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.

Sunday Tape: June 2008 + an important SOIVAY!

Please download the June 2008 Sunday Mixtape, and please purchase the works of those included thereupon.

Feb 14 Drive-By-Truckers... I am relatively new to this band, having scored their newest alb after "hearing good things" for years. Rest assured it's great blackout music if yr a leftist labor dork in Portland. I guess my loving them, Uncle Tupelo, Whiskeytown and their children makes me a (reluctant but nonetheless) devout alt-country guy. How embarrassing, how true. This song drives me like I wish I could say all the Replacements stuff did. Patterson Hood rules as a singer, which is, natch, very important for this Sticky Fingers + Darkness on the Edge of Town rock palette.

1,000 of Anything Giant's Chair... Oh god! Sadly out of print, Giant's Chair deserves mention alongside Chavez' Gone Glimmering and Unwound's Future of What when it comes to arty, guitar-rock glory. Oh god, lucky you the gentlemen at usedbinforever made it available!

Valentine Number One Toshack Highway... Denser-than-average, synth and drone-drenched placidity for your nearest beachside. Seriously, lay your towel down in the somehow Pop-pointillist sand. Good for you.

The Innocence of a Child Catherine Howe.. I don't begrudge any latter-day folkies nothing, but it's a wonder it took the geeks so long to remember an alternate 60s where hippies swooned in addition to Molotov Cocktailing or even just druggin'. Where's the moral imagination, you punk rock aesthetes? Just like you, people everywhere always end up doing things besides necking and punching and "keeping it real." You didn't know about other versions of 1968 until 2004, huh, really? Thank you Catherine Howe for constituting the wispy, swoony Return-of-the-uh, ur-Relaxed. Great, buttery throat. I hope right now somebody's taking off the Devendra and turning on to you.

I Found You Anders Parker...Despite spending the last coupla years high on Anders, I'd never gotten around to purchasing AP's Wounded Astronaut ep until just this last month, the one called June of 2008. 'Turns out this ep houses more layered guitars and more Sonic Youth-y dialectics of melody/dissonance than is found on either of the solo albs he's made since taking down the Varnaline tent. Lady vocals, too.

Secrets Mick Jagger... This is from the solo Mick alb I've been so happy to laud beyond reason. Maybe it is true, Mick.

Witches Wand Sloan... I had heard nothing from this grew since their Buzz Clip-era debut in them early 1990s, but between Tom Scharpling's endorsement, my recent resurfaced devotion to Teenage Fanclub, and my increased distaste for the very idea of Belle and Sebastian... well, mebbe Sloan is where I need to go for my not-un-indie Beatles-y twee. This song has at least three killer hooks and gets out in three minutes. (ps - Am I wrong to blame Belle and Sebastian for the Decemberists? Probably? I dunno, but I know that even the very droll Belle and Sebastian are seeming unsustainably overwrought when I try to put 'em on the box and place 'em in my life-world. I wish life was a big, fun sweater commercial here in Eugene - it ain't. Nor am I an undergraduate, apparently.)

Allentown Billy Joel... because it's cause for an important survey question: is "Allentown" or "Born in the USA" the 'best' of its era when it comes to popular evocations of male, white ethnic 80's (class) angst?

100 South of Broadway The Philadelphia Society. From the often-banal, always-fantastic second installment of Soul Jazz' Philly Soul series. 'Makes me think of the woman I love, who everyday wafts around my life like really good Saxophone Disco.

The World is in the Turlet Ted Leo and the Pharmacists (Lyrics penned spontaneously by Tom Scharpling and the Best Show callers during an historic episode, while the Pharmacists toiled in the studio to churn out what they churned.) Good christ, the limited time frame and inanity, insanity and genius of the lyrics make for a Ted Leo song that encapsulates all Ted Leo songs within itself in a manner not unlike that perpetrated in the "Circe" chapter of old what's-it-called. In particular I commend you to the uncharacteristically "raw" solo and ascendant "moment of triumph" crescendo.

