I Object!

Sign outside Southern Berkshire District Court, according to my fading memory:
"No tanktops and shorts are permitted in the courtroom"

Playlist, Saturday, March 25, 2006

I Can't Drive 55, Just Ask Ohio State Police

Set 1
Eight Minutes|I Can't Get No Higher|Doors of Perception|Sancutary
Max Middleton|Viva Drums & Bass|Funk Mode|Scenario
Ultramagnetic MC's|Give the Drummer Some|Critical Beatdown|Next Plateau
Beny More|Pachito e Che|Magia Antillana|RCA
Bebo Valdes|Ita Morrea|Cuban Dance Party|Empire
Afrika Bambaata|Looking for the Perfect Beat|Looking for the Perfect Beat|Tommy Boy
Shannon|Give Me Tonight (Dub Version)|Emergency 12"
Prince Lincoln & Royal Rasses|Universally Dubbed|True Experience|Orange street

Set 2 (backing - Marimba chachachas)

Tom Ze|Proposta da Amor|Pagode|Luaka Bop
Brigette Bardot|Cest Une Bossa Nova|And God Created B.B.|SML
Astrud Gilberto|Genderal De Banda|Now|Perception
Debra Keese|Traveling|Build the Ark|Trojan

Set 3 Somerville Speakout (Music- Bert Kaempfert Collection)
Sonic Youth|Thur Burning Spear (s/t (reissue)|Geffen
Durutti Colum|Nina|Keep Breathing|Fulfill
Ypung People|Ride On|All at Once|Too Pure
Coossal Yes|Honeycreeper Smiles|Aculpolco Roughs|Ba Da Bing!

Set 4 (backing music - Paul Mauriat - El Condor Pasa)
Theo Angell|Cannonball|And to the Disciples That Remain|Amish
Ryan Lee|InterludeII|Sleep, memory|i & ear
Ozone Layer|Hypermodernism|Formidable Music|s/r
Lazy Farmer|John Lover's Gone|s/t|Sunbeam
Clive Palmer|Smiling Through|Banjoland|Sunbeam
Blind Thomas (aka John Fahey)|Weissman Blue|Fonotone Records|Fonotone

Set 4 (backign music - Boogie Woogie & Bongos on Time Records)
DJ/Rupture - Malicia|Low Income Tomorrowland|Applecore
Magick Markers|NxCxHxCx Vol. 1
Playgroup|Deep & Mintyful (?)|Epic Sound Battles Chapters I & II|On U-Cherry Red

Set 5 (bed music Glen Derringer - Girl from Ipanema)
Les McCann|It's Way Past Supper Time|More or Less McCann|World Pacific

Playlist, Saturday, March 11, 2006

Tighten Up, Baby!

Set 1
Mr. Airplan Man|UpTight|Moanin'|Sympathy for the Record Industry
Charlie Palmierei|Uptight|Latin Bugalu|Atlantic
Mighty Clouds of Joy|Time|It's Time|ABC
The Dells|Get On Down (Theo Parrish Ugly Edits 12")|White Label ??
The Dells|There Is|Ultimate Collection|Universal
Tuff Crew|She Ride a Pony|Back to the Wreck Shop|Warlock
Brad Osbourne|Untitled|Sound of Macka Dub, Vol. 1|Clocktower

Set 2 (bed music - Arthur Fielder)
Huon|Just Not Time|Songs for Lord Tortoise|Animal World
Rita Lee|Tempo Nublado|Build Up|Universal
Clock DVA|Sensorium|Thirst|

Set 3 (post-Somerville Speakout) (bed music - Bert Kaempfert)
Virginia Astley|Too Bright For Peacocks|From Gardens Where We Feel Secure|Rough Trade
Michael Andrews|Boy Moves the Sun|Me & You & Everyone We Know (OST)|Everloving
Laub|Intuition (Matthias Schaffhauser Dub Ware Mix)|Remixes|Kitty Yo
Chihei Hatakeyama|Swaying Curtain in the Window|Minima Moralia|Kranky
Pelt|Sunflower Blues|I Am the Resurrection: Music of John Fahey|Vanguard
Joao Gilberto|Bim Bom|Meditacao|EMI

Set 4 (Post events calendar) (bed music - John Schneider Group)
Discotheque|Disco Special|Unclassics|Environ
Madonna|Get Together|Confessions on a Dancefloor|Warner Bros.
Duke Pearson|Sandalia Dela|Blue Bossa/How Insensitive
Blast Off Country Style|Comet Song|C'mon|Teenbeat

Set 4 (bed music - Arthur Fielder massacres Gentle on My Mind)
Wayne Jarrett|Brimstone & Fire|Bubble Up|Wackies
Dolores Duran|A Fia De Chico Brito|s/t|Beverly
Lute solo|Tibetan & Bhutanese instrumental & Folk Music|Sub Rosa (orig. Lyrichord, 1972)

Final Track (background music - Dr. Who ost)
Brownsville Station|Im the Leader of the Gang|School punks|

They Dont Write 'Em Like they Used to....Not that there's anything wrong with it

On my iPod:
Prefab Sprout - Moving the River from Two Wheels Good/Steve McQueen
"But I’m turkey hungry, I’m chicken free, and I can’t breakdance on your knee"

Indie labels are different....no, wait, come back

from the NYTIMES today:
"Tony Brummel, the owner of the independent rock label Victory Records, says he is not interested in selling individual songs from his albums, though he may give them away to build buzz."

