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| notes from underground - societal whispers all the news that print will fit. |
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Thursday, June 26, 2003 np: the pause button on hold... keep your eyes peeled, readers. for there is nothing more valuable to we who crave the noise than that of a store going out of business or selling off its entire musical stock. the latter was my goldmine today. music mart has been slowly giving up its treasures the past few years, starting with its vinyl 45 collection (which i pilfered one final time over a year ago) and ending finally with cds and cassettes. sometime during the spring, the store was bought out by some people and re-named music 'n' more. or whatever the hell that means. so these guys mean business in reducing their music stock. all cds $1.99 and all cassettes $ .99. god bless america, indeed. the haul: depeche mode - songs of faith and devotion michael penn - free for all the cure - wish and wild mood swings nanci griffith - other voices, other rooms new order - the best of mazzy star - so tonight that i might see de la soul - buhloone mindstate midnight oil - place without a postcard the rentals - return of the rentals various artists - urgh! a music war - the album the jayhawks - tomorrow the green grass oasis - (what's the story) morning glory? grand total price: $15.48 a steal, i tells yah. glorious music. to occupy. well, i'm off tomorrow. i will probably audblog from some places during my trip. so stay tuned. enjoy yourselves. posted by J. Neas | 6/26/2003 03:22:00 AM (0) comments Sunday, June 22, 2003 np: the dream syndicate - the days of wine and roses the song, "days of wine and roses" is possibly the highlight of the entire record. it's track nine, the final track on the original album, and it ends in nearly 8 minutes of brilliance. a roughshod, noisy verse and chorus..and several breakdowns, the longest of which culminates in three to four minutes of noisy, shrill bliss. and then as soon as it starts, it ends. suddenly. damnation, that's a great song. we had our midnight sale for the new harry potter book at the bookstore last night. honestly, the last time i was in a group of people even numbering that large awaiting the release of something was when gate city noise released radiohead's kid a at a midnight sale my sophomore year of college. of course, as you might imagine, this was a much larger group. we sold over five-hundred copies of the book, and there were probably 400 or so people there. we got everyone checked out in about twenty minutes, which was amazing, but we were there until two a.m. cleaning up and we still left the store in quite a state. of course, nothing could follow this up but a visit to waffle house. and good it was. this brilliant idea came to me tonight while i was straightening shelves after we closed. i found a shorter version of the oxford english dictionary, compacted into one volume. it has 33% of the words contained in the full, twenty volume OED. which means that's still a hell of a lot of words. why this is important? well, ever since my dad and i both read the professor and the madman, he's been insisting (though long proven incorrect; now it's mostly for humor) that he once saw a huge one volume set of the complete OED. well, obviously he's wrong. but he continues to bring up "the big dictionary" from time to time as a gag. well, when i saw the shorter edition tonight, i knew it was a calling from god. father's day is past (and my brother and i took him out to breakfast, although i have neglected getting him an official present; my bad) and the next thing coming up is his birthday and christmas. (dec. 23rd and 25th, respectively.) so what better way to celebrate them both with a duel present: a lectern and the short OED? i started pricing lecterns since i saw the short OED price ($150..yikes!). and lemme tell you. don't go into lectern shoppin' thinkin' you're gonna get away cheap. those bastards are out for blood. $200? i can only really afford the short OED cos of my bookstore discount, not to mention another big chunk for a suitable lectern? won't be happening. so i'm undertaking a noble goal for which my father cannot help but be proud of me. i'm going to build a lectern. between now and christmas, i will obtain proper wood, stain, etc. and i will build a lectern. it's a project. i like it. i'm close to finalizing the short list of songs for the next record. so soon i might have a tracklisting to share with you guys, although how many of you would actually be familiar with any of them...probably not many. trust me. i'm just entertaining myself here a lot of the time. well..my six days of work continues. at least i'm halfway through now. only three more to go and then..off to the coast to visit melissa. i'm hoping the weather stays as gorgeous as it was today. here's hoping. posted by J. Neas | 6/22/2003 02:42:00 AM (0) comments Wednesday, June 18, 2003 np: drive-by truckers - decoration day i went out music shopping yesterday, as i oft do on release days for good records. i picked up the new drive-by truckers album which is every bit as good as i knew it would be. infused into the obvious southern rock influences is an even more obvious country inflection to some of the softer tracks which benefits them