Crazy great week for new music, including many artists from way back in the day like The The, Jesus and Mary Chain, Journey, Sleater-Kinney, and more recent artists from Man on Man to The Bronx to Squirrel Flower to Virginia Trigo and so much more. Enjoy!
This week's artists (twitter handles unless otherwise marked):
The recount was stopped. Courts refused to step in. The election was decided by an incredibly small number of votes. When it came to tally the electoral college votes there was an objection in Congress but at the end of the day it made no difference. A new president was sworn in.
Several months later a news organization took it upon themselves to finish the count and it turned out that the man who had been declared the loser had actually won. It was an incredibly small margin, but he won after all, and therefore won enough electoral votes to become President. It was months later, and the other man had been sworn in, but the man sworn in hadn't won the election.
So once the truth came out why the hell didn't Al Gore become President?
Because there's no "takes-backsies" clause in the Constitution.
Look, I understand that there is a group of people in this country who say over and over again that the truth will out and that the previous guy will be reinstated. There are even people in Congress who say it. Thing is, it can't happen. There is no mechanism of any kind to make it happen. There is no law. There is no provision. Once the votes are accepted by Congress it's over.
OVER.
Otherwise Al Gore would have been President of the United States.
Think how different the world would have been if Al Gore had been President on 9/11. Or maybe not - after all it was the Democrats who pushed for the Department of Homeland Security. A lot of people don't remember that.
But the point is that Gore was never President, despite it turning out that once the votes were counted that he had won Florida by the slimmest of margins. You must remember that what the Supreme Court did was STOP the vote counting while Little Bush was ahead, again by the slimmest of margins, and not all the votes counted. Once the dust settled and congress accepted the results of the Electoral College (again, with an objection by a member of Congress) the votes were fully tabulated by an auditor hired by The Guardian Newspaper, which determined that Gore had won.
Gore didn't become President.
It doesn't matter at all what the Arizona "Fraudit" comes up with, or what any other state does if they go through with this either. Trump will not become President. There is no clause in the Constitution that allows for a reinstatement of a President. There is no clause that can remove a sitting President for this either. Only Impeachment is possible - and you might have noticed by now that Impeachment has never worked.
Trump cannot become President again unless re-elected or if he becomes Speaker of the House of Representatives and both Biden and Harris are Impeached. That second scenario is the more likely one, and it's ludicrous.
Gore didn't become President. Trump will not be President again.
And haven't you noticed yet that "Q/Q-Anon" has been wrong every single fucking time?!!?!!?!!?
Cheap Shots (It's Tuesday so it must be Vodka):
I don't know if you've yet seen Rachel Maddow's take on "Italygate" but you really should.
A solid week this week, featuring Tom Morello, Kings of Convenience, Harry J Hart, Weezer, Francis Lung, The Killers with BRUUUUCE, Grey Daze and so much more. Even I make an appearance this week! Enjoy!
Here is the
listing of this week’s artists, twitter handles unless otherwise marked:
@JONSSON_guitar @HarryJHartMusic @therealgreydaze @sleepingisalice @animeraider (hey, that’s me!) @T2Hughes @Kings_of_C @ColaBoyy with @nicolasgodin The Mountain Movers (I couldn’t find a social media presence for them – but they’re signed to @trouble_in_mind records) @FrancisLung @catenarywires @AmyHelmMusic Novelcreativeintl (Instagram) Madskyrecords (Instagram) Joe Jackson (and frankly I would have been surprised to see him on social media) @toddrundgren @tmorello with @BloodyBeetroots and @anatijoux Iamhillhunter (Instagram) @thekillers with @springsteen Darkride82 (Instagram) @Weezer @TReflectors
Thjs week's controversy du jour (so far) appears to be about a weightlifter in New Zealand who has qualified for the Olympic Team as a Trans female Weightlifter. Here's the actual post from well-known bigot Lauren Boebart:
Laurel Hubbard, the NZ athlete in question, transitioned EIGHT YEARS AGO. She has competed as female her entire adult career. Although eligible, she didn't make the team in 2016. She is currently not even ranked in the top 20 in world standings in her weight class. Neither is Sarah Robles. There is no advantage. They both need to beat Wang Zhouyu of China (Ranked #1), Kim Un-ju of North Korea (#2), Tamara Salazar of Ecuador (#3) and a slew of others. What has been done here is a cherry-picking of the facts to support a bias against trans people as a whole.
