We Are Time

I will be updating the playlists -- it appears i misplaced them, but hope is on the way -- I at least have one of them in my possesion.
Anyhow, there is a lot to discuss as far as how much new music (recordings) we've amassed recently. Also -- we do have the Australian disc compilation ready. If you would like a copy, let me know.
Zach is going to be covering Cornel West for the East Stroudsburg University newspaper when he comes by on Wednesday, April 13. Our pal brian (brianlightbody.com) is going to be doing some flyers for that event. When we have them, we will post them.
Also, last week marked the 25th anniversary of Archbishop Romero of El Salvador's assasination. I am going to put up a link about him, so some of you who might not have heard of him, can check out what he was all about.

"It's Injustice that motivates us to do something, to take risk, knowing if we don't, things will
remain the same."
- Digna Ochoa y Placido

Yesterday's radio show went well. I forgot to copy the playlist at the station, so I will mention it all as soon as possible.
Our friend Tom went with us to WMUH -- his first time at the studios--- and I'm pretty sure he fell in love with it.
Anyhow, anybody in the Eastern Pa./NJ or anywhere else for that matter should check out Double Decker Records in Allentown. Jamie just moved into a massive location across the street this past week-- and it isn't claustrophobic! (though we joked with him yesterday about how we would probably still manage to trip over things, etc.)
Also, he's going to have a room for 12"s and dollar stuff-- and...the basement, which is also pretty large-- is going to be transformed into a bookstore he is doing. Lots of great plans are in store for Double Decker, and I for one am pretty excited about it.
We also went down to Philadelphia to check out the Rachels/Ida show, which was a seated show in the sanctuary at the First Unitarian Church. The place was pretty packed, and outside of the poor addict who was snorting coke next to me, (he was sweating and kept getting up like every few minutes to grab coffee-- as if he wasn't a bundle of wacked out nerves already!)-- it was a great, intimate event that I will not forget for a while. A great way to start spring break!

We will be doing a few slots during the Spring Break schedule.
Tomorrow -- Friday, March 4th from 12-2pm --
Next Thursday at time unknown (well, I forget the time-- but it's happening) and next Friday as well from 12-2pm.
So if you are in the greater lehigh valley area and southern Monroe county-- you can tune in at 91.7 fm or listen live on the web via realaudio at http://muhlenberg.edu/wmuh.

also-- I just wanted to chime in and let this out -- My bro and I occasionally book shows-- and for the first time in a while, I've been dealing with booking agents. And now I remember why they are a pain.
I like and prefer dealing with musicians direct. I like and prefer all-ages, diy shows. It sucks that when you would like to expose an area such as eastern pennsylvania-- north of philadelphia--- to great musicians from only an hour and 20 minutes away from here to the east-- you have to go through guys talking about guarantees nearly 2,000 dollars. especially when the group is on an indie label, and is barely visible out of the world of new york and perhaps the art rock/ noise community (a niche, as limited as its scope may be)-- to expect that kind of money is ludicrous in say any of the other eastern pa cities-- and i would say even philadelphia.
if booking agents want that kind of money-- perhaps they can get it from colleges-- where limited amount of people go see the shows (it makes the shows more intimate, yes-- but it is also limited) and sometimes the college kids that do go end up gawking at the musicians (especially at this type of group).

i've been knocked on my feet cold by some small groups traveling through places such as the pirate's cove or jeff the pigeon -- both in allentown-- more than some of the larger name groups from that noise rock community.
i've been floored by some localish groups from the lehigh valley and (at a time)-- wilkes-barre.

i've never had an agent even make that kind of ridiculous offer from even the likes of larger, more well known groups.
this business side of the record/music industry sickens me. i understand people need to make a living-- and not everyone that is playing has a "day job".
but to expect someone to pay that amount in most places outside of a few major cities is ridiculous
and that is why i prefer the diy community over the indie rock community-- which, just like ted leo or ian mackaye, i feel little to no connection with.
the people at diy shows will venture out to basements, to all ages clubs, small art spaces, warehouses, etc-- and watch great performers perform.
it isn't about "getting drunk" and "watching the new, hip bands" in a big, corporate rock club atmosphere---or only going to shows in new york or philly.
as silly as it may sound, it is about a love for seeing and hearing new things in an atmosphere devoid of "business" and profits.
and it is fun too. you don't know how much fun i've seen people have at diy shows. it is a lot more communal, less stuffy.
it's like a fun party.
and if bands would rather keep playing only colleges where they can be guaranteed more money-- but most likely to less enthusiastic crowds (princeton crowds were the exception to this rule though in my experience, they were pretty open and knew how to have fun those ivy leaguers)-- then they can keep it up, but they are missing out.

