train (1983), East River Pipe (1993) and Zero 7 (2001). I am sitting in my apartment and listening to Elliott Smith (1997). A clean towel is in the closet. East River Pipe - Silhouette TownElliott Smith - Pictures of MeWire Train - Chamber of HellosZero 7 - DestinyPermadink | |Dispatch from "The Real World"
February 11, 2008... The risk management approach offers a decision-making framework that assists in the selection of optimal, or the most cost-effective, strategies using a systematic, broadly accepted public process. Uh-huh. Well, here are cupola good songs. The O'Jays - Love TrainWolfmother - Love TrainPermadink | |BuboesDecember 31, 2007... According to a statement released today by the Pakistani Person's Party (P3), former P3 leader, Benazir Bubo, died from an enlarged heart. The statement was only the latest in a series of theories about the cause of Bubo's death last week during an election rally in Rawalpindi. Contradicting earlier speculation that Bubo had been killed by shrapnel from a suicide bomber's attack, by two bullets from an assassin's gun, and by banging her head against the hinges on her car's sunroof, P3 spokesperson Waleed Disnae today asserted that Bubo died simply because she was too good to live. "Everything Benazir did, she did for Pakistan," said Disnae. "Her only dream was to etablish a fluorishing democrisy in Pakistan, a dream for which she died, when her heart grew three sizes too large."
In related news, observors fearing for the future of democrisy in Pakistan breathed a collective sigh of relief yesterday when the Pakistani Person's Party announced the results of voting for a new party leader. In a close (1-0) vote, Lance Bubo, the nine-year-old son of the former P3 leader, was chosen to lead the party. "He has a true democrat's instincts," the younger Bubo's father noted. "He always shares the other boys' toys with them. It wasn't a difficult decision at all when it came time for me to cast my vote for him." The leaders of western democrisies were united in their praise for the selection of Bubo and called upon the Pakistani military to proceed as scheduled with the national elections on January 8, despite recent upheaval in the country. "I want [Pakistan Army] General Musharraf out of his uniform and in the President's office as soon as possible," said American President George W. Bush. "In fact, I want to be the one to push in his stool." Permadink | |Alternative to What?December 19, 2007... Further to my previous post, here's a band that doesn't sound like the university-educated children of upper-middle-class parents. No Mind - Well AdjustedNo Mind - Checking the ObituariesNo Mind - Cause InsanityNo Mind conjures up for me the image of a fifty-something father in a ribbed wifebeater and trucker hat, with a cigarette smoldering in one hand and a tabloid and coffee mug splayed out on the arborite table in front of him. A call-in show blares from the clock radio on the kitchen counter. His kid's band starts playing in the basement, he shakes his head in disbelief and turns the radio up. No Mind is the sound of unwashed hair, three-day stubble and flannel shirts. It is the sound of cigarette burns on a filthy carpet in an apartment with iron radiators and cracked windows painted shut, where there isn't a single microbrew bottle among the empties stacked in cases beside the fridge. It is the sound of another era, before the Decemberists consensus and universal hipness. No Mind - Dirt DesireToday's post is dedicated to M.I.P. Thanks for going above and beyond. Permadink | |Do You Want New Wave (Or Do You Want the Truth)?November 25, 2007... As I've written before, I wander through life most days with a song on my mind. I don't plan for it and have no control over what song it is. It just appears on the turntable in my mind and spins and spins and spins until something else comes along and knocks the needle out of the groove. Every now and then, I'll go through a phase where I try to write down all the songs that have occupied my thoughts over a period of a few days or weeks. To what end, I'm not sure. I guess I just like making lists, even if Olivia Newton-John and Air Supply end up on them. During a recent list-making phase a song entered my consciousness that I just couldn't place. I could "hear" it clear as a bell between my ears, but I didn't know the name of the song and couldn't make out the performer. I began sifting through my CD collection, sure that I'd recognize it when I heard it again, and would be able to add it to a list. My first guess was that it was a Modest Mouse song, so I skipped through a bunch of Modest Mouse tracks listening for something familiar, but ... nothing. My second guess was that it was an Arcade Fire song, so I skipped through a bunch of Arcade Fire tracks... Again, nothing. My third guess was Destroyer, and I'd started skipping through Destroyer tracks when it struck me like a ten-tonne shithammer... Gee, this indie rock stuff sure is wimpy. Mostly Enjoyable Band - Aural EmeticSasha Frere-Jones wrote in the New Yorker recently about how mostly-white indie rock has little rhythm and no soul, to which Carl Wilson responded, in Slate, that indie rock has become the exclusive preserve of the university-educated children of university-educated parents; i.e. it's elitist. I'll carry the analysis a little futher by suggesting that indie rock today plays a role similar to that of new wave in the 1980s: it looks kinda wierd, I guess, but underneath the beards and aviator glasses, there ain't much going on.