dramatically. for my money, the drive-by truckers are one of america's best bands at the moment. in addition to having the outrageously rare benefit of having three very fine songwriters in their midsts, their live performances are unparalleled. easily stretching into the 2+ hour range on a regular basis. they are a hard working band. and it shows in their recordings as well, which hold almost every bit of intensity that their live shows do. decoration day is by no means the complex, all-encompassing conceptual statement that their prior, two-disc masterpiece southern rock opera was, but it is no less accomplished. next i got the jurassic 5 ep, the last major release of theirs i had yet to purchase. it was their first official release and it would be a lie to say j5 came out anything less than fully formed, the ep bearing their classic sound in full bloom. next was social distortion's self-titled album, supposedly their second best (behind somewhere between heaven and hell), but i think i like it more. those are the only two social d. records i own, but both are fiery roots-rock/punk statements that are easily just as explosive as they were upon their initial release over a decade ago. "ball and chain," "story of my life," a fantastic straight-ahead cover of "ring of fire"..the album is consistant in sound the entire way through. but it's short enough to be nothing but exemplary. finally, i also got the dave brubeck quartet's time out, a classic of jazz that had come highly recommended to me through various sources. i've only gotten through it once thus far but its excellence is obvious from note one. -- now for the focus of today's lecture. radiohead's hail to the theif debuted at number three on the billboard top 200 album chart this week. not their highest debut ever. both kid a and amnesiac charted higher (numbers one and two, respectively), but hail to the theif out sold them both in first week sales, coming in at just over 300,000 copies according to soundscan. why is this important? because it flies directly in the face of what the music industry has been screaming is its number one enemy for the past few years: music piracy. hail to the theif was illegaly available online for nearly 10 weeks before its release. and you better believe that i definitely downloaded it the moment i knew it was out there. so how does something that was available for free two and a half months before its official release still sell 300,000 copies in its first week? well, if you've been reading my blog, you know that i definitely went out and bought a copy myself on opening day. who is it that music piracy is affecting, other than the record companies themselves, and who really cares about them? aside from the rather notable exception of aimee mann, i've yet to notice many critically lauded artists to complain about music downloading. the bottom line is, bands that don't produce solid albums (read: albums with more than two or three good songs on it) are affected. why would i want to pay fifteen plus dollars for three songs? which is why i feel that one of the largest effects on the slide of music sales resides in two categories: a) the utter lack of solid, consistant and well-regarded artists being signed by recording companies and b) the elimination of the sale of singles. in the united kingdom, the release of singles is still a fairly marketable business. but it has almost entirely disappeared from the market here in the u.s. single sales had slid in the years coming up 'til now. with the onset of albums being the most important thing. singles and cds take about the same amount of money to manufacture, obviously. a little bit more for albums, but the markup on an album is much easier to justify. although justifying six dollars for a single still mystifies me. so, if record companies pour all this money into advertising, marketing research, etc..can't they figure out whom it behooves to release singles for as opposed to only albums? bubba sparxx wouldn't be so in a tizzy over declining sales of his decidedly mediocre album, and instead would be celebrating the success of the single for "ugly." and the constant decline in records sales over the past couple of years? can it all be blamed on piracy? certainly not. a certain percentage, i wouldn't doubt, is because of it. and yes, it's costing artists money, but the bottom line is that artists gain more from your concert money than your record buying. so if you really support an artist, yes, buy their albums, but more importantly, go pay money to see them live. and buy merchandise at the shows. hail to the theif's success is akin to the way wilco's yankee hotel foxtrot beat the odds in debuting in the top 10 as well, after being released nearly a year after its internet pirating. the truth is that good music will sell, regardless of how it's leaked. and as much as the music industry will complain about it 'til the earth stops spinning, blue-collar musicians and artists of note will continue to be fairly unaffected by piracy. while lars ulrich will have to buy only one new benz this year. poor guy. posted by J. Neas | 6/18/2003 05:52:00 PM (0) comments Monday, June 16, 2003 np: drive-by truckers - southern rock opera the new drive-by truckers album, decoration day, comes out this coming tuesday, june 17th. go support them by picking