That last paragraph is how I replied on social media. I'm sure to get hate mail over it - I certainly get it for less. But let me also point out that Ms. Hubbard didn't take anyone's slot - she qualified as the only person competing in her weight class for NZ. She is also recovering from an injury, haven broken her arm in a competition in 2017 attempting to lift a weight some of the people ranked higher than her have long since cleared.
Ms. Hubbard has no advantage here. She is on about equal footing with everyone else in her lift class, including Ms. Robles of team USA.
It's an easy trap to fall into, the male body vs. female body ideal, and a bigot like Boebart will certainly exploit it.
Finally, I will point out that the rules about transgender athletes participating in the Olympics were established in 2003 - nearly 20 years ago. This is the first time any athlete has made it. Seems to me that the idea of an unfair advantage is exactly the same as Boebart: a pile of bullshit..
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Cheap shots (arr, it be rum Monday):
FUN FACT: Ammon Bundy is banned from the Idaho State Capitol.
Lots of great music including a couple of songs recorded for the Gang of Four tribute album, Danny Elfman, Bowling for Soup, Locean, 2nd Grade, Remerge Band, Garbage, Hanson with Rick Nielson of Cheap Trick and so much more! Enjoy!
Here are this week’s artists, identified by their twitter handles unless otherwise noted:
@robertglasper and @derrickhodge @flea333 and @johnfrusciante with The Silverlake Conservatory Youth Choir @shungudzo @DaveKozMusic and @corywong @dannyelfman @bfsrocks with @hansonmusic @unkleofficial and@michaelkiwanuka Locean – who doesn’t seem to have a social media presence as of yet, but can be found at https://open.spotify.com/artist/3nLMbvTNVoVdLc6tNR7Bi1?si=fTGGXhbsRA6PrT82N_ggmA&dl_branch=1 @Le19911 Wanderingwithmusic (Instagram) @2ndgradephilly @JessieWare @vinylwilliams @PSB_HQ with @EERAmusic @BonnieLegion @RemergeBand @NekoCase with @RAC @TallTallTreees and @adrianmquesada @garbage @Jbrekkie @wolfalicemusic @AFI @Quiversam @IndigoDeSouza @JebLoyNichols and colddiamondandmink (Instagram) @hansonmusic with @CheapTrickRick @AvlisSatori planets.collide.music (Instagram) floodmusic2112 (Instagram)
Flood's a friend and I wish they were on twitter sometimes, because quite frankly Instagram eludes me. I was going to offer to do vocals on this track when I first heard the demo, but came to realize fairly quickly that it just doesn't need them.
I also want to give a special shoutout to DJ OG OR MAN of steamradiomcr (Instagram) for introducing some of these bands to me. He played one of my songs on his radio show in Manchester, UK this past Sunday, which can be found streaming here: https://www.mixcloud.com/steamradiomcr/og-or-man-49-taking-the-knee-13062021/
And finally, because I love you, have this joyous performance by Jon Batiste and Stay Human on the first day The Late Show with Stephen Colbert came back into the Ed Sullivan Theater:
I get a lot of flack from anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers, and other fuckwits about my words on the COVID-19 Pandemic and in particular the response to it in the US. I pull no punches about it, I believe firmly that the previous administration and ANYONE who enables them and their policies are complicit in the deaths of all of these people. They belong in prison.
I'm not going to fucking apologize for believing that. The fault for all of this belongs directly in the laps of the Republican Party. If you believe otherwise, you're WRONG. I can bring the receipts.
I've been pretty isolated during all of this. I went into lockdown on March 11, 2020 and I'm technically still there. I now work from home, and even though I've been fully vaccinated for two months now I still go out masked. I may never eat at a buffet again. Sorry Sizzler, but I've learned how to make your cheese bread.
