Campus Progress Action, our sister organization, went to the Virgin Music Festival this weekend to get people involved in the I’m Voting For campaign, and in the progressive movement in general.
They collected over 100 video testimonials, let hundreds of people know about Campus Progress and Campus Progress Action, had dozens of people paint what they were voting for on the graffiti wall, and had Foo Fighters guitar player Chris Shiflett visit the booth to sign autographs and take pictures with fans.
Check it out:
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This afternoon my favorite used bookstore will be hosting an event. The Capitol Hillbillies will be rolling the piano down to perform outside Riverby Books. Beginning at 3:00 this afternoon, the Hillbillies welcome all to an afternoon of music.
Last night I went to BloomBars in Columbia Heights for the first time. Don't let the name fool you, BloomBars is not an establishment that serves libations. If you're thirsty or just like to get loose before you listen to music, you can go next door to Wonderland.
You know the way most progressives feel about universal healthcare. The whole, it's a universal right and everyone should have equal access to quality and affordable healthcare. Well, I not only share that view in regards to healthcare, but also in regards to music. Luckily, a friend of mine has introduced me to a website making universal access to great music a reality. Read More »
My new favorite venue in the U street area is on 2007 14th street NW. Marvin has dark wood floors, comfortable lounge-like chairs, a DJ booth above a dance floor, and an outside roof deck with its second bar. Inside the walls are covered in pictures of jazz greats. Most importantly, the DJ played some smokin' hot 70s funk that kept me and my dancing shoes very happy.
If you find yourself in Adam’s Morgan with no set agenda, I suggest checking out Madam’s Organ, and not just because I love a good play on words. The multi-leveled Blues bar, “where the beautiful people go to get ugly,” has live music every night, a dance floor, lounge areas, pool tables, and a roof deck. Read More »
Via C&L. Marc McDonald over at Beggars Can Be Choosers laments the lack of "protest music" in today's popular music landscape. I'm sure people who are far more into the music scene could bring up more specific examples than I could, but I'd have to say that McDonald presents an argument that's wrong for a couple of reasons. There argument McDonald makes is once centered on stereotypes about class and race. He compares Paris Hilton and the Dixie Chicks with Bob Dylan, these are both imperfect comparisons. Read More »
If you want a nice anecdote for how Clinton is appealing to gender solidarity, search for "Just a Girl" on Youtube; the first result is the clip from the New Hampshire Democratic debate where Clinton talked about how her low likability ratings "hurts her feelings" and Obama subsequently quipped "you're likable enough." The video was put up by the Clinton campaign on YouTube, and they presumably paid for the top spot.
So, is Clinton trying to appeal to women born between 1977 and 1982 who really liked Clueless and Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion? The song, incidentally, is both awesome and a very effective statement for the Clinton campaign. Here are some lyrics:
Oh...I've had it up to here! Oh...am I making myself clear? I'm just a girl I'm just a girl in the world... That's all that you'll let me be! I'm just a girl, living in captivity Your rule of thumb Makes me worry some
I'm just a girl, what's my destiny? What I've succumbed to Is making me numb I'm just a girl, my apologies What I've become is so burdensome I'm just a girl, lucky me Twiddle-dum there's no comparison
Unfortunately, I don't expect Barack Obama to buy video placement on searches for "Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud."
The NYTimes Magazine had a profile of Rick Rubin this weekend, the man anointed by Columbia Records to save the industry. It's no secret that the record industry has been languishing in the last few years. So what's the new strategy?
"Everything I do," Rubin told me earlier, "whether it's producing, or signing an artist, always starts with the songs. When I'm listening, I'm looking for a balance that you could see in anything. Whether it's a great painting or a building or a sunset. There's just a natural human element to a great song that feels immediately satisfying. I like the song to create a mood."
So the record industry will save itself by--drumroll, please--listening to music. Brilliant. They're also not going to make Rubin punch a clock or have a desk. This is supposed to be a revolutionary tactic?
Brooklyn loves Ms. Hill—at least, the old Ms. Hill.
