Corrosive Material

Corrosive Material

Mostly music, most of the time.

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Picks of the Week: a Wonder retrospective.

February 26, 2010

This posting has a decidedly old school feel, in that later, I’m highlighting the albums from the classic period (1972-76) of the legendary Stevie Wonder, one of my favorite artists ever.

First – one release I’m happy I purchased this week, and one that I’ve just had a chance to listen to.

These New Puritans – Hidden

A friend of my brother’s once told him he was in the vortex of awesomeness – which was funny at the time.  This “band” is there.  In the vortex of awesomeness.  Instant recommend.  I really have no long ass review for you.  It’s just effin’dope.  If you’re feeling bands like The xx, stepping into these should be easy for you.  The first album is worth your money as well.

Danny! – Where Is Danny?

I was deprived of the pleasure of listening to this album because of download issues.  So it was literally only the past week that a download worked to where I could listen to it in its entirety, instead of pieces.  Now that I’ve heard the whole thing – one of best rap albums in the last 5 years, maybe more.  The production is upper tier, but the big thing here is Danny! the rapper.  I feel good enough to call him one of the nicest rappers out right now.  It’s such a long and dense album, which is odd to say because you usually associate that with boring.  But this is far from it.  It’s the most interesting rap album I’ve listened to since I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead.

A Retrospective on Stevie Wonder’s “classic period”

To preface my Stevie retrospective, from Wikipedia: “Wonder independently recorded two albums, which he used as a bargaining tool while negotiating with Motown. Eventually the label agreed to his demands for full creative control and the rights to his own songs; the 120-page contract shattered precedent at Motown and additionally gave Wonder a much higher royalty rate.”

I used this part to partly illustrate what I think is necessary in order to create greatness for yourself – just do it….and do it all, if you feel it’s necessary.  This is basically what Stevie, which makes this period one of the great achievements in art in general, not just music.  Probably the greatest solo run in music history.

Music of My Mind

The first of the five – and most important.  Totally different from anything Motown had recorded at that point*.  Stevie wrote and produced the entire album.  He also played all of the instruments, except for a guitar and trombone solo in separate songs.  This album contains my favorite personal favorite song in his catalogue, “Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You).  It’s not my favorite on a technical basis, but on purely an emotional ting I get during the second part of the song.  So much soul and deep, deep …something…I can’t explain when he really breaks it down.  One of the few songs that can still get me emotional.

Talking Book

A much more collaborative album than Music of My Mind.  Brought mainstream appeal to soul/funk music.  Really pushed the use of synthesizers, with co-producers Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff.  There is a lot to love about this album, but the video for the song below is all you really need to know.  Probably my favorite live version of my 2nd favorite Stevie song.  Notice one of the huge, somewhat underrated, keys to his style – the heavy use of the pentatonic scale, i.e. he largely plays the black keys on the keyboards, in a high ratio compared to the white keys.

Innervisions

To me, the tightest album he made and probably the one that put him over the top, as one of the greatest to ever play an instrument – a document that sealed in his genius level – greatness.  Just short and straight to the point – very socially conscious.  It was actually made before his well publicized wreck outside Durham, NC, and released after his recovery.

Fulfillingness’First Finale

Contains my 3rd favorite song – the video below.  It’s my least favorite album of this period, but because of the lack of…purpose, maybe.  There isn’t an overarching theme to it – more of a collection of songs.  Great songs still…just not as dope as the others.

Songs In The Key of Life

The last of the classic period, one of the top 5-10 albums ever recorded to wax, and his best album for various reasons: it was the most ambitious, had great songs lined up, one by one….he was actually thinking of quitting the record business and working with the handicapped in Ghana.  He was upset with the state of the country and the world, as a whole.  It made for something of a momentous occasion….like “what does he have to say now?!?!”  They even had a campaign and run-up promotion for the album, including a listening party.  This was Stevie’s LeBron James album – meaning that not only was it promising and potentially groundbreaking, it did and has more than exceeded its potential in every way.  It’s rare that you tell people that you have something special on your hands….and then you deliver it.

This is just two of my favorites, of many, off this album.  Deserves two videos.

I don’t know if a lot of you are into Stevie…but hopefully you will be after finding these albums.  They are really special albums to me personally…and have shaped a lot of my musical ear.

