Jaded Times

Omaha’s Saddle Creek Records have released a benefit comp for Katrina victims, currently exclusive to itunes. The comp, entitled “Lagniappe” (cajun for “gift”), includes new tracks from Cursive, The Faint, Bright Eyes, and ten other Saddle Creek artists and friends.

You can purchase the comp here (link requires you have itunes installed, which you can download for free from Apple.com). You can also pre-order a physical copy from Saddle Creek here.

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Scottish artists Camera Obscura, part of the same Glasgow collective that includes Belle and Sebastian and Mogwai, have launched a new website. The band, on Merge here in the states and Elefant in the UK, is reportedly going into the studio next month to record a new album. View the site here.

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Saddle Creek Records will be releasing a compilation to raise money for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

It will be comprised of exclusive tracks from various Saddle Creek artists, including, *cough* Sorry About Dresden *cough*, as well as Bright Eyes, Cursive, The Faint, The Good Life, Mayday, and several others. The comp will be available on itunes shortly and in stores as soon as possible.

Keep your ears to the ground or something.

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Take what you can carry, and the rest we will destroy
Summer’s gonna wreck us, gonna crush this little boy

We’ll be singing love love love, is how we stay together
singing love love love oh

Like numerous others, I find relevance in almost every song I hear. Wading through the extraordinarily wide range of emotions this week has left me weak minded and winded. The song above by Des Ark isn’t about administrative cronyism or an approach to governance that guarantees a flaccid response to national crises. In fact, I don’t have any idea what it is about. It’s just that everything seems to apply.

Randy Newman wrote a song about a huricane hitting Louisiana, called Louisiana 1927. It’s kind of gripping.

Finding comfort in music is nothing new. It’s how many of us cope. It’s how many of us make it through the drudgery of everyday life.

Spend the next few weeks looking out for benefit concerts, benefit compilations, and other opportunities to either express yourself or appreciate the expressions of others.

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This is a little old, but worth mentioning: Slipknot, arguably one of the ten worst bands in existence, are suing Burger King, arguably one of the worst food sellers in history. It’s kind of hard to choose a side, but I have to go with Burger King on this one:

Slipknot counters that its look is distinctive, and that the Coq Roq members in the food ads wear a Kabuki mask, gas mask and dreadlocks, just as Slipknot members do.

Don’t even TRY to tell me these guys haven’t heard of GWAR, or seen Hellraiser. If they want to open the theft box, then Clive Barker should own their talentless asses.

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During the telethon on NBC, Kanye West reportedly announced “George Bush does not like black people”. While we cannot verify this as fact or not, it is a pretty logical conclusion and we commend Kanye for sharing the observation with the FOX News watching portions of the country, who think the levees broke because black people were rioting.

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