Police Police Me Hey Mercedes (Less embarassing than my alt-country disposition but nonetheless embarassing is the fact that) I have a higher threshold for certain poppy tendencies in 1990s emo than many friends of mine. Given this penchant and giving the adroit lyrics of Bob Nanna, both Braid and their latter incarnation Hey Mercedes have always been tasty red meat for "driving in the car" pattyjoe. In this instance, Hey Mercedes are hip to shout out les Beatles with this song-title, tho in actuality they're still playing some very hard rock beneath the harmonic, chiming SGs. Just dig it on its own terms, people. While the Get-Up Kids, Promise Ring et. al. seemed always either too dressed-down, too dumbed-down or too derivative... Bob Nanna's work looms large on my Bucket List.
Skip a Rope Henson Cargill Thanks, Kyle! This here is some "message music" from the storied realm of 60s studio country. Good god, divorce is killing our children! And have you seen how they dress lately? They should get a job, is what they need to do. Seriously.

All Going Out Together Big Dipper In different ways, Husker Du, REM and NZ greats like the Clean were all capable of elevating indie sounds to a place that almost merited the earnest title of "pop-rock." 'Turns out that Big Dipper belong in that class as well....at the very least, this song belongs in yr walkman. Taken from the magisterial and overdue and magnanimous 3-cd Anthology of Dipper stuff that just emerged from Merge. I love the Tom Scharpling essay, but better still are the very deadpan and very balanced appraisals from ex-Dippers who lived through the Homestead Records era to experience abject, major-label squalor in the post-Nevermind era. If guitar-based indie rock a la SST et. al. ever really "comes again," it'll be in part because of people's coming together around lost luminaries like Big Dipper.

Bikini States Electro Group... Now as ever I am thankful to builtonaweakspot for keeping me half-abreast of contemporary shoegaze pockets. The main lick sweeps from chords to single-notes in a Polvo-y manner that arouses me. I'm always slapping the steering wheel when this one comes down.

Wait Mom and Dad Julia... If only I'd known about this stuff as it were happening. More of the slint and dischord-infused "hardcore" that was peculiar to the South in the late 1990s. Great, smart guitar chord-ing and the swaggering vocs that all the lex dexters dig.

I Want You Marvin Gaye...ooh, and then there's this alb-opener from the overlooked Marvin alb. You're psyched, there's nothing else I can say.

Coalmine #666 Crain...now we're talking. What time signature is this? And for all the herky-jerky, how can it rock so much. While Rodan and Slint always end up covered in praise-silt when it comes to the Louisville rock canon, the mighty Crain must be honored and praised as the slightly more oaf-ish, slightly tougher sibling in the litter. This track is culled from the bonus cd that accompanies Simple Machines' legendary Working Holiday comp. Tasty and nasty, spicy and cool.

My Noise Superchunk.... An early anthem from the big kids. Free yourself, teens! Whatever.

Can't Let Go This Feeling Spotlight Kid... Oh, my...we're lifting off. We may never get to actually fall of an actual bridge or make love in a lunar module, but we do have this kind of weightlessness. For me this sub-mode of post-whatever is like having a waterfall-like, frameless system of LiteBrites forever shimmering in the corner of mine eyeball. If life en general turned into something more like this music pocket, everybody would opt out of pants and opt into flowing combos of fleece and astroturf. Bean bags everywhere. Take a seat or lay down.

The Turnpike Down Lemonheads... Weird that I ever felt a need to revisit Shame About Ray these ten years on, but weirder still that I dig it. 'Like a vintage Dinosaur album recorded on acoustic guitar and snare drum. Even the alb tracks like this one stand up fine. Evan Dando is the perfect frontman for this band in the same way that the Doors'd've been utter shite had Jim Morrison actually been really smart or poetic.

Forever Idaho... Another band from the "they existed for how long without me noticing?" category. Crushing guitar haze is dribbled over the choruses of this dirge in a manner befitting "Cortez" or Come or even Codeine. Let's get lost again.