Track of the Moment:

Ghetts – Driver’s Anthem

The beat is pretty dope…but the wordplay kills it for me.  Old track…just been listening to him and Devlin lately…

A few of my recent ups and downs with my Facebook experiment.

February 26, 2010

So I’ve been using Facebook….as most of you can see.  For better and sometimes worse, I’ve tried to use it as much as I can stand to use it, staying active on it.  So in my experience with this site, I’ve noticed a few other things:

1.  It continues to be easy to draw conclusions on people.  I’ve heard lots of other people and I’ve noticed myself looking at profiles, thinking various adjectives about a particular person, that really may or may not be true.  But the page colors your perception on the person, just like I’m sure people’s perception of me has been altered or solidified in some way.  The problem is that unless you actually know the person, your Facebook life almost can be used as an augmentation, or sometimes a surrogate, for you as a real person, in varying degrees.  Not that I have evidence other than the MySpace craze, but I wonder if at times, people live their lives THROUGH Facebook, as some sort of filter.  Live up the parts you believe to be positive, and strain out all of the issues you have.  I mean how many people actually put bad things about themselves on their status, as compared to giving a “woot” for some new Starbucks flavor they found?

2. Facebook-related threats.  In the interest of disclosure (and catharsis) with this topic, in the last week, or so, I’ve been threatened (physically, and in other ways) by a person, that I have no ill will against, who believes that I’m currently disrespecting him, in a way I wouldn’t entertain – for all sorts of Pandora’s Box reasons.  I won’t go into specifics, but Facebook definitely did not help this particular situation.  For me, it’s serious enough to where, just as precaution, I’ve pulled out a few stops and alerted certain persons in local and federal law enforcement entities (again threats), who are now aware and fully involved, after trying to personally extricate myself out of an issue, which at the heart of it, doesn’t really pertain me.  Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail, and moving forward with life amicably will be at the forefront on the issue, along with this person finding some guidance/help in healing wounds, that go well, well, well beyond any supposed situation involving this writer.

All of this had me then doing some research on how easy it is to make overt and subtle threats on Facebook, and/or other media, and on the “why.”  I’ve read of numerous threats made, along with arrests…but I felt like that was just a surface issue…a news clip on a slow day.  I read about one female in Britain, for example, that was jailed for 3 months in prison, for bullying a girl on Facebook.  I mean it’s getting to a level where you can use media, that everyone can see, to harass a person.  What person of a supposedly sound frame of mind lashes out and wants to hurt others, or sometimes themselves?

Usually these have much deeper underlying issues that go even beyond the apparent, superfluous level.   This is probably for another blog posting – but the threats come from somewhere, and it’s 100% not about who you’re threatening – that person is a sit-in for a more real, internalized enemy….it’s about something a lot deeper, and longer lasting than one particular situation or person.  If that wound(s) is never healed, then it will eat your soul…….and you’ll be eating yourself to death, or perhaps wrecking your green Camry going down a freeway spur, onto IH-35………I know from my own personal experiences in life.  I just do.  I wonder where that British girl’s mind really was when she went at her classmate on her computer every day.  How deeply unhappy does your life, in general, have to be?  I’m a believer in a higher source, but I’m not super religious.  However, I think maybe some people really do need a Jesus(trinity)/Allah/Buddha/etc. figure in life to straighten out that rudder.

3.  I really do like how I can catch up with people. I mean I just enjoy finding old faces, which is half the reason people even join Facebook…but hey, it’s a good reason to continue to use it.  I know a few people on my friends list, that I KNOW I wouldn’t have semi-caught up with otherwise.  And I continue to maintain connections with good people I care about, that I can’t just up and see every day, especially being way the hell over here.

4.  It is possible to Facebook too much, but this leads to other questions. I’ve noticed people just Facebooking just to do it.  Hell, I’ve posted shit that people wouldn’t necessarily dig…but I felt it for whatever reason.  But there is some unmarked lines.  Putting status updates on how much you love strawberry shortcake isn’t that deal.  It just isn’t.  Stop it.  Seriously.  It’s annoying.

