McG's MP3 recommendations for July 22, 2004

In my quest for MP3s of songs that are above average and/or really exceptional, here are my latest finds:

MP3: The Starlite Desperation - "The Thing"
(note: you need to click through this link, 'right click & save as' won't work)

I've been hearing a lot about The Starlite Desperation and their upcoming live performance on Mike Lupica's Hip Transistor, on WFMU. Tune in on Saturday, July 24th, 8pm - 11pm to hear the band play live. Anytime Mike has a live band on his show, they are always worth checking out. "The Thing" is a ultra-catchy song from the band's "Violate a Sundae" EP on Cold Sweat Records.

MP3: The Lovekill - "Staccato"
There's a sense of urgency in The Lovekill's music as evidenced by this killer cut. The singer's voice reminds me of Guy Picciotto's vocals in Rites of Spring combined with Mick Collins' (The Dirtbombs) soulful swagger. The music is hard, loud and full of emotion. This track is from the band's self-titled EP and is right on!

Rotten read, PIL MP3s and Sex Pistols on KSAN-FM

I finally finished reading "Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs" by John Lydon. I've always been a huge fan of Lydon so I don't know why it took me over 10 years to finally read this book.

In short, it's a good read with lots of details on growing up in England, his family's Irish ancestry and about all the dirt on the Sex Pistols that one could hope for. I really enjoyed Lydon's message of being true to oneself as well as his detailed account of the eight-year lawsuit he had to wage so that the members of the Pistols could get paid properly.

After reading this book, you couldn't ever diss the Sex Pistols as sellouts who got back together just to get a payday. It seems as if they barely got any paydays back in the day at all! I mean $10 a day as money on their U.S. tour? I think Black Flag got just as much!

The only thing missing from this book is Lydon's career with Public Image Limited.

I miss seeing John Lydon on TV and hearing him on the radio. I thought his show "Rotten TV" was awesome, despite the fact that I only caught one episode. And I wish there were some way to hear all his old shows for the defunct eyada.com, which had a surprising amount of good content.

Listen:

MP3: Public Image Limited - Order of Death (Blair Witch Mix)
Here's a unique mix of Public Image Limited's 'Order of Death' featuring dialogue from the Blair Witch Project film mixed into the track. It was released to promote the album soundtrack, Blair Witch Project: Josh's Blair Witch Mix, (which incidentally features only the normal album version). Like all tracks on the soundtrack the 'Order of Death' does NOT actually feature in the movie! Apparently, the soundtrack is music inspired by the film...

You can grab more PIL and John Lydon MP3s at:
John Lydon's Army of One

Real Audio: Sex Pistols interview on KSAN-FM on the eve of their final show in San Francisco (starts at 8:10).
Here's a great interview with the Pistols live on the air on KSAN-FM. It's hard to figure out which is stupider, the band's insults or the dumbass callers. Too bad it's censored. Bleeps and all, it's priceless, mate!

Read my new column, "Old memories"

For this week's column, I re-worked a piece I wrote about 10 years ago for Caught in Flux zine about how I discovered music.

In it, I discuss how blown away I was the first time I saw a punk rock band, getting turned onto Minor Threat and my 15+ years as a drummer.

I also reviewed new CDs by Jing Chi 3D, the Briefs, the Soviettes, the Helio Sequence and Wantage USA's Hits Omnibus compilation (...more)

Read the column, "Old memories"

Archives of my column, "Music for Pleasure"

McG's Thursday recommended reads

America's sickest videos

When Donald Rumsfeld said the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal was going to get worse, he wasn't kidding. According to Seymour Hersh, who spoke at an ACLU conference, children were raped at Abu Ghraib and the Pentagon has videos (...more)

If you weren't completely sickened by that article, try mustering the courage to read this:

Seymour Hersh: The Gray Zone: How a secret Pentagon program came to Abu Ghraib

OK, too much heavy stuff. How about something fun?

Misterpants doesn't get updated too frequently, but when it does it always has good stuff like this interesting piece by Kurt Vonnegut

Fugazi has released the first 20 CDs in their official live CD series

Fresh Air host Terry Gross has nice things to say about Howard Stern

I'm surprised I didn't see this on many music blogs ...
Alternative Tentacles drops all legal action against Dead Kennedys

New York Dolls bassist dead at 55

Arthur "Killer" Kane - known for his swaggering style on stage - was one of three surviving members of a band credited with pioneering punk rock.

