Because It Needs to Be Said, After All These Years

Was going to post this on it's own, but will say "sorry for my absence." Good Lord, this guy longs for the day when life is not pounding him flatter than hammered dog shit. It's been said by better monkeys than me, but pray for mojo.

'Cause, Why Not?

Prisonship Twi-ddle-dye-dees

1. Elevated liver enzymes.
   
2. Julie Klausner on TBSOWFMU
3. My 2nd-or3rd red Stax cup from the Soul Museum, filled with sub-room temperature coffee and expired 1/2+1/2 dregs.
   
4. Having seen Thee Oh Sees, the Gories, Teenage Fanclub, Superchunk, Nobunny and Bob Mould in the last coupla months.
   
5. The Poulantzas Reader.
6. Cheaply Priced Blue Note lp reissues, such as Hank Mobley's Workout.
7. Poulantzas: "I was able to avoid conceiving of the different instances (in particular the political, the state) as being by nature and pre-existing, in essence, their meeting together within a precise mode if production." This is what he calls the "regional theory," his elaboration on Althusser's idea of "relative autonomy."
   
8. my first ever for-real toilet punk-ish, killed by desk-ish sounding song for my imaginary punk band, Thee White Vote. Lyrically the inspirations are from The Exorcist and Paul Muldoon. It's entitled, "Captain Howdy Has a Shack."
   

Sissy's Song

Greatest song ever?

For All Y'all

(But especially Wobs.)

TGIF

For Lex and Wobs and all you crazy cats.

Corporate Executive speaks out against the Employee Free Choice Act

Ahem...Paul F. Tompkins on the Employee Free Choice Act.

It goes without saying that I am obsessive about the interface of politics and culture -- so much so that I have learned not to expect such a happy coming-together of one of my personal heroes (comedian Paul F. Tompkins) with the union movement's struggle for workplace democracy.

Now can the US government please offer Van Jones' old job to Tom Scharpling, and might the surviving members of Big Star please be rewarded with equally-Big Medals?

A Friendly Warning

"With malice for being a sty:" Listening to Spiderland Horn

Clinton Pessimistic on Iran Outreach - washingtonpost.com
I was once a young man with squarely chopped locks. I was once an older man who sung about myself as a younger man. What's your bleeping provenance?

New spin on vinyl: Bundled MP3s - Mar. 2, 2009
Sometimes I think that the combination of bundled mp3s and the new Administration is enough to make 2009 one promising sunovabitch. Sometimes I stay out late and slippy-dip with the lads in the lanes.

Firedoglake » Things Rahm Left Out Of His Love Note To Himself
The Limits of a "3 Minute Rahm" in Obama's Kitchen Cabinet - The Washington Note
Are you an activist or an operator? Have you ever heard of the Tuxedo Killer, who would periodically require his victims to say "I love you" if they were to be afforded a merciful evisceration?

Very Few Small Business Owners Would Face Tax Increases Under President's Budget
I should start a distro operation that specializes in 7"s from 1990-1998, if only to honor this here lax tax.

NPA, "Let's Do It, like the Workers of Guadeloupe and Martinique!"
Once I heard a Castro-ite (?!?) from Dominica and an evangelical/black nationalist/Trot trade unionist from Guadeloupe debate whether I was an angel or just a "young man." This was next door to a barbed wire-d Club Med.
‘Socialism!’ Boo, Hiss, Repeat - NYTimes.com
Socialism is the new socialism, kids. Take the good with the bad: an exotic political desire called 'socialism' lives on, even in mainstream US newspapers. But it does so in the shape of an unconvincing, Hollywood movie shark.

No, I Will Not Perish (yet) Horn

Ben Smith's Blog: Anuzis joins campaign against EFCA - POLITICO.com
SEIU head fights to merge labor unions - Ben Smith - Politico.com

Indeed, the anti-EFCA campaign is turning into something close to a full employment project for Republicans in exile. They were also giving away a Wii at CPAC yesterday.

Punditry: re the labor movement paints us as intrinsically tied to the electoral/legislative process and thus "special interest"-y...Maybe that's appropriate? We should ask Dave "I was born a Democrat and I'll die a Democrat" 3544 about this some time.

Slowcore Week: Slint and Codeine - a shared musical language? / In Depth // Drowned In Sound Pukekos: Codeine

Okay, in its matter-of-fact way, this is some of the best writing about Slint that I've read. Indeed, some of the speculation about possible Slint influences even kinda makes sense: Ubu, late Birthday Party, King Crimson, s/t-era Sabbath. Read this, even if you don't know who Slint are, because you need to know who Slint are. (Also, of course, Codeine are the original, glacial rock formation. But we've spoken of Codeine before, much more than Slint, who made what is probably, if I'm honest, my favorite record of all time with Spiderland. Check out the complete Codeine 7" discography on the Pukekos link above, btw.)