But having this thought process can be a bit hardlined, and it’s actually a controlling activity.  If a person wants to update their status, with hourly updates of the colors of their stools, then they really should be able to do that.  How is this different from posting up anything else?  Shit is what is important to that person, and they want to voice it.  Weird to me or you?  Yeah.  But I mean, hey, that is their virtual life – can’t get into the habit of telling people, who may be sensitive, that they can talk about something like that.  I think this carries into Twitter, in that people have this need to connect out to people with this ~140 characters “gist-istical” updates, for others to draw obtuse conclusions on.  There is a reason people feel the need to Twit/Facebook everything in life, whether the perception is reality or vice versa, they want to be connected and to be seen.

Is Facebook, or Twitter, a way to voice yourself to (or sometimes through) people?  Or is it an inertial medium that forces you to continue to give of yourself in a very subtle, 360 kind of way.  Like, if you’re not posting…people aren’t going to look at your page much, which could hurt egos or cause general disinterest.  People post on your page, and then you usually need to answer back in some way or face some sort of consequence in the way of that person or others believing you to be withdrawn, a jerk, or a flake – none of which would necessarily be true at all.  Or it could all be true, but then you wonder why sometimes….leading to more questions.

This Facebook mess is very interesting…more to follow in the future.

Picks of the Week

February 20, 2010

I’m a day late this week….just thinking about a lot of stuff…personal, home, and work.  However, good music continues to come out…and some old favorites have popped into my mind.

Freeway & Jake One – The Stimulus Package

A somewhat recent Rhymesayers signee, Freeway never had a chance.  He really didn’t…..dude is just nice in his own unique way.  It’s not a mainstream flow, no need to feel bad about that.  This album showcases the energetic flow he’s known for, all over the album.  Jake One also comes hard on the beats, although I do wish some were a little more thicker…or meaner.  But what do I know – I’m not a producer.  Dope collaboration.  Nice on that strictly street level rap.

Statik Selectah – 100 Proof (The Hangover)

On the low, one of the nicer beatsmiths out right now.  Just puts song together nicely, dope flow in the songs….nice samples.  The whole album is nuts, nice picks for collaboration. – lots of Bun B, Lil Fame, Wale, etc.  The killer is “Do It 2 Death” – the beat is just effin’crazy….hard as hell…and Lil Fame basically annihilates the beat.  Very underrated rapper sometimes.  This album is worthy of your coin.

Georgia Anne Muldrow – King’s Ballad

One of the dopest acts out, male or female.  Just ill.  This is just more of that new West Coast beat funk whatever else….I have no word, phrase, or classification for it really.  It’s just some future retro type music…whatever that means.  Her tribute song to Michael Jackson is shown below……THAT is a tribute, people.

Beach House – Teen Dream

One of my favs, along with my boy Dave who is in full agreeance about this album.  I will let Pitchfork do the talking for me.  A great, great album.  Below is a great example.

Local Native – Gorilla Manor

They are called the West Coast Grizzly Bear…..very Arcade Fire X Fleet Foxes, and also very, very good.  I love the percussive elements all over the album, as well as the harmony.  It takes most of the positive elements for their influences and combines them in a nice stew of items.  I think this is one of those bands where the next album kind lets you know what they are really about, but this is a nice start.  Another big pick-up.

Class Actress – Journal of Ardency (EP)

Nice EP….if you liked the Washed Out stuff that has been posted here before, you might feel this.  Kind of an 80′s retro, heavy bassline thing..with the female vocals…pretty dope.

Pantha Du Prince – Black Noise

Black noise is apparently a part of the sound spectrum that, known to humans as silence, that only animals can hear….and usually preclude some disaster event – I imagine the event here is Pantha’s apparent personal introduction of bass/house to the mainstream with this album.  Pantha’s music has always been able to produce an unusual head nodding effect in me.  He is always able to maintain a certain tone….not a musical tone….but an overall tone to every song on his albums.

Throwback of the Moment:

Jeff Buckley – Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk

This album resonated with me this week for some reason…odd mix this week.  On the track below, dude was just so damn smoothed out and relaxed on that soulful rock tip – a better John Mayer really….WAY better.  This album, and obviously Grace, are must-haves for the collection.

Get Your Hate On At Church…

February 15, 2010

At a time when some people confuse losing an election with living under tyranny, it’s perhaps no surprise that a day set aside for marking past presidents’ birth has become, for some, a day for praying for the current president’s death.