I arrived just in time for the screening of the Public Enemy documentary titled "London Calling". It was basically footage of the first PE show in London -- (most likely where the "London, Englaannd! Are you ready!" intro came from) with some more current footage from the last PE visit to London.
It got a little tedious at points, but it was overall insightful.
There was a pretty big focus on Flav and his role in the group (Chuck said he made his job "easy") which basically was to allow comic relief and added a balance to the mix when Chuck would be rhyming about some pretty heavy handed political/social subject matter.
At the same time, the directors addressed the controversy surrounding Professor Griff and his comments, and why he had such a tiff with Flav.
Griff brought a feeling of tension during the interviews. He still seems pretty steamed over a lot of things. He really felt (and from what I can sense-- still feels) that Flav was too ridiculous for the group.
He took his job serious. He mentioned how he broke a few of Flav's clocks and got into some pretty intense confrontations with him. His rationale was basically how could they be setting an example and sending a message when they had a person in the group that was basically the exact person they were trying to reach to.
Griff stated his comments on Jews was wrong, and if he could take the comment back he would-- but still felt it was also taken out of context.
Griff also showed more tension when he felt as though in the past he didn't receive credit for writing and co-writing some of the old songs. He was playing live drums for PE on thier last tour and also wrote the "Son of a Bush" song.
Also interviewed were a couple of the S-1's. They don't dress up in the complete militant regalia anymore (no dancing on stage with fake uzi's).
They instead seem to dress up in kevlar-looking body armor and do some dance moves.
They were really interesting guys---but i felt the story behind those guys and thier role had a little bit missing-- oh well.
There was a lot of comedic moments-- courtesy of Flav mostly. His antics are just incredible.
Anyhow-- there was some problems with sound cutting in and out-- and the PA system sounded a little low and mono-ish, which I think hindered the presentation of the film a bit and I think in turn it made the performance aspect of the film -- a very tedious one.
It was still good and informative-- and got to the heart of how they have grown since then as individuals.

After the screening they were going to have critics come in and speak (vivien goldman, robert christgau, alan light, etc)-- it would have been interesting-- but my bro and i jetted out to catch the Ralph Nader/Patti Smith thing up at an Ethical Society off Central Park West.

I get to the Nader/Smith Anti-War Rally-- there was around 300 people there (as oppsed to the 400-500 people that were probably at the PE docu screening)--
I have to break down here and also mention that there was a lot of rustling and people leaving during the PE docu,. I guess the poor sound quality got to a lot of people.

Back to the Nader thing.

I believed I missed a speaker, but arrived in the midst of a young military vet guy who is already back from the current Iraq War (as if it ever really ended).
He had a lot of interesting things to say during his short speech. He discussed how he was exposed in the military-- and how many soldiers are exposed to nuclear waste-- and how had an amount of nuclear waste in his body-- yet this is somehow considered "safe" by our government.
He talked about the post-traumatic stress disorder that a lot of soldiers find themselves in. He painted a good picture of what it was like for him and many others who he said are in the military and yet are very set against this war.
he was shaky and all but i really felt a lot of respect for the guy.
Next was some guy who was a Green candidate for NY Governor-- and I think he is thinking of taking the Green position in perhaps the nyc mayoral race-- I'm not sure.
He was pretty interesting and all. But his plan for no automobiles outside of public transit and taxis in Manhattan sounds like he made a few people in the crowd antsy-- especially those from the veggie oil/bio-diesel/hybrid crews.

Anyhow next came Patti Smith-- she had her drummer play guitar along with her-- and she played 5 songs. Man... I had never seen her before, and even though I have a few of her old lp's-- i've never considered myself a "big" or "major" fanatic of hers. But--- she really was captivating and her voice and delivery was just spot on. I think I have grown a huge amount of respect for her. She did a song where she let out some great kind of chorus and holding of notes in a similar vein of that one song she did with REM (which was perhaps the best song from that record-- and one of my fave REM songs ever because she makes that song so beautiful).
She was just so amazing.
Following that was Ralph-- who came and spoke on how he thinks people need to use thier voice to be heard-- he was just trying to energize the crowd of mostly die-hard fans of his to keep at it. I think the crowd was mixed though.
I do think there were some people that are fans of ralph that were there that voted kerry, but still view ralph as an asset to our country-- a guy speaking sense when even the majority of elected democrats are looking at the iraq issue as a "dead issue"-- or are just wondering how to put it on the table to discuss it anymore.

After Ralph spoke, he was to come back for a Q&A session --and Patti was to come back for an encore to end the night.- but before that-- they had a couple of the Students for Nader kids get up on the podium and ask for donations to help them get out of debt witht he last election.

