Chicks!!!

Fitzy- Chicks!

looseheadprop – are you around? I replied to your 178 molt-b-gone in the Late Nite thread. :~)

I never take “Tales from the Topographic Ocean” out of my 8-track… it’s on an endless loop!

LUV the Dixie Chicks. Bought the new CD.

Warms my heart to see good music get the reward it deserves, and the haters get their comeuppance.

Go Chicks!

About the Time article – I saw the issue on the newsstand, and the cover had the Chicks on with the caption claiming that they’d been hassled for opposing the war.

Did they really speak out against the war, or was it just the line about being embarrassed that the president was from Texas?

Hmm…I don’t know about inspirational or empowering, at least in a political sense, but lately I’ve been consistently spinning:

Jack O. & The Tearjerkers (bluesy neo-garage)
Zombies (Out-takes and rarities)
Sonny Rollins, Sonny Stitt and Diz “Sonny Side Up”
Coltrane’s Giant Steps (revisiting for context)
Bo Diddley is a Gunslinger (never realized how multi-dimensional Bo was!)

Why do women always have to be naked. Sigh.

Do they think no one will pay any attention to them unless they are?

It’s a rhetorical question, btw.

Last week I purchased Taking the Long Way and Springsteen – Seeger collection from ITunes, based on recommendations from FDLers. (Both are great, by the way.)

Yesterday, after Jane’s late night tribute to Duane Allman, I purchased the Allman Brothers – Fillmore East, and have been listening non-stop. Amazing.

Is there any way for FDL to benefit from click-through to ITunes?

FDL : Music :: Oprah : Books (?!?)

Listening to Rolling Stones “Sweet Neocon” on the iPod @ work right now, next up Green Day’s “American Idiot” – titles are ’nuff said as to why.

Heh heh HEH!Good for them.It’s on my to buy list for payday.

Right now I’m reverting to my misspent youth and listening to lots of metal/hard rock.Megadeth,Pantera,System of a Down,etc.I know,it’s not very sophisticated and all,but neither am I,lol.I guess because I like guitar solos and the general unruliness of it all.I live a rather sedate life most of the time(well,as much as one can with a kid in his early teens),so rattling the windows now and then isn’t a bad thing.

Fitzy Chicks — teehee

I’ve been playing “Living With War” over and over since I first heard it. Not the whole album, but the title track. I blogged about it here http://blogolodeon.blogspot.co…..l-day.html

When the Dixie Chicks debut at #1, it soothes some of my depressed bewilderment that so many of my fellow citizens could vote for such horrific candidates as GW Bush & Co.

OT — another Democratic Talking Point: Bush has done a heckava job for the black tie economy — at the expense of the T-shirt economy.

OfT: EPU’d, but anytime I see a WaPo reporter doing something good, I like to draw attention to it. From the WaPo’s online political chat:
“Philadelphia, Pa.: Any comment on the pitiful article from the AP on Monday that was trying to connect Senator Reid with corruption. The writer, John Solomon, could only criticize Reid for legally taking a gift and then voting against the interests of the agency giving the gift. The truly funny part was when the AP changed the story and left out the part about Reid’s vote on the issue. Does that sound like a bad reporter or just a blatant partisan or anti-democratic jokester?
Tom Edsall: This article has become very controversial, especially on the web. AP, CNN and others should provide a detailed follow up to explain the confusing play, and perhaps later changes, of the information of Reid’s actual vote. I have not researched this myself and do not know the details as fact, but it appears that Reid voted against the interests of those who gave him free tickets, and this significant fact appeared in various locations in the story in different printings and publications, and may have been left out altogether in some cases. The burden falls on AP to straighten this out.”

I bet Woodward, Harris, Howell, Hiatt, and Brady won’t like Tom’s response too much.

I think it’s also of significant note that Edsall mentions “the web.”

OT– from the Wapo chat wrt to a previous ? about Harry Reid and the disconnect in some of the media reporting.

>>>>>>>
Pittsford, N.Y.: Do you think that the AP would be on the defensive about this story without pushback from liberal blogs? How important is pushback from bloggers, media watchers, partisans, etc. in making sure that bogus, politically-motivated stories are corrected?

Tom Edsall: In this case, I thinks the blogs have been very effective in pushing the problems raised by the story and the various forms it has taken on other media web sites (CNN, MSNBC etc.)The public, and the press, owe the blogs a note a gratitude.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..nav=topnav

On the iPod coming right up:
Rolling Stones “Sweet Neocon”
Green Day “American Idiot”
Billy Joel “Allentown”
Marilyn Manson “Beautiful People”
Mariah Carey “Dreamlover” (How the #@$( did that get in there?)

well, wow. My post referred to the q&a cited by John Casper just before.

I’m listening to Pearl Jam’s new album (the one with the avacado on the cover) and it’s great. Some of the best stuff they’ve done in years. It has several moving songs about living in a “time of war”. Plus “Worldwide Suicide” is their best single since “Do the Evolution”.

The chicks rule. I am a long time junkie of politically inspired art. Currently I am experiencing a resurgence of Bruce Cockburn via his “Live”. Good stuff.

Have the springsteen – it is good. Going to get the neil young. So much to do…

The popularity and success of the Dixie Chicks during this “wartime” should give pause to the DLCers and all pro-war democrats. Americans support the troops, but they (including a lot of former warmongering dolts who have now flip-flopped) do not support the unjustified war in Iraq. It should affect the Democrats modus operandi, but will it? Most seem awfully slow on the uptake.

Just downloaded a mess of stuff to try out, no theme just yet beside more French, Latin and Afro-pop.

But I’ll be burning over a mix of Alanis Morrissette’s Jagged Little Pill, Green Day’s American Idiot and Tracy Chapman’s self-named first album…my favorite mix.

Don’t you know
They’re talkin’ ’bout a revolution
It sounds like a whisper
Don’t you know
They’re talkin’ about a revolution
It sounds like a whisper

While they’re standing in the welfare lines
Crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation
Wasting time in the unemployment lines
Sitting around waiting for a promotion

Poor people gonna rise up
And get their share
Poor people gonna rise up
And take whats theirs

Don’t you know
You better run, run, run…
Oh I said you better
Run, run, run…

Finally the tables are starting to turn
Talkin’ ’bout a revolution

Yeah. Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about.

I know this isn’t my usual news-y stuff for an article. But the fact that the Chicks hit #1 with this album just tickled me this morning and I had to share. I’ve been listening to the soundtrack from the movie Grosse Pointe Blank lately myself. I’ve been on a 70s/80s music jag lately.

From two posts ago:

BarbaraB says:
May 31st, 2006 at 12:05 am

One of Bush’s big applause lines – back when anyone was applauding – was to contrast two views of the world post-9/11. There were people who thought of terrorism as a law enforcement problem (boo, hiss) and people who understood that this is a war (yea, clap.) Of course it’s a law enforcement problem. The “war” in Afghanistan was a very large SWAT action, and had worldwide support. But Iraq? That was just nuts.

This was (is) one of the things that always bugged me most about the WOT. That if you think terrorism is a law enforcement problem, you are a big pussy. Well guess who thinks terrorism is a law enforcement problem? Patrick Fitzgerald (and a lot of other law enforcement people). Blind sheik conviction; convictions of the al-Qaeda terrorists who bombed the U.S. embassies in Africa. I guess WOT enthusiasts wished we had gone to war in Africa too?

Let me recommend The Mammals to one and all. Saw them at the Seattle Folklife Festival Saturday night, heading up the bill with Jay Ungar and Molly Mason (Jay wrote the theme to Ken Burns’ Civil War opus on PBS). Their daughter, Rachel Ungar is a member of this very talented young folk group as is Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, grandson of Pete. A very up and coming group!

go chicks. looking forward to hearing it soon.

been listening to “take 5″ by dave brubeck to soothe my soul and “tarkus” by EL&P to put in perspective the atrocities of bushco and the military industrial complex. “the weaver in the web that he made…”

Here’s my looooong review of the new album. http://goodnonsense.blogspot.c…..music.html

It’s part review, part politics, and a lot of me being a giant music nerd, but I thought it turned out pretty well…and yes, I’m a new Dixie Chicks convert…

RE: The WaPo chat

Certain elements in the MSM seem so very determined to find any kind of Democratic scandal to appease their phony sense of balance. It’s disgusting, frankly. One party, and one party only, is collapsing under the weight of its corruption. The Dems may have problems but corruption (Jefferson aside) is certainly not one of them. The Culture of Corruption is entirely unique and entirely rightwing Republican.

I can always take refuge in “Supper’s Ready” which is the entire side 2 of the Genesis Foxtrot album. (with Peter Gabriel, of course).

Radiohead – OK Computer, but that is more of an angst-enhancer.

Tonight O’liely, big head sean and all the other faux news liars will be claiming that: George Soros bought up all the albums, the liberal media hyped the album to it’s success and it won’t last or that billboard is part of the liberal media elite and is not counting sales correctly to make the Chicks look good. Or all of the above.

FUTK

I’m with Lobstergirl 9 on this one — do we have Tom Ford to thank for the newly mainstreamed trend of completely naked women on general-interest magazines? Considering there’s nothing about the Chicks’ music, career, or impact that justifies their being portrayed this way, I presume it’s just another way to minimalize their voices. Why not show Neil Young naked on the cover of EW? Because he’s a man, and entitled to his opinion without being stripped naked, that’s why…. it’s sad.

==========
Had enough?
==========

I’ve been listening to the soundtrack from the movie Grosse Pointe Blank lately myself.

