Nappy Cracker Head Ho In The ATL

This is an odd video, one with a rambling (and not terribly timely) political agenda. For instance, there's a Stomp And Stammer shout-out at 04:22, although Jeff Clark hates people with dreads. Then again, he hates people as a rule, so WTF. Here you go, Ho:

And He Can Remember?

Hands down, the haziest years of my life were 1983-1987. And this dude, of all things a drummer for the Ramones for that time frame, claims he recalls being there. Ha! I'd toss out the lawsuit immediately on the grounds that it's impossible to verify what anyone operating in rock-n-roll from '83-'87 really did or did not do.

A punk-rock drummer who did a four-year stint with the Ramones in the 1980s filed a federal lawsuit yesterday against Wal-Mart, Apple and the estate of the band’s lead guitarist, claiming that they violated his copyrights by making and distributing digital downloads of songs he wrote while with the band.

Richard Reinhardt — professionally known, in the band’s standard practice, as Richie Ramone — was with the band the Velveteens when, according to the Ramones’ official Web site, he “kept the beat” from 1983 to 1987 while the Ramones’ regular drummer, Marky Ramone, was “on hiatus.” Mr. Reinhardt claims that the rights to his songs were taken without his permission by Ramones Production Inc. and by the estate of John Cummings, better known as Johnny Ramone, the band’s lead guitarist, who died in 2004.

Click here for a great headline to this NYTimes article.

Metal Heads Used For Something

From today's AJC:

Brent Hinds, guitarist for Atlanta's ruling metal quartet Mastodon, is being treated in a Las Vegas hospital after he suffered what the band's management calls a "severe head injury."

Has Jeff Clark finally rained geek-vengeance down on Mastodon? Does make you wonder, since all encounters with this completely pointless band inevitably lead to, quite literally, skull cracking. From Clark, May '07:

The four Mastodonians are about as friendly, funny and easygoing as any dudes you'll meet. Even guitarist Brent Hinds, with whom I had a nasty, public brawl (a head-butt) eight years ago - in his pre-Mastodon days - has chilled out considerably. I suppose world metal domination will do that to a guy.

That full Stomp and Stammer piece here. What goes around comes around, eh?

OnLineAthens The Coolest Kids In Georgia Media

OnLineAthens dot com, the online version of the Athens Banner-Herald (note how they brand print and online separately), is seriously head-and-shoulders above the rest of Georgia "traditional" media outlets in offering good, locally-grown multimedia on their pages. Scroll down on their AthFest page to click-on a video featuring the AthFest awards ceremony... still viable and good to watch even after the festival is over.

Not only is OnlineAthens wielding excellent, localized reporting, they're toting some nice DV cams while they're out and about. Too bad the AJC can't tap into a blazing Atlanta music scene right now to offer jack shit. Who even clicks on their one-dimensional site anymore, for that matter? I just go directly to The Blogs... or to Athens.

Heck, OnlineAthens even links you to a site called AthensMusic.com. Talk about your one-stop shopping. Wishful thinking to feel that Atlanta musicians and artists could hope for but a crumb from Atlanta media/Cox Plantation table.

Chances are, when their paper version flutters away one day, and it will, as all papers are in the process of doing, the Athens Banner-Herald won't miss a beat; they "got it" long ago that it's all about the sharing.

Nick Lowe Alert

The Jesus of Cool, Nick Lowe, will be on Fresh Air June 24th. Here's one of my fave tunes, one of many. (Lucky person who gets me drunk enough to tell my Carlene Carter story.)

LCD Soundsystem

This video sucks (others will love it, but will YouTube kill the rock video?) but this song "All My Friends" by LCD Soundsystem is really great. Old style new wave done up new and just right. The Worst Video For Best Song award still goes to Nick Lowe's "All Men Are Liars" though.

Snark-Happy In The Morning

This has got to be the worst music video ever produced, and for a near-perfect pop song. Good chuckles abound. And that's the truth.

Two Cool Music Things To Do Tonight - Tuesday

Free ice cream and beer at Decatur CD tonight, starting at 6pm. Knowing all the hipster-deadbeats likely to show up, best get there early. More info here on their blog.

Then later in the evening is cool country music from Jason Isbell at The Earl. More info about that show on Sara's blog.