I will leave you with the image that much of today's indie rock conjures up for me: it is of a sixty-something parent, slippered feet on the kitchen table in a $500,000 home, alternative newsweekly in one hand, coffee mug in the other, and their kid's band gently reverberating through the pods in their ears. Has the generation gap between parents and kids that used to define rock 'n' roll really disappeared? If yes, is it because parents are cooler today, or because the kids we hear from are less cool? Minutemen - Do You Want New Wave (Or Do You Want the Truth)?Permadink | |Feelin' VerkrampteOctober 8, 2007... I've been feeling pretty blue lately, for a lot of different reasons. I am a sun-worshipper who loves hot weather, but the sun is setting earlier every day if it bothers to rise at all, and the days are getting cooler. Soon I will have to wear pants again, and soon after that, long underwear. Oh yeah, plus there's that whole turning-forty-one-and-feeling-like-I-have-nothing-to-show-for-it thing...
Last night, I sat down and listened to Mother of God! It's Expando Brain!, an LP put out in the mid-eighties by the Boston-based band Expando Brain. It's a record that alternates between jangling gloominess and power-chorded explosions of pop-punk--frequently in the same song--with lyrics that are a mix of heartbreak and silly, post-adolescent humour ... not usually in the same song. If it weren't for the fact that I file my albums alphabetically by artist, then chronologically by release date, I'd file this one between Mission of Burma and Squirrel Bait. I like it. Expando Brain - Happy PartExpando Brain - Don't KnowExpando Brain - Flogging a Dead RelationshipFor more Expando Brain, check out Press Random, whose link to the great song "Thyroid" is still live. Permadink | |HousekeepingSeptember 3, 2007... No, Afterbirth ain't dead. But like Something I Learned Today, Vinyl Mine and 1,001 other mp3 blogs these days, there is the stink of decomposition about it. Between a more than full time job, a sick mother, a feuding family, a new cat, a modest social life, and summer, glorious summer, this blog's been facing stiff competition... Still, here is a housekeeping post about things that have caught my attention these last few weeks that might also interest you. If things go according to plan, there will be a post chock fulla mp3s you ain't never heard before soon.
