The press release from Nasty Little Man (Foo Fighters’ publicist):

FOO FIGHTERS DENOUNCE UNAUTHORIZED USE OF THEIR MUSIC BY MCCAIN CAMPAIGN

Having received confirmed press reports that John McCain has been using Foo Fighters’ “My Hero” as the latest in a number of unauthorized theme songs at his campaign rallies without seeking permission from the band, its management, record label or publisher, Foo Fighters have issued the following statement:

“This isn’t the first time the McCain campaign has used a song without making any attempt to get approval or permission from the artist. It’s frustrating and infuriating that someone who claims to speak for the American people would repeatedly show such little respect for creativity and intellectual property. The saddest thing about this is that ‘My Hero’ was written as a celebration of the common man and his extraordinary potential. To have it appropriated without our knowledge and used in a manner that perverts the original sentiment of the lyric just tarnishes the song. We hope that the McCain campaign will do the right thing and stop using our song–and start asking artists’ permission in general!”

Earlier this year McCain used songs by artist John Mellencamp without permission, and this most recent act of copyright infringement follows rock band Heart sending a cease and desist order to the McCain/Palin campaign for use of their song “Barracuda” and rock legend  Jackson Browne announcing he is filing suit against the McCain campaign for their use of his song “Running on Empty”.  At least he’s getting closer to the right decade, though this may just be the latest attempt at McCain trying to nab the youth vote, most of whom haven’t paid for music in several years.

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Well, in Radiohead’s case. Most people won’t about Pennywise.

Guitarist Fletcher Dragge had this to say:

“We know that this will piss off a lot of people in the music industry,”…”and what do we say to that? ‘Who cares?’ “

How apt, considering “who cares” has been the response of everyone I have mentioned this to thus far. It is also interesting to note that this record marks a move for the band from the independent label Epitaph to Myspace Records, a label owned by Fox, a somewhat less independent organization.

Pennywise will be launching the free downloads with a guest spot on The O’Reilly Factor, where they plan to discuss everything from generating profit for warmongering corporations to summer squash recipes to their “dos-and-don’ts” for  Myspace self-portraits.

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Music auction
List of auctions.

(also check out the “under new management” feature for a good laugh)

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Mana “China” Nishiura, drummer for DMBQ and former drummer for Shonen Knife, passed away on November 4 when DMBQ’s van was clipped by another vehicle and rolled over on I-95, near the Delaware Memorial Bridge. The band was on tour with An Albatross, and were on their way to the first of two shows they were to play in Brooklyn over the weekend. Todd Patrick, the promotor for both shows, wrote on his site that other members of the band and their tour manager, Michelle Cable, were still recovering: “Michelle Cable is conscious following surgery for a head injury. Shinji Masuko is still in the hospital but is expected to be released soon. Toru Matsui and Ryuichi Watanabe have been released from the hospital.” He also wrote on November 6 that Cable, who is also editor of San Francisco noise zine Panache, will need extensive surgery for brain and spinal injuries.

Nishiura, a native of Hiroshima, Japan, also played drums for Rashinban, Jesus Fever, Teem, Music Start Against Young Assault and Cel. She played her first live show with Shonen Knife in 2001, and left the band in 2004. Genghis Tron-run record label Lovepump United have set up a fund to help the band and Cable pay for their medical expenses. Paypal donations can be sent to the band by clicking here, and checks can be sent to Lovepump United, PO Box 3241, Poughkeepsie, NY 12603.

Sad, sad news. For more info, go to the band’s website.

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Unfortunately, I took too long a nap and so I missed all of wires on fire. Held in line on the stairs during the end of Holy Ghost Revival, I enjoyed the 1½ songs I managed to catch through the stair vines as the doorman studied his people counter clicker. I was behind an acquaintance, friend of a friend, Gabe, the guitarist/vocalist for the Starvations (you should check them out too) who had rushed over from work to see the Holy Ghost Revival, he aptly described them as the Stooges meet Queen.

Gabe told me the Starvations had played a show with the Two Gallants about a year ago, just down the street at the Elliott Smith Memorial Wall and I think he said only about 20 people were there (it was noisy on those stairs). That gig was on March 12th, 2004 to be exact, wish I hadn’t missed it. While we’re on the subject of that wall and that building has anyone else had their stereo fixed at Solutions and gotten the nipple and breast milk speech delivered to them by the store’s owner? It’s an interesting experience.