Praying for President Obama’s death has become a sick cottage industry for some evangelicals on the lunatic fringe. Bumper stickers, T-shirts, and teddy bears are sold with the wholesome-sounding slogan “Pray for Obama” but tagged with the more troublesome “Psalm 109:8”—which reads “May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership” followed by “May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.”

“If you have an evil leader above you, you pray that Satan will stand by his side and you ask God to make his children fatherless.”

In Wingnut circles, it’s known as the “Imprecatory Prayer.” Offered not just from select pulpits, but increasingly expressed through tweets and forwarded via email, this decidedly un-Christian Christian subculture has found its most enthusiastic advocates in a few Obama Derangement Syndrome-afflicted preachers—notably Orange County’s Wiley Drake and Arizona’s Steven L. Anderson.

Pastor Wiley Drake kicked off this Presidents’ Day Weekend with an email blast to his supporters saying “Imprecatory Prayer is now our DUTY” and announcing a daily teleconference call to advance the cause. Drake has been an enthusiastic advocate of imprecatory prayer since he announced that God answered his call with the murder of Kansas abortion clinic doctor George Tiller in church last May. “George Tiller was far greater in his atrocities than Adolf Hitler,” Drake said at the time, “so I am happy. I am glad that he is dead.” This emboldened him to add “the usurper that is in the White House … B. Hussein Obama” to the list said in his church on Sundays.

Sadly, Drake is not a complete fringe figure. He served as a second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention in ‘06 and ‘07. In ‘08, he received 47,000 votes as the vice-presidential nominee of the American Independent Party, alongside conservative activist Alan Keyes, Obama’s GOP opponent when he was elected to the Senate in 2004. I drove out to visit him in December for a profile in my book Wingnuts. I wanted to get a better sense of what someone is like who would pray for the president’s death.

Drake’s First Southern Baptist Church stands less than a mile from Knott’s Berry Farm amusement park in Orange County. It’s a beige cinderblock building constructed in the 1950s. In its front yard, a broken wooden set of Ten Commandments juts out of a rock while a sign reading “ETERNITY” hangs over a flickering Coke machine. Out back, a genial gray-haired man greeted me, looking every inch the Western grandfather of five. He was wearing a red shirt with black suspenders and a senior citizen-friendly big-buttoned cellphone hung on a string around his neck. Wiley ushered me back into the empty church, past a sign saying “God Bless America,” and we sat in the front pew.

“I’m known as a birther, you know. I don’t believe Obama was born in this country. He’s an illegal alien and so forth,” Wiley told me, matter-of-factly. “And so I began to pray what the Bible teaches us to pray and that is imprecatory prayer. An imprecatory prayer is very strong. Imprecatory prayer in Psalms 109, for example, says if you have an evil leader above you, you pray that Satan will stand by his side and you ask God to make his children fatherless and his wife a widow and that his time in office be short… Other Psalms say when they speak evil, God will break out their teeth and when they run to do destruction God will break their legs.”

To those offended by the idea of praying for death, Wiley shrugs. “I’m praying the word of God. I didn’t write it. Don’t get mad at me.”

Read rest of Daily Beast article by John Avlon

Sion Sono

February 14, 2010

One of my favorite Japanese filmmakers…

Lifted from http://jfilmpowwow.blogspot.com/  (A great Japanese film blog)

by Chris MaGee

It’s been such a busy week for news on the Sion Sono front that I’ve had to rewrite this story three times… really! Originally this piece was just going to be about a tantalizing bit of information that Sono dropped during an interview with the folks at HKMania (via Wildgrounds). During the interview he let drop a brief but surprising admission about a remake of one of his most defiing films. When asked, “American remake for Suicide Club?” he was quick to respond, “This project is real. It’s currently in the works and I’m set to direct it.” The thought of a remake, helmed by Sono of course, of his defining 2002 independent psycho-horror drama about a secret suicide cult would be enough to carry a news story of its own, especially since it comes on the heels of news last year that Sono would be making his English-language directorial debut with a screen adaptation of Michael Moynihan and Didrik Soderlind’s “Lords of Chaos”. The true crime book tells the story of the 1993 murder of Norwegian black metal guitarist Øystein Aarseth by rival musician Varg Vikernes of the band Burzum.