I was just listening to that yesterday! I had “El Matador” cranked just to annoy all the anti-Mexican bigots around this part of the Dairy State. Love “Armagideon Time” by The Clash, too.

I’ve been listening to the Scissor Sisters lately. There is no why, other than I like the way it sounds.

Lobstergirl 20, I SO agree with you. Of course it is a law enforcement problem, and I remember when John Kerry was slammed for saying so.

How would things have turned out, I wonder, if Kerry had slammed back, said something on the order of damn straight, it’s a police matter instead of running away with his tail between his legs?

John Hiatt’s Master of Disaster cd
with the Mississippi Allstars

Mark Knoffler and Emmylou new duet

Neil’s new cd

Hey, guys, Tom Edsall took my question, kewl!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..02159.html

Heh. They played “Big 80’s” songs all holiday weekend here on a couple of radio stations, Christy. It was like Grosse Point Blank all over the place; gave me nasty flashbacks of arrogant, sunburnt young turks with too much time, money and hair, RayBan sunglasses donned, driving around in their new Beamer with the top down along the lakeshore…

speaking of old soundtracks – “Something Wild” is good (movie with Jeff Daniels, Melanie Griffith (?) and Ray Liotta as one bad-ass dude)

and a couple of recent ones: “Lost in Translation” and “Garden State” (the latter is a bit heavy on the breathy pop, but still enjoyable).

The problem is that “law enforcement problem” sounds too much like “police action” and that makes those big manly conservatives remember that one war. You know, the one we lost that shall not be spoken of except in heroic Hollywood movies?

Heck, even the Flaming Lips (the best band in the universe!) are getting fed up and political. Check out their new album, At War with the Mystics. Wayne addresses the abuse of power, talks down a terrorist, tells us a few things about life, the universe and everything and even throws a jab at Bush (”Everytime you state your case I want to punch you in the face”)

Can you say rats? Sinking ship?

GOP official joins Democratic Party

Items compiled from Tribune news services
Published May 31, 2006

TOPEKA, KANSAS — The former chairman of the Kansas Republican Party jumped ship Tuesday, switching his affiliation to Democrat amid speculation that he would become Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ running mate.

Johnson County Elections Commissioner Brian Newby confirmed that Mark Parkinson, the state GOP chairman from 1999 to 2003, came to the office and switched his party affiliation shortly before noon.

Parkinson’s name has been widely circulated as Sebelius’ choice for a running mate as the Democratic governor seeks a second term. Lt. Gov. John Moore–another former Republican–is retiring when his term expires in early 2007.

Sheryl Crow & Dixie Chicks…

From Sheryl Crow and Friends, Live in Central Park.

BEST.LIVE.ALBUM.EVER…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..arch=dixie chicks strong enough

One song that’s been in heavy rotation in my house for the last four years is “Save The Country” by Laura Nyro.

Golly….can’t imagine why……

Green Day’s “American Idiot” has been in heavy rotation on my CD player since before the 2004 election. The title song blasting the right-wing media, the antiwar “Holiday,” and more, every one of them a brilliant gem.

I’ve seen the suggestion that terrorism is the equivalent of piracy. It’s a law-enforcement problem … get rid of the pirates, and the problem is a lot smaller (although it will never go away).

“What’s been grooving on your iPod or CD player or your old school 8-track lately? And why?”

Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

I stumbled on this last weekend because I was surfing for something new and different – which is what I tend to do everytime I feel tempted to buy into the top 40 megaband of the moment. Aeroplane is a great, great album. Check it out. If you still need the Dixie Chicks afterwards, well okay, go for it.

Love the “Chicks”…I read the Time article yesterday, and I hope that the debut at No. 1 helps placate some of their concern about sales. I would guess that for every “country” fan they lost, they picked up at least two new adult contemporary/alternative fans.

CDs I’ve listened to in the last week by include music by:

K.D. Lang, Sinatra, Who, Ruben Blades, Waterboys, Doors, Buddy Guy, Neil Young, Yes, Mahler (Symphony No. 2 (Bernstein)), Green Day, John Mellancamp, Glenn Miller, Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, and Sarah McLachlan

I’ve been listening to a lot of the Stones of late. I sort of ignored them after “Black & Blue,” but have rediscovered them again over the past couple of years. Also listening to some old Faces tunes. I must be in a time warp, anyway I’m diggin’ it. They don’t make music like this anymore, I’m sorry to say.

Living With War
Buffalo Daughter – Euphorica (Peace is an on-topic track)
Gang of Four – To Hell With Poverty
Curtis Mayfield – Move On Up (when I need something positive)
Robert Wyatt – -Shipbuilding (Elvis Costello’s Fauklands song)
All on my iPod this week

Thanks to a recommendation from Pandagon, I’ve become addicted to Built to Spill’s latest. You can check out a few songs at their site:

http://www.builttospill.com/

The first song, “Goin’ Against Your Mind” is 8 minutes and 41 seconds of getting your blood pumping.

Too much pop music… too much distraction. If left politics can read a mind with the mindlessness of pop music so be it… How about reading a book????

My mp3 player’s current contents:

Bach, Bach, Bach, Russ Feingold at the National Press Club, Bach, Bach, Bach, Counterspin, Bach, Bach, Bach, Bach, Democracy Now!, Bach, Bach, Bach, Dixie Chicks, Bach, Bach, Bach, Radio Deutche Welle’s on-line German Course (Deutsche…Warum Nicht?), Bach, Bach, and Bach.

I’ve really been going 70’s progressive rock retro these days. Yes “Tales from Topographic Oceans”, Gentle Giant “Free Hand”, and pretty much all albums by Renaissance.

I might pick up the DC album, tho. I need some new music.

I was in an a local mainstream bagel store today and they had piped in music playing. While sitting there with my coffee, a cut from Neil Young’s Living with War came on. I was pleasantly surprised.

I’ve been on retro late 70’s-80’s binge lately, Blondie has been in heavy rotation on my iPod along with the Ramones, and a couple cuts of Patti Smith from Wave.

I trace ot back to a great coffe tabe book I bought CBGB & OMFUG. It’s a great collection of b&w photos of people who performed and hung out there.

Here’s a link to the full Time cover story about the Chicks – very interesting.

http://www.time.com/time/archi…..19,00.html

I love’m, have all their albums, and have been listening to this one constantly. I think the Billboard numbers are not capturing all the sales, either – this album has been #1 at iTunes downloads since its release.

And I LOVE the soundtrack to Something Wild – a great movie and a better soundtrack.

Ralphbon — I picked up a Pablo Casals CD while we were on vacation — Bach Cello Concertos 1-6. Amazing stuff. That and the Yo-Yo Ma interpretation of Bach’s cello work have been some standard listening for me when I get too pissed at the news. Very calming and soul stirring at the same time.

I have been on a big Lee Greenwood and Charlie Daniels kick. Unfortunately I knocked over my Kool-aid and ruined my I-pod and my stack of talking points.

-GSD

I listen to KCUV –

http://www.kcuvradio.com/under_playlist.asp

I’ve also been listening to a couple Japanese New Wave cover albums which are at times hilarious, brilliant and just plain weird.
Tracklistings at the links below
The CDs can be found considerably cheaper on eBay
http://www.cduniverse.com/prod…..&BAB=E
http://www.cduniverse.com/sear…..974/a/Fine Time 2: A Tribute To New Wave.htm

Currently, my vehicle CD player is loaded with:

Dixie Chicks
Pink
Pearl Jam
Raconteurs
White Stripes
KT Tunstall

The Casals Museum in Old San Juan, PR is a wonderful tribute.

Tap out now, or I’ll twist off your pop-top head and turn it into a begonia planter

;>)

Seven Nations-”Twelve”
Beatles-”Yer Blues”
Megadeth-”Train of Consequences”
Springsteen-”Pay me my money down”
Iron Maiden-”Brave New World” (should be Al Gore’s theme song)
Chili Pepper’s-”dani California”

I could go on…we start everyday with Wiggles, Pachabel, and Led Zepplin.

The mouse and I dance to Marley, Outkast, and the Black Eyed Peas in the afternoon. For a two year old she has a wide range of taste, still on a Buck Owens kick!

currently I’m groovin’ on the new springsteen, and should find the Chicks new cd in the huge pile of mail towering over my desk sometime today. (Been gone on vacation for the better part of a month). Going to have to pick up the new Young this week, and somewhere in the house is my Allman’s Live at the Fillmore, which needs to loaded into the iPod after that taste of Duane a couple of nights ago…

OT – anyone notice that the NYT has picked up on the campaign to send bricks to Congress for the border wall?

From the article (www.nytimes.com)

Advocates of tougher border security have sent thousands of bricks to Senate and House offices in recent weeks to make a none-too-subtle point with lawmakers about where many of their constituents come down on emerging immigration bills.

Leaders of the campaign, which has delivered an estimated 10,000 bricks since it began in April, said they had hit on the idea as a way to emphasize the benefits of a fence along the border with Mexico.

In an age when professionally planned lobbying campaigns have long since overwhelmed spontaneous grass-roots pressure, organizers of the brick brigade said they also saw an opportunity to deliver a missive not easily discarded.

“E-mails are so common now,” said Kirsten Heffron, a Virginian who is helping coordinate the effort. “It is really easy for the office to say duly noted, hit delete and never think about it again.”

If the impact was notable, so were the logistical difficulties, particularly given the mail screening and other protective measures put into effect at the Capitol after the anthrax attacks of 2001.

Initially, organizers of the Send-a-Brick Project encouraged people to send bricks on their own, and Ms. Heffron said things had gone relatively smoothly.

But many people, she said, preferred that the organization itself send the bricks and an accompanying letter to selected lawmakers.