Emo, obviously, is the new prog. ("Dude, we make, like rock operas, not singles.")

Here's looking to more efforts by Victory to restrict fan access to individual tunes, by refusing to band separate tracks and making CDs that only play in their entirety.

There's No Such Thing As a Free Market in the Music Industry

In today's NYTimes, Jeff Leeds writes about the latest efforts of the Music Industry to thwart free enterprise. See "Labels Halt Downloads to Increase CD Sales." The Industry is toying with a provocative new anti-consumer strategem. In essence, the labels prohibit downloads of popular singles in the run up to an album release.

While this move likely will generate (justifiable) hue and cry from the free media crowd, the equally salient controversy revolves around the industry's patent efforts to manipulate consumer taste. Make no mistake - the industry is REFUSING to service a market demand for sales of singles (hard copy or download) to, uh, "encourage" folks to fork over moolah for the whole record.

This move recalls the industry's similar gambits in the past - gambits that ultimately fueled cynicism and sparked interest in, uh, alternative sources of music. In the late 1980s, the industry repeatedly deleted top 10 singles so that consumers who responded at the crescent of popularity (blame yourself, johnny come latelies) were forced to pay maximum price. If you wanted, say, a copy of "Push It" by Salt-n-pepa, you had to buy the whole $15 album.

Maybe I Should Be a Political Consultant

"After more than five years of allowing President Bush relatively free rein to set their course, Republicans in Congress are suddenly, if selectively, in rebellion, a mutiny all the more surprising since it centers on the party's signature issue of national security." Carl Hulse, "Suddenly, a Rebellion in the G.O.P. on a Signature Issue," New York Times, March 9, 2006.

With the Dems in cahoots with the GOP, who is available to bash the GOP as undermining the President on national security during war time?

Reason Why I'm Not a Political Consultant #48

What if.....in light of Republican dissent on the Dubai deal, Democrats supported President Bush on the transaction and demagogued GOP leaders as undermining the President Dubya in a time of war?

Film Reviews for the Hopeless

THE BAXTER - an arch comedy of manners about arch manners.
The Showalter-Phillips courtship is reminscent of the unbridled passion between Sean Cassidy and Virginia in "Like Normal People."
Nudge, meet wink.

Dan Akroyd, A Name You Can Trust

"The Commitments show was the best soul review I have ever seen or heard"
- Dan Aykroyd

Snack of the Week

Caramel Apple Tart, from Haymarket Cafe, Northampton, Mass.
(toppings of coffee toffee frozen yogurt, granola & syrups are optional)

And the Copy of Victor Navasky's Naming Names Goes To....

George Clooney: "We are a little bit out of touch in Hollywood every once in awhile. It's probably a good thing. This academy, this group of people gave Hattie [McDaniel] an Oscar in 1939 when blacks were still sitting in the backs of theaters."

Playlist, Saturday, March 4, 2006

Jennifer Lara|I'm In Love|Studio One Women 12"|Soul Jazz
Fannypack|Boom Boom|So Stylistic|Tommy Boy
Jenny Jones|There's a Chance for Me|Compared to What|Studio One
Shawn Lee's Ping Ping Orchestra|Prog Punk|Moods & Grooves|Ubiquity
Neutral Mute|Roc-Sac|Roc-Sac|Statra
Matata|Good Samaritan|Booniay: compilation of West African Funk|BRG
Bongo Herman|African Frums|South East Music Ltd. 10"
Pink Mountaintops|New Drug Queens|Axis of Evol|Jagjaguwar
Half-Past Human|Beak as Tool|Beak as Tool|Ba-da-ding!
Telepathe|Pet Communicator|Farewell Forest|Social Registry
Vertical Slit|All|Twisted Steel & the Tits of Angels|Spirit of Orr
Made in Mexico|Napalm|Skin Graft|Zodiac Zoo
Moondog|Lament 1|s/t|Honest Jon's
Jorge Ben|Bicho do Mato|Ben e Samba Bom|Universal
The Bees|Minha a Minha|93 Ft. East|93
Moondog|Bumbo|Mondog|Honest Jon's
Karl Biscuit|La Morte|Crammed Global Soundclash|Crammed
Bjork|Mouth's Cradle|Medulla|Elektra
Golden Oaks|Growers Communion|Gold Leaf Branches|Digitalis
Frances Mariet Uitti||Choral Spectra (To JH)|Uitti2Bows|BVHAAST
Pan American|Train Station|Quartermass 12"
Les McCann|Yours Is My Heart Alone|Comment|Atlantic
Nightblooms|59#2|S/t|Fierce Fright
Double U|Slow Down Tiger|White Night, Floating Anchor|Emperor Jones