Then during my usual internet wanderings I came across news posted by Jason Gray about Sono’s first film for Nikkatsu’s genre/ gore wing, Sushi Typhoon. Titled “Cold Fish” the film will star Mitsuru Fukikoshi and Denden in the based on a true story tale of two tropical fish dealers who slide into madness and serial murder after one of their daughters is held captive by the other. “Cold Fish” is currently in post-production with the folks at Sushi Typhoon and Sono aiming to have it completed by March. Okay, so that was rewrite number one for this story.

Then Wildgrounds popped up again with a third piece of news about Sion Sono, which also had it’s origins during Sono’s French-language interview with HKMania. It turns out that due to the international success o Sono’s 4-hour “Love Exposure” that an unnamed North American DVD distributor was readying a box set of Sono’s early film work. “A DVD boxset called ‘Before Suicide Club’including all my early films will be released very soon in the USA. So you’ll find films like ‘I Am Sono Sion’, ‘Bicycle Sighs’or ‘The Room’,” Sono was quoted as saying. For me this was the most exciting piece of news. As many of you will know Sono started out as an underground poet who transitioned into filmmaking to capture his explosive public readings. The thought of being able to finally see these early films, well… it percipetated the third rewrite of this story. Now here’s hoping that I don’t have to do a fourth rewrite. Ah hell, I’ll push that story into Tuesday’s updates. I’m tired!

Howard Zinn Tribute by Noam Chomsky

February 13, 2010


Historian Howard Zinn’s remarkable work, including his most famous book, A People’s History of the United States, is summarized best in his own words. His primary concern, he once explained, was “the countless small actions of unknown people” that lie at the roots of the great moments of history–a record that would be profoundly misleading, and seriously disempowering, if torn from such roots. Howard, who died Jan. 27 at 87, was devoted to the empowerment of these unknowns.

    That was true from the days when, while teaching in the 1950s and ’60s at Atlanta’s historically black Spelman College, he participated in the early, dangerous days of the civil rights movement–and lost his job as a reward.

    Wherever there was a struggle for peace and justice, Howard was on the front lines: inspiring in his integrity, engagement, eloquence and humor, in his dedication to nonviolence and in his sheer decency. He changed the conscience of a generation. It’s hard to imagine how many young people’s lives were touched by his work and his life. Both leave a permanent stamp on how history is understood and the conception of how a decent and honorable life should be lived.

    Chomsky is a professor emeritus of linguistics at MIT

    CPAC Freestlye Cipher!…Is the Irony lost?

    February 13, 2010 — 2 Comments

    So the CPAC convention (Conservative Political Action Conference) is coming up in D.C. Feb. 18th-20th…

    Max Blumenthal posted the agenda for this convention on Facebook. You have your regular fringe conservatives like Dick Armey, Michelle Bachman, and Liz Cheney. The event is also being sponsered by the John Birch society, which if you do not know who that is…Look them up!

    One event struck me as not only odd but ironic and heeeeelarious! At 11pm you have:

    XPAC Rap/Jam Session
    Washington Rooms 1-4
    Sponsored by Parcbench.com
    Live music and special performances by Rappers: Hi-Caliber, Young Cons, and many more!
    Open to all XPAC ticket holders

    Hear a sample of the flava your ears will be tasting!

    Hi-Caliber – Patriotic People

    Hi-Caliber meets Max Blumenthal


    http://www.myspace.com/hicaliber

    Young Cons – Young Conservatives Anthem


    Picks of the Week

    February 12, 2010

    Big post today.  I found quite a bit of cool stuff this week….new music from old faces is the theme this week, as well as one old album I really felt this past week from Al Green.

    Massive Attack – Heligoland

    I love when legendary acts can just come up out of the couch and just make really good album.  Easily the longest break between albums, and M.A. doesn’t miss a beat…if anything, they have shown a bit of growth with this move forward.  This is an accomplishment, especially because most acts tend to reuse (and overuse) old concepts to make a new album.  I mean, it still have the signatures: vocalists, the growing song build-ups, the epic feel in the bigger cuts.  It’s not a perfect album – there are some downers on here that take away from the album, which is only 10 tracks long to begin with.  Still – worthy of your coin, especially if you love the duo.  Otherwise, if you’re a newbie – start with Blue Lