5 songs: Leporidae

Our new Soundcloud Spotlight (picked by J Neo Marvin) shows off the varied work of the Experimental Bunnies, our psychedelic improvisational instrumental project. We started the Bunnies to record soundtrack music for the Noodle Brain Productions cable TV show in 2005-2006, and the spirit of spontaneous creativity was so intoxicating that the project continues to this day. A group of Bunnies gather at a designated time to create music with as few guidelines as possible, be it a basic track or new overdubs over previous Bunny improvisations. The best parts are edited and released on our label, with each participant on each track credited as a co-composer. We have two very different Experimental Bunny works in progress in the can now, slouching towards the mixing board to be born in their full glory further on down the road.

How we all get played

A brief primer on why we have racism:

Atlas Wept by The Granite Countertops: Official Video

The Granite Countertops perform "Atlas Wept" from their album CRASHING INTO THE FUTURE on Ear Candle Productions.



"You thought you would have your way forever
Turned out not to be true
You thought you were the hero of the movie
Now the world points its finger back at you
What can you do? What can you do?
Throw a tantrum, play the victim

You thought you were the winner in the dogpile
That pile of bodies, now it's rolling over you
You thought you were the author of the future
The book slammed shut before the end of chapter 2
What do you say? What do you say?
Blow the same stupid horn
Serve the same tasteless corn

You can't be satisfied to sit and count your money
Without your words written in the air
It's not enough just to get away with murder
It eats you up that they don't love you everywhere
So you keep croaking at every microphone you see
Our forsaken angry god
One sad obsolescent clod"

J Neo Marvin: Lyrics, vocals, keyboard, beat programming, electric guitars, dwarf djembe and melodica
Davis Jones: Vocals, Cuvaison wineglasses, Chinese massage balls, Tibetan cymbals
Matthew Grasso: Seven-string acoustic guitar, sympathetic strings and lamenting vocals
Lizzie Borden: Soothing vocals

Find this and more Granite Countertops music here!

Linkies and miscellany

The Fall 2012 semester will bring a Renaissance of radio activity from these quarters. I have registered for KSFS radio. I have not DJ'd at a college radio station since 1981, and never before as an actual student.

Mahablog on bogus freedom.

Substance on Crazy Man Michael and his spirited defense of the real victims. (Plus, a bonus Youtube by the Art Bears sounding like a really sloppy Deerhoof.)

Roy discovers a really bad source for mail order iced tea.

And you thought the Paul-is-dead conspiracy theory was goofy...

You really do need to be clicking Astronomy Picture Of The Day every day. Just look at this:

Purge!

Made something new yesterday. This may ultimately end up being a backing track for something else. Or maybe it will stand by itself. Or maybe it will be a theme for a TV show! However it goes, I like the way it turned out.

Didn't we try this "preppy asshole in the White House" idea already?

Up until now, as much as I have grown to detest Mitt Romney for his wide-eyed, histrionic, deceitful babbling, his obnoxious sense of privileged entitlement, and the very real damage he has done to small businesses and the economy as a corporate predator with Bain Capital, I have not considered his face to be nearly as irresistibly punchable as those of his fallen opponents Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, et al. This story changes all of that.

This is being spun as a tale of homophobia. Yeah sure, it's that, but that's not all. You don't have to actually be gay to see yourself in that kid who got pinned to the ground by some smug "popular" fucker taking a scissors to his hair. ANYONE who doesn't fit into the norm when they're young gets this kind of treatment from their peers, usually with no consequence whatsoever for the perpetrators. It's only now that people are actually bothering to have a conversation about what is now being called the "Bully Culture," but this is nothing new.

And if you were on the receiving end of it, you can have all the therapy you like, but it doesn't matter. Shit like this stays with you forever.

The only choice you have is to either turn it into an excuse to wallow in self-pity and take out your resentment on others, or recognize it as just one example of the pervasive injustice that shows up everywhere, in any form, and spend your life doing what you can to fight it wherever it shows it's ugly head. Not just for your own identity group, but for everyone.

As I said, I already hated Mitt Romney before this. But yesterday I just thought he was merely a ludicrous puffed-up target for laughter who deserves to be kept as far away from the levers of power as possible. Now I know better: Mitt Romney is That Guy. Here's to him receiving the metaphorical punch in the face he so richly deserves this November.

UPDATE: Doghouse sums it up beautifully as usual: "Isn't 'organize gang of snotty, well-off bullies to torment the less fortunate' pretty much a description of the man's business career?"

UPDATE II: Winning the Lord Of The Flies vote.

Song Of The Six Pack

Angel Corpus Christi's X-tal covers project is back. This time she and Rich Stim take on a song by Maati Stojanovich and Jeremy O'Doughaill (I did contribute the second verse) about drinking and dysfunction. In other words, it's a country song. Suitable for weeping in one's beer at 3 AM.

5 Songs: The Covering!

Our new Soundcloud Spotlight mix, selected by Davis Jones, opens with three cover songs (Ray Davies, Syd Barrett and Stephin Merritt) by the Content Providers, Davis's own composition for The Blame, "Wagons And Boys", and the Granite Countertops' recording of J Neo Marvin's "Animal Panic". Enjoy.

Schoolyard power plays

What Digby said, part infinity:

As we were watching some functionary or the other extolling the order to kill Osama bin laden as a unique act of leadership and courage this morning, Mr Digby muttered to me, "they're beating them at their own game." And that's what's wrong with it. It's not that Republicans are uniquely evil people in this regard, obviously. This stuff is very human. It's that the game itself is evil.

I get why the Democrats are doing it. I'm sure it's extremely satisfying to land those punches on the right wing blowhards after all the years of taunting and jeering about liberal cowardice. To be able to say they killed the evil mastermind where the swaggering codpiece failed is probably too much of a temptation for them to pass up. I get it.

But I hate it. I hated it when the Republicans did it and I hate it now. I don't believe the most powerful nation on earth should be running its democracy via schoolyard power plays. This is how we ended up stuck in Vietnam and how we have found ourselves floundering about in Afghanistan and elsewhere. It's why we can't stop spending trillions on useless weapons systems, why we "have" to continue to fund ridiculous programs like Star Wars and why everyone in the political establishment assumes that the only answer to budget problems is to cut the so-called "entitlements."