up a copy at gate city noise in greensboro, north carolina, or whatever your local, independent music retailer should happen to be called. rather long, unruly thunder shook throughout the sky tonight. a bit unnatural from the thunder i am used to hearing. and being inside and unable to see the preceeding lightning flash made me wonder precisely what the sound was. after the possibility of thunder and a neighbor rolling a trashcan crossed my mind, option number three was nuclear holocaust. it actually seemed real for a second. and i then contemplated the fact that..i don't remember a time in my life where danger of war death seemed so plausable. i was too young to remember the cold war of the 80s with much detail (having been only 8 years old when the Berlin Wall came down, though I remember it very well) and the united states (with noteable exceptions) has been at relative peace since at least the beginning of the clinton administration. or at least, the idea of an attack upon our homeland didn't seem quite so plausable. and no, i didn't feel this way after september 11th either. that is not what has caused this (ir?)rational fear in me. it's our president. thank you, george w. bush. for scaring me. for making me, and assuredly many other americans, afraid in their own hometowns. welcome to your lasting presidential legacy. at least, in my mind. posted by J. Neas | 6/16/2003 02:37:00 AM (0) comments Sunday, June 15, 2003 np: the sound of foaming. at the mouth. oh, president bush. why do you hate america? tom tomorrow's site has a couple of very big things on it of late. if you don't read his blog regularly, you really should. between him and atrios i barely do anything else on the web. for starters, there is this peachy post about how absolutely hypocritical our politicians can be sometimes. oh, boy, those crazy washington folk. if they're not slappin' sanctions on repressive regimes in mayanmar (burma), they're layin' oil pipe there less than five years ago as the head of a major energy concern! and of course, i'm referring to invisible man himself, dick cheney. who still receives paychecks from halliburton. the company of which he was once CEO. and yes, his company was hired by the mayanmar junta to build oil pipes off the coast of the country. oh, and he had oil deals going with saddam's regime through sketchy european companies that halliburton had acting as fronts for their own money making desires. yeah. you know, that country that has had sanctions against it for nigh on a decade or so? the one that repressed and murdered many of its own citizens (along with the help of years of U.S. strategic bombing between wars)? yeah. he was dealing with them. and halliburton (who is still paying cheney, need i remind you) also got a contract in helping rebuild iraq. and they're already 140% over initial budget in the first month alone. oh. and eventually, you and i will foot the bill for all that. ain't love grand? and then...i read this little number. president bush, who goes around acting americorp's best friend, has paved the way (through egregiously insulting tax cuts, etc.) for americorp's budget to be almost destroyed. read this article from the washington post for the lowdown, but i nearly beat my computer screen in when i read it. i will not rest until this country comes out of this shameless, insulting, ridiculous excuse for a human being's shadow. oh, and if they do indeed delay the republican convention so that it is timed with the two year anniversary of sept. 11th, or try the equally (if not more so) appalling trick of laying the cornerstone at ground zero during the convention, i hope that you all vomit the way i will and then immediately go do whatever it takes to make every person who thought that was a good idea to live the rest of their life in a fucking shame spiral. okay. sorry. that was a bit over the top. but when i'm this livid, it's what it takes. and going to work each day usually puts me around some people whose obliviousness (not to mention callous ignorance) of the outside world, makes me wanna cut faces left and right. go. right. now. and sign up at moveon.org and help make something happen already. please. posted by J. Neas | 6/15/2003 03:05:00 AM (0) comments Saturday, June 14, 2003 np: i was thinking. last summer as i was driving home one night there was an incident out on the road involving a downed power line. the cause was a car that had taken a head on collision with a power pole. and i made the mistake of looking a bit too long. i looked up in time to hit the brakes, but not in time to hit them long enough. i rear ended the car stopped in front of me. and narrowly avoided a ticket from the cops nearby. the woman inside was fine and she was quite understanding, claiming to have done precisely the same thing before. all was settled via insurance and so forth. today, i lost the cool that i like to think settles over me most times, despite my tendency to get riled up. retail work is a mental strain. especially if you have to quasi-harass people about things in order to do your job. i have to present each customer at my register with the speil about our discount cards. and today, in the middle of one of only two sentences i make myself say to every customer, she cut me off. the exchange went like this: me: "Do you have our discount