I ripped a tendon in my left knee in May of 2020. I had to go to the hospital, but I was out in a few hours with crutches. I would joke with people that I'm now out of hinged joints to break.
But in July my cough returned with an attitude, and I picked up an infection. Not Covid, but it all made me pretty sick. So that you understand, I have what's called "Chronic Cough Syndrome". I've had it since I was 8. No one knows the cause or the cure. Believe me, we've looked. I just start coughing, and after a few months, I stop. It can be treated but I just have to live with it until someone comes up with something we haven't tried before.
Doctors have gotten into fistfights over whether or not I have Asthma. I don't, but sometimes Asthma medications work for a bit. To be honest, I've had this for so long that sometimes I don't even notice when I cough. It's just part of the wonder of being me.
I took the Pandemic seriously. I stayed home, I socially distanced, I got real familiar with teams, bluejeans, and zoom. I did a LOT of cooking. Started making bread. Watched the country fall apart at the seams and commented on it from my own little pocket of safety. I contributed a new song to a fund-raising effort for nurses. I did my part to stay safe, but my cough had other ideas.
Anyway, this time my coughing got pretty severe and I finally agreed to go to the hospital. As stated above, turns out I had picked up an infection. Combine that with my cough and I showed all of the symptoms of a severe case of COVID-19.
I'd been careful, but the hospital staff were all very cross with me. If I had COVID, I just exposed all of them, and the main nurse who tended to me had already been quarantined that same month for a different exposure. When the test came back negative the tension in the emergency ward calmed down immensely and everyone treated me kindly and professionally - I was a patient with something they knew what to do with and didn't bring plague into their house.
I spent 4 days in the hospital but the worst part, scariest part, was the wait to move from the Emergency Room to a private room. I came to the hospital in the late afternoon. I finally got my bed nearly 12 hours later, a good 8 hours after my test for COVID had come back negative.
I needed to be hospitalized, and needed a bed, and there weren't any. I had to wait for someone to either be discharged or to die.
I got my bed at 4 in the morning. Someone had died. Musical chairs was played and I was finally moved out of the Emergency Room.
It's really hard to understand how sobering that is without experiencing it. Many years ago, before we even knew about AIDS, I had the honor of donating blood and seeing it get used in a surgery mere minutes later. I became a regular blood donor at that moment - I felt so happy and alive that my blood had been used to save a life mere minutes after I had donated it (I'm O Negative) that I became a life-long believer. I donated every time I was eligible from that moment forward until a blood infection disqualified me from ever donating again 20 years later.
This was just the opposite. The guy with a cough and a treatable infection had to wait for someone on a ventilator to stop breathing. Someone with COVID died so that I could get a bed. They never knew this had happened, and I never learned who they were. Some random person died so that I could get better.
Try sleeping after that realization hits you. I couldn't. I barely slept the entire time I was there.
Despite the fact that I wasn't in the "COVID Ward" I got to see the effects first-hand. The newly disinfected bed and room I had was previously occupied by someone moved up to the Covid Ward. They in turn had moved up there after a ventilator was taken away from a patient who died. Staff rotated through different wards on different shifts. My first nurse was rotated into the Covid Ward. My next day nurse had just rotated out. I have never in my life seen a group of people look so haunted by their day to day lives.
A well-liked member of their staff was on a ventilator. So was a priest who worked in the hospital. I had never seen in person a "Code Blue". There were six of them my first day. There is also a "Code Black". It's much worse.
My wife and daughters weren't allowed to visit me. When your daily soundtrack is nothing but medical staff talking about the good and the bad, terrible television and the moaning/screaming of your new neighbors getting that visit from family is a huge stress relief. It wasn't available this time. I didn't see my family again until I was discharged. There was no outside world.
I admit that being in hospital during all of this, even though I myself didn't have COVID, shook me. When you're in hospital mostly what you deal with is yourself and your own condition, and getting the hell out of there as soon as you can. This time I was not only aware of the people around me, their conditions, their suffering and their recoveries, but I was also aware that a whole section of the building was dedicated to people who were going to die, and that the people who were treating me were also treating them.