The project will do it for an $11.95 fee. So when 2,000 individually boxed bricks showed up at once, Senate officials balked, threatening to force the group to pay postage to have each delivered to its intended recipient. The dispute left the bricks stacked up until an agreement to distribute them was worked out.

“We received them and we delivered them to all the addressees,” said a spokeswoman for the office of the Senate sergeant-at-arms.

As the bricks landed in Congressional mailrooms and cramped offices, the effort was applauded in some offices but drew a bemused response elsewhere.

“Given the approval ratings of Congress these days, I guess we should all be grateful the bricks are coming through the mail, not the window,” said Dan Pfeiffer, a spokesman for Senator Evan Bayh, Democrat of Indiana.

The senders of the bricks were encouraged to add a letter telling lawmakers that the brick represented a start on building a border wall.

So, my questions are…what’s happening with the rubber stamps, and what can we do to get NYT-style coverage?

R.E.M., Creedance Clearwater Revival, Dire Straits, U2, Lyle Lovett, and a band maybe some of you have heard of– City of Roses. They are a fabulous New England acoustic and harmonic group (2 chicks and a guy!) Their music calms my jangled nerves and makes me smile and sing along.

http://www.cityofroses.net/

Gotta have music to blog by . . .

Paul Robeson’s Songs of Free Men – old spirituals, labor songs, and even some Broadway

Allison Krauss and Union Station – gotta love fiddles and banjos

Steve Goodman Anthology – late great Chicago folksinger, bringing me back to the days of sitting in the Wrigley Field bleachers (”Root, root, root for the Cubbies; If they don’t win . . . what else is new?”)

John McCutcheon Live at Wolf Trap – He’s got a great one there that sets up like its the auction of a bankrupt farm, until the chorus rolls around. The auctioneer says to the gathered crowd of farmers: “What am I bid for the White House, come on folks, don’t be slow; they’ve overspent their credit, so they’ll just have to go. If they can’t learn to manage, it’s time they’re moving on; the leaders of this country are going, going, gone.”

The Flirtations Live Out on the Road – 90s gay a cappella! “Everything Possible” and “Something Inside So Strong” are possibly the most incredible end to a concert I have ever been at in person.

Jimmy Buffett – because it’s summer, and because it’s Jimmy. (Why does “Gypsies in the Palace” seem appropriate these days?)

Christy, thanks for bringing music into the political discussions today – that’s what the music is there for!

sam 24
The rethugs will attempt to rebrand conservativism yet again. “Sorry about the eight years of Dubya, we were only kidding.” This time we’ve got a real conservative agenda for you. Step right up. folks.

Karl Rove has shelved the Jefferson dirt for better use later – for the 06 elections. Now Rove is hunting for sound bytes from democrats (to be used in teevee commercials) who speak out in Jefferson’s defense. Any such remarks will be twisted to demonstrate that democrats are defending their own crook(s) while attacking poor republicans and their family values. “See, democrats are just as corupt.” Harry took tickets and Jefferson took all that money. And the media is going to help Rove do it. Maximize democratic scandals and minimize the tonage of Rethug criminality. “Criminalization of Politics.” , they’ll chant again.

Throw in WOT, gay bashing, foreigner bashing, race baiting, and abortion. Douse heavily the anti-religion angle. Godless Liberals hate your (our) religion.

I’m on a Randy Newman kick lately.
Makes sure my bad attitude stays in the same place — and makes me laugh.
Who else can write to-the-bone lines like
“Where the rich just get richer, and the poor you don’t ever have to see” — or “they all hate us anyhow — So let’s drop the big one now” — or “hide your wives and daughters, hide your groceries too — Great nations of Europe coming through” — or his best description of Dubya as “big hat, no cattle” ?
Best lyrics ever.

Anne at 64 — we’ve been trying to work out a couple of new strategies for the remaining stamps, but have been slightly stymied by logistics. We haven’t forgotten about them — but getting them where they need to go, and getting any media coverage, has been a sticking point. If anyone has a good suggestion that they are dying for us to try, please throw it out to the group — I’m up for a new approach on this.

@ #45 George –

“In The Aeroplane” is an amazing record. An absolute classic. Everyone should own this record.

@ Lobstergirl -

I agree with you in general terms. I’m sick of naken women photo stunts to get my attention. But with that particular cover photo I believe they were trying to make an artistic point about the Chicks being “naked” (figuratively).

I didn’t like that photo when it appeared. I also don’t think it’s “artistic.” I think it’s a ham-handed attempt at metaphor. But I don’t think it was meant to be a cheap stunt. If it were, I’m pretty sure the Chicks wouldn’t have agred to it. They’re pretty smart and not really afraid to voice their opinion.

Rats, we no sooner get Wolcott back than Kos goes blank. Feh.

Plano tex,

You are spot-on, and it will be a pleasure indeed to see these tactics fail in November. That is they will know that the jig is up and it’s time to abscond to Brazil in the dead of night with suitcases of our money.

PJ Evans 44:

That pirate/terrorist argument was being made recently by a winger on Pacha’s “There is no War on Terror” thread, with the angle that if we kill the terrorists, there will be no more terror. The problem with that analogy is that when the British Empire killed off the pirates, what they were actually doing was destroying or reclaiming the ships. I’m sure there were a lot of people who were “radicalized” by wealth inequality and wanted to be pirates, but couldn’t get a ship. It’s a lot easier to be radicalized and become a terrorist than it is to become a pirate, because all you need is a boxcutter or a gun or some explosives, or…, or…

Or another approach: sinking a ship full of pirates doesn’t make other people want to be pirates. Killing a working man’s daughter tends to make him want to do whatever he can to get back at the culprit using whatever tactics are available to him. (No gender bias intended, just an example)

But of course, if we still had pirates, we wouldn’t have global warming.

Billy K at 70 — I had the same reaction to the photo when I saw it. And I think you are right — it’s supposed to be a statement of them “laying everything bare.” But it is a bit ham-handed as an artistic statement, I think, and one which could have been done with more subtlety to greater effect. (But then, that’s just my opinion…)

SLJ @ 32 scissor sisters… like Elton John on acid?

Anais Mitchell, “Hymns for the Exiled.”
First line of the album:
“I could tell you stories
like the government tell lies.”

IMO the Stone Coyotes embody both a great sound and an attitude the caputes the zeitgeist. Barbara Keith writes the songs, sings like an angel reincarnated as a coyote and plays small venues with intimate settings. She is the ‘template’ Elmore Leonard used in creating the heroine of ‘Be Cool’.

Lyrics and some songs can be found here:

http://www.stonecoyotes.com/music.html

The home page says they can be found on iTunes.
Also, more songs ‘on demand’ for free can be heard at Broadjam.com. USe the ’search’ upper right; and when that opens enter ’stone coyotes’.

I had the pleasure of first hearing this power trio at Theodore’s on Worthington St. Springfiled MA, April ‘94. Under a full moon. Since then at least ten more times throughout the Pioneer Valley (Amherst/NoHo.)

They play across the U.S. – Texas, Tenn, etc.

There’s an interview w/Bob Edwards you can listen to on the link above.

They aren’t on a major label. Operating on ‘netroots’ strategy.

Deserve a listen, for sure.

Songs to chech out:

When Parliament Convenes
This Is YOur Hour to Sing
Shake
Saw You at The Hop
Rectified
Pennsylvania Coal Mine

COVERS:
Highway 61 Revisited
Season of the Witch
Paranoid

WHEN THE LIES SO BIG

They got lies so big
They dont make a noise
They tell em so well
Like a secret disease
That makes you go numb

With a big ol lie
And a flag and a pie
And a mom and a bible
Most folks are just liable
To buy any line
Any place, any time

When the lies so big
As in robertsons case,
(that sinister face
Behind all the jesus hurrah)

Could result in the end
To a worrisome trend
In which every american
Not born again
Could be punished in cruel and unusual ways
By this treacherous cretin
Who tells everyone
That hes jesus best friend

When the lies so big
And the fog gets so thick
And the facts disappear
The republican trick
Can be played out again
People, please tell me when
Well be rid of these men!

Just who do they really
Suppose that they are?
And how did they manage to travel as far
As they seem to have come?
Were we really that dumb?

People, wake up
Figure it out
Religious fanatics
Around and about
The court house, the state house,
The congress, the white house

Criminal saints
With a heavenly mission –
A nation enraptured
By pure superstition

When the lies so big
And the fog gets so thick
And the facts disappear
The republican trick
Can be played out again
People, please tell me when
Well be rid of these men!

Frank Zappa 1988

Zeppo 52 – In a Glass House! (obscure Gentle Giant album)

…Speaking of sisters… check out Sister Hazel.

Thanks for the link to Amazon. The little video Amazon has is quite nice. My taste mostly runs to jazz, but this new album is, as you say, very good indeed, so I contributed my little bit to keep it #1 by ordering a copy…

EELS
HAWKWIND
DECEMBERISTS
AIR

Some music in the industrial/EBM vein I’ve been listening to lately that uses the medium as “a means to comment on our times”:

Suicide Commando – Axis of Evil
Leather Strip – After the Devestation
The Retrosic – God of Hell
Velvet Acid Christ – the single “Collapsed”
Die Warzau – Convenience
Panzer AG – the single “Paper Angels”
Ministry – Rio Grande Blood
KMFDM – Hau Ruck

Looking forward to Front Line Assembly’s new one, Artificial Soldier.

Shameless plug here for my own half-assed politico-electro-industrial project: Junk Sick F**k Fest. We’re no Dixie Chicks or Neil Young, though :)

My wife and I love the Chicks and have all of their albums.

