Sinead and the two Bobs

ok so the story goes like this...

Sinead O'Connor goes on SNL 3 October 1992 and for the second song, she performs a cover of Bob Marley's "War"

but she changes the lyrics towards the end to CHILD ABUSE because she had just done a bunch of research and found out that the Catholic Church KNEW about priests abusing children in Ireland but didn't do anything about it. she herself was abused as a child (not by a priest but her own mother) and devoted her life to advocacy for children and victim's of child abuse.

so she tears up a picture of the pope at the end and says "Fight the real enemy"



People in the press and in the USA go nuts over it and get super pissed off that she would do that. they had stunts in NYC where they gathered up all of her cds and bulldozed them.

13 days later she's to perform one of her hit songs "The end of our Acquaintence" at a Bob Dylan tribute concert. Here's the video of her performance there:



So crazy that she blew that story up in the face of the American public almost 15 years before it became "real news" and headlines here

People were so quick to judge her without actually hearing what she was saying. And now they turn and say "oh look at the muslims protesting the cartoon of mohamed, what ignorance."

And the parallel between Bob being boo'd at Newport for pushing the music into a new place, and then her doing the same thing, and being boo'd for it at a Dylan tribute concert just furthers the example of goddamn american hypocrites

oh yeah, and another reason why she rules... she refused to play any arena that would have the national anthem played on the loud speakers before her concert. she said she'd never support any country that would openly and deliberately censor its artists,
specifically the USA. (remember the PMRC!)





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Now playing: Sinéad O'Connor - The Last Day of Our Acquaintance
via FoxyTunes

i forgot...

i forgot i created this blog!!! I'll try to get back innit!

well, first off, we've got this really killer ACRE cd at CDBaby now:

ACRE: CANDYFLIPPING


Its pretty amazing ambient drone music. I listen and read. Aaron is a good friend of mine and hilarious!!

check out this video too.

instead of music.....

check out this video. interview with Dick Cheney back in 1994

local rock and classic reggae

Local rockers Red Fang have a new tour CD they released through Wantage,
USA. These dudes used to be in Last of the Juanitas and PartyTime!

Great stuff!!

a man needing little introduction, reggae pioneer Burning Spear has
released a double cd and accompanying dvd on his own label. apparently he's
finally regained control to all of his work and is going to be releasing
his own stuff. hopefully we'll see some reissues as well.

releated projects

these two projects are releated in that they share a guitar player, Ed. He's not on the Burmese record below, but performs with them now. both groups are favorites of mine and luckily Burmese is playing here in Portland with RABBITS on Sept 7th

THE FLYING LUTTENBACHERS: The Void

intricate prog jazz punk from the bay area. angular guitars, bursts and blasts of drums, really chaotic parts but all seeming under control. really good musicians doing really messed up songs.

BURMESE / FISTULA: split

people always say "oh this bands is so brutal" and its a few jackasses talking about war atrocities over poorly composed discharge rip off riffs, or mediocre slayer worship. no, that's not brutal. Burbese is brutal. this is the sound of revenge. its the sound of a disturbed conscience. when i hear their records i feel uneasy, as if witnessing a public exicution.

TRAGEDY

To my surprise, we received a Tragedy record here at CDBaby.

If you haven't heard this band, let me introduce you to the finest hardcore outfit making music today. Their roots come from some of the best bands of the 1990's and the four joined music writing forces to create one of the most sonic experiences I've had the pleasure to be blasted with over 10 times live. And the records are a perfect match to their live performances, with really solid production by Dan Rathbun of PolyMorph studios in Oakland.

Check it!

Some fantastic music at CDBABY

BAD BRAINS

if you don't already know, this is all the education you need.


THE AVENGERS: Died For Your Sins

Out of print cd release of bootlegs and live tracks. Bay Area punk legends. I think there are only a few copies left. Otherwise, you'll have to go to itunes to get it.

ROSEMARY'S BABIES: Talking To The Dead

Eerie Von's first band! Thrash attack from the east coast early 80s. why doesn't every kid hooked on Gang Green and Urban Waste know about Rosemary's Babies?!!!

THE SPITS

Perfect punk record. irreverant and yet ramones obsessed. sing along drunk punk songs. short and sweet. i listen to it twice in a row.


GERRITT & JOHN WIESE: The Disappearing Act

to men that belong in seizure palace. you remember the anti-drug commercials with the frying egg.... yeah, that should have said "this is your brain on a gerritt/wiese collab"


ZWEISTEIN: Trip, Flip Out, Meditation

First ever CD reissue of one of the most extreme Krautrock-era albums ever made.



SISSY SPACEK: Remote Whale Control


GERRITT: Space Level Blaze


MINDFLAYER: Expedition to the hairier peaks


TERRORISTS W/ LEE PERRY


SUICIDE: Half Alive


EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN: 2 X 4


CHROME: Half Machine Lip Moves


CHROME: Third From The Sun

land and people

overpopulation is an issue that comes up every once and a while.

here are some facts all according to wikipedia


Land area of earth: 148,939,100 km²

Human population 2005: 6,453,628,000

Manhattan, NY pop. density: 25,849/km²

Land area of Oregon: 255,026 km²


You could put all of the people in the world into Oregon at the density of NYC and have the rest of the world untouched. All 148,684,074 km² of it.

We'd still have to flush our toilet on California, but they deserve it.

what's it all about

two new records on the way. here's how its done:

Entry one...... what for?

Thought I'd publish some thoughts and see what comes of it.

Today, I'd like to say that Rage Against the Machine was the last time I really considered if a band 'sold out' or not. They seemed to be so great to me, and musically I still consider their first album to be truely groundbreaking, but it was 'wrong' to me that a band should go on MTV talking about Leonard Peltier. That seemed to be for the underground, and not for jocks to know about.



That was pretty backwards thinking, especially now that no one talks about political prisoners on MTV. And everyone sells out now that Green Day made it punk to do so.


Now, I still think they sold out, but for different reasons. From their own website, you can see that when they did a benefit concert for Leonard Peltier in 1994, before hitting the spotlight, they raised $75,000 for his defense fund.

A year later, they did the same thing for Mumia. However, this concert raised just $8,000. Without specific numbers that I could research, it appears at quick glance that, even though in that one year they had gained worldwide fame, hit song and video on MTV, new album, and presumably a wider range of resources available to them to raise money, they in fact were less effective.

Why? From every story I've ever read of how the music industry works, and from my own experience working in the independent and underground version of such, everyone gets their hand in the till.