The weirdest thing happened this evening as I was driving home from work. The woman next to me honked and I didn't think much of it. A block later she honked again and motioned for me to roll down my window. Since I drive a bit of a piece-of-shit car and it was starting to get dark, I figured I had a headlight out or something. When I rolled down my window she yelled "What do you have against George Bush?" I was fairly shocked, and then I remembered this bumper sticker that's been on my rear window for the past few years. Heck, there's been another election since Bush was re-elected so I was recently thinking of taking this sticker off and making it into a magnet to add to the fridge. This was a fairly young woman, and we were in fairly busy rush hour traffic. I wasn't at all worked up about the situation, but I couldn't resist getting a few shots back at an irrational Bush supporter who was rude enough to start yelling at a stranger in traffic who she assumed would be too timid to say anything back. To make sure she could hear over my engine, which sounds like it is getting ready for lift-off, I yelled back my response of "I'm against this war." She then yelled back something along the lines of "Do you want your grandchildren to die?" So I yelled "Well, I sure wouldn't want them to die in Iraq"
I also added "I don't have a problem with gay people," and "I think women should have the rights to abortions." (Although this last statement is true, there are reasons why I hate George Bush that I find more important in this unstable world than the abortion issue, but I was thinking on the fly.)
She responded by yelling "Well, do you think they should have their clitorises cut out?" Now, apparently this was in reference to saving women in the third world from sexual mutilation. I didn't know that George W. Bush had made a definitive stand on this issue. Maybe this woman finally figured out why we're in Iraq stirring up a bee's nest and making half the world needlessly hate us. George Bush loves pussy!
She then yelled "What about education? What about No Child Left Behind?" Now, I don't know if this woman was delusional enough to think that George W. Bush is a champion of education, or if I miraculously had converted her to rational thinking, but she was suddenly making points for me.
At this point the woman's friend was embarrassed and trying to get her to roll up the window, and traffic was busy, so I shouted one last thing, "The death penalty is racist," and she pulled ahead in her lane. What a freaky interaction. For one thing, I live in Maryland, which is highly Democrat. There are anti-Bush stickers all over the place. Also, W's popularity is as low or nearly as low as it's ever been. Look at the results of the most recent election. The people, politicians and the media all finally are seeing that Iraq was a mistake and that the Republican party got a little too drunk on their power these last few years. I'm not foolish enough to believe that all beliefs held by Republicans are inherently bad, but to have a young woman yell at me in traffic in defense of George W. Bush is just plain crazy.
Going back ten years, I lived in Gillette, Wyoming, and drove an even bigger piece of shit, an '87 Mazda 323. I had a Darwin emblem slapped on the back of that hot rod. One day a man rolled down his window and started hysterically screaming "Jesus is Lord" and telling me that I was going to rot in Hell. I didn't have time to inform that fool that evolution and believing in God aren't contradictory ideas, but I digress. Today I have a similar emblem on my bumper. I don't think my new Bush-loving friend saw it. She didn't raise any religious arguments and as she pulled ahead I noticed she had a bumper sticker making reference to being guided by the Bible. Personally, I'd rather be guided by rational thought than be guided by the Bible, but I guess many George W. Bush Followers don't agree. Heaven help us.
I can't think of a punishment much worse than being forced to go to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert. Don't get me wrong. I can live with the songs that were in Forrest Gump and Dazed and Confused. After all, I did come of age in the nineties, but come on. Let's get serious. In my prejudiced mind, when I see you walk down the street wearing a Skynyrd tour t-shirt, I'm thinking you failed the litmus test for having any intelligent social or political values, never mind having decent taste in music.
Admittedly, my hatred for Lynyrd Skynyrd has much to do with the modern incarnation of the band. Half the friggin' band died in a 1977 plane crash (including singer/songwriter Ronnie Van Zant). So, when you go see Skynyrd today, you are seeing two out of seven members of the '77 lineup. You're seeing a band that makes up for their lack of current relevance by pandering to the redneck fan base that is foolish enough to give them the time of day. They play the Republican National Convention. They drape the confederate flag all over their merchandise. They've made their sound less rock, more country - perfect for actually finding a place for airplay on Country Music Television.
They write songs like Red, White and Blue where coattail rider Johnny Van Zant (Ronnie's brother) sings "My hair's turning white, my neck's always been red, my collar's still blue, we've always been here just trying to sing the truth to you. Yes you could say we've always been, Red, White, and Blue."
Damn Johnny, you're a poet. Wait, it gets better.
