Radioheadache

MAIDENHEAD (Reuters) - British rock band Radiohead has lent one of its songs to an MTV campaign to raise awareness about sweatshop labor and human trafficking.

The chart-topping group has allowed the international music network to produce a video set to "All I Need" from its latest hit album "In Rainbows" which MTV will air from Thursday and make available to broadcasters.

The MTV EXIT (End Exploitation and Trafficking) Campaign (http://www.mtvexit.org) has made a video shown in split screen, one side depicting a day in the life of an affluent young child and the other of a child forced to work in a sweatshop.


First of all, by my count, the acronym for End Exploitation and Trafficking would be EEAT, or at least EET. Not EXIT. There is no I anywhere in consideration. More importantly however, Isn't it nice that Radiohead has finally taken up a cause? I was wondering when they would give up trying to play music with balls and put their efforts towards something more realistic. In all seriousness, I am very skeptical of bands who jump behind causes. For me, many times my trust unfortunately is tied to personal tastes. For instance, ill let the world's biggest ego, Bono, slide because i love U2 and I can see that they are at least putting forth solid effort behind their words. Likewise, I don't jump all over Bands who affiliate politically (Pearl Jam, Rage, etc.) because that's their right and, to an extent, their responsibility what with their major influence. That having been said, I have a few problems with this Radiohead thing. I guess I just have a problem with Radiohead. I mean, "Karma Police" and "Creep" were okay, but the bottom line is they are neither comercially viable on a large-scale or good. They aren't that big to anyone who's not a Radiohead fan, which there are substantially less of than say, U2 fans. Thom Yorke, lead singer, admittedly has had a hard time justifying touring while at the same time preaching about climate change. Well Thom, I don't know how to help you there. Because excuse me if I don't want to listen to your tears about the climate when you just burned more fuel getting to a show than I will in 4 months. Maybe the lesson of the story here is pick your battles and back it up. This one looks winnable for Radiohead- I mean who's a fan of sweatshops? Must be nice though to have enough disposable income to buy only eco-/labor-friendly products, huh Mr. Yorke?


p.s. Do I really hate Radiohead this much? I JUST DON'T GET IT WHAT'S THE POINT, THEY'RE BORING. "I'm a creep I'm a wierdo..." Really? You Think?

"Flight" Takes Flight

We've kind of been stuck in one of the taints of the music year lately, awaiting the arrival of summer releases and tours. Mariah has been tearing up the charts, and with the return of Madonna and the dominance of Miley Cyrus, the pop world hasn't been totally earth shattering. This is why it's refreshing to see that New Zealand duo, "The Flight of The Conchords" opened at No. 3 on the U.S. pop charts this week. If you haven't heard of them "Flight" is A Show that airs on HBO about a struggling New Zealand folk duo living in New York city and trying to make it big. The humor is very understated and very bizarre, but if you allow yourself to enjoy the show its pretty funny. Along the way, they recap there misfires and obstacles with funny songs, often in many different styles, like the ones above. I recommend the show pretty highly, its original and refreshing, continuing HBO's dominance over network television in the TV department.

Pigs On The Wing

Rollingstone.com - Coachella organizers are offering a $10,000 reward and four lifetime festival passes for the return of Roger Water's two-story inflatable pig, which broke free and floated away during his Sunday night set. Anyone with information is asked to e-mail lostpig@coachella.com

The question here is, why pay such a high reward for such a replaceable item. I mean, what did this pig cost to make? Thousands? Roger Waters must have that money in his pillowcase.  He could walk into any two-story pig establishment and have another just like that. Anyways, you would have to assume that the culprit will return the pig right? Ten grand, and 4 lifetime festival passes is a pretty god-damn good deal. How do you lose a 2 story pig anyway? Massive balloons take a while to deflate I would assume, and even then it must not be easy to stuff under your shirt or something.  The bottom line is, when you unleash a gigantic floating pig on your crowd you'd just have to expect that maybe the pig isn't coming back - just the nature of the game. 