This was as close as I got to the Pandemic. When I got home I fucking STAYED THERE. I went to the grocery store and the pharmacy and that was it. That was life for MONTHS.
Our grocery store was fantastic - they enforced social distancing and masks with gusto. They cleaned EVERYTHING. It had been a 24 hour store but converted to shorter hours so that the down time could be spent cleaning. Aisles were made one-way.
The first time I saw someone in the parking lot without a mask I have to admit that I lost it. I screamed at them (a white couple about my age), "PUT YOUR FUCKING MASKS ON YOU FUCKING MORONS!" Understand, I'm a fairly large man with a deep voice and have been a professional singer for decades and have played sax even longer. I'm loud and imposing. Everyone within 50 feet turned and stared at the couple. Okay, me first then the couple.
It's possible they didn't speak English. They exchanged a few words in Russian to each other and then masked up.
I've been known to let my temper show. I try not to because I know it's there and I know it's terrible. I've worked for decades to keep it in check and I just let it all out, screaming at a couple of rando Karens 20 feet away from anyone else who hadn't put their masks on yet. I had to acknowledge that this affected me profoundly. I'm dealing with that.
I've lost friends to COVID. One of my neighbors spent almost 3 months on a ventilator and survived it. Some of my friends have lost family. It hurts. It all hurts. It has changed me.
Some of you have noticed that I've been pretty productive in 2021 in terms of music, after not releasing material for over a decade. This whole experience has changed me, changed my perspective. I was already an angry liberal but I'm far angrier and much more liberal now than I was. The album I worked on forever essentially no longer exists. The person I am now couldn't make that album. I am excising demons and allowing the new to come in and take its place.
And you know what, so far, I'm okay. I'm still here. I intend to stay. In fact, what I intend to be the first song from my next album in its own way deals with the fact that I don't understand depression - I've never experienced it.
But I have to admit that I'm grateful to have family and friends in my life who accept me as I am, who provide unconditional love and support and I hope I do for them. I have the occasional doubt that I'm as good a friend/family member as I can be. I can be an ass sometimes.
(A couple of my long-time friends have just done spit-takes. "Sometimes????")
Because the scariest thing about what we've all been through - what I've been through - is that we have changed so much that I'm not sure that the people who know me best would be my friends if they met me as the person I am now. I am changed.
And the odds are pretty good that you have too. This is something we're all going to need to deal with, or we're lost.
Please, don't be lost.
And because it still needs doing, because the pandemic is still going strong as ever among the anti-vaxxers, the science deniers and the Republicans, please support our nurses. Here's the album I'm on that is still to this day, long after falling off the charts, raising money for them:
Lots of great music this week including a fantastic new album from Liz Phair (I'm a fan), plus CHVRCHES with Robert Smith, Del Amitri, Crowded House, Hill Hunter, Mad Sky, Babyshark, Prince, Modest Mouse and so much more. Enjoy!
This week's artists (twitter handles unless otherwise marked):
@CHVRCHES featuring @ROBERTSMITH@tmorello with @BloodyBeetroots, Pussy Riot, @TLImusic and @AimeeIntrrupter @LoveLyzardz @DvousM @PhizLair @DelAmitri iamhillhunter (Instagram) Luna Frazier (https://open.spotify.com/artist/5SbIusO2c0WyVhJ7kXrnRy) Land of the Machines (https://open.spotify.com/artist/58EMgnlnmnpR9vBzkimZQa) madskyrecords (Instagram) babyshark (https://open.spotify.com/artist/0odfYcvbdfr6KPXZPwLvUX) withnme83 (Instagram) @CrowdedHouseHQ @simbha81 @thesounds @numanofficial @LaniHallAlpert with @HerbAlpert Prince @guster https://www.facebook.com/TwoHornUnicorn @modestmouseband mister_turner_cory (Instagram) @iamyola strousedale (Instagram) @matsoR @BillyFGibbons @pastelcoast_fr
Somehow, kidnapping people from their homes, never to return, and forcing them on a dangerous and occasionally deadly voyage to a foreign land where they were sold to people who made them work for no wages is NICE? What the ever lovin' FUCK is wrong with these people?