Being from the South, I LUUUUUV!!! the fact their new album went # 1, especially after a bunch of country stations wouldn’t play it. Up yours, you corporate bastards!

For the ladies put out by the nudity, I understand your point, and it is a fair one. Another point is, the Chicks have the horsepower to decide for themselves how they will portray themselves – I can’t imagine, especially after all they’ve been thru, that ANYBODY could BS them into something they didn’t want to do.

I’m glad they have the stones to do what they please, say what they please, and dress how they please, letting the devil take the hindermost.

God bless ‘em!

Speaking of sisters, check out the Ross Sisters (via MetaFilter). As one commenter said: the first minute is pretty normal, but then the acid kicks in…

Blank at 77 -
I got to hear the coyotes this past winter in Northampton. Had no idea what to expect and was absolutely blown away by the best live band I have heard in many years. I dig the tune “Detroit to Buffalo.”

oh and everyone in the country should hear james mcmurtry with “We can’t make it here anymore”, a stinging indictment of our failed state.

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Blood Sugar Sex Magic
G. Love and Special Sauce – Yeah, It’s That Easy; Philadelphonic; The Hustle
All Ry Cooder collaborations
Beck – Guero
jazzy hip-hop: People Under the Stairs, Ugly Duckling

O -

Yep.

punaise @ 79: I thought ALL Gentle Giant albums were pretty obscure…. Octopus!

#41 Cozumel says that the Chicks live in Central Park is the best live album ever.

My tops are Concert for Bangladesh, best track: Beware of Darkness

Watch out now, take care
Beware of falling swingers
Dropping all around you
The pain that often mingles
In your fingertips
Beware of darkness

Watch out now, take care
Beware of the thoughts that linger
Winding up inside your head
The hopelessness around you
In the dead of night

Beware of sadness
It can hit you
It can hurt you
Make you sore and what is more
That is not what you are here for

Watch out now, take care
Beware of soft shoe shufflers
Dancing down the sidewalks
As each unconscious sufferer
Wanders aimlessly
Beware of maya

Watch out now, take care
Beware of greedy leaders
They take you where you should not go
While weeping atlas cedars
They just want to grow, grow and grow
Beware of darkness (beware of darkness)

Leon Russell with Youngblood/Jumpin’ Jack Flash burns it up.

Runner up for best live album is Dave Mason – Certified Live

Goin’ Down Slow, the Jimmy Oden classic gets a great workout. The whole album is great, especially if you like Dave Mason songs. “Give me a reason” has always been a fave of mine, even before I had kids.

Also a worthy substitute for all you Dixie Chicks obsessed people:

Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings The Flood

Case has an AMAZING voice. She was featured on NPR recently:

http://www.npr.org/templates/s…..Id=5325695

iTunes Radio Darvish. in the international file. traditional persian music that i find hypnotic and profoundly relaxing. that and Exile on Mainstreet.

Naked women:

For me, it’s not even an issue of whether there is an intent to be artistic. I mean, clearly there’s an attempt here to be making a political statement. It’s an issue of always seeing naked women, rarely ever seeing naked men. Imagine magazine covers with naked Bruce Springsteens, Becks, Rolling Stones, Deathcab for Cutie, etc. etc. etc.

And I’m not saying I want to see naked men recording artists, either. A recent Rolling Stone had a photo of Eminem’s enormous naked ass and it was so, so very deeply disturbing I couldn’t eat for hours. I could live with both genders keeping most of their clothes on.

Leisure Guy @ 85,

OMFG, that was GREAT!!!

Ranger31 (46) — Ah. Iz. I cry every time I play his stuff. No ka oi.

Redshift (43) — My kids can tell whenever random play pulls up “Holiday” from “American Idiot” on my MP3. I can see them mouthing the words while I jam.

Millineryman (53) — You know what kills me? some product ad now plays Blondie’s “One Way Or Another”…agh, what a damned shame. It’s as bad as Iggy Pop for Carnival Cruise lines.

Nuts. My sound card is flipping out on this desktop. Going to have to transfer all the stuff I downloaded this morning to my laptop for auditing, then to the MP3 player. Some days popping a vinyl LP on the turntable sounds so blissfully easy…

zeppo 91 – LOL The Power and the Glory

kmfg 82 wow – Hawkwind… what’s next – Grobbshnitt? Nektar? PFM?

Anyone down the Cape/PTown area NEXT Saturday:

Stone Coyotes
Saturday, June 10th, 2006
THE SQUEALING PIG
335 Commercial Street
Provincetown MA
508-487-5804

Primordial Ooze says:
May 31st, 2006 at 9:10 am

(But it isn’t Friday yet!)
I think the idea was, the old version of fighting pirates was that you execute them, and the problem will get smaller in number (or go straight: remember that Henry Morgan became governor of Jamaica). It’s a solution for the independents. The state-sponsored types are another problem, which only gets fixed when the states start getting bitten by their own actions. As one person put it, we gave Stingers to Osama, and the result is …

I need to find the box with the CD player and the other box with the rest of the music disks. Big band (Miller, Dorseys, Shaw), Beatles, Rachmaninoff (’Window in Time’, done from recording piano rolls, and I swear the guy had four hands), miscellaneous other stuff.

A while back, Atrios started a thread called “Best Songs That No One Ever Heard”. One of the posters there compiled all the suggestions into a single list:

http://nemec.com/mb/BestSongsNobodyHeard.pdf

Jim VandeHei thrilled that meek, centrist Dems and independents are going to try gain internet visibility, wresting control away from ideologues, extremists, and angry partisans.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..01139.html

“and getting any media coverage,”
I have read that Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean, and some other Dems are going to be in Vegas for your Kos panel: ‘NY Times’ Sunday Preview: Will Bloggers at Major Convention ‘Get Real’?
You will also have Froomkin, and hopefully some other journalists. Perhaps they will have some ideas about how to leverage net root activities into the corporate media (both local and national). IMO it’s critically important going into November and it’s very difficult.

Some stuff on my I-Pod right now…
John Mellencamp-Pink Houses, Small Town, Lonely Ol Night, Authority Song, Crumblin’ Down, Hurts So Good
Jimmy Buffett-Fruitcakes, Desdemona, We Are The People Our Parents Warned Us About, He Went To Paris
Carly Simon-Itsy Bitsy Spider, That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard it Should Be
Patsy Cline-Crazy, I Fall to Pieces
Janice-Piece of My Heart, Mercedes Benz
Carol King-Where You Lead (dedicated to Al Gore)
Bette Midler-Do You Want to Dance?, One For My Baby
Cher-If I Could Turn Back Time (also dedicated to Al), Bang Bang, Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves

And I bought the Chicks yesterday along with 4 tickets to their Indianapolis concert in August.

Christy at 74: “But it is a bit ham-handed as an artistic statement, I think, and one which could have been done with more subtlety to greater effect.”

We’re talking the cover of Entertainment Weekly, here, Christy. Subtlety is not one of their strong suits.

I must admit I’m late to the Chicks’ party, but I’ll definitely be checking out their new disc.

Speaking of Neil, one of my favorites is “Hawks and Doves” from 1980:

“Got people here
down on their knees and prayin’
Hawks and doves
are circlin’ in the rain
Got rock and roll,
got country music playin’
If you hate us, you just
don’t know what you’re sayin’.

Ready to go, willin’ to stay and pay
U.S.A., U.S.A.
So my sweet love can dance
another free day
U.S.A., U.S.A.”

And then my absolutely favorite Neil lyrics from “Ambulance Blues” (1974), are just as relevant today as they were then (referring to Nixon):

“And I still can hear him say:
You’re all just pissin’
in the wind
You don’t know it but you are.

And there ain’t nothin’
like a friend
Who can tell you
you’re just pissin’
in the wind.

I never knew a man
could tell so many lies
He had a different story
for every set of eyes
How can he remember
who he’s talking to?
Cause I know it ain’t me,
and hope it isn’t you.”

I hope the Dixie Chicks’ music is as vital 35 years from now just as Neil Young was in 1970, and still is today.

I cannot stop listening to John Mayer’s first album, “Room For Squares.” He is a great, great songwriter.

PJ. Yeah, there are some parallels, but I just wanted to note that there are limits to the analogy that make the facile pirate arguments justifying Iraq and Bush’s eternal war flawed.

Woohoo Dixie Chicks and congratulations to fans as well for the success!
Sorry for the Off Topic, but for those of you who haven’t seen Bob Adam’s blog, he has the greatest post on Lieberman today: “Joe’s votes”. Its in response to Lieberman’s nasty attack ad on Ned I believe.
http://ctbob.blogspot.com/
Mwahaha!

Hey, here’s some good news. AP headline – “Bush Troubled by Reports of Iraq Killings”.

Awesome.

I sure could go for some potato salid.

-GSD

I posted this on another thread yesterday but here is the Pink link again

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eDJ3cuXKV4

Rage Against the Machine-The Ghost of Tom Joad

-GSD

Lobstergirl 109 – he may or may not troubled by the killings – it’s the reports of same that really bother him….

AGH!! OT — that universal fascist Amir Taheri is on C-SPAN now…”Americans always have a knack of grabbing that last helicopter out…”

F*cker. It’s our damned helicopter. And it shouldn’t have been there in the first place.

kmfg @ 82—glad to see the Decembrists on someone else’s list. They’ve been getting heavy rotation on my CD player for over a year. Colin Meloy is a truly gifted songwriter.