Coachella

The big-time festival season has officially begun, as the much anticipated Coachella Valley festival was underway this weekend. Now im not a massive festival fiend like some people but I respect the atmosphere that most festival-goers cherish so much. In fact, I was dead set on going to Bonnaroo for a while until some logistical problems arose. For me, to spend hundreds of dollars and months of time planning the festival has to have a big draw (i.e. pearl jam, metallica, etc.). Coachella, while im sure was fun for some, seems somewhat out of place. What is it all about? I mean, they had Jack Johnson one day, Prince the next, and Roger Waters the last day. Honestly, even though Prince was revitalized after his Superbowl performance, I still can't imagine him fitting in seamlessley at a festival (They say he performed the hell out of Radiohead's Creep). Roger Waters finished the show with some new stuff, some Pink Floyd hits, and a performance of the entire "Dark Side of The Moon Album," which I assume was pretty awesome especially if you asked the white guy with dirty dreads next to you for 17 acid tabs. Aside from the big three, there were a gazillion other jammy/experimental/underground/sucky as shit festival-fare bands that you've never heard of unless your one of "those people." The big boys in my mind are still the Virigin Festival in Baltimore (Dylan, The Stooges, and Chuck Berry were recently added to a lineup which already consisted of the Foo's, STP, Nine Inch Nails and Kanye "George Bush hates black people/Give a Black Man a Chance" West) and the Bonnaroo (Pearl Jam, Jack Johnson, Metallica, Chris Rock, Widespread Panic, Gov't Mule, and more). If you are interested, check out Prince's creep:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6u1ekw3LB0I&feature=related




Game. Blouses.

Is Coldplay Good?

Coldplay is back in the news, with a new album expected in mid-June. Apparently, however, they are pulling a Radiohead and releasing a free single for internet download. Tomorrow, the song "Violet Hill" will be relased on the band's website. They've also released the art for their album which will be called "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends." Now, as a self-respecting College Radio DJ, I'm somewhate obligated to download a free song from a major "rock" band. I can't decide if I'd do it otherwise though. I mean I seem to like some Coldplay songs, especially on their last album, X&Y. Yet, Chris Martin just strikes me as a pretentious prick (His child is named Apple - WTFunk?) and seems to think his band is bigger than it really is. Countless times he's mentioned coming after U2's title as biggest band in the world. In order to do that it seems that Martin & Co. would have to stop playing watered down atmosphere music and let one rip. Unfortunately, with Brian Eno "king of boring abstract atmosphere bullshit" at the helm, I might not be playing "Viva La Vida" to death. Look forward to Friday though, as the free download single will definetly be in the playlist. Just don't expect a Coldplay Dick-Riding session, because we can't have Shea calling the band "Gay" 57 times again.

The Very First Then & Now: Bruce Springsteen

This is something I'd Like to start doing weekly on the blog, as well as on the air. First is some random news segment on The Boss from 1978....




And second is the music video for "Radio Nowhere," the hit single of Springsteen's 2007 album, "Magic"

Playlist - Friday, April 25th

Here's the playlist for tonights show :

I Cant Stand It - Eric Clapton
When You Were Young - The Killers
Night Moves - Bob Seger
What I've Done - Linkin Park
Train in Vain (Stand By Me) - The Clash
Have You Ever Seen The Rain? - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Nobody's Fault but Mine - Led Zeppelin
The Unforgiven - Metallica
All In The Suit That You Wear - Stone Temple Pilots
Funk #49 - James Gang
Come Back (Live) - Pearl Jam
Year Of Tha Boomerang - Rage Against The Machine
One Particular Harbor (Live) - Jimmy Buffett
Pencil Thin Mustache (Live) - Jimmy Buffett
Barely Breathing - Duncan Sheik
Little Miss Can't Be Wrong - The Spin Doctors
Santa Monica - Everclear
The Beautiful People - Marilyn Manson

p.s. How many shows have you heard play Buffett and Manson let alone both in 1 night?

Mudcrutch?

Just want to see if these video uploads work. Here is MudCrutch's video for "Lover of The Bayou". Mudcrutch, as you may or may not know, was Tom Petty's band pre-heartbreakers. The reunion CD is out Tuesday for all you MudCrutch fans.

Artist Bar

Forgot to mention - the blog websit allows for a youtube bar as you can see to the right. However, I'm not able to actually choose which videos to post. Instead, we can only type in a keyword and the website finds 4 random videos for us. Each week, we'll try to have a different featured artist for your viewing entertainment. As you can see, this week is Pearl Jam.

Welcome

In the ever-continuing effort to garner listeners to both WCUA radio, and Shea and I's show, we decided to blog for our show (Thanks for the idea Mac McCormick, DJ of the Afternoon Fix on WCUA fridays 4-6 pm). Honestly, tonight we'll be doing our 2nd to last show of the year, so everythings going to be slowing down anyway, and this Blog might end up having a short lifespan. Hopefully, we can get our show's playlists on here and post some youtube links, interesting stories, or any other worthwile shit that comes to us and you will start to check the blog or listen more frequenly and spread the world. We can only hope.