Need something to look forward to? On October 14, Verve Records will release a new CD from Phoebe Snow... her first concert album.
“Phoebe Snow – Live” was recorded on July 30 and 31 in Woodstock, N.Y. I’ll remind you about it again when it drops.
Here’s the track list:
1. “Shakey Ground” 2. “Something Real” 3. “All in the Game” 4. “If I Can Just Get Through Tonight” 5. “Poetry Man” 6. “You’re My Girl” 7. “Natural Wonder” 8. “The Other Girlfriend” 9. “Piece of My Heart” 10. “Rockin’ Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu” 11. “With a Song in My Heart”
This hard-hitting anti-McCain ad just ran on MSNBC. It was produced by Brave New PAC – an offshoot of liberal activist Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films.
Like I’ve been saying lately: Don’t attack your opponent’s weakness. Attack his strength. I’m gonna donate some cash money to Brave New PAC. I urge y’all to do the same.
UPDATE (09/15/08): To donate to Brave New PAC, click here.
This ad was co-sponsored by Democracy for America, a progressive PAC founded by Howard Dean and now run by his brother, Jim Dean.
If you wanna help Democracy for America buy TV time for this ad, you can donate by clicking here.
Bernard “Pretty” Purdie calls himself “the world’s most recorded drummer.” He can be heard on albums by Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, B.B. King, Steely Dan. That’s barely scratching the surface.
In 1974, Purdie cut a soundtrack album for a porno flick called “Lialeh.” That album has just been digitally reissued by Light in the Attic Records. And a stank funky track called “Hap’nin’ ” is available as a FREE MP3.
Click here to stream “Hap’nin’ ” on my Vox blog. To download it, click the title below.
Sixto Diaz Rodriguez has been rescued from American obscurity by the crate-digging culture. (I love when that happens.)
Born in Detroit to Mexican immigrant parents, Rodriguez – whose stage name is simply “Rodriguez” – was a folk-rock singer and songwriter who got a major-label deal during the twilight of the Golden Age of Hippies.
In 1970, Rodriguez put out an album called “Cold Fact,” co-produced by legendary Detroit session man Dennis Coffey. The following year, Rodriguez released “Coming from Reality.”
These records didn’t sell.
By the mid-’70s, Rodriguez had dropped out of the music business. But in a quirk of fate, his two LPs started getting radio play in South Africa, Rhodesia, Australia and New Zealand.
Rodriguez’s music got so popular, he toured Australia in 1979 and 1981.
It wasn’t until 1998 that Rodriguez discovered how huge he was in South Africa. He has been touring overseas ever since.
Meanwhile, in 2002, an Irish DJ named David Holmes stumbled upon the “Cold Fact” LP in a New York record store. Holmes put the track “Sugar Man” on a CD compilation, thus introducing Rodriguez to U.K. listeners.
Now, “Cold Fact” has been reissued by Light in the Attic Records, a Seattle-based boutique label. And “Sugar Man” is available as a FREE MP3.
Click here to hear “Sugar Man” on my Vox blog. (It’s flashbacky.) To download it, click the song title below.
Have you heard about the new Obama ad... the supposed first strike in a “get tough” counteroffensive against John McCain’s steady stream of attacks?
The new ad (embedded below) tries to paint McCain as “out of touch” because he doesn’t send emails... or even know how to use a computer keyboard.
At first I thought this was a weak line of attack. It even plays into the whole “elitism” thing. Like teasing somebody for not having a plasma-screen TV or knowing how to program his cell phone.
Also, the ad can be seen as a swipe at McCain’s age (“Aww, look at Grandpa. He can’t work the remote!”), but not in any effectively damaging way.
Then I saw all the “outraged” reactions at pro-McCain blogs:
“... it turns out McCain can’t type because of the damage inflicted upon him while he was a POW.”
“John McCain, because of the torture he endured as a prisoner of war, cannot use a computer keyboard. John McCain can’t even comb his own hair.”
“McCain can’t type on keyboards. He can’t tie his shoes. He can’t comb his hair. And he can’t throw a ball. This is all thanks to those ... [who] held him captive in North Vietnam.”