The Dolls, who made their name in the 1970s, last month played two reunion gigs at London's Royal Festival Hall.

Morrissey, a diehard Dolls fan who organised the shows, said: "He has left us with some great musical memories." (...more)

Related: New York Dolls play sensational comeback show in London
Kingblind: Update: New York Dolls bassist dies

Ultimate punk rock radio fest

Make sure you tune into WFMU on Saturday July 24, when Terre T brings you three preeminent punk rock bands from all over the world performing live on the air.

Scheduled to peform are:
The Kids (from Belgium
Clorox Girls (from San Francisco)
Taxi (from Italy)

This will be the first ever stateside appearance of original '77 punk rockers The Kids, who've been cemented as punk legends thanks to recent re-issues of their first 2 LPs, plus tracks on the Killed By Death and Bloodstains compilations. Songs like "This is Rock n Roll," "Rock Over Belgium," "No Monarchy," and "Fascist Cops" are punk anthems up there with "I'm Stranded," "New Rose," and "Chinese Rocks."

Clorox Girls have caught the attention of notables such as Thurston Moore and Byron Coley, who said "their eponymous Kurt Bloch-produced debut LP is clean and classic, just like an early 80's SoCal punk band doing Ramones-based tunes... has a basic goodness that is harder to ignore than a trouser-full of antlers"

Italy's Taxi play tough, '70s punk rock in the vein of The Dead Boys or The Heartbreakers. Their debut album is out in the U.S. on Dead Beat Records.

Greg Palast to testify at US Civil Rights Commission today

One of my heroes, investigative journalist Greg Palast will be testifying today before the US Civil Rights Commission to discuss his continuing investigative reports for BBC Television on Florida and other states' cleansing of black voters from voter rolls.

If you didn't know, it was Palast's reporting and investigations that brought the Florida voting scandal to the press. The BBC ran with the story while US media paid little attention to Palast's work. Meanwhile Michael Moore regurgitated Palast's work in his book, "Stupid White Men," and Moore again relied heavily on Palast's reporting on the vote fix in Florida in his film, "Fahrenheit 9/11." (...more)

A story that made my day

It's not very often that I read something in the newspaper that actually cheers me up.

This story about a 15-year-old who rescued five abandoned puppies and found homes for all of them reminded me that there are good people out there. (...more)

Remembering Karen Silkwood

I watched the 1983 film "Silkwood" last night.

First thing I noticed about the movie is how much people smoked! Througout the film, Meryl Streep, who portrays Karen Silkwood, chain smokes the entire time. Cher and Kurt Russell aren't far behind her. There's even a scene where Russel is moving out of his house and has two cartons of cigarettes stashed in the cupboards. These were dedicated smokers!

Silkwood was one of those people who stood up for herself and for the rights of others to work in a safe environment. Silkwood was a chemical technician at a plutonium fuel production plant in Oklahoma run by Kerr-McGee. After witnessing several co-workers' exposure to plutonium, then becoming exposed herself, Silkwood quickly became a pro-union activist who blasted the company for what she felt was a lack of plant safety.

She put her job, and ultimately her life, on the line as she gathered evidence of the plant's safety lapses and presented them to her union. She was then to conduct an interview with the New York Times and hand over the evidence of tampered records and other safety violations.

Before she was able to meet with the reporter, Silkwood suffered several unexplained exposures to plutonium and was fatally injured in a car accident, that many believe was no accident.

Standing up for job safety, better pay, equal rights and the security of knowing your interests are being looked after by your employer is essential. This film reminds you not to take these things for granted.

Additional reading:

Green Left Weekly: Karen Silkwood Remembered
Union Director Tony Mazzocchi on Karen Silkwood
Conference commemorates Karen Silkwood
Book: The Killing of Karen Silkwood

Things to look at if you're bored

Jello Biafra's recent Dead Kennedys royalty checks.
Is it just me or does this seem like a lot of money?

Sometimes I look for pictures of ugly people partying in Philly.

www.dogsincars.co.uk is exactly what i was hoping it would be.

Sex-mad: A blow by blow description of bedding Britney Spears.

horkulated.com has a lot of funny stuff like these Bush/Cheney 2004 bumper stickers.

The hardest white kids on the block.

I wrote this story in 1993 about how I discovered music.
(Look for my name on left hand side)