Sunday Tape - December 2007

(Download the Dec 2007 tape, which I gotta say showcases a lot of guitar rock despite some serious pop-dips.)

Can't Feel My Soul Teenage Fanclub, You can get this at insound for $6.64...don't be a fool! I love the great, Sonic Youth-y lead gtr run that comes in with the chorus. Less on the Big Star tip, this third track on the great alb showcases the "indie rock" side of the Fannies.

Spinning Shiner from the split with the Brandon Butler/Giant's Chair collaboration, the Farewell Bend. The only think that keeps me from worshipping Shiner are the vocs, which're a little bit bellow-y and dated. But the lyrics are sharp, and plainly put this band ranks with Chavez, Unwound and Giant's Chair in the just-below-slint tier of inventive 1990s gtr rock. The dark, descending hook and its doubly-dark, douby-descending reprise make it more than worthwhile endure the B- vocs.

The Silence Between Us, Bob Mould Golly, the advance single off of District Line, an album which seems bound for my 2008 top 5. At first the aggressive Yamaha chugging made me worry, but the chorus comes down with a sickness/sweetness/electricit that reminds me of "Helpless" from Sugar's essential Copper Blue.

Deluxe, Lush In the last year I've busied myself with investigations into the Brit-pop/shoegaze contemporaries of my beloved Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine. I could imagine jumping rope to this song.

Golf Hill Drive, Boys Life And now the mixtape veers into dissonant guitar territory with the opener from this KC outfit's debut lp. Though their swan song, the Bob Weston-produced Departures and Landfalls, deserves mention alongside Ben Hur, Spiderland and Rusty when it comes to atmospheric hardcore of the 1990s... this is more than just their Tweez.

Blue Light, Mazzy Star Oh jeepers, this record will always remind me of a secret room we once built into our fraternity house. Staring out a window at a tree that looked like a face, thinking this sounds like the Velvets, then, this sounds great.

Ten Percenter, Frank Black (6/13/94, the Wetlands) this is actually from a live recording i found on the amazing captain's dead. The Wetlands was the kind of place that would have the occasional Earth Crisis show, but mostly showcased Blues Traveler, the Samples and John Densmore side projects. Enjoying this righteous recording in light of that bitta history really doubles my pleasure. Such a great guitar intro, the one that startes this song.

Stab Your Eyes, Kerosene 454 More from this band very melodic hardcore band, going further down the noisy emo road through this mixtape.

Mrs. E. Coli, Freemasonry This song - a crushing song marred, mebbe, by slightly pretentious vocals, is classic 90s Atlanta emo. In concert with the Hal al Shedad, Inkwell, the Forty-Two and others, Freemasonry comprised a 'moment' in Hotlanta that deserves mention alongside other key 90s scenes in Louisville, San Diego, Chicago, etc. Good thing the Shedad's own James Joyce has done the saintly work of compiling so many primary Hotlanta texts for download at his place, beyond failure. Par example, Freemasonry's sparrin' with the varmint is available to you through said lovely site.

Acetone Angels, Son Volt Here's Jay at the piano, dropping what plays like a classic Neil Young piano downer from Goldrush and/or Time Fades Away. 'Cept of course, these lyrics are simultaneously more opaque and more miserable. Beautiful.

Blue Vegas, The City on Film The thing about Braid/Hey Mercedes' guy Bob Nanna's "singer-songwriter" profile is that even it rocks hard with the shimmering SGs. Very beautiful arrangement, and I must confess I am something of a sucker for his crooning, tho I don't like the idea of it on paper.
Light Workers, Bright Channel Let me tell you I quite enjoy Bright Channel's Albini-produced s/t from a few years back. They have an ability to sound like U2, Codeine and Helmet at the same time.

Roland, Interpol I guess I just have a soft spot for baroque-y, melodic guitar punk. But it's in spite of, not because of, penchants for wearing all black, living in Brooklyn, etc.