Economist's View: The Employee Free Choice Act
Bloggers and Unions Join Forces to Push Democrats - NYTimes.com

Anyway, back to Big Labor. 'Seems we've even got our own squadron of Post-Keynesians, these days, telling people, shucks, maybe doing something to stimulate growth in real wages'd be interesting, and maybe it'd be even more stimulative than, say, lowering interest rates and/or maintaining a strong dollar policy? I wonder to what extent the MoveOn, kos-ish "progressive" crowd can be said to be on board with the Economic Policy Institure, CEPR milieu? Or are they more of a Center for American Progress Crowd? Do they have their own research institutes? Increasingly, I dwell upon the in-politics of those privileged wonks who're allowed to "shape" policy "debates."

Michael D. Yates, "Michael Steele Is a Nitwit and Wolf Blitzer Is a Jackass"
Ben Smith's Blog: Coming back to Romney - POLITICO.com

And then there's the old Republican Party and the old conservative movement. Notice that I don't put "movement" in scare quotes: their thing is as real as any cargo cult or drum circle, to me. Conservatism is a social fact.

Letter from Washington: The Gatekeeper: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker
Twitter / clairecmc

As I mentioned before, I do love my glimpses into the inner workings of staff meetings, staffers and staffers' bosses. "The Gatekeeper" is a long, fascinating portrait of Rahm, probably my most guiltiest pleasure of a good time in recent days. Claire McCaskill is easily one of our coolest senators and also one of our least snobbish.

Open Left:: Nate Silver to Progressives: STFU and Defer to the Serious Experts and Czars
Digby populism tango

What does it say about me, that I cannot quite bring myself to "care" about rival tendencies and rival formations within the Netroots? I dunno.
But I do know this: remember our legendary (and worth-revisiting) "let's eliminate these adjectives" thread from the Prisonship? I have a less elitist, more parochial, but nonetheless similar directive in mind for mainstream political discourse: nobody should be allowed to use the term 'populism' until having read Ernesto Laclau's On Populist Reason. Surely I have no authority, and only a scoffing, sardonic-at-best relationship with the kinda at-large political philosophy that informs whatever kinda dumbed-down 'realist' orthodoxy permeates pundits' collective consciousness. But in my ideal world, let's say, 'populism''d have a stable referent. And activists, at least, could drag it out of the gutter of commentator-speak and the graveyard of flippant, loose snob-lips.

Stephen Malkmus | Pitchfork

Do you know what? Malkmus never seemed that likable to me in interviews, until now! Dig his really interesting, sober appraisals of what was going on during the short life of "indie rock" (1989-1994).

Language and Obama’s Budget - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com

Who else has budget mania? Don't stop until you get enough.

Tucker Carlson to Cato - BOOM!

Hot on the heels of that hot Nat Hentoff signing, it'd seem the Cato Institute is looking to supplement their "jazzbo libertarian" quotient by dipping into the "aggrieved libertarian with deadhead leanings" pool.

Paul McCartney - Monkberry Moon Delight

Wondering where my head is? Right here. Where's yrs? 'TBSOWFMU has turned me on again. I need a copy of RAM asap.

For Gabba, because we really love him

xoxoxoxo,

solid lex

Inaugural Jams

I wasn't there, but there were some significant musical moments during the inauguration.

Before the big day there was this gem at the Lincoln Memorial:



and this sweet moment:


and then "the dead" crapped it up at a post-inaugural ball, the mid atlantic ball. They sounded pretty "loose." Let's hope they figure it out before the spring tour. Here is the "best" snippet I have found from their show...typical dead not playing well at the "big" gigs....they look Highlarious in the tuxedos...


any that I have missed? (I know Bon Jovi was there, no comment)

What I did for NYE

Man, sure are a lot of cobwebs in here....

We saw two very excellent shows in SF for the new year. Phil and Bobby put on a nice set of shows at the Bill Graham civic center. They alternated sets between ratdog and phil and phriends with phil and bobby doing a 5-7 song semi-acoustic jam in between the two. Also they dropped a third set NYE...it was a very nice time...

and upon returning home...

The "Dead" just announced a spring tour. the lineup will be Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, joined by guitar monster Warren Haynes and RatDog keyboard ace Jeff Chimenti
Only 2 shows on the west coast...may 9 LA forum and may 10 SF shoreline

I hope everyone (anyone?) had a nice NYE and extend happy vibes for your new year...

and for the audiophiles, here is the Dark star jam from the first night mid set it was more jazzy than the second night mid set Dark star (not a bad audience rec., but only 3 min):

I believe this riff might have actually been responsible for the destruction of a small city

Back when I thought "rock star" was a plausible career option, I'm fairly certain that White Denim is the band I would've applied to be in.

