Neko Case in the New York Times

*MP3: Neko Case - "People Got A Lotta Nerve"
*MP3: Neko Case - "Star Witness"

"CASE HAS A LOT OF ANIMALS of her own now — four dogs, three of them rescues from the Tucson Greyhound Park racetrack, the “home of paw-pounding action!” its ads say. The racers there have names like Dollar Fa Dollar, Phoenix Twix and Exotic Lookin, but Case has retitled hers Swan-y, Guy and Travis, the last named after the hero of one of her favorite movies, “Paris, Texas.” A fourth dog, a shepherd-chow mix, Liza, balances the bony and high-strung greyhounds with some heft and calm. The dogs have 15 legs among them; Travis lost one to cancer."

Read the great piece HERE.



Now remember, her new record is out on March 3rd.

Delicious Venom Profiled By New York Times, Condemned By Right-Wing Douchebags, Defended By Culture Bully

Download: Delicious Venom - "Genocide in Laos"

This past week has been a great one, in terms of media exposure, for Hmong rapper and Minneapolis natives Delicious Venom. First off, the duo, and specifically Tou Saiko Lee, were the subjects of a video profile at the New York Times. The video explores, as you might imagine, how Lee reconciles his cultural ancestors--both in Laos and in Hip-hop--in today's society. Of course, that's just the jumping off point. It's very much worth watching, and you can do so here.

That said, not everyone is so enamored of Delicious Venom, or his efforts to use hip-hop in order to teach awareness, and have people "learn", about how societies and cultures different from their own function. Jason Lewis, a conservative commentator from the Twin Cities who has served as a substitute host for Rush Limbaugh and has written for the Wall Street Journal, denounced the PTA in South Washington County, for having Lee come in for a day and speak to the sixth graders about creating poetry and the benefits of self-expression.

About the PTA, Lewis said:

“Along with the school district in South Washington County: to hell with Shakespeare, to hell with Tennyson, to hell with science and math; we’re going to teach our sixth graders how to be hip hop emcees.”

Who wants to pitch in a few bucks so we can get Lewis a "Jump To Conclusions Mat", Office Space-style?

Lee, as well as Culture Bully writer Kyle Myhre, does a fantastic job of defending himself and his art, so much so that any other further commentary is superfluous. Read the article here.

Listen to "Genocide in Laos", which surely sounds like its about bitches, guns and hoes, and has nothing to do with this, at the top of the post.

Delicious Venom MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)

Pay What You Want For This Blog

Turbulent talks over the whole "Radiohead thing" have saturated the geekish music community ever since the release of "In Rainbows," but the first really great story discussing these issue came out in the Sunday edition of the New York Times yesterday.

Here's how the piece starts:

"SHORTLY after Radiohead released its album “In Rainbows” online in October, the band misplaced its password for Max/MSP, a geek-oriented music software package that the guitarist Jonny Greenwood uses constantly. It wasn’t the first time it had happened, Mr. Greenwood said over a cup of tea at the venerable Randolph Hotel here. As usual Radiohead contacted Max/MSP’s developers, Cycling ’74, for another password. “They wrote back,” Mr. Greenwood said, “‘Why don’t you pay us what you think it’s worth?’”

Read the full piece at nytimes.com.

(Ian Anderson)

Cloud Cult in New York Times and Brooklyn Vegan

Brooklyn Vegan and The New York Times covered the two Cloud Cult shows at the Mercury Lounge in New York today.

Read the Brookyln Vegan piece here.
Read the New York Times piece here.

(Ian Anderson)