Punaise -
thanks soooo much for that Marley/Tosh YouTube link last night

Cozumel, luv ya, luv Sheryl but everyone knows the best live album was Last Waltz

Dear Chimpy-
put these in your IPod

Conquistador by Procol Harum
Crippled Inside by John Lennon
One Trick Pony by Paul Simon

One of my favorite bands of all time:

DICK DATIVE AND THE EXPERIENCERS

Died laughing and dancing to “Please Mr. Postal”

Taheri’s a bizzybizzybizzy boy these days:

Iran Bamboozler Invited to White House as “Expert”

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/000785.php

Punaise 113 – absolutely. Just like it’s the TV images of violence from Iraq that he thinks bother Americans.

at the risk of being a party-pooper, this ill-advised snap judgment: I heard one of the new Neil Young songs on the car radio and found it to be musically heavy-handed and lyrically simplistic/jingoistic. and this, from someone who has a lot of respect for Neil Young…

Dan Robinson (92):

Agreed! “Something” pales in comparison to “Beware of Darkness”.

In heavy rotation in my CD player: Jay Farrar (Son Volt), Neil Young’s LWW, and anything by Calexico.

Saint-Saens Chamber music; Nice double CD on Hyperion. Elegant, amiable, and a tonic for these times. Also, Randy Newman never grows old (”Dixie Flyer,” superb!). Go Chicks!

Reigning Sound -Live At Goner Records

Dead Moon – Crack In The System

Tearjerkers – Don’t Throw Your Love Away

Dylan

Stones

Toyko Electron

mui: great link to our own community member, Connecticut Bob!

cbl – glad you liked it. wasn’t too molten for ya?

This whole Dixie Chicks thing has me flummoxed. On the one hand, I want their back while they stand up for their right to dissent. On the other hand, I would rather jam icepicks in my eyes than listen to their recordings.

So, bully for them, I guess, but please just don’t ask me to buy one of their CDs. I just can’t do it.

In my CD player lately:

Paul Simon: Surprise
The Shins: Chutes Too Narrow
Electric Six: (Whatever their new CD is called)

The new Mission of Burma just came out last week – The Obliterati – and absolutely fantastic. Ferocious joyous assault, and not strictly political but far from politically indifferent either. (The finale, “Nancy Reagan’s Head,” is among the most wonderful highlights of the whole album.)

Burma’s turning into this generation’s version of what the Velvet Underground were to the last one. Except that to an extent we’d never have guessed possible five years ago, Burma is BACK.

Post-punkers rejoice, and I’ve needed some rejoicing lately, that cocks an eye at the state of the world lately, as Burma is so cannily wont to do. (Miller blogs periodically over at Huffington.)

Much longer write-up in my website link above, for those who’d be interested. The uppity headbangers in this crowd, especially, may dig.

NYTimes has a decent article on Ned : http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05…..ref=slogin

Leisureguy (85) — what the hell?? Damn, chicks in the 40’s were off the hook or what!! That was whacked even without my soundcard!!

Don’t know if you guys have seen this yet:

Courtesy of a link featured at WMR, here’s a dance partner you can grab with your mouse and throw around to the music of the Chicks.

Hee hee…
~

Oft:Wounded CBS Iraq reporter still in intensive care
“BERLIN (Reuters) – Wounded CBS Iraq correspondent Kimberly Dozier is likely to spend at least several more days in a U.S. military hospital in Germany before she is stable enough to fly home, a hospital spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
Dozier, 39, remained in intensive care, two days after a roadside bomb attack in Baghdad that killed her two British colleagues, cameraman Paul Douglas and soundman James Brolan.
“She’s still listed in very serious condition,” spokeswoman Marie Shaw said from Landstuhl military hospital, where Dozier’s mother, father, brother, sister and boyfriend were at her bedside.
Shaw said Dozier was conscious but sedated, and unable to speak because she was hooked up to medical tubes.
The U.S. journalist had shrapnel removed from her head by doctors at a U.S. military hospital in Iraq but has more serious injuries to her lower body. Shaw said a patient in her condition would typically need up to four days before she could be transferred to a U.S. hospital….”

It’s not until someone in the media is killed/wounded/kidnapped, that we are able to read this kind of detail. This is “normal” for U.S. soldiers and Iraqi’s.

punaise 120
in some ways i agree. as a longtime fan (and i mean longtime – i bought on the beach when it was first released) the music seems paint-by-numbers neil powerchords and the lyrics won’t rank up there with his best work. its the spirit that i am in awe of – that he uses a forum that few artists have (instant record/instant release, massive publicity) for such a statement.

Pachacutec -

college radio has been playing a recently remastered – All of Me – Billy Holiday w/ Artie Shaw, Charlie Christian AND Lester Young – not released yet – in stores soon

It was a nice respite while it lasted.

But the Josh Bolten dog-and-pony show has resumed; our tearless leader has put on the El Presidente suit today and is now doing a presser with the president of Rwanda in the White House.

Unfortunately he has difficulty stringing cogent thoughts and words together to greet this poor soul.

Cripes, the Rwandan president’s command of English is better than Dubya’s. Color me embarrassed again.

Gloria Gaynor=I Will Survive.

Whatever happened to her?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..=t&f=b

-GSD

OT:

Anyone have any thoughts on who might be the best Dem candidate in the California primaries? Angelides makes me sick though he is endorsed by DiFi and Boxer…Westly doesn’t look strong either… can’t vote for anyone who trashes the environment which is the buzz about Angelides…would appreciate any thoughts…primaries in a few days…

the short TV commercial for the new Neil Young album closed with the tagline: You be the Decider!

I heard this one rockin’ out at the pool in Cozumel last week…

Oooooweeeee! LOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..earch=joan jett i hate myself for loving you

I’M.HOOKED.ON.YOU.TUBE ; )

Rayne 97-I nearly rolled over and died when I heard Iggy Pop on a HP commerical. I don’t watch much tv so the product endorsements don’t enter my sphere too often. It does ruin it though when the song comes on and I think of the product, not the sweet memories that I usually associate with music.

101 – Ed, If you actually look at that list, it is amazing what some people consider to be uheard of…Sympathy for the Devil by the Stones? Black Dog by Led Zeppelin? Heck, even Fake Plastic Trees by Radiohead was a single.

cbl,
You probably already know, Levon Helm is recovering from surgery for (throat cancer?) and has a new album out.
http://www.levonhelm.com/

Weber clarinet quintet
Tchaikovsky 5th symphony
Aztec Camera – Knife

Twenty Twenty and The True False Identity, both new releases by T Bone Burnett. It takes a couple of listens, but the more I hear them the more I like ‘em.

omg– forgot Bob Marley and my other favorite for feeling good– Jimmy Buffett.

The Chicks’ new cd and the Old Crow Medicine Show cd.

o @131 – agreed; Neil gets props for the message regardless

Really late to the post, but had to give some love to the music.
I’ve listened to the Dixie Chicks new album a few times now and it’s really good. It’s no George Strait (who is the ultimate country singer), but still very good.
On the Ipod.
The Boy Least Likely To: The Best Party Ever – Simon and Garfunkel sounding tunes. My favorite album of the year.
TV on the Radio: Return from Cookie Mountain – Very hip music w/lots of electronic sounds. David Bowie’s favorite new group.
The White Stripes – all albums
Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Show Your Bones – Karen O belts the ballads like no other female singer today. This is the one group I want to see in concert.
Benny Goodman: The Yale Archives Collection – the quintessential Big Band Leader on a definitive collection.

wilco – yankee hotel foxtrot

has anybody caught sparks tongue-in-cheek anti-iraq ditty, “(baby, baby) can i invade your country?”? it includes a rendition of the star-bangled banner, in english, thank god! but with a new postscript…
here’s the link to their page on my fave music site, emusic:
http://www.emusic.com/album/10903/10903003.html

Oh, will, just heard the Old Crow Medicine Show on Prairie Home Companion this past weekend– I loved what I heard. Banjo and harmonica and sweet voices and great lyrics.

Dan 92 – My picks for best live albums are Stop Making Sense/Talking Heads, Big Time/Tom Waits and Pearl Jam Live Series #23 from Hamburg. Of course there’s also U2 at Red Rocks and Spirtualized from the Albert Hall. All great.

BTW, the acoustic track of Beware of Darkness on the re-release of ATMP is my favorite version of that great song (Harrison was always the most talented Beatle!)

In these neocon times, the original video for Blue Monday by New Order seems quite relevant again:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..earch=blue monday

OT but you’ll like it –

Boxer: Troops should be pulled out

http://insidebayarea.com/sanma…..ci_3883037

GSD at 9:50, thanks.
ROTFLMAO.

Talking Heads
“Life During Wartime”

Bob Marley’s “So much trouble in the World,” is so relevant.

It should be mentioned that Steve Earle was way out front of Neil and the Chicks.

Check out Jerusalem and The Revolution Starts Now albums.

Hey, don’t forget us mythical little guys!!

Goper’s Lament (Hard To Be A Republican

OH,What the heck. I’m dating myself but I still love these tunes;
Pat Travers Live
Pink Floyd Delicate sound of Thunder
Judas Priest Live from Japan
Metallica Ride the Lightning
Lynyrd Skynyrd Live
And one of my mostest favorites,
UFO Double Live Album

John Casper,
thanks, no, I didn’t know -
a good guy and heckuva storyteller

“Mom likes dead people” – actually overheard my kids say that, jeebus – here’s what I was listening to this am -

Billy Holiday
Otis Redding
John Lennon
Charley Parker
George Harrison
Bob Marley

Lives in the Balance/Jackson Browne (1986) – ostensibly about Reagan’s and Negroponte’s assault on Central America, it sounds more like a foretelling of the cluster**** known as the War on Terra.