Those offended souls make it sound like Obama fucked up big-time. Either Obama was ignorant about the extent of McCain’s infirmity... or he poked fun at the cripple on purpose.
“If Hillary Clinton or Sarah Palin or John McCain had made such a cruel mistake, the TV news coverage would be relentless and condemning,” blogged SusanUnPC at No Quarter.
But what if it’s not a mistake? What if it is a clever jiu jitsu move?
Who benefits from an extended Web-wide discussion of John McCain’s physical incapacities – McCain or Obama? I mean, what else can’t John McCain do? Can he not use a cell phone? Can he not feed himself with a knife and fork?
Karl Rove used to say: “You don’t attack an opponent’s weakness. You attack his strength. That’s how you win.” And McCain’s strength has always been his POW status... his tragic, heroic personal story. How could one possibly turn that strength against the man?
Well, one could lie and say that McCain collaborated with his Communist captors and sold his country out... as the Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain are doing.
Or one could gin up a whispering campaign about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or other lingering psychological effects of 5½ years of torture. But there’s no evidence that McCain is mentally ill.
Or one can stick with the facts as they are known: John McCain is physically disabled. He cannot comb his own hair.
And to have McCain’s own supporters reminding everybody about this... well, that’s the best part. That’s Karl Rove good. That’s Lee-Atwater- with-a-black-rapist-on-parole good.
The GOP obviously wants voters to reward John McCain for his noble suffering in Hanoi... but the GOP doesn’t want to stress McCain’s disabilities. Because that doesn’t fit our mythic ideal of Commander- in-Chief. (It still might trump “Negro,” however.)
On a subliminal level, do the American people want a president who can’t tie his own shoelaces?
Boy, I hope this controversy stays cooking until Monday. I would love to see the cable-news talk shows dwelling on McCain’s infirmities.
The Republican spin machine might’ve turned Obama’s rock-star charisma and Ivy-League smarts into negatives. Let’s see if they can hit this knuckleball.
UBM is all about fair play. So let me show y’all a positive Sarah Palin YouTube video.
It’s a revamp of that old Hall & Oates hit, “Sara Smile.” The performer is Lloyd Marcus, a black Republican activist who grew up “in a Baltimore ghetto,” the son of a storefront preacher.
Lloyd Marcus sings songs with a patriotic theme. In 2004 he wrote a tribute song to Ronald Reagan.
Marcus says his bend toward conservatism began in childhood, when he lived in a Baltimore high-rise project.
“Most of [our neighbors] were on various types of governmental assistance. Many were drug addicts, alcoholics and criminals,” Marcus told a reporter in 2006. “They destroyed the apartment building.
“It taught me a lot about liberalism. If you don’t work for something, you don’t care about it. People blame the white man. It wasn’t the white man in the halls raping people.”
As a young man, Marcus abused drugs and alcohol himself. He credits his Christian faith – and the love of his second wife, a white woman – with leading him to sobriety. The couple now lives in Florida.
So... ladies and gentleman, here is Lloyd Marcus giving love to Sarah Palin:
Y’all know I’m into South African music, right? Let me share something interesting with you.
There’s a fantastic singer named Themba “Shaluza Max” Mntambo. What caught me about his music – apart from Max’s muscular tenor and some thumping grooves – was the sound of a concertina.
In my mind, the accordion-like concertina is a dainty little European instrument. What’s it doing in a Zulu chant-song?
To hear what I mean, click here and listen to Shaluza Max’s “Amancamnce.”
Embedded below is a Shaluza Max video with an even funkier concertina hook. The song is called “Mangase.” (“Amancamnce” and “Mangase” are downloadable from iTunes.)
Here’s the deal: Englishmen developed the concertina during the mid-1800s. They are said to have introduced it to South Africa in the 1920s.
The instrument was then picked up by Afrikaners, who made it a cornerstone of their folk music.
But it was also picked up by Zulus, who likewise absorbed it into their traditional music.
Doesn’t that say something beautiful about the meaning of music... and how culture is transmitted? Like with the banjo in America. Or the tuba in Mexico.
Supposedly, there are now concertina festivals in South Africa where Boer and Zulu musicians come together and rock their “Anglo” concertinas!