card?" her: "No." me: "Would you be interes..." (at this point, she interrupts.) her: "No, I don't need one." i don't mind people saying no to the card. i really don't care outside of the extra boost to my paycheck it gives me to sell them. my qualm with her interruption was that i was simply trying to do my job. and i expect people to at least be considerate enough to let me finish what i'm saying. they can say 'no' immediately. whatever. cutting me off just seems insulting and rude. my response to her: me: "How do you know what I was going to say?" her: "I just heard you explain it to that other customer." me: "Well, it'd be nice if you'd be considerate enough to let me finish my statement and not interrupt me." her: "I hope that's the worst thing that ever happens to you." me: "Don't worry. It's not." after i simmered down, i immediately regretted my response to her. not because i didn't still feel she was being rude to me. customers are insulting, one way or another, to me and other retail folks every day. and retail workers, in one way or another, are insulting in return or even initially. it just wasn't the thing to do, from a quaker/non-violent perspective. that sounds a bit far fetched, but controlling the bile of responses to things that singe your ego is one of the keys to approaching things in a non-violent way. violence isn't necessarily physical. it's as much verbal and mental as anything. and my response to that lady was the incorrect thing. and for that i apologize. it connects to the first story through my lack of attentive nature. in today's instance i wasn't aware of how i was reacting and how i was both interpreting and responding to the actions. the same with failing to notice the car in front of me and plowing ahead. retail work has a tendency to foster a dislike for humanity. i don't know what it is about working in a retail setting that cultivates only negative interactions with customers, but that is the case. and i can't stay in it much longer. this summer has been especially trying. but having been at retail work in one form or another for 3 years (2 1/2 at this one particular store), i can understand where i've arrived. as much as i love my co-workers, they are as constantly beaten under by their interactions with people on the floor as well. my passion outweighs my trials. i hope you all can tell by the posts in this journal. all this political stuff that i rant on and on about. all stems from the passion i hold inside me. the hope of better things. and my intentions to do what i can to help them come to fruition. after i felt defeated for having responded in such a poor manner to that woman earlier today, i was reminded of a quote by nelson mandella that is repeated by hillary clinton in her new book, living history. i'm paraphrasing it here: the measure of greatness isn't having never fallen..but rather, how many times you rise up after falling. there is nothing to be learned where you constantly succeed. there is everything to be gained where you routinely fail. it's not such a bad world sometimes. posted by J. Neas | 6/14/2003 03:21:00 AM (0) comments Friday, June 13, 2003 np: fountains of wayne - welcome interstate managers (yes, still) yes, virginia, the new fountains of wayne is that good. go pick it up. also, this is more for jeremy's sake than anyone's (although i find it incredibly amusing myself), nothing says lovin' like our nation's president falling off of a segway. i'm still waiting to see some major (i.e. reputable) music review sources pick up on the new fountains of wayne. thus far i've just seen some random on-line ones and one from time. but i mean, really..okay, i'm sure that it takes some serious chops to get a job doing music reviews for time, but who reads that magazine to get music suggestions? the fact that they even reviewed the fountains of wayne album astounds me. if any of you have seen a review from say..spin, rolling stone, pitchforkmedia, the onion, etc..leave me a comment. i appreciate it. politically..i'll leave you alone today. however, philsophically, i won't. discuss amongst yourselves (in the comment area; that's what it's there for, folks!): do the wrong means justify the right ends? as in..was ousting saddam hussein (obviously, to some extent, the 'right' thing to do) justifiable with the questionable ('wrong') means by which it was attained? posted by J. Neas | 6/13/2003 02:18:00 AM (0) comments Wednesday, June 11, 2003 np: fountains of wayne - welcome interstate managers yesterday, being tuesday, was a field day for new music. so, in order to take a small break from the political prostylizing, i'll expound on what i purchased. although don't worry, there's something bile-raising at the bottom of this post. my day's sojourn began with a visit to a store in charlotte to pick up the new radiohead album (hail to the theif). while i was there i also got depeche mode's violator album since it was rather cheap. and has two of my favourite songs by them on it. so we'll see how it sounds. i haven't gotten around to listening to it as of yet. however the new radiohead, based on one full listen through, is amazing. it seems to be the most logical step forward for them as a group. one of the members is quoted in the latest issue of spin as saying that this album is the furthest that they could take this style