If I were president I would ask the Dixie Chicks to serve in my administration.

Mott the Hoople Live – 30th anniversary edition. While it was a total head-scratcher when first released, this version has 13 more songs. They could have/should have been the biggest band in the world, but they had the worst luck or made the wrong decision at the worst time. While not incredibly talented individually, together they made an awesome racket. I’ve been listening to this 2 CD set continuously since I got it last week. Although many people know “All The Young Dudes”, they are the greatest band you never heard of.

Rayne (134): “Unfortunately he has difficulty stringing cogent thoughts and words together to greet this poor soul.”

I heard the real President of the United States, Al Gore, speaking with Terry Gross about “An Inconvenient Truth” and I was filled with such sadness. Not at the subject matter of global climate change, but at the fact that Gore is so smart, and he speaks so intelligently and clearly about very complex issues.

How did we allow our country to be hijacked by a talking chimp?

Oh, and isn’t Gore a Grateful Dead fan?

cbl: thanks for the tip.

My partner sometimes puts things like that up for my attention, but they always make me return to the originals, which seem to me far better. But if these new vehicles help expose a new generation to the greats of an original American art form, that’s fine by me.

I have much broader musical interests than jazz, and I own many of the titles mentioned in this thread. But I do confess I’ve pretty well dropped out of the contemporary music scene as being mosly derivative and lacking genuine artistry.

Musical snob that I am, I deplore the atonal gymnastics of the American Idol set, and far prefer a great musical performance with greater emotional resonance, even if the voice is less athletic. I’ll take Tom Waits at his best over any American Idol performer any day of the week.

I’m sure that means I’m missing some good stuff. I am also enjoying, and right now listening to, the Dixie Chicks album. The Allman Brother clip from Jane was a treat as well.

To all Music Lovers at FDL,

If you haven’t tried it yet, an unbelievably GREAT site is Pandora:

http://www.pandora.com/

It’s a free music library from the Music Genome Project – I was recently turned on to it by a friend who’s a studio musician – description here from their website:

“For almost six years now, we have been hard at work on the Music Genome Project. It’s the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken. Together our team of thirty musician-analysts have been listening to music, one song at a time, studying and collecting literally hundreds of musical details on every song. It takes 20-30 minutes per song to capture all of the little details that give each recording its magical sound – melody, harmony, instrumentation, rhythm, vocals, lyrics … and more – close to 400 attributes! We continue this work every day to keep up with the incredible flow of great new music coming from studios, stadiums and garages around the country.

Pandora is the doorway to this vast trove of musical information. With Pandora you can explore to your heart’s content. Just drop the name of one of your favorite songs or artists into Pandora and let the Genome Project go. It will quickly scan its entire world of analyzed music, almost a century of popular recordings – new and old, well known and completely obscure – to find songs with interesting musical similarities to your choice. Then sit back and enjoy as it creates a listening experience full of current and soon-to-be favorite songs for you.

The Music Genome Project was founded by musicians and music-lovers. We believe in the value of music and have a profound respect for those who create it. We like all kinds of music, from the most obtuse bebop, to the most tripped-out drum n bass, to the simplest catchy pop tune. Our mission is to help YOU connect with the music YOU like.”

To make a long story short I typed in “Charlie Byrd” for my first try, and have been listening to the most amazing and eclectic selection of classical jazz in background at my workstation for the past few days.

Try it and Enjoy!

#92 Dan

Best Live Album

“Get Yer Ya Yas Out”

Rolling Stones

Mick Taylor is great!

One part of the “Dixie Chicked” story that is not told, which is important to remember is that the whole protest was carefully organized by Clear Channels who control most of the country radio play. So this was like the “spontaneous demonstrations” of the Maoist Cultural Revolution

Dar Williams – Empire
Eliza Gilkyson – Man of God
Tracy Grammer – Hey, Ho

All current, all tasty, all spot on

CNN just showed the CASH that dealt with Dozier/the 6 soldiers — blood and screams included.

THIS is different.

#164,
I tried that pandora thing and was quite simply amazed! I would recommend that to any one who likes music.

Susan Gibson – if you love the chicks you will enjoy Susan Gibson, who wrote their hit “Wide Open Spaces” when she was 19.

People I am also listening to are:
Carolyn Wonderland – she has some great protest songs.
Guy Forsyth – Love Songs: For and Against
Terri Hendricks – works with Lloyd Maines (Natalie’s father)
Shelley King – Incredible voice, a cousin of Wesley Clark .

All of the above singer/songwriters were at the last anti-war protest march I attended here in Austin (was it in March or April?). Some performed and some were there because it was the right thing to do.

Check out the Clumsey Lovers (Canadian) and Waifs (Aussies) too.

Three naked people who are covering their private parts and not looking too happy getting their picture taken, practically piled on top of each other. Reminds me of Abu Ghraib.

Cozumel -
right back at ya – one of our family’s cult songs – joan jett sings Mary Tyler Moore theme (’bout 30 secs before joan starts in)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..earch=joan jett

Christy – this thread is like graham crackers and juice down by the lake !

Ditto on Pandora Absolutely fantastic.

punaise – I think it is actually the reporters of same that bother him. His mom told him his beautiful mind shouldn’t have to be troubled by those kinds of things.

Lobstergirl 23 – that is where it all went so very wrong IMO. The path was started much earlier, but Padilla was the unconditional surrender point for the militarization of the Justice dept and it was pathetic to watch it packaged and sold.

[rant]The law has many imperfections, but the things that are waiting to fill the space left when you take it away are a pretty nasty collection.

Supposedly Hagee is off to tell the troops to have moral courage and that we are supposed to be following Geneva conventions and treaties after all. OTOH, listen to what the troops being briefed on the laws of armed conflict are being told (that they don’t apply), watch what they have seen (60 days ankle bracelet for the torture killing of a POW who was an officer, etc.) and you see how far out the rippples go when we don’t do the right thing.

It doesn’t just affect one evil person in custody here in the states, it ends up affecting a three yo praying with her parent in a country far from our shores. It affects a soldier carrying her body while her brains trickle out to slap his boots.

All of that is part of war anyway, it’s not a direct cause and effect. But starting the war with an commitment to abrograte law on the part of our own department of justice – to make it “legal” and acceptable to do the illegal and abhorent – that has so many impacts that will carry forward for so long it is hard to even think about it. Once you abandon the law when it is inconvenient, or out of rage, or fear, it is gone.

The WOT was lost once DOJ surrendered. Once the line against applying law was toed, what did you have? A response to terrorists that was without rules. A response the required the responders to disavow rules, not just break rules, but to declare them “legally nonexistent.” No rules. What we were fighting against – the concept of attacking with terror, with lawlessness, with a shock to the conscience – became our new creed. Abandoing the law put the “shock” into Shock and Awe.

No rules. No law. If the President (or OBL) says it – it is “legal.” If our sins are ever too great, then they become secret. State secrets. Absolution by government fiat.

What a mess. And who holds the proud presser in air conditioning and suits to stand next to the pictoral evidence of what results from embracing a failure of law? A failure to stand by the law when it was hard. Who claims the victory for the spoils of the easy route? [/rant]

@ Hayduke #124 –

Is that a boot, or is there a new Reigning Sound live CD? I haven’t seen anything from them since Live at Maxwells. I wish Cartwright would quit releasing odds n’ sods and release a proper follow-up to TBHS. (Too Much Guitar doesn’t count. Though good, in my book that’s almost a Compulsive Gamblers record)

cbl,

Bwahahaha LOL Thanks, I never heard that before.

Amazon link to Maher’s FishBowl

http://tinyurl.com/rjpep

McGee – Blogronicity – that’s where I got the Charley Parker this morning

btw – my youtube jones started with the college girl – she overheard a group of my girlfriends discussing an old Disney produced movie they used to show ‘girls only ‘ – so she finds and sends as part of my mother’s day e card – high camp and hilarious – and have been hooked ever since

cbl at 175 — I thought we could use it. The news has been so bleak lately, I needed something cheery. :) Glad you liked it, too.

Lucinda Williams – Car Wheels on a Gravel Road

Mary 177, what a gift you have and are. If that’s a “rant,” I dread to think what you can do in serenity.

Millineryman (140) — the commercialization of what I now consider rock classics is so sad, makes me feel so much older than I am to think that what I listened to as kid or young adult is now just a commodity like so much wrapping paper.

Like the Kink’s “Picture Book” for HP printers, or Aerosmith’s “Dream On” pushing f*cking Buicks…so very sad.

Although in some ways it’s merely cognitive dissonance; “Dream On’ always brings back memories of Senior Prom night and the back seat of my boyfriend’s grandfather’s borrowed Oldsmobile. Heh.

There is a new thread waiting just for you.

Since all of my CD’s were stolen with the car stereo (jerks) I’m rebuilding and downloading. First purchase – Jennie Devoe (”Thank You goodnight”). Sharkbabe – buy this!

GSD at #134. Absolutely wonderful. Laughed so hard I choked. Thank you.

The Doors-Strange Days

~

Back from rantland, near anarchtica.

I want to go on record voting against the idea of Neil Young and a naked cover. lotusland – I did like the Boxer link. She and Murtha make a strange pair, but I like it.

I’m basically tone deaf, which is probably why I was always a Dylan fan. Since EPU isn’t around and since I got my Echo at his recommendation – I have to add E and the Bunnymen though.

I am also Knopfler fan, but I am lost on his duet with Emmylou from above? Is that new or old?

John C & angie – I never seem to be able to find those WaPo chats except through the links here. I really enjoy the updates, they give an interesting insight.