(By the way, we might refer to a concertina as a squeezebox... but South Africans call it a squashbox.)
I didn’t get into the standup comedy of Mitch Hedberg until after he died in 2005. Once I did, I bemoaned the fact that he left us with only two CDs.
Mitch had a uniquely bent sense of humor. Very verbal, very silly... and profanely adorable.
I’m overjoyed to see that Comedy Central this week put out a new Mitch Hedberg CD – “Do You Believe in Gosh?” – with material recorded two months before he passed. (It’s downloadable from eMusic, Amazon and iTunes.)
This album isn’t nearly as good as “Mitch All Together,” which is a masterpiece. But I’ll stream some of it for you anyway.
Ever heard of Garaj Mahal? I hadn’t. I’m not into the jam- band scene.
Luckily for me, a 10-minute funk track called “Hotel” is available as a FREE MP3. Click here to hear it on my Vox blog. You can tell right away, these guys ain’t bullshittin’.
To download “Hotel,” click the song title below.
Two live tracks are also free to download at Garaj Mahal’s MySpace page(if you have a MySpace account). To hear one of them – “The Paladin” – click here.
Since the Republicans are so sensitive about words all of a sudden, I might as well point this out: Fox News just put up a graphic mocking the blindness of New York Gov. David Paterson.
Brit Hume teased an upcoming segment on Paterson’s criticism of the McCain-Palin ticket. (According to the Associated Press, Paterson mentioned “overtones of potential racial coding” in GOP campaign rhetoric.)
Before Fox News cut to a commercial, the image on screen was David Paterson and Sarah Palin and these words: “Color Bind.” A play on the word colorblind.
Gov. Paterson, of course, is legally blind.
How’s that for tacky? I hope the governor demands an apology.
There was a 2006 book called “Lipstick on a Pig.” It’s about public relations and crisis management.
And it was written by Torie Clarke, a former press spokeswoman for... John McCain.
This has nothing to do with Barack messing up. But since the only thing I’m seeing on cable news is “lipstick on a pig” reaction, just figured I’d add this little tidbit.
Today is shaping up to be Barack Obama’s worst day on the campaign trail since Jeremiah Wright blew up.
All because he made a wisecrack yesterday about “lipstick on a pig.” Thus draping a “kick me” sign across his own back and handing John McCain a pair of steel- toed shoes.
The result is a McCain attack ad embedded below.
We’ll never know whether Obama intended his “lipstick” remark as a crass insult against Sarah Palin... or a pseudo-clever double entendre... or whether it was purely innocent. (Here is a clip of the full quote in context. Andrew Sullivan says purely innocent.)
But I find it hard to believe that no one on Obama’s team – which has run the most competent Democratic campaign for president in my adult lifetime – bothered to say, “You should forget that ‘lipstick’ line. Somebody might think you’re talking about Palin.”
I say once more: Obama needs to tighten his game up... and get the other guys out of his skull. He has to be perfect to win, and the “lipstick” line was the opposite of perfect.
UPDATE (09/10/08): YouTube just pulled the McCain attack ad... because CBS complained about a copyright violation. Team McCain used an unauthorized clip of Katie Couric talking about sexism.
McCain is sure to upload a revised version, and I will embed that one. In the meantime, the original ad (Katie Couric and all) is here on the official McCain website.
We middle-aged folks get a good feeling to see old-school rappers still bustin’ it. Like KRS-One. He has put out a dozen albums since 2001... whether anybody wanted him to or not.
Today’s FREE MP3 is from KRS-One’s 2004 album “Keep Right.” Click here to hear “You Gon Go?” on my Vox blog.
One track, “Emancipated Minor,” is available now as a FREE MP3. Click here to hear it on my Vox blog. It has a funky, four-on-the-floor snap to it... sounds almost Prince-like.
To download “Emancipated Minor,” you’ve got two options. You can follow this link to Download.com... or follow this link to Amazon.com.
Need something to look forward to? On October 14, Verve Records will release a new CD from Phoebe Snow... her first concert album.
“Hap’nin’ ”
Album available at 
Album available at 
Album available at 