Friends know how i feel about the massive amounts of money that the Democrats (some of whom hired Republican law firms, and even the DNC and PAC'S like Moveon.org got in on the game of "smear Nader") used to oust nader from ballot access in several states (including here in Pa)-- my beef with them has been discussed at length here on this board. Let's just say I saw some blatant illegal actions and dirty tricks that these goons did to ralph AND many of thier own registered democrats in Philadelphia county--who only signed petitions to allow ralph on the ballot-- NOT to vote for him.

anyways...

even though i felt as though ralph was wrongly treated , i noticed the crowd shrunk in half. i guess it did get to sound like a pretty sad begging for money thing for a bit===but what can you say? they have the right i think to do that after the way they were treated.

Ralph came back to do a Q+ A session. Some of the questions were excellent. it seemed as though there was some dispute between a guy and a couple of the Greens who helped curate the rally-- which kind of made me feel a little uneasy and more and more away from the Greens in a slight way.

Anyhow, Patti came back and did an ecnore with her "People have the Power" song.
It was good, and I had a nice discussion with some Socialists at the place afterwards...

but the real highlight and actual kick in the pants i needed came the following day with the Revolutionary Voices panel with Chuck D ...

ok, so I went back Saturday afternoon/eveing for the panel discussion called "Revolutionary Voices". I missed a couple of other things, such as the Glen E. Friedman Political Activism thing

(*side note* Friedman's website had photos of the Nader/Smith thing on Wall Street that he did the day prior to election day-- and he seems to be an unabashed Nader supporter, so that makes me feel somewhat not so left out when most "moved on" and went for Kerry-- understandably in some ways, and not so understandable in other ways I think-- but that is not really for discussion right now, as I think I've beat that to the ground in the last several months) and the Def Jam team , Producers, and PR people for PE at that time.

The place was packed. No room literally. The place was swelling, and unlike the previous night-- there was hardly and shuffling about. People seemed to be very engaged in the discussion.

The panel discussion included -- Chuck D, Hank Shocklee, Fab Five Freddy (and his daughter), Daddy-O from Stetsasonic, Vernon Reid and Corey Glover from Living Colour,and two original members of the S1 W's.
The moderator was the guy that put the event together at NYU. Daddy-0 was probably the most halarious of the bunch. His reminiscing of the "old days" gave this kind of tingly feeling to you, even though I was just in elementary school and junior high during the times they discussed.
Fab Five Freddy was also really cool-- I had no idea his godfather was Max Roach-- or that he grew up in such a political household (then again, maybe this was mentioned in the discussion segment of the Wild Style dvd--- speaking of which -- Charlie Ahearn who did Wild Style/co-wrote "yes Yes Y'all" was in the audience and Fab gave a shout out to him-- with some wild applause for Wild Style from the audience-- I spoke briefly with Ahearn after the discussion ended)

Vernon Reid also had some incredible things to say, both politically and on music in a social context. I was honestly floored-- both he and Chuck D I think hit the nail on the head for me.

Chuck was just great. He called the current state of music "R & B music" meaning--"Reagan and Bush Music."
There was a Q&A session afterwards and people asked about how musicians and activists can approach the current state we are in and work on it to make things work out. Chuck gave some really thoughtful answers.
Vernon Reid talked about how he went and visited some black villages in Uruguay and how we as americans live in this phony, sheltered :"reality tv" world.
CHuck had some things to say about that when a question was posed about Flavor's current star of that reality show on vh-1. he said flav tells them that "I'm doing reality tv"-- and Chuck said that he had to tell him that "The reality is, is that Tv is doing you."
I had a guy that was sitting behind me that runs some hip-hop label, he has been working with some guy that is in jail right now-- and has been trying to get him to read philosophy and great works of literature. But this guy just wants to rhyme about "the streets".
He asked Chuck and the panel how to go about it. Shocklee told him that it was something he probably didn't want to hear--but you can't change someone like that. They've got to change themselves-- abnd he would have to do something bigger than he is, or that anyone for that matter-- can handle-- which would be to change the industry by himself.
Daddy-O chimed in and said he would have to get some of his guys out and hjad one of his big friends in the audience stand up and tell him if he spent a day with him and a few of his other pals-- then that might set this guy straight (I'm imagining like some sort of "Drop Squad" type situation!).

In regards to "Night of the living Baseheads" Chuck mentioned about the old days and how crack was this massive epidemic in NY at the time, and how they would roll into town after playing a tour and they would see guys playing basketball at 4:30 in the morning. he said he knew they were on something.
Also, he mentioned about how though Baambaataa was truly the 12" king, he remembered how dj's would bring in tons of crates and sometimes they would be like, "man, why do i have this Meco 12", or this lame Giorigio Moroder track? What did i pick this up for?"--