"Ride our own bikes to Sturgis. We pay our own dues, smoking camels, drinking domestic brews."
Smart Sturgis reference by Johnny considering motorcycle rallies, where they play for actual regular Joes, are big gigs for Skynyrd. He forgets that he fell into a goldmine of a gig and didn't pay any dues, but what the hell.
The lyrical gold continues with "My Daddy worked hard, and so have I, paid our taxes and gave our lives to serve this great country so what are they complaining about. Yeah we love our families, we love our kids. You know it is love that makes us all so rich. That's where we're at. If they don't like it they can just get the HELL out!"
We've got your basic love it or leave it crap. Johnny talks about the evil "they." This "they" must be people that actually read a newspaper or watch the news on occasion.
Maybe Skynyrd was a good band at one time. Maybe not, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Now they're a bunch of old dumb asses in leather cowboy hats that look like they should be downing Old Milwaukees at the Moose Lodge instead of being in a "rock" band. Even worse, they're making a buck off a legacy they didn't write and drumming up interest by embracing conservative white trash values.
So, if you were wondering if I want to go to that big Skynyrd show, I think I'll pass.
Growing up in Wyoming, I actually was lucky enough to be exposed to great music. Granted, none of it actually came from Wyoming, but my friends and I immersed ourselves in indie rock and punk. What else is there to do in a small town? Get loaded? Well, we probably did that too, but we listened to lots of good music. Unfortunately, good rock shows rarely came around, and any local music scene usually consisted of some crappy bedroom band that some friend of a friend was in.
In the spring of '98, when I read that the Donnas and the Groovie Ghoulies were coming to Casper, I was totally excited. Now, I wasn't exactly a fan of either band, but I sure was a fan of their record label. Lookout! Records had released some of my favorites by Screeching Weasel, Operation Ivy and the first few Green Day albums. That was enough for me to criss-cross the state with a few friends to make it to that all-ages show in Casper.
The opening bands were almost beside the point. We missed the first band, Laramie's Homeless Wonders (featuring a pre-Teenage Bottlerocket Ray and Brandon Carlisle). We made it to the show just before the Lillingtons took the stage, but we weren't concerned. I might have heard their I Lost My Marbles 7", but I honestly didn't pay much attention.
That all changed when the Lillingtons took the stage. The lights weren't even turned down as they played. They didn't look like much, but they blew the crowd away. The songs had a Ramones influence, and unlike many bands this influence obviously wasn't derived from a lack of talent. This wasn't a cheap parody. These guys obviously had love for this type of music, and the entire crowd was won over.
Afterward, the Donnas and the Groovie Ghoulies almost seemed like an afterthought. I was amazed that some band from Wyoming that almost no one had heard of was so much better than these bands that were getting national attention. I bought Shit Out of Luck, the CD the Lillingtons had for sale that night, and drove the two hours back to Gillette. I had to get back to college, so the next day I spent four hours driving from Gillette to Laramie. I listened to Shit out of Luck the entire way. I realized that my ears hadn't fooled me at that show. The Lillingtons were great, and not just great for being from Wyoming. To me, Shit out of Luck seemed to have this idealistic, fun view of 50's culture as seen through the eyes a guy that probably had as much luck with girls as I did, which would mean none at all. With that songwriting and that voice, I knew the Lillingtons from Newcastle, Wyoming, population 3,000, were going places.
I spent the following year telling anyone that would listen about how great they were, and it didn't take long before my friends were all Lillingtons fans. I even emailed Lookout! Records head Chris Appelgren (He didn't reply, but I won't let my ego become too bruised because, based upon the majority of the output Lookout! produced since he took over the label in 1997, I don't think he'd know a hit record if it hit him in the head).
That next year while I was gracing University of Wyoming students with my writing in the college newspaper, the Branding Iron, I met a guy who worked on our website who had gone to high school with two of the guys in the band back in Newscastle. I made sure to inform him of their genius, and didn't think much more of it. He approached me one day and told me that he was surfing around on Amazon one day and discovered that the Lillingtons had a new album coming out. I looked online and saw that it was being released on Lookout! Holy shit, I was doing backflips. This was great news. So, being the ace reporter I was, I called up Lookout! and found out that the record was being distributed by Lookout!, but was actually being released by Ben Weasel's new Lookout! imprint, Panic Button Records. So I called up Panic Button and they gave me Lillingtons frontman Kody Templeman's phone number. I arranged with Kody to drive to Newcastle and interview them in their rehearsal space, which was in the old Newcastle radio station building. The results of this interview were printed in the UW Student magazine, Frontiers, and I also wrote a full page review of Death By Television on the front page of the Branding Iron entertainment section (If I can actually find copies of these, I'll post them on here.)