of music. it makes sense. it seems to be the culmination of what they reached with both ok computer and kid a / amnesiac. people were set to cast those albums as aeons apart, but i really feel they share a lot more than is apparent at first glance. so where and how do they come together? an obvious comparison for me (and bear with me here) is with blur's triptych of classic britpop albums: modern life is rubbish, parklife and the great escape. modern life.. made obvious blur's debt to the kinks and other brit trad-rock, especially with what became (for the period of these three albums) damon albarn's obsession with british social topics. mostly in analyzing the interactions of normal, working folk. parklife began to further explode with their use of horns and string sections to build powerful pop music in that trad. style. and the great escape fused both together, drenching the album in horns/strings and orchestration. it was at that point that they had taken that style as far as was possible without repeating. so, of course, blur was the next result, a drastically different offering which has lead them towards what lately resulted in their brilliant new record think tank. so for me, hail to the theif stands as radiohead's the great escape. it's a conglomeration of what were the outstanding traits of their prior two records and brings them together in what is really invigorating. so now i have two records to be really excited about. first, the next radiohead, as here's hoping that it blows away all their prior conventions. and two, the next sleater-kinney, as they are due for the album that truly puts them above and beyond the amazing peak they've already reached. but that's beside the point. the new fountains of wayne record, welcome interstate managers, continues to prove their dubbing by the onion as one of america's premiere pop bands. if there was ever a borderline perfect pop record to have been released in the last decade, fountains of wayne's self-titled album is high on the list of nominees. and their new one is just as good. i'm also rather taken with their mentioning of numerous funny american town names. (hackensack, steamboat springs..and not a town, but still funny to mention..fire island.) after what i percieved as a bit of a slip in their last record (utopia parkway) this album is a return to fine, fine form. as a side note i also got, on vinyl, willie nelson's to lefty, from willie which is his fabulous album of covers of songs by lefty frizzell. as well as the church's gold afternoon fix which, as was reported to me by allmusic.com, isn't quite as good as either starfish or heyday but is still leagues beyond a lot of things. i traipsed up to greensboro last night to see the carolina theatre's showing of singin' in the rain, easily one of my favourite musicals of all time. the print they had of the movie was outstanding and it was a joy seeing it. kelly, jeremy and i attended it followed by a beer (or tea in kelly's case) at the green bean across the road. i'm beginning to really love greensboro in a way that i haven't before. and i miss it when i'm away. i have some very good friends there. - so now, for the aforementioned bullypulpit: Atrios once again brings us a quite ripe piece of news. The Senate just rejected an effort to strip loan guarantees to the nuclear power industry, estimated at $16 billion, from the current energy bill. The loan-guarantee provision will put taxpayers on the hook for 50% of the cost of new nuclear plants in the event of default. The 50-48 vote was largely party line. find out how your senator or representative voted on the recent child tax credit extension and if they voted against it, call and let them know how you feel about tax credits to poor income families for children versus corporate welfare to the incapable nuclear energy industry. and if they voted for child tax credits, find out how they voted on this and let 'em know how you feel anyway. posted by J. Neas | 6/11/2003 05:32:00 PM (0) comments Monday, June 09, 2003 np: blackalicious - blazing arrow blackalicious is stellar, y'all. once again atrios hooks us up with the fantastic info about the episcopal church electing its first openly gay bishop. in all the incessant warmongering and death and destruction, in this i think we find that god hasn't left us. and certainly..was smiling a bit today. posted by J. Neas | 6/09/2003 02:11:00 AM (0) comments Sunday, June 08, 2003 np: radio 4 - gotham first off, before i forget and for jeremy's benefit, tonight at work my boss dave turned to me and said: "so, do you remember V?" i nearly fell over. and thanks to my good friend for spotting this lengthy but well argued piece over at cnn.com. the issue of WMDs and their ongoing absence is not heating up in the american press the way it certainly ought to be. that piece's author argues that if the bush administration deliberately altered information in order to mislead the public and justify the invasion of another country, then what we have on our hands is the single biggest presidential scandal we've ever had. honestly, if that's the case, there has been no better grounds for impeachment. ever. we are still 17 months away from the 2004 presidential election, but clinton launched his re-election campaign at this point in 1995 for the '96 election. and i don't think it's too late to start the assault on president bush's campaign. just start talking to everyone you can about the bush administration and their perversity of justice and international law. do it in a constructive manner. lay it out. point at the signs around us of how the administration has already begun to fail the united states: a misguided and illegitimate war, skyrocketing unemployment, a downward economy, increasing tax benefits for the wealthiest citizens, rising distrust in the international community. it all points to a leader and a cabinet with no regard for the world, the average citizen or the future. 