Cast No Shadow, Oasis Ry-Ry Adams would have us believe these're a buncha real friendly blokes and shit, which is fine. All I know is that the Morning Glory alb is really something, all the way through. Do you disagree?

Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School, Warren Zevon The title track from a Zevon alb I checked out of the library, ripped, and took back, never to listen again. This came up on shuffle and I couldn't not love the choppy, chunky, stop-start guitars and Warren's absurd "call and response" mouth-moves. This guy definitely reminds me more of the poet Paul Muldoon than any other poet I can think of (that being a compliment.) I need to know more.

Pink Frosty (demo), Fugazi Just nice and creepy, slow-moving and bass-driven atmospherics from the massive and fascinating Instrument soundtrack. This alb, Red Medicine and End Hits
are easily my three fave Fugazi slabs.

The Eyes of Sarahjane, The Jayhawks I've screamed enough about this album, for certain. Varying a bit from their always-Byrds-y stock and trade, this song sounds like it could've been employed to powerful effects by the Bob Seger System-era Bob Seger

Running With Your Eyes Closed, Mojave 3 Hey, let's have fun with our girlfriends! We'll go skating!

Bossa Rocka, George Benson Quartet Yeah, another whimsical choice at the library! Standard, Blue Note-y jazz gtr fare from the late 1960s. A moody, snappy, swanky number - the sort of thing you'd like to have playing as guests arrive at your dinner party, except for the fact that said move ('Yo, I like guitar jazz, come in and get comfortable!') is endlessly contrived assuming you don't live in a wannabe Woody Allen movie.

Whirlweek, David Grubbs Now we're talking. From the beautiful and intelligent Spectrum Between, here's D. Grubbs at some of his most-not-unlistenable. I like to think I rip off his gtr playing every time I strap it on, but the troof is that I couldn't play with his fluency or his "individualism" anywhere, anytime.

Hey, Citronella!, 90 Day Men
Talk about a Rod Stewart-level waste of potential. This band started off great with tracks like this (and the whole first ep), only to slowly turn into a kinda stilted (if nonetheless interesting) Tortoise-y experiment. These days I hear one of the dudes is in TV on the Radio (who I guess I should check out?) Anyway, enjoy this creepy, tough and brash number from a band who, for a moment, seemed like a Great Leap Forward in the tradition of the long-missed June of 44.

sound-horn (boof!) avec sep 2008 1 mixtape

*Download the 2008 sep 1 cassette.(And please join me at the prisonship to bask in the long, expository efforts that accompany these sounds. We will be witnessing a downplaying of the "mixtape" format on future blocks, because the files are unwieldy to the point of turning off potential downloader--and/or-listeners. The point of posting the music is to foster writing/conversation about it (and about writing), so I will unabashedly do a good deal of probably pointless catering to a probably non-existent "audience" on this or some other blog. All of that aside, there will definitely be a year-end "best of," highlights mixtape. And if you don't download that, it will inevitably hurt our friendship. If we're not friends, of course, you should definitely just listen to dave emory instead of reading my blog or any other periodical.)

*even the likes of kev("-ron hubbard") are enjoying the exciting new June of 44 gene-thing project at Time Isn't on My Side. 'good to see gabbagabba's garden growing.

* similarly, the erudite, ever-so-curatorial and admirable pukekos houses absolutely essential, often-out-of-print weirdness including chris leo, bastro/codeine, swell maps, macha & bedhead, joan of arc, treiops treyfid, vague angels, secret stars.... the site is a bleeping golden mine. it's even got that mocket 7" kev waldo emerson gave me!

* not to be outdone, magicistragic goes to show (me, at least) how to write about rock in the not-crap, blog world of rock writing that has inherited the 90s zine tradition commemorated so dutifully by mike lupica, this bad man, and so many of us in our different ways. in particks, you'd no doubt benefit from visiting with the V-3, dillard and clark and tall dwarfs, mebbe? but there's so much more.

* and how about this domino/caroline comp. on outdoor miner? speaking of them 90s.