So, in the years that followed, people outside Wyoming found out about the Lillingtons. How could they not have? I'd say that Death By Television was one of the very best punk rock records of the nineties. Dig around on the Internet a little bit and its isn't too hard to find people who feel the same way, whether it be legends like Fat Mike and Ben Weasel or some kids arguing on message boards. Lyrically and musically, the songs were tighter than ever. Explaining its greatness would require me to ramble much much more than I already am, so if you already don't have a copy or three get on it right now. Unfortunately, the band never got a big push, and they didn't tour much. They released The Backchannel Broadcast in early 2001, and not much else was heard from them. As great as they were, I thought they deserved to be full-blown groupie shagging, MTV Cribs featured rock stars. I'd heard they were all busy working day jobs and were saying the band was over, so I was a bit sad.
After years of no news, the last year and a half have been great. The band finally put their pre-Panic Button releases from small Clearview Records back in print via the 3-CD set Technically Unsound. The set includes a live album and unreleased tracks, but I was most excited for the inclusion of Idiot Word Search. Prior to this release, the Lillingtons half of the Idiot Word Search split LP had only been available on vinyl. This is one of the best things the Lillingtons ever did, and for years I had been stuck listening to a crackly copy a friend had recorded onto CD (actually I still listen to that crackly copy, but it's nice to have a proper copy). Technically Unsound is already somewhat difficult to track down, but scouring eBay for a copy is definitely worth your time.
Clearview also released Get Wrecked, a one-off CD from Sack, a band led by Kody that had more of a straightforward booze-fueled style. The album had been sitting around for awhile, and before its release, bootleg copies were going for a ridiculous amount.
As a fan of what Kody did with the Lillingtons, I was most excited when I heard he joined Laramie's Teenage Bottlerocket. The Carlisle brothers formed TBR in 2001, having given up the ska and progressive tendencies of the Homeless Wonders for a sound that more resembled the Lillingtons and the Ramones. The change worked and they released a great album on their own called Another Way. With Kody on board for 2005's Total, people started paying attention to Wyoming punk rock again. Total was good, damn good! The band got signed to San Francisco label Red Scare Industries, and the album was actually easy to find at Internet CD stores and download sites (Do yourself a favor and go get a copy right now.) TBR has actually toured the past few summers as well. Last June I saw them win over a crowd at the Ottobar in Baltimore (just as I thought with my first Lillingtons show, I thought they blew the other bands off the stage that night).
Red Scare also re-released the Lillingtons' Panic Button/Lookout! releases. The Lillingtons were actually among many bands (including Green Day, Operation Ivy, Avail and Screeching Weasel) that pulled their releases from Lookout! after years of label mismanagement had resulted in late or missing royalty payments. Death By Television even got remastered along with the re-release, and although I'd argue this is completely unnecessary, if it helps sell a few more copies, I'm all for it.
That brings us to right now, the fall of 2006. While not promising a full-on reunion, the Lillingtons recently got together to record The Too Late Show, which Red Scare recently released. I'm practically doing backflips again. Guitarist Zachary Rawhouser is handling more of the songwriting duties, but lyrically, the songs are still perfectly inspired by late night television and regular guy logic in the way the last two albums were. Musically, the album is a mix of catchy but ballsy nuggets that made Death By Television so great and the cleverly dark sound of The Backchannel Broadcast. The mix works. If anything, I want more. With 11 songs clocking in under 24 minutes, the thing is over before you know it, but it's a damn good 24 minutes.
I haven't been back to Wyoming in a few years, but I continue to be proud that music that matters as much as the Lillingtons and Teenage Bottlerocket came out of the old home state. Let's hope it keeps on coming.
Yes, I know this clip is a few years old, but it's fairly new to me and I find myself playing it over and over. I can't believe Leno had the cojones to let Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes) on his show knowing he would play When the President Talks to God. This almost makes up for the total softball interview Jay did with Ann Coulter in front of an audience that was obviously filled exclusively with facists, I mean Coulter supporters. Anyway, here are the lyrics and the clip from youtube. Maybe Oberst is the new Dylan. He can sure write some lyrics, even when he isn't bashing Bush.
"When The President Talks To God"
When the president talks to God Are the conversations brief or long? Does he ask to rape our womens' rights And send poor farm kids off to die? Does God suggest an oil hike When the president talks to God?