2004 is dire straits. down we go, boys. posted by J. Neas | 6/08/2003 03:36:00 AM (0) comments Saturday, June 07, 2003 np: miles davis - kind of blue here's a heads up on the current tax shennanigans going down on capitol hill. this recent tax cut, the 2nd such debacle in bush's term in office, is an even more audacious slap to the face of the average working person, especially those hovering around minimum wage. for those of you who might have fallen for the "$300 tax rebate = revived economy" bullshit back in 2000, i think you can see where it's landed us. the unemployment rate has climbed to 6.1% this week. and so to further dig the hole, bush brings us another set of reductions. none of which are doing anything for those in dire need. and as the economy in individual states continue to suffer, we see how the administration sets up programs like head start to take the fall. just look at my previous post for that info. i'm really not sure what to feel about the 2004 election. it's going to be a hellacious fight. and i'm scared about the outcome. if there was a stronger candidate somewhere to oppose bush i would feel more confident in the tide shifting. but there isn't. the best candidates (i.e. the ones i agree with) are a little too far left to get safely elected. but you best believe the grassroots work will be aflame. as will this blog as we get in closer to election season. by the way, the philadelphia boy scout chapter recently added "sexual orientation" to its non-discrimination policy. it joins the boston and san francisco chapters as the lone ones in the nation to take that stand. one of my former scouting alumni (yes, i was a boy scout) likes to send me (as well as a bunch of others on his email lists) updates from a grassroots organization that keeps tabs on these sorts of things and then organizes vocal responses. it tends to be very anti-gay involvement in scouting. here's what was said in the email at the culmination of the letter: We urge you to voice your disappointment and concern over this so, since my friend was nice enough to pass along this information, should you feel so inclined, give bill dwyer a call and let him know that you support his council's decision and applaude his efforts to make scouting an organization that promotes understanding and equality while building truly good members of our society. or at least..that's what i'd do. posted by J. Neas | 6/07/2003 03:04:00 AM (0) comments Thursday, June 05, 2003 np: nothing. so i was gone traversing parts of the country for a few days and in reviewing tom tomorrow's blog for the time i missed, i picked up on this little tidbit of information. i'm going to copy the post over to make sure you guys get a look at it. From an editorial in the Waco Tribune-Herald, on the Bush administration's attack on Head Start: Educators across the country are voicing alarm over an administration plan to effectively convert Head Start from a federal program to one run by states through block grants. Opponents see this as the end of Head Start. Principally, they worry that states, facing immense fiscal pressures, are not good candidates for entrusting the highly successful pre-kindergarten program. Let's review: Teachers. Threatened. By the Bush administration. For using their right of free speech. To try to protect one of our most successful, popular, and valuable educational programs. Background article here. You can also visit the SaveHeadStart.org website. this is incredibly important guys. i hope you'll take the time to read up on this, call your senators and representatives and governor's offices. head start is one of the truly magnificent remnants of lbj's great society, one that has been one of his longest lasting legacies as president. as awful as he was at vietnam foreign policy, the great society has benefitted this nation far more than lbj is given credit for from the average american. so, please, please, please. as a future educator, i appreciate it. posted by J. Neas | 6/05/2003 09:35:00 AM (0) comments Wednesday, June 04, 2003 np: meh. this is just a test post to work with my new guestbook system from haloscan. for the time being, the general guestbook at signmyguestbook (indicated by the 'at the sound of the tone..' link on the right sidebar) will remain, but the new haloscan design will enable me to recieve particular comments about particular posts. if you want an example of how this works, i would point to either the design that livejournal uses, or to be more accurate, check out atrios' use of the haloscan design and see what you think. let's hope this becomes fruitful. posted by J. Neas | 6/04/2003 04:08:00 PM (0) comments |
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