“Mom likes dead people”
LMAO.
Thanks for the rant Mary.

For protest songs, check out Rodney Crowell’s albums “Fate’s Right Hand” (song – Preachin’ to the Choir) and “The Outsider” (songs – Don’t Get me Started and Ignorance is the Enemy). I saw him in concert early this year, and he did a song called “Sex and Gasoline” that was an amazing indictment of what’s up with our government. He also spoke then about Gore’s movie. And he is obviously and vocally very concerned about Bush et al.

For great listening, check out any CD by the following:

Tommy Castro
Delbert McClinton
Marcia Ball
Teresa James and the Rhythm Tramps
(listen to “When the Winds Die Down” on Oh!
Yeah! album for another great protest song)
Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets
Roy Rogers and the Delta Rhythm Kings

Punaise,
I catch up on the comments/threads in order. I just read it. Thank you. I loved the upside down punaise, tres cute.

BWA-HAHAHAHAH!!! What Leisureguy (188) said!! OMFG!! the kids are going to love that one when they get home from school!!

McGee 2 167. That link to Pandora is incredible. It’s like playing “six degrees” of your favorite musicians.

looseheadprop 193 – in Italian that’s molto carino :~)

My iPod has been stuck on repeat with Jefferson Airplane’s “Volunteers”, particularly the line Marty Balin and Grace Slick belt out about another war that seems so apropos today:

One generation got old
One generation got sold

If the way the music swings doesn’t move you, I don’t know what will. Also, their rendition of “Wooden Ships” has some relevance today, and it is a popular one on my playlist, too.

And who could forget that Pink song, after all? Go’on girl!

P.S. If anyone heard George Michael’s paean to poodle Tony Blair on his last album called “Shoot the Dog,” remembering that it was recorded prior to the invasion, it makes you proud that someone in the pop field was saying something, even if it was popular worldwide except for in the United States. My favorite little seductive dig:

So, Cherie [Blair] my dear,
Should we leave the way clear for sex tonight?
Tell ya, Tony, Tony, Tony,
I know that you’re horny
But there’s something bout’ that Bush ain’t right.

Campy, raunchy, and with a political message–just how I likes my protest music. :-)

I just borrowed my co-worker’s copy of the disk, and I think it’s good stuff. My question for y’all is, are any of you Jayhawks fans? This really sounds like ‘em.

I’ve just been listening to Phil Ochs “There But For Fortune”, a lucky find at a garage sale last weekend…with some of his classics, “Power and Glory”, “I Ain’t Marching Anymore”, “Ringing of Revolution”, and his most beautiful “Changes”.

Fela Kuti -groove, and passion

Rage Against the Machine – “it’s the beat and the lyrics they fear”

The Moody Blues – Uplifting and thoughtful

Go Dix’s !

RGB @ 195 “That link to Pandora is incredible. It’s like playing “six degrees” of your favorite musicians.”

Thank you for the perfect “capsule” description!

I’ve been listen to a lot of the Stones, Johnny Thunders, Otis Redding, Toots and the Maytals, and Prince latley. (and lot of random Dub… spring/summer always puts me in a Jamacan mood).

Also just ordered the new album from The Weary Boys yesterday. Great bluegrass/hardcore country band from Austin with wicked fiddle player too. And check out their myspace site too. They’ve got some songs clips up there. These guys are great (Good Times was probably the best record I bought in ‘03)

And of course, shameless plug, my own band Casino Evil

always late to the party, work and all…

So much good stuff y’all are listening to!

Didn’t see anyone mention Michael Franti (Spearhead). Can Bomb the World to Pieces But You Can’t Bomb it Into Peace, esp the version with Sly & Robbie!!

Dr. John’s post-hurricane cd.
Marvin Gaye, What’s Goin’ On – always relevant, but esp now!
Steve Earle
Lucinda Williams

and feel-good music extraordanaire…Kermit Ruffins, any of it, but my favorite cd is Big Easy. Channeling the late great spirit of Louis Armstrong.

As for great live albums: don’t forget Live Dead. Best Dark Star EVER!

Rayne,
I gotta disagree about using classic rock in comercials. My kids would never know about the Kinks or the Stones or Thin Lizzy or how many others if they had not gotten their first taste from a movie soundtrack or commercial.

Classic rock is a little like herion. You give the kiddies a little taste, THEN they want to mainline your vinyl.

I only hit “submit” once, fwiw.

I have liked the Dixie Chicks since their first album. It was such a relief to hear their music break up the commercial wasteland of country radio. I am not an expert on music of any kind, but I think they handle a variety of country and folk styles very well.

I agree with some previous commenters about Steve Earle, especially “Jerusalem” and “The revolution Starts Now”. I would also suggest James Macmurtry’s “Childish Things”.

Here in NC there are a lot of bands comprised of young people, especially in the Asheville area, who are making some interesting (and political) music in the folk vein. If I were thirty years younger, I’d, well you know how that goes…

Good art of nearly any kind is a bit subversive, if only that the creative process calls for turning things around and rethinking their relations. Art is threatening to those who want things to remain how they are, no matter what political stripe they bear. It is a comfort to those who want change and progress. Much poison ink has been slung bashing the sixties and early seventies. Back then I and many of my friends wrote poetry, painted pictures and wrote music of questionable merit. I personally have written songs so bad that thirty years later, I wake up in a cold sweat thinking that there are people alive who may remember hearing them. But, so what? Isn’t that better than being some some passionless oaf who can only shed tears over lost money? A lot of us aspired above our talents, but we learned to appreciate the process and those who were more suited to it. I wouldn’t choose to have been young at any other time.

Oh yeah, this was suppose to be about the Dixie Chicks wasn’t it? This codger thing is really getting out of hand.

Okay the Pandora thing is wicked. Just typed in Lords of Acid!

OMG
.

.

yes the Pandora thing is bitchin…grazzi people.

I like how it tells you in musicological terms what elements it is choosing the track for……I freakin love technology…..

lhp (203) — heh. Perhaps. We’ve saturated them with the stuff like background noise since they were little, though; it’s more like a lovey or a comfortable pair of jeans now. But it’s not commercial; that’s the part that grinds me. Agh.

Billy K @ 178

Yes, Its a proper live album, better than the Maxwell’s hone imho. You can get it here, think its vinly only (I rip my vinyl onto my ipod also).

http://www.goner-records.com/mainpage.php

ps- Oblivians played a reunion gig in Chicago last Sunday.
Oh, and New R. Sound coming soon.

OT Mary at 177,

I know you think it all started with Padilla. And I know you blame Comey. I don’t know if I ever posted this, but When Comey was still USA in NYC, he was on a Federal Bar Council panel. On aother topic. During the Q&A lawyer after lawyer in the audience brought up Padilla. I knew most of them. They were from both ends of the politcal spectrum and everywhere in between.

Everyone was disturbed. Not least of all Comey. He was amazingly candid about his own conflicted feelings, but pointed out that in all of his many years of government service, he had never had an AG or President flat out lie to him. He had no proof that he was being lied to then.

Did he smell a rat? I think he did, but he had no proof it was a rodent and not rat scented air freshener.

Every day you come on this site and you do the good lawyer thing, you present facts that you can back up (cause unlike me, you can link)and law with citations. You don’t expect the people who read your comments to take a leap of faith with you.

Well, Comey made his decision based on the verifiable facts he had at the time. He said that he was worried that he was being played, but a hunch is not a justifaction for insubordination. he had no facts to hang his hat on. And much less discretion or power than you seem to think.

I have seen him action for a good 20 years. Angry, happy, blazing lightning bolts out of his eyes. (he is somethin’ in front of a jury), I have never before or since seen him like he was that night. Choked up, eyes welling, saying he did not become a lawyer so he could help dismantle the Constitution.

I have never know him to lie, nor heard anyone accuse him of it who actually was a principle in the transaction.

Mary, I am a huge fan of yours, but I truly believe you are wrong on this. I’m not saying he has perfect judgement or the judgements he makes are the same that I would have, but I vouch unconditionaly for his integrity. I have seen in on display more than once, beginning when he was a brand new just starting out lawyer with no power at all and a new baby at home, yet willing to destroy his new career to speak truth to power.

Padilla wasn’t the beginning. The Patriot Act was the beginning. Congress abdicated it’s oversight role with that law. It also created a climate where Bushco was given a blank check to do anything he wanted as long as it was for the “war on terror”ism. THAT”S when everything changed. Even today with the NSA, we hear, “if the program is illegal, let’s change the law to make it legal”, WTF?

hey

you should use the time image from the cover!

my wife shot it!

and i’m a (semi) regular here!

just sayin’.

more of her work here http://www.manipulator.com.

Fairuz – Lebanese Singer
Um Koulthoum – Egyptian — she was as popular in the Middle East as combination of Beatles, Dylan and Elvis in the West. Phenomenal voice. It will break your heart.

Robert at 212 — oh, wow! Here’s the Time cover, gang, in case you missed it:

http://www.time.com/time/cover…..29,00.html

I told my hubby when we got that issue that the lighting was fantastic in that shot. They look so kick ass and yet vulnerable at the same time — really great photo. Kudos to your wife. :)

Way too many favorites. Delbert McClinton : Never Been Rocked Enough cd.

wildekid 197

The Airplane?
Takes me back.
I’m a big Jorma and Jack fan.

Bark is great too.

Crazy Miranda
lives on propaganda
she follows newsprint anywhere it leads…

Lobstergirl says:
May 31st, 2006 at 8:28 am

Why do women always have to be naked. Sigh.

Do they think no one will pay any attention to them unless they are?