Last night, in her first solo performance in Brooklyn, NY, Lauryn Hill played a free concert to over 10,000 eager fans. Lately, Lauryn has been plagued with reports of erratic, if not downright unprofessional, performances. At a recent concert in Oakland, CA, a reporter from the San Jose Mercury News declared that “calling it a fiasco would be an insult to fiascos everywhere.” Similarly, her European tour was derided by journalists and fans alike—unrecognizable arrangements of her hits, odd new material, incessant vocal problems, a bizarre and arrogant on-stage manner.
At last night’s show in Crown Heights, Lauryn fulfilled most of these complaints. But she also played an incredible, amazing, high-energy show that I am truly thankful I got to witness. For free.
Warning: not serious blog post, neon colors and loud noises to follow. I'm going going back back to Cali Cali on Friday to visit my brother in LA and get my eat on in Tehrangeles, Koreatown, and Little Armenia. If there's one thing my brother and I do together besides eat food whose names we can't pronounce and make fun of hipsters shopping for $600 limited edition kicks at Undefeated, it's listen to M.I.A.
I would be remiss as a Brunonian if I didn't make this next recommendation. Tonight (I am posting this after midnight), at the Rock and Roll Hotel, you have the opportunity to listen to Get Him Eat Him, which is the biggest band to come out of Brown University since U2 (!?).
Composed of five + one guys, at least one of which I will personally vouch for as very hot. Their music is best described as "indie," "Brown," or "strange," but I quite like it and whatever it is, it's catchy. I had the pleasure of seeing them a couple years ago on campus, and although the sound in Alumnae Hall is universally considered to be terrible, their enthusiasm and clear love of performing won over the crowd.
The details? Tonight (that's Thursday night), 8pm, at the Rock and Roll Hotel. Cost? $10 in advance, $12 at the door.. Samples of their music? Right here, of course. Oh, it's 21+, sorry guys.
How many no money boyz are crazy How many boyz are raw? How many no money boyz are rowdy How many start a war?
The latest lyrics from M.I.A.'s song Boyz on her upcoming album Kala (hear it on her MySpace page). Since one of my interns just told me that all I blogged about for 2 months was MIA, I figured one more couldn't hurt (and I didn't really want to break the streak). I'm a fan of this song, especially that last line. There's really not a whole lot else to mention - my previous posts on MIA seem to say it all.
Now, I know that over the last few weeks you have all come to anticipate my thoughtful, witty articles about sports and athletics in the district. But even ESPN’s “Sports Guy” Bill Simmons changes it up from time to time to write about his favorite band (Pearl Jam). My favorite band came to town last night, so the latest sports news will have to wait.
Wilco, the alt-country-rock-blues-funk-etc. band fronted by the multi-talented and charmingly off-beat singer/songwriter Jeff Tweedy, played a packed show at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD (about an hour north of the District). Even with the occasional bouts of rain and wind, the crowd could not be dissuaded from enjoying the show? And how could anyone not enjoy the highly energetic setlist that seamlessly blended Wilco’s classic hits with new songs from their recent release Sky Blue Sky.
I discovered hip hop duo Blue Scholars back in college, when they performed on my campus and I heard a couple of their songs (my favorites include Blink and Motion Movement off their first, self-titled album). If you haven't heard them - they're a big deal on the West Coast (they're from Seattle), and sadly undiscovered by the rest of the U.S., though pretty well known by a lot of Asian-Americans.
I was just emailed a link to their latest music video for their song Back Home on their new album, Bayani. Back Home is a heartbreaking anti-war hip-hop song about the need to bring our troops back home, out of this endless, needless war. Check it out - I'm not one for emotional films or videos, but this one was particularly well done and really made an impact.
It hits home the Campus Progress, and general progressive movement, message of Support Our Troops, Bring 'em Home. If you don't already know about the work that we're doing, check out our Iraq Action Camp and also our Iraq Lobby Day in association with the National Student Conference - all are this summer, and all offer travel scholarships for you to come out to DC and end this war.