Kwaya Na Kisser has posted an interesting exchange of e-mails between itself and Merge Records, occasioned by a contest in which KNK awarded the code for a free download of a Merge CD to the winner. Thing is, Merge actually gave KNK the code for the free download when KNK bought a copy of the CD! To what uses Merge felt it would be appropriate to put their giveaway is unclear, but apparently passing it on to a total stranger was not one of them. In case I ain't made it clear yet, KNK did not post the CD on the internet, it e-mailed a single-use code for a download of the CD to a contest winner. Weird. ***** "Between 1968 and 1977 [Mingering] Mike recorded over fifty albums, managed thirty-five of his own record labels, and produced, directed and starred in nine of his own motion pictures. In 1972 alone he produced fifteen LPs and over twenty singles, and his traveling revue played for sold out crowds the world over. How is it that such a prolific musician has gone under the radar for the past 30+ years?" For the answer to this question, check out the podcasts and transcripts here first, then here. Also, check out the Mingering Mike MySpace page. Thanks to 33/45 for hipping me to this story. ***** Cruisin' around on the information superhighway one night recently, I ran across a long-defunct mp3 blog called JB's Warehouse Music Annex with still-live links. One in particular caught my eye: an mp3 of the 1969 song "2+2=?" by the Bob Seger System. Now, if you ain't growed up in the Detroit area like me, you prolly don't know this song. But me, I've wanted to hear it again for years. And that night, two weeks ago, I heard it like I'd never heard before... The Bob Seger System - 2 + 2 = ?In 1969, long before selling his rusty pipes to Ford Motors for its truck ads, it seems Bob Seger had something more weighty on his mind. Consider this an update to May's Songs About (the) War post. ***** Finally, if you've e-mailed in the last few months, but never got a response, don't take it personally. Somehow, the domain forwarding thing I'd set up when Afterbirth was in its infancy came unglued and stayed that way, unbeknownst to me, for months. The problem has since been fixed and I would now be pleased to respond to your e-mails, if you re-send them. On a related note, Armand V. Beasley, Armand L. Beasley, Armand C. Beasley, Armand B. Beasley, Armand H. Beasley, Armand F. Beasley and Armand W. Beasley: sorry, but I do not know why your boyfriend's pecker keeps slipping out. Please consult a health care professional. Permadink | |The Big Boys from BrazilJuly 29, 2007... If you've ever wondered why Afterbirth isn't focused on any one genre or era of music, it's because Spin gets bored easily. Spin likes to mix things up a bit, to put a little cream in his coffee, if you know what he means. Apparently, Spin also likes to refer to himself in the third person... Anyhoo, you'd be hard pressed to find a band that mixed things up more than Austin's mighty, mighty Big Boys. Consider side one of their crushing 1982 EP, Fun, Fun, Fun, which starts with a scratchy post-punk number, follows that up with a blazing fifty-second thrasher, and closes with a faithful cover of Kool and the Gang's funk classic "Hollywood Swinging," complete with horns. But this post ain't about the Big Boys. It's about Chico Science and Nação Zumbi, who kinda remind me of the Big Boys in a vague sorta way.
Chico Science and Nação Zumbi, or CSNZ for short, hailed from the city of Recife in northeastern Brazil. Along with mundo livre s/a and others, CSNZ were the originators and primary exponents of a style of music they called mangue bit. In practice, mangue bit (pronounced "MAN-ghee beat") was a varied thing, but its essence was an attempt to make music with modern technology--the "bit" referred to is a computing term--all the while acknowledging local traditions: "mangue" is the Portuguese word for mangrove (swamp), Recife's natural environment. Chico Science and Nação Zumbi - ManguetownThough their music was modern, drawing heavily from American funk, psychedelic rock (Jimi Hendrix), heavy metal (Metallica), and hip-hop, CSNZ incorporated the local musical traditions of northeastern Brazil into their music, as well. It could be as superficial as sampling forró master Jackson do Pandeiro at the start of one song, or as tightly integrated as writing another song entirely in the baião style, but performing it with a distorted bass guitar and mixing it with studio trickery. Chico Science and Nação Zumbi - Baião AmbientalBut the local musical tradition most acknowledged by CSNZ was Carnaval, nordestino style... You see, in Rio de Janeiro samba schools play samba for Carnaval, but in Recife, in Recife nações (nations) play maracatú. It's a distinct style of music. So CSNZ featured five (!) percussionists, each playing an instrument typical of the local Carnaval music of the northeast: alfaias (i.e. primitive-ass bass drums), agogôs (i.e. fancy-ass cowbells), and caixas (i.e. snare-ass snare drums). Chico Science and Nação Zumbi - Rios, Pontes e OverdrivesThe peculiar history of northeastern Brazil made its way in to CSNZ's message, as well. The band's name is a reference not only to the nações of the Recife Carnaval, but to the short-lived, independent nation of Palmares, founded by runaway slaves in northeastern Brazil, and led by the runaway slave, Zumbi, during the 17th century. It is of Zumbi and other populist revolutionaries--Lampião from Brazil, Zapata from Mexico, Sandino from Nicaragua, and the Black Panthers--that Chico Science sings the praises in the song "Monólogo ao Pé do Ouvido." In the poorest region of a poor country, where one third of the homes do not have regular access to potable water or sewerage, it's a message that has a lot of resonance. Not surprisingly, in a country where one half the population insists that it is "white," while the other half acknowledges that it "may not be exactly 100% white," and where the relationship between economic status and skin colour is fairly close, the issues of race and racial equality, made their way into the band's lyrics, as well. Chico Science and Nação Zumbi - EtniaIn the end, it's really of Sly and the Family Stone that CSNZ remind me most: a bi- or non- racial band, blurring the line between "white music" and "black music," with a leader rocking shades and some serious-ass sideburns.