Let me clarify with a bit of a rant... when I say "country" I will NEVER mean that country-lite Kenny Chesney crap. Lordy hon, don't get me started on the creepy hideousness that is "New Country." Vaguely inspired by Ugly Bobby's recent blissed-out ravings of mediocrity over what is simply really bad music and processed musicianship, I listened to way more than I ever should have of "New Country" while driving around the tri-state (GA, NC, SC) area on vacation. I've never heard so much mediocre, pedestrian, plebeian, manufactured, canned, trite, odes-to-McNuggets (I'm not kidding) and The Wal-Mart-Inspired Life, seriously average, fakey kinda "music" in my entire life. The worst offender was the feeble attempt to lull us all into drone-like stupidity by that nutwrapper jeans-wearing Kenny Chesney. UUUGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH.

See youz guys 'round the ATL tonight.

Judith Owen Sings "In My Father's Voice"

To Go Tuesday

Couple of cool things happening in the ATL Tuesday, June 12th.

1.) APC hosts a debate for the 10th Congressional special election candidates at GPB at 2pm. More details here.

2.) Peel, an Austin band named for famed Brit music master John Peel, plays Smith's Olde Bar at like... like 8pm maybe. I have no earthly idea if this band is any good; I just like their choice of name, although their artwork/photography of a box cutter with "Let's Roll" written pretty in Sharpie is vaguely disturbing.

Read the definitive John Peel obit from Atlantan Tom Roche (a friend of the original Peel) here. This obit is marvelous; originally published in Stomp & Stammer.

HT: C&T

Redneck Literati Underground

Slim and his boys have quite a honky-tonk weekend lined-up, with a special ticket-price nod to mommas on Mother's Day.

Friday May 11 at Smith's Olde Bar - Slim Chance & the Convicts will be playing at approximately 8:55PM as part of the 500 Songs For Kids event. Come early to see all the other cool acts, each doing one of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (as determined by Rolling Stone Magazine). We are doing #79, a tune about a guy with a tambourine. Music starts at 7PM, Cover is $7 and it all goes to a children's charity group. (SGR staff may try to make this one.)

Sunday May 13 at Smith's Olde Bar - the Wrights with opening act Byrd's Auto Parts, featuring the amazing Jon Byrd. Showtime is 9PM, I think the cover is $12 adv, and Mothers get in for half price.

PS: Mark your calendars for June 23, when Honky Tonk Meets Heavy Metal at Lenny's. Slim Chance & the Convicts will perform along with Dark Overlord!

Out 'O The Closet

OK... I'm gonna lay it out on the line here on the SGR: I have always been a Cat Stevens fan. And guess what? He's back!
Praise Jesus.

Totally ROFL-able

Ugly Bobby is on fire lately! This line alone just set me to a'howlin': "John Mayer. Sheryl Crow once removed. Like I'm supposed to believe in the guy fucking Jessica Simpson."

Full enchilada of the plain ugly truth here. (Something weird with WordPress though.)

OH HURL ME GOOD: Lois Reitzes kicks off her panties, and the morning, with yet another... marchy thingee for Second Cup. Gawd... she, not Boortz, outta be hauled before the FCC for aesthetic corruption of OUR public airways.

BLOG TAG!!!! Seven Songs I Like

I just got tagged by New Media Jim for a list of Seven Fave Songs. Jim was tagged by Jeff Pulver, who was tagged by Chris Brogan, who was tagged by 7-year old Aidan. (Aidan, I'll add some of Ava's, another 7-year old's, faves for you in the Young American Hipster set.)

Ava's Mom's List:

1.) Ballad of Easy Rider -- The Byrds
2.) Don't Want To Live On The Moon -- Ernie
3.) Free World -- Kirsty MacColl
4.) Hoover Dam -- Sugar
5.) Wendell Gee -- R.E.M.
6.) Look On the Bright Side of Life -- Life of Brian soundtrack
7.) Downtown - Petula Clark

Ava's List:

1.) Why Wait -- Cheetah Girls
2.) Get Your Head In The Game -- High School Musical soundtrack
3.) All In This Together -- High School Musical soundtrack
4.) Not Ready To Make Nice -- The Dixie Chicks
5.) Kim Possible theme song - Kim Possible show
6.) Hannah Montana theme song -- Billy Ray Cyrus' daughter
7.) Harry Potter theme song -- Harry Potter soundtrack

I now tag five others, in no particular order: Tim, Bob Mould, Josh, Amber, Sara.

Let's Spite The Noses Right Off Of Our Faces

This is just the best song I've heard in ages. I hate to direct you to that toilet bowl MySpace, but you gotta hear it. F-in brilliant.

Why? 'Cause "we're the big door prize."