".exactly these cans." horn

[i'm working through an obstacle with exactly these cans on my ears. dual volume controls! i am enjoying very much the new Deerhunter and Lambchop records, and speaking of Lambchop the newest Giant Sand would go well between your Lambchop and your Testface records.]

The Interview: Barack Obama - Person of the Year 2008 - TIME

don't even think about not reading this, because it's lengthy and candid.

Palin leads top 10 list of memorable political economic quotes - Politics- msnbc.com

what a year of politics we've lived through? huh. this is a pointed kind of scrapbook, this list.

Electrical Audio - Best Albums of 2008

outside of our immediate circle, this is where the real top 10 conversation goes on. i am having a great time preparing my top ten...especially since i've already leaked the identity of my #1 on the other blogo.

Golden Girls Jewelry! » Is The “Thank You For Being A Friend” Necklace The Best Christmas Gift Since Christ Was Born?

i come to Best Week Ever exclusively for Paul F. Tompkins. but they've got me by the elbow now. shoegaze and pop-gossip, merry New Year!

blog.aflcio.org, "double-standard-critics-of-big-three-loan-subsidize-foreign-competitors"
again, i keep wondering why it took labor so long to get this winning message out to people!

back to work.

Po-mo ear candy

I've always been a fan of the cut-and-paste sample technique employed by musicians since the mid-80s (my two favorite examples being the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique and Beck's Odelay). I've lately become interested in "mash-ups" where bits of music are spliced and/or layered together to create re-contextualized sonic landscapes (check out Dangermouse's Grey Album (a mash-up of Jay-Z's Black Album and the Beatles' White Album - torrent here) or the disappointing Beatles mash-up Love). Stumbling upon Girl Talk's Feed the Animals, however, has taken my interest to a whole new level.

To call this composition jaw-dropping is to sell it short. Feed the Animals is quite simply the most compulsive listen I've acquired in at least the last ten years. With literally over a hundred different pieces of pop ephemera sampled for this album, it's fun just to try to pick out all the songs you know from the mix - and you'll know tons. Greg Gillis (the computer jockey with the world's most awesome record collection who is Girl Talk) draws equally from 60s pop, 70s arena rock, 80s and 90s alternative, and even some modern pop hits to anchor a smorgasbord of hip-hop rhymes (some of which I even recognized, thanks to long hours in the GTFF office with dave). On paper, an album which samples Twisted Sister, Salt 'n Pepa, Kenny Loggins, L'il Jon, Chicago, 50 Cent, Argent, Tone Loc, Phil Collins, Busta Rhymes, and Huey Lewis would seem like an unmitigated disaster. In Girl Talk's actual execution, though, it's sublime.

After the novelty of the first few listens, Feed the Animals reveals itself as more than the sum of its parts, becoming a cohesive whole where the constituent pieces seamlessly blend as if they were meant to be together. The various splices and layers are remarkably, if ironically, conversant with each other. Hearing Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" mixed with Nine Inch Nails' "Wish" and MC Hammer's "Too Legit to Quit" is hilariously good listening. Youngbloodz and L'il Jon chanting "If you don't give a damn we don't give a fuck" over the iconic organ riff from Procul Harum's "Whiter Shade of Pale" works on a number of different levels. But when I heard Salt 'n Pepa's "Push It" layered over Dee-Lite's "Groove is in the Heart" and Nirvana's "Lithium," I knew I was in the presence of genius.

The album is a 53 minute bacchanal frenzy. I read somewhere that if you like music, you'll love Girl Talk. I heartily endorse this. And the best thing about it? It's available at a name-your-own-price fee over the internets. Fair warning: you will have to justify being a cheapskate and trying to pick it up for free. But seriously, kick the guy down some corn to keep him in business - I paid the $10 plus $3 s&h so I could get a copy of the CD in addition to the mp3 download, and I've gotten my money's worth several times over.

A final word to those who believe that because it's a bunch of samples mixed on a computer "anyone can do it." You can't. Fuck off.

Bonus fun fact: this is post #666.

More News You Already Knew

You can try to convince me otherwise, but I am seriously convinced that the Beastie Boys were on drugs when they made Check Your Head.

I Felt the Same Way About Wham!

In an otherwise banal editorial decrying sexism and fantasy in rap lyrics, Daily Emerald author Natasha Martin concludes with this mind-blowing sentence:

If people continue to listen to and use this music carelessly, I'm frightened that future generations will entirely wipe out real meaning in music.