Chico Science died in a car crash in 1997. Nação Zumbi soldier on still. I haven't heard anything they've released since Chico Science's death, but I understand that some people quite like it. Permadink | |Sleeping Dogs from Outa-SpaceJuly 8, 2007... I wrote this piece in April, then learned from Model Citizen ... Zero Discipline that the band doesn't appreciate bloggers posting their songs, so I ditched the fucker. Here it is anyway, featuring songs by other bands I am reminded of when listening to this band. Enjoy! ***** Hamilton, Ontario. Steel mills, slag heaps. A place where you can walk from donut shop to donut shop in a downpour and not get wet. Resolutely blue collar, and not the sort of place you'd expect to nurture an against-the-grain, avant garage band during the polyester era.
Simply Saucer formed in Hamilton in the early 1970s, a noisy, repetitive, Velvet Underground-influenced jam band, whose songs were leavened with wah-wah freak-outs, space-age sound effects, and comic book lyrics about Eva Braun, masochism and the terrifying future. The Velvet Underground - I'm Waiting for the ManIggy and the Stooges - Raw PowerThe band gigged around town and made some lo-fi recordings, but were generally ignored. Eventually, they shook their sci-fi and jamming fixations and wrote a bunch of more concise, poppier songs, two of which, "She's A Dog" b/w "I Can Change My Mind," were released as a single in 1978. Then they disappeared. A decade later, a compilation of Simply Saucer's earliest, spaciest recordings was released under the title Cyborgs Revisited. Obscurantists around the world took note. Another decade passed and Sonic Unyon re-released the album with nine extra tracks from the band's later, more varied, but sixties garage influenced period. The Monkees - (I'm Not Your) Steppin' StoneSyd Barrett - If It's in YouThe Replacements - I Will DareCyborgs Revisited is a record of bravery in the face of hostility, or at least of persistence in the face of indifference. It is a record of a time and place that history had forgotten. I'm glad it's in my collection. If you like the songs I've posted here, there might be a place for it in your collection, too. The Who - Anyway, Anyhow, AnywhereP.S. I saw Simply Saucer perform in April. It was the third-and-a-half gig they'd done since reuniting in September. They weren't horrible, exactly, but they were sloppy, and they played with a lot less energy than I was hoping for. I guess it's harder to sing with conviction about being "cyanide over" Eva Braun at age fifty than it is at age eighteen... For more about Simply Saucer, check out this and that. Permadink | |Lost in TarnslationJuly 5, 2007... Rock 'n' Roll is an American music. Like the Blues and Jazz before it, Rock grew out of circumstances specific to the United States of America. Un-Americans can dabble in Rock 'n' Roll, but they'll never really "get" it. This is why, despite decades of effort, British "Rock" is still so effete. This is also why Lul's first LP, Inside Little Oral Annie, is so intriguing. Lul - Runstan RunLul was a rock group active in Holland during the late 1980s and early 1990s. They took the name of their band from the Dutch slang for "prick," and the name of their first LP from the title of a porno flick. (Prick inside Little Oral Annie. Geddit?) Holland is, of course, the country that foisted Golden Earring on the world. It's a weird place. And that goes double for Friesland, the McDonalds theme park in northern Holland that served as Lul's base of operations.
