Amazon has a free mp3 up from Bill Miller, who I mentioned seeing open for Tori Amos, um, twice I think.
I was young. Driving from Shampoo-Banana to Indianapolis to see Tori seemed like a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
Hey, shorter'n the drive to Indiana University in Bloomington to see Urban Bush Women. And also The Nome King, but let's blame Elizabeth Purnell for that.
The Noamster has a commentary in the Guardian today, if you're interested.
The president is not the first to ask: "Why do they hate us?" In a staff discussion 44 years ago, President Eisenhower described "the campaign of hatred against us [in the Arab world], not by the governments but by the people". His National Security Council outlined the basic reasons: the US supports corrupt and oppressive governments and is "opposing political or economic progress" because of its interest in controlling the oil resources of the region.Post-September 11 surveys in the Arab world reveal that the same reasons hold today, compounded with resentment over specific policies. Strikingly, that is even true of privileged, western-oriented sectors in the region.
Dunno why you would be. Same stuff he's been saying for ages. Just because no one of importance is listening. . .
Apropos of nothing, but I'm half-asleep and you should see the typos I did catch, Hanne (whose permalinks seem to be not so much working, and who I hope feels better soonish) links to lots of free sigur rós. And that's a Good Thing.
Wish those storms would arrive. I can't sleep with the sun out. And the crickets are insanely loud for some reason. . .
Update: This will be going away very soon, so grab it while you can used to be available, and lo, 'tis gone.
Laibach - Get Back.mp3
Want to know more? See Laibach - from Satan Stole My Teddybear for the 411.
Released rather surprisingly in 1988, before Laibach made the transition to post-communism satire, Let it Be covered the Beatles album of the same name to a tee, minus the title track. Of course these covers are delightfully revisionist, re-imagined in a totalitarian context, complete with Laibach’s militaristic percussive bombast, apocalyptic choral arrangements, thumping bass drum, and blaring trumpet samples. Even the layout of the original album was refinished with a tilt towards glowering Slovenian nationalism, flirting with fascism and Euro-communism, creating stadium rock for the twilight of the gods. Rock concerts or Nuremberg rallies? Laibach doesn’t see the difference, and with this masterstroke of industrial strength satire, the laughter hides a few painful truths. Let it Be is a Stalinist makeover of the rock cult called the Beatles, and with the addition of some Bavarian pub stomping, ascends to absurd levels of ironic humor, while only slightly unsettling the listener. The album is bound to confuse both industrial fans and Beatles fanciers, and this confounding quality only makes the joker funnier and sicker.
Maybe booze would help me sleep. Off to the liquor store.
I totally loved "Let It Be" in high school. How I laid hands on a Laibach record in northern New Hampshire I could not tell you. Noticed that their site hasn't been updated in a couple of years but is mostly unbroken. I'm assuming they're inactive.
Anyone know about the book they were working on? I heard about it long enough ago that the details escape me but I remember thinking that I needed to get one of the kids 'cross the sea that I traded records with to snag me a copy. Maybe I imagined the whole thing...
The library in Urbana had a copy of Let It Be."
It was a very cool library. Minor, pointless controversy (mostly involving folks who didn't live there) when Madonna's "Sex" came out, about not allowing minors anywhere near the thing. The staff reaction was pretty much, "No, ya think?"
Never heard of Laibach's book. Didn't follow 'em that much, to be honest.