Russell Simmons and Rev. Al Sharpton have been in the news lately for their protest that certain words should not be in clean cuts of rap songs: the n-word, bitch, and ‘ho (a word that Imus has made even more infamous with his Rutgers women’s basketball team comment). Rap songs have usually been the type of music that has come under scrutiny for its misogynistic content, but there is scarier out there. One of my friends came across this song by Prussian Blue, a group comprised of twin white, blond 14 year-olds, who sing about neo-Nazism.
This week’s events over the racist and sexist remarks made by Don Imus about the Rutgers female basketball team were very unfortunate and made clear that we still have a very long way to go before we eliminate discrimination in all its forms. In many ways the Imus incident also highlighted the progress made on racial and women’s issues in America. It speaks to our culture that MSNBC and CBS were so overwhelmed by the response from the American people that they chose to cancel the Imus program. It was a big win for civil rights and women’s rights, but the Imus remark uncovered the deep-rooted stereotypes about African Americans and women that continue in our society. Read More »
For those of you who associate Timbaland with Nelly Furtado or Justin Timberlake, here's something new.
As the resident MIA-obsessed Campus Progress staffer, I encourage you to check out MIA and Timbaland's Come Around (sadly, not on the US-release - just UK... Americans never get the cool stuff). I love MIA (in an almost creepy sort of way, but oh well). But, though I also love Timbaland as a producer, I have heard a lot of interesting things about how and where he gets his beats and samplings from, without giving credit to independent artists (which he, and a ton of other record producers, have done in the past).
For this song, in particular, there's a good minute, spliced up, that's been ripped from an older Bollywood song (another thing you should know about me is my completely irrational obsession with Bollywood). I wouldn't be surprised if they're not getting any portion of the profits - the same thing happened with Dr. Dre-produced Addictiveby Rakim and Truth Hurts (oh, and don't even get me started on the obnoxious exoticizing of India in that video). The Indian producer got wind of it (with it being an internationally successful song, playing obviously on MTV India... idiots), and sued Dr. Dre, accusing him of "cultural imperialism."
The lawsuit wasn't publicized at all, and I wonder how many people just think Dre is so creative and came up with it all by himself. I only heard about the whole lawsuit because my best friend's grandfather was the director of the Bollywood film (Jyoti) that the song (Kaliyon Ka Chaman) was originally in, and he was involved in the lawsuit. (And, weird tidbit - the huge popularity of Addictive led Indian music producers to remix the song into catchy, but strange and confusing turnaround of the song with American beats in the back and a horribly embarrasing rip-off of the video - sort of the opposite of Addictive. Maybe it's just a music industry thing across the world. They just love ripping-off each other?)
Anyway, maybe the MIA song is a different case. I just can't imagine her ripping off her people like that. But, maybe it's just my starry eyes that blind me from the corruption of giant music industries and record production. What's original anymore?
If you thought Alanis' last fine moment was when she sang about "wining, dining, and 69-ing" in the mid-1990s, think again. As Ezra and Jill note, this Alanis cover of the Black Eyed Peas hit "My Humps" is not to be missed. It's a spoof, but I actually don't think it's as funny as it is subversive. I remember watching the original "My Humps" video over and over again in the library exactly a year ago during senior thesis crunch time. Something about the performance was just so ridiculous--a female singer grinding up to men, singing about her ass (humps) and breasts (lumps) and how much expensive shit men had to buy her to get close to them. The message was so anti-feminist that I wondered if maybe it was slyly making fun of itself.
Whatever "My Humps" meant, it definitely broke the stress of writing about nineteenth century French class and gender ideologies.
But now Alanis, with her trademark piano accompaniment and warbling vocals, deconstructs exactly what's going on in this song and video, and finds a woman playing into every objectifying stereotype, the ugliest kind that present the female body as little more than meat. Watch both videos and then tell me, what do you think? Do you think Fergie is in on the joke? And why do you think Alanis chose this song to dissect?
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