We were allowed to enter a few minutes before the Two Gallants. They were definitely worth the wait. Folk, country, punk to me – check out “fail hard to regain” for visual of the fun punk side of them. They are a guitar, drum two piece – that rock but don’t sacrifice the clarity of word. It was also very nice to hear the harmonica in some of their songs, something about those songs with that instrument made me think of an Uncle who’d passed away, hadn’t thought of him in a long while; he used to play the harmonica at breakfast time. During the show, it occurred to me that out of the two-pieces I’ve seen in the last three years, this is the one that’s affected me the deepest.

With tantalizing intros, it’s no wonder a guy yelled just before the vocals started for Drive My Car “Don’t stop now I’m almost there!” . Was it to Drive My Car? I could be wrong, couldn’t find lyrics and still don’t have the CD (see the next paragraph). What I do know is that the word “car” was in the first line or so, after that audience outburst.

I wish I had bought a CD but somehow I wandered outside the club with (I mean without) my Whiskey Sour and forgot to go back to the merch table. I looked in two smaller indie record stores in my area later that weekend but failed to locate it.

They’ll be in Europe next – go see them there, or when they get back to the States or you know as soon as you can manage to get yourself in the same place.

Two Gallants: Saddle Creek

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Thanks to Jeffrey Rowland for unintentionally bringing this to our attention.

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1. I’m not sure if I believe that immediate withdrawal from Iraq is the best option. We shouldn’t have bombed the hell out of it, but now that we have, I don’t know if we can abandon it.
2. I was mostly there to see Ted Leo+Pharmacists.

I got to the mall around 3:00. The march had started much earlier and I expected that everyone would be at the stage for the concert, but there were still marchers along Pennsylvania Avenue. I was immediately struck by how DIY everything seemed. At most protests I’ve attended, organizers were everywhere handing out stickers and pre-made signs. Here, the organizers were still signing up volunteers to help out the concert and most of the signs were homemade. I took note of some of my favorites – “Bush has Iraqtile Dysfunction,” “Make Levees, Not War,” and “Dick Cheney Eats Kittens.”

The event took place between the Washington Monument and Consitution Avenue, which separates the National Mall from the White House Elipse. There were tables set up along the perimeter closest to the Monument where organizations gave away literature and progressive entrepreneurs sold buttons and bumper stickers advocating a littany of liberal causes. The stage was set up next to Constitution Avenue. To the right of the stage, near a small grove of trees, there were more tables, occupied mostly by the event sponsors and some of the more well-known anti-war groups. Camp Casey, the Cindy Sheehan camp that had previously been located in Crawford, was in place a bit further down the mall, surrounded by small white crosses and cardboard coffins draped with American flags.

I went right to the stage where Jello Biafra (of Dead Kennedys fame) was rambling obnoxiously about something before introducing Joan Baez. She looked great and her voice is as lovely as ever. The crowd sang along to “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” and her rendition of Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.” Her presence there captured a feeling in the crowd that I recognized from many protests – a wish for the simplicity amidst chaos of the 1960s, where liberals were fighting powerful odds but they knew they were right and were willing to stand up and fight.

The crowd was mostly white and mostly young, although there was a sizeable minority of middle-aged and older there. Most bizarre sighting? Matthew Lesko in his purple suit covered in yellow question marks. He does infomercials on how to get money from the government, and is apparently anti-war.

I wandered around the tables, which were full of buttons, bumper stickers, and magnetic ribbons (including a timely “George Bush Doesn’t Care About Black People” pin). There were also several left-wing publishers hawking books and many organizations looking for people to take literature, sign up for listservs, and add their names to petitions. Along the very edge of the action, I spotted a group of 8 people silently holding signs that criticized the federal income tax – they held the Thoreau-esque notion that they should not have to pay for war.

Things were relatively, and somewhat surprisingly, quiet. There was action on the stage, of course, but there were also people quietly talking and some taking naps on blankets spread on the grass. I’m not sure what I expected – perhaps more anger. It was there, evident in the abundance of “Fuck Bush” (or cleverly coded “Buck Fush”) buttons and T-shirts, but it wasn’t as palpable as I thought it would be.