Let's Conversation! About BumRushTheCharts

Social media is not a trend; it's a force. More info about BumRushThe Charts is here.

UPDATE: Speak of the devil/Pogues/Kirsty MacColl yesterday, here's today's NYT with today's Mr. MacGown, on IRA nostalgia, Wordworth vs. Coleridge, etc. Kinda weird, eh?

Technorati tag: BRTC, Bum Rush The Charts

Funk Yourself Silly This Friday

We all know how much the white folk over 35 typically hate hip-hop music. They hate everything about it, finding no redeemable features whatsoever in the music or the culture. But what about black folk? What do they think about living in a hip-hop world?

Well, my friend (old Home Depot TV days) and musician Chilton, who leads the ensemble funk extravaganza band TexBukSex (see video; they're playing Friday!) doesn't hate hip-hop; rather, he's enormously frustrated because he feels that blacks playing and creating in other genres of music, and there are droves, be it soul, rock, funk, blues, etc., are overshadowed and ignored in a hip-hop 'centric world.

Chilton's musical world with TexBukSex is as vibrant and funky and tight and musical and wild and danceable as it gets. I urge you to come out and see 'em this Friday at Emergenza Music Festival, because when you do, you'll not only be giving yourself a completely funked-out roarin' good time, you'll be supporting artists who are fighting against the tide of mass-marketed contemporary musical stereotypes.

Artists like Chilton want you to know they're out there. They're black and they're proud, and they're loud and sweaty and funky as it gets. So come on out Friday night to Midtown to support artists who need to be returned to their soulful, righteous place at the musical table!

Ladies and Gentleman... Chilton and TexBukSex:

Chilton and TexBukSex

March 9, 2007

8:30pm

@ The Vinyl

1374 West Peachtree Street

Atlanta

Keep Your Mind Wide Open

I make no excuses, no apologies. I simply love this tween song, the theme song to Bridge To Terabithia.

Ava and I sing it ludicrously loud together. Now that's beauty.

BumRush The Charts On March 22

The animals are now running the circus, folks.

While I hardly believe for a moment that "college students are among the most misunderstood and underestimated groups of people by big media" (that would really be bloggers), this IS just the coolest viral marketing, social media concept going. I got a perfect thrill thinking about participating:

"On March 22nd, the podcasting community is going to take an indie podsafe music artist to number one on the iTunes singles charts as a demonstration of our reach to Main Street and our purchasing power to Wall Street.

The track we've chosen is "Mine Again" by the band Black Lab. A band, mind you, that was just dropped from not one, but two major record labels (Geffen and Sony/Epic), and in the process forced them to fight to get their own music back.

We picked them because making them number one, even for just one day, will remind the RIAA record labels of what they turned their backs on - and who they ignore at their peril."

So mark your calendars to download, donate to a good cause, own a very good pop song, and help change world economic order -- all in about 2 minutes on March 22. This CAN be done!


HT: AR via del.icio.us. This post put together to (Big Media) Madonna's Ray of Light (Twilo Mix), "Zephyr in the sky at night, do tears at morning sink beneath the sun? With a little ray of light, I'm flying."

I'd Make Nice With It

Ugly Bobby (I gotta stop calling him that. But not right now. And no, that ain't him in the pic above. That's Uber-Brit Boy, James Blunt, for you culturally clueless. With a generic model, of course.) has some great post-Grammy remarks.

And yeah, I agree with UB about "You're Beautiful." That's an old-school kinda hit that gets into your head and stays there until your kid(s) start yelling at you to STOP SINGING THAT SONG NOW, MOM. Yep also UB, I've heard war protest songs and "Not Ready To Make Nice"... you are no war protest song. Immensely sing-a-longable, but totally, uh, personal. Here's UB on the Grammys last night:

"Not Ready To Make Nice" is not a hit record. Oh, it's pleasant, you can tap your toe to it, but a HIT is something indelible, something you get on the first listen, something you can sing EVERY WORD of thirty years later, FORTY! Hell, I heard "Ode To Billie Joe" on the way home from KLSX, I know more about Choctaw Ridge than anything that happened on "Take The Long Way", even though I don't own the oldie and I'm not even sure Bobby Gentry is ALIVE! I heard "Crazy" for the first time a block from my house. I RAN from the garage into the house to download it. I streamed "Not Ready To Make Nice" once on my computer, and I haven't played it again SINCE! Come on, even YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL was both a bigger hit and a better SONG! At least people are playing it at weddings, most people have never HEARD "Not Ready To Make Nice".