Going down in frothy flames

Oh this year's general election is going to be so much fun. I can't wait for the first debate.

Here they are, sitting pretty on piles of cash thanks to the obscene Citizens United decision, kings of their own Alternative Reality Media Empire, and what have they got to show for it? Andy Kaufman's greatest prank has now become the frontrunner, and with Obama doing militarism better than Dick Cheney ever could (due to the fact that, right or wrong, he actually prefers killing off terrorists to shaking them at us like glowsticks), the wingnuts are left with an agenda of destroying union jobs and taking away our birth control. It's going to take a hell of a lot of election fraud to make this a winning strategy, not that they won't try. But the way it looks right now, all I can see is overreach, and it's giving me a warm glow inside. It's all falling to bits, gloriously.



UPDATE: Mahablog puts it brilliantly and succinctly:

The Santorum campaign is what happens when the old zombie ideas — cut taxes; deregulate — are so worn out even the candidates are bored with them.

Ain't nothin' but a house party

We have finally begun to edit some of the footage from the X-tal reunion in 2006, and we found that the house party set we played at the old house on Frederick St. was even better than the actual gig at the Rickshaw Stop the night after.

It's really for someone other than me to make the judgement, but I remain convinced that we were underrated. Evidence of this is still available.

Lest we forget

How we got in this handbasket in the first place.

Four chord wonders

I saw this video in my Critical Study Of Pop Culture class today. The teacher put it on while he was talking about Theodor Adorno, which is funny in and of itself:



Made me wonder, have I ever resorted to this particular "I-V-vi-IV" chord pattern? I can't think of any examples, though "Stating The Obvious Again" by X-tal rocks a "I-IV-vi-V" progression, which is close. But that was supposed to be a Big Rock Anthem, and I borrowed the chords to Tracy Chapman's "Talking About A Revolution" for that one anyhow.

Putin Got Scared

Seen this yet? A masked Russian Riot Grrrl band called PUSSY RIOT, who set up in unauthorized places and perform high-energy protest music against the current regime. Apparently, this song's title translates as "Putin Got Scared". (Musically, it sounds a lot like the Subtonix' definitive cover of the Screamers' "Vertigo", all agitated, pounding forward motion.) They were arrested for performing without permission in Red Square. (Two members were fined 500 rubles each.) This is the kind of daring confrontational spirit that punk is all about.



More info on Pussy Riot here:

In the months since their formation, the eight members of Pussy Riot have perfected their own form of protest: their songs are pithy, angry missives, largely directed at Putin, and they remain beguilingly anonymous – the band wear neon balaclavas to conceal their identities and perform flash gigs in unexpected places: on public transport, for example, and, once, on a prison roof. In mid-January, they pulled off their most audacious show to date: performing on a platform in front of St Basil's Cathedral in Red Square, opposite the Kremlin: "Revolt in Russia – the charisma of protest," they sang. "Revolt in Russia, Putin's got scared!" It was the shortest of performances, only minutes before the authorities hauled the group away, but the point had been made.