I walked out to Camp Casey, where a small sign noted the number of Americans dead and wounded in Iraq so far (1910 and 14700, respectively). There was a sense of camaraderie there, as many of the people with Camp Casey have been together since its inception in August. They took donations for food and gas.

At this point, I met some friends and went back to the stage to see Steve Earle. Then we grabbed food and sat to eat on the steps of the Commerce Department Building, watching protestors meander about. We walked back to the stage, where there was still a crowd, now waiting for the concert’s heavy-hitters: Ted Leo, the Theivery Corporation, the Bouncing Souls, Le Tigre, and others. We sat and watched a DC a capella group called Sweet Honey of the Rock and the Evens, a new project of Fugazi’s Ian MacKaye. Jello, after taking a break for dinner, was back and going strong, to my general annoyance. We moved into the crowd, which at this point was almost exclusively young, and seemed largely high school and college-aged. Ted Leo came out for his set. After he played, my friends and I left.

It is difficult to capture the mood of the event or even accurately describe my feelings about it. I felt largely detached, maybe because I don’t agree with all the positions the speakers were advocating. On the whole, it was sprawling and largely disorganized, both literally and figuratively. While the overarching message was anti-war, there were, as at all liberal events, many, many submessages, including “protect the environment,” “fight racism,” “protect the right to choose,” and “free Palestine.” Again, I found myself wishing that we liberals could learn to focus and put out a single coherent thought. Though many issues of the day are interconnected, it might be best politically to whittle some things down to bullet points. Once we get power, we can govern based on complexity.

Speaking of focus, read a better and more coherent account of Operation Ceasefire here (registration required, but shouldn’t you already have it anyway?).

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First, LKN. I don’t feel too confident raving about LKN, since she is on Greyday, and I’m not good at whoring. I will, instead, merely relate the opinion of an employee of our distributer who attended the show: “my friend turned to me halfway during the LKN set and said ‘dude, we listen to wimpy music’.”

Next up was Bellini. This Italian/American band (two of the members are Sicilian, two are American) continued flawlessly the edgy, melodic, and aggressive female-fronted theme of the first half of the show. Bellini were the perfect bridge between the hardcore edge of LKN and the melodic overpowerment of Mono. A great stage show and a truly creative and talented band, I saw many leaving with Bellini discs and shirts (I can’t blame them, I probably would have too, had I the money).

Then, the main event: Mono. Mono are a hard band to try to describe; a lot of people compare them to Mogwai, as any instrumental “crescendo-core” band will be: beautiful melodies, long well-executed builds to a height of volume and emotion that is hard to acheive, even with vocals. However, comparing Mono to Mogwai is selling them short; the Japanese four-piece puts forth a far more diverse musical platter than Mogwai, at times bulding off simple RPG-style synth rhythms into powerful wall-of-sound guitars, at other times creating a dark and haunting image closer to Neurosis in nature than any indie-based band. Creative, ecclectic, and beautiful, seeing them–and FEELING them, the sound was so loud it could be felt reverberating through your chest–is a distinct experience that I’ve only seen equalled by Crash Worship many years ago (who are a distinctly different band musically, but had the same raw energy). As Matthew Taylor, the bass player from Bellini, commented with a smile: “Mono is like the great eraser. Any band who plays before them gets immediately forgotten.” I wouldn’t say that, but while it was a well-matched line-up, it definitely felt like there were two different shows happening, though I would be hard pressed to say which I preferred.

Mono and Bellini are out on a full US tour currently–you owe it to yourself to go see them. LKN will be rejoining them early next month for three Florida dates.

Mono/Bellini: Temporary Residence
LKN: Greyday

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Ok, so we weren’t on the ball today. So here’s a few stories that you may have missed:

N. Korea negotiates nuclear halt

Al Qaeda proves dial-up is slow

America’s priorities are, as always, straight

Frist protestors’ motivation a mystery; too hard to choose

British storm Basra prison

That should tide you over for the night and morning (hopefully). We’ll be back tomorrow with a new motivated staff…

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