When the president talks to God Are the consonants all hard or soft? Is he resolute all down the line? Is every issue black or white? Does what God say ever change his mind When the president talks to God?
When the president talks to God Does he fake that drawl or merely nod? Agree which convicts should be killed? Where prisons should be built and filled? Which voter fraud must be concealed When the president talks to God?
When the president talks to God I wonder which one plays the better cop We should find some jobs. the ghetto's broke No, they're lazy, George, I say we don't Just give 'em more liquor stores and dirty coke That's what God recommends
When the president talks to God Do they drink near beer and go play golf While they pick which countries to invade Which Muslim souls still can be saved? I guess god just calls a spade a spade When the president talks to God
When the president talks to God Does he ever think that maybe he's not? That that voice is just inside his head When he kneels next to the presidential bed Does he ever smell his own bullshit When the president talks to God?
I think that I'd rather listen to Clay Aiken than the Rollins Band, but Henry Rollins is always good for some interesting commentary. On his IFC show he has a segment where he reads open letter pieces that allow him to vent on various topics.
In this first Letter From Henry to Ann Coulter, I like when he says "You'll never have a real place with the beltway incrowd as they see you as a Northeastern hickoid pro-wrestler NASCAR type with a degree from Cornell." I think he's right. I'm sure that conservative insiders see her as a joke, but probably a welcome joke since so many people eat her shit up.
The next Letter From Henry is to the FCC. I like when he questions how people like Howard Stern are getting huge fines while violence goes practically unchecked. He says"I don't know about you, but these broadcasts never made me want to blow up a building, or build a meth lab, or even bring a gun to school. Sexual content seems to upset you, but violent content seems to be alright. That's kind of like the Bible. Not a lot of sex, whole lot of violence."
Of course, I realize my reaction to Ann Coulter is exactly what she wants. She says inflamitory things and it helps her sell books, but she is dumbing down America. So many people are falling for it and believe that this is what politics is about. She's creating unnecessary division in our country, rewriting history, saying one side is always right while the other is evil, and convincing people that this is how politics work.
I'm not just saying this because she is a conservative either. I generally don't vote Republican, but the Democrats have their faults. Believing in all the crap one particular side wants to feed us is just stupid, and it doesn't help the world. It's almost comical to read the things Ann Coulter says about Democrats and "liberals." For a good start, read the entry on Coulter at Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Coulter. She thinks Joseph McCarthy was a hero, the New Deal was a bad thing, there should be literacy requirement to vote, the problems in the middle east could be solved by converting those "camel jockeys" to Christianity, and so on and so on. I can't imagine that any intelligent person who tends to have conservatiave views would take her seriously. I can't believe news programs have her on as an expert. I can't believe newspapers run her column.
Unfortunately America is buying into her sort of rhetoric, and we're hated throughout the world like never before. I don't think it's a total coincedence. I'm pissed that people like Ann Coulter have hijacked political debate and turned it into a circus.
I recently saw a report on 20/20 or a similar show that documented how voting in Congress is more partisan than ever. While a few decades ago, Democrats and Republicans voted with their parties sixty some percent of the time, now they do about ninety percent of the time. It seems like politicians stick to their "side" and throw mud at the other worse than ever before. I'm sure Coulter loves it.
Her book is still at number one on the New York Times. I wonder how many books Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky sold this week. God, (see, I'm praying to God, since I'm not Godless) I hope Coulter's readers are reading her for the comedy value.
I missed the Super Bowl this year because my girlfriend and I went to New York City to see Jenny Lewis play. Well worth it. She played in an old synagogue on the lower east side. The place only held two or three hundred people, and Jenny kicked ass as expected.
We were surprised how good her opening act was. M. Ward, who produced some songs on Jenny's new album, came out with just a guitar and some revolving guest musicians. He was amazing. Great voice and great playing. It didn't hurt that a few of those guest musicians were Conor Oberst and My Morning Jacket's Jim James.
We wanted to get a bite to eat before the show, so we walked into this place called Katz's Deli. Turns out it was the "I'll have what she's having" deli from When Harry Met Sally.
I'm not completely convinced that Conor Oberst is the genius some people think he is, but I've decided that the song At the Bottom of Everything by Bright Eyes is the absolute shit. It's one of those songs that just gets better and better the more I listen to it, even if I end up fastforwarding through the intro most of the time.
edit: Since originally writing this post, I've decided that Conor Oberst is indeed at least occasionally a genius.
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