One of the intriguing things about Inside Little Oral Annie is that it has so few obvious musical reference points. True, the group thanks every band they've ever liked in their liner notes, and some, like Wire and Pere Ubu, more than once. But Lul doesn't really sound like any of them. They allude to fIREHOSE in the lyrics to "New Band," and the guitarist cops licks from King Crimson here and there, but that's it. Other than that, Lul sounds like Lul. And that's where the whole thing about Un-Americans not "getting" Rock comes in. I mean, listen to "Jessepee Starmaker," a 59-second Bohemian Rhapsody as performed by lobotomites. No red-blooded American would write a song like this. Lul - Jessepee StarmakerLul - Camburist BabyNo red-blooded American would write a song called "Camburist Baby," either. In fact, no one but Lul would write a song called "Camburist Baby," because Lul invented the phrase. Go ahead, G**gle "camburist." You'll see that every one of the handful of references to the word is on a page about Lul, and that none of them shed any light on what exactly a camburist might be. I suspect that, as with the identity of the Robert Volta referred to in the song "Robert Volta," only MOG knows. Lul - Robert VoltaYet the intrigue doesn't end there. The lyrics on Inside Little Oral Annie contain repeated uses of the Depression-era euphemisms Hoover Flags (i.e. empty pockets) and Hoovervilles (i.e. shantytowns). But Americans weren't thinking or writing about these things anymore in 1988. Nobody was. Except Lul. I will leave you with the album's final song, whose inscrutable lyrics ("the insect beamer?") are reproduced below. What more can I say than thank MOG for language barriers! Lul - Carpet ManI'm not for his insulting charm Her hair was done by a carpet cleaner So I don't care the insect beamer Don't you ask me to be your jack Man has been able to meet the clean man Where do we go when carpet's done? What do we do when carpet's done? Carpet man (Hey!) x 3 Please don't ask me To be unable to be your dog To be your carpet Permadink | |My Family is a Little WeirdJune 5, 2007... MDC - My Family is a Little Weird
Uh-huh. Is that all you got, Dave? Well, yore family ain't got nothin' on mine. Permadink | |Songs about (the) WarMay 6, 2007... A couple weeks ago, the song "Rat Patrol" started spinning unbidden on the turntable in my mind. Naked Raygun - Rat PatrolAcross the sand flats. Got a nice pine box For that desert fox. Machine guns blaring And Arabs staring Wondering why The Westerners are there. It's the same old story And it never ends. It'll happen again. I am struck by how apropos the lyrics are, what with coalition forces bogged down in a war in Iraq for more than four years now, and no end in sight. But "Rat Patrol" was written and recorded more than twenty years ago. It's the lead-off track on the Naked Raygun album, Throb Throb, an album with a tank on its cover, and that closes with another subtly anti-war anthem, "Managua." Pretty pretty boys Pretty pretty boys Onward to Managua For those of you too young to remember, Managua is the capital city of Nicaragua, a tiny country in Central America that the US government threatened to invade during the 1980s before deciding to pay terrorists to destablize it instead. The US government sure does throw its not inconsiderable weight around. Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Panama, Grenada, Libya... And there are always so many dead civilians left in its wake. Somewhere between 62,000 and 69,000 in Iraq alone, apparently. All those human lives--including the dead soldiers on all sides--plus the trillions of taxpayer dollars spent on the invasion and occupation, all just to ensure that oil will continue to flow from Iraqi oilfields into the gas tanks of the West... That's an awfully big subsidy. If I was an American without health insurance, and whose kids are in sub-standard schools, I'd be pretty bitter every time I bought a liter of water and was reminded that it actually costs more than a liter of gasoline. Anyway, in answer to the Moistworks reader who wondered aloud if anyone other than Neil Young had written any songs about the current war, here's the only