Yeah, me, too, usually, but I love this photo. It’s aggressive and subdued, and empowering because it confronts quietly yet boldly their born-American right to speak their piece. (They are all american, non?)

Jane Siberry is a fave. Leonard Cohen Paul Simon and just for fun lately, John Hartford (thanks, Christy, for the bluegrass reminder); in a certain mood, Dave Frishberg Leo Kottke.

Papa John’s fiddle on “Wild Turkey”
Jefferson Airpland “Bark”

great great great

Chris D. of G-Town: I am so sorry that things did not work out with you and Martie.

Perhaps it is a fitting note to this discussion that Brad’s Blog is reporting that tomorrow Rolling Stone will come out with their online edition with a hard hitting story by Robert Kennedy Jr. about the Ohio stolen election. Magazine to hit stands on Friday.

Rayne says:
May 31st, 2006 at 9:24 am

Ranger31 (46) — Ah. Iz. I cry every time I play his stuff. No ka oi.

Moi, ausii. Iz is love.

Joe Satriani

That Time cover, in addition to being an astonishing and beautiful image in its own right, is about as witty a retort as I can imagine to the crass (but still beautiful) Rolling Stone version.

Sisterhood: powerful.

The Chicks Rock. And they sure look good. God bless them!

I’m so loving these music threads – great reminders, and brand new ideas, of stuff I’m gonna download asap.

Could y’all keep doing these once in a while?

just downloaded a fine Sarah Maclachlan/Emmylou Harris duet of “Angel”, and lots of Lucinda Williams.

Best bar bands I’ve ever caught:
Sonia Dada
Billy (Vera) and the Beaters
Textones (w/Carla Olson)
Chuck E. Weiss and The goddam Liars
Delbert McClinton

lhp – I agree the Patriot Act was the beginning; I just see Padilla as the surrender point.

No one person gets the glory or the sole responsiblity for any disaster and I don’t blame one person. I do blame a lot of people, and he would be on the list, for turning their back on the Constitution. When you look at the genesis of a train wreck, there may be a lot of people who, if they had things to do over would do them differently (I would on a lot of things), but that doesn’t mean that you can see the wreck through the lens of what might have happened, just what did happen.

No one involved in the policy and legal decisions that were made is a child or unwise to the world. Clients always want to push the boundaries; politics is always about power; political clients use lawyers as a tool for power or to escape consequences of misuse of power. Substitute military for political and you have Mora’s situation. I’m not saying I would do better – I’m sure I wouldn’t. I’m not that drawn to power so I’m not likely to be in such a posititon to start with (and luckily for everyone I haven’t had those kinds of things dumped in my lap). Plus, I am a wimp. I don’t pretend to be more.

I’m also the wimp that really is bothered by terrorists. I know how I have felt about the war in Iraq and can absolutely sympathize with the feelings of someone who has been even more frustrated, but from another set of circumstances. Someone who has been on the frontlines dealing with the victims and the horror, not just pictures but people, of the prior assaults. Who would be human and not rage against that? People who have to dig in and live in the minds of people like terrorists as a part of trying to do something to counteract them.

I know that there was tremendous frustration by people who were dealing with the front lines that Clinton was dropping the ball. I know they had to shoulder a very nasty series of episodes that didn’t even register for most of America. To know that more was coming, to see the result on 9/11 – the devastation that everyone else felt, they probably lived X 5 or X 10 or more.

You want to do something and when you have almost on a silver platter that something good can come out of it, a new focus on addressing the problem and a commitment on behalf of the GOvt and the will of the people to be behind you – of course you want to take that and run with it. I can have tremendous sympathy with that and still say and belive – history has already taught us this lesson.

Good motives. Even the best of motives. The best of motives from people who have done the work that no one else wants to do and lived that cost. Death threats, pictures of the killed and maimed always with them, disturbing insights into the minds of terrorists. You go from a point where this is under the radar and no one caring – to where suddenly you have a whole country that says, “do something” and what do you do?

If it sounds like I am unsympathetic I’m sorry for that. Complex situations and reactions are hard to address in paragraphs here and there. I don’t know the inner workings of anyone involved (I don’t know the inner workings of lots of people I have known for years even) and I absolutely believe you if you say people involved have been very troubled. Since I don’t know them, even my sympathies may be wildly off base.

But with all that, I watched the Patriot Act unfold with misgivings bordering on dismay and Padilla with deep deep depression. I think it was this site that posted a link to an article where Comey was on his way to the position of Dep AG and was specifically asked about the military v. criminal response. So I don’t think he went in unprepared for the nature of the struggle. Still, I also know that it can be a little like being in a combat group to have lawyers working together and the last thing you want to do is take aim at the people you work with. It goes against every instinct, even if you sometimes hate their guts. You just don’t do it.

I don’t know if that ameliorates anything I have said, bc I do still have to say I don’t look and see a hero. My initial response was more cautionary, bc I saw people here having what I thought might be unrealistic expectations that could hurt them later. I truly don’t see how someone like Comey, at this late stage, testifies to the judiciary committee to any good effect, even if we knew what he would say.

That is partly bc I don’t expect him to break the rules – I don’t expect that of lawyers in general. I would especially not expect it from those who have been able to look back and see what comes from ignoring the rules. You don’t break them for the frustrations of a GWB any more than you break them as a quickie end run for addressing terrorists.

That’s not fun and ez for me to say. I would love to see people ditch privilege and classifications and scruples and just tank the bad guys. Except I wouldn’t. Bc the costs are long term and too high. So I have low expectations that having Ashcroft and Comey to testify before the Judiciary Committee would be a cathartic and cleansing experience with the emergence of some heroic figure. Those are just my expectations though, and maybe I foisted them too strongly?

I think Fitzgerald has done an incredibly good work on the mess that he took on, but I don’t see a hero there either. OTOH, I like that others see heroes – I think you get what you expect sometimes and it’s a nice thought. My personal priorities rank the way in which we have addressed American values and principles, throught the Patriot Act, covert domestic spying programs, enemy combatant status and Padilla, much higher than how we deal with nasty lying political operatives (although Plame obviously has much bigger ramifications as well) so while I think it has been fascinating to watch and I am shocked at how much Fitzgerald has pulled off, staying in the lines, it’s hard for me to say, “Padilla is fine bc we may end up getting Rove” or feel something similar.

I look at what is basically some incredibly good work done on cases like Cunningham (some great work done there too) and I would like to get excited about that, but there is not one thing that is done that doesn’t make me go back to the fact that so many good lawyers, standing by silently. I think America in general has tremendous trust in our law enforcement and our military personnel. I know I have. Trust is a handing over of power and when that power is misused, the trust is never the same. As a matter of faith I would say that when the Bible tells us to trust in the Lord, it is partly bc of the risks of trust, but more bc it can be tremendously unfair to someone to place your trust in them.

Even so, when you ask for, and even, as with the Patriot Act, demand that trust, it is your responsiblity. When you tell people that some good guy will be there to come forward if there is an abuse, you have the duty to be that good guy. All IMO. Maybe not a fair opinion, maybe not enough shades of grey in my opinion, maybe not enough respect for things I don’t know enough about. I’m open to any of those things being true.

But for now, I still have the same opinion. As prosecutors who are able and willing to make someone pay, DOJ and various elements have been able to shine. As defense counsel for a Constitution that had no one else to defend it, because of secrecy and political maneuverings, they’ve done a very bad job and that is ongoing. And the effect of that failure to represent and protec that interest is ongoing.

OTOH, I’d never say those things aren’t my responsiblity – citizen, lawyer or whiner – as much as theirs. I’m not super proud of every thing that I haven’t done the last 5 years either. More than not proud – ashamed.

I bought their entire album on iTunes, not because I like country music, because I don’t; but to support them. I have listened to it twice and was surprised to find that I really like it. It’s like pop music with a southern accent, and it’s really good stuff. I’m sure other people aren’t surprised; but I was unfamiliar with most of their work and I just want to point out that enjoying their music is very easy to do, so you can feel even better about supporting them.

Yes, Um Kalthoum (whose name is spelled so many ways you have to search “egyptian” on half.com) and Fairuz. I heard about her on NPR about ten years ago. I went into a local Middle Eastern grocery where they had music. After I bought the tape, I was in like flint, free samples and strong tea whenever I came in. It is hard to over estimate how highly she is revered, even so many years after her death. The music is interesting with the instruments playing in unison rather than in harmony. This and the differences in musical scales make for a very different texture.

Fairuz is more accessible, if that means anything, more western influence. I like her just fine.

The “Patumayu” series has a raft of great world music as you all know.

(This’ll certainly be lost at the bottom of yesterday’s post, but I don’t want to interrupt an early thread.)

I just read a horrible Reuters article on The Dixie Chicks, titled “Dixie Chicks Bush-whacked at record stores”

Basically said that even though they debuted at no. 1 with almost no radio airplay, their sales of 525K “pale” in comparison to their last record that opened with 780K.

Gee – could this maybe be because ALL album sales are down?!

Idiots!

It also mentions that Rascal Flats opened in April with 778K. Big Whoop.

And because that wasn’t enough idiocy for one article, they talk about how the Chicks have left their country base by working with producer Rick Rubin, best known for (in their words), “his work with funk-rock band the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who had ruled the charts for the previous two weeks, and with deceased Nashville renegade Johnny Cash.”

Because Johnny Cash isn’t very country, y’know…

Sheesh! Talk about trying to manufacture a story.

http://today.reuters.com/News/…..CHICKS.xml

Here’s a transcript of their Larry King performance if anybody’s interested. They handle themselves well, that’s for damn sure.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRA…..kl.01.html