one I could think of. Herbert - The Movers and the ShakersYour downfall, damn fool go figure out How those Christian bones can orchestrate Shock and awe Can't find peace to rave about Shade from trees to sit and celebrate Space between these graves to cultivate Anymore No time to grieve or think about Plans to search for grace, investigate How this holy mess could generate love at war Can anyone think of any others? Permadink | |Sound of a GunApril 22, 2007... Riding my bike to work one day this week, Clipse song stuck in my head, I suddenly understood what they was tryna say. Clipse - Chinese New YearWhen Pusha T raps "Front of your crib sounding like Chinese New Year / Brrraaattt - brrraaattt, brrraaattt - brrraaattt, brrraaattt - brrraaattt, ka-ka-ka-kat," he's imitating the sound of a gun. Chinese New Year = firecrackers = sound similar to gunfire. Geddit? It took me weeks of listening to the CD to figure this out because I have never heard gunfire. Though I have lived in the biggest city in the country for twenty years, I ain't never heard no one pop a cap. For a second, this realization humbled me. To have lived for so long without ever having heard someone fire a gun, to be able to walk almost anywhere at almost any hour and not have to worry about being emmenthalerized... Well, there aren't many people in the world who can say that. Not the Lebanese or Jamaicans. Certainly not the Iraqis of Afghanis. I feel so lucky to live here.
The rate at which people are murdered with firearms is almost six times higher in the United States than in Canada, 2.9 per 100,000 people versus 0.5 per 100,000 people. Why such a big difference between two countries that are otherwise so similar? Well, surely the ease of access to firearms has something to do with it. Even though Cho Seung-Hui was declared a danger to himself in 2005 and sent for psychiatric treatment, he was able to walk into a gun shop and purchase a Glock a year-and-a-half later. He passed a cursory background check and was sent, packing. You already know the results. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Saturday Night SpecialDim-witted gun nuts like to parrot the line "Guns don't kill people, people kill people." Strictly speaking, it's true. A gun can't pull its own trigger. Then again, a person can't pull the trigger of a gun they don't have. I suspect it'd be a lot easier to outlaw guns than people. Let's go with that one. Permadink | |Stronach Leaving Politics?April 11, 2007... Former Conservative and current Liberal Member of Parliament, Belinda Stronach, has announced that she will not be seeking re-election. Stronach, a former blonde who is currently a brunette, will be rejoining the executive of her father's car parts company after a storied three-year career in politics. What? Oh. Scratch that. She's changed her mind.
Permadink | |Rock Critic Dead, Aged c. 50March 4, 2007... The Rock Critic has died, aged approximately 50, from irrelevance. The Rock Critic's badly decomposed body was found online yesterday, hidden beneath layers of mp3s. Its exact time of death has not yet been established.
It was widely known that The Rock Critic had been hobbled in recent years by The Internet. "With the ever more widespread availability of music via the World Wide Web, writing about music has become superfluous," said one industry insider. "Anyone can listen to anything at any time and make their own judgements, free from any outside influence." "Crit just lost the will to live," said close friend, The Record Collector, from a local hospital bed. In its prime, The Rock Critic was revered for contextualizing popular music within society, and for acting as music listeners' first line of defense against record label PR. "The Rock Critic wasn't perfect," noted one historian. "I mean, they gave Exile on Main Street two thumbs up, didn't they? But, they dug Strangers from the Universe, too, no matter how uncool it must have been to do so." The Rock Critic is survived by distant relative The MP3 Blogger who, typically, declined to comment. Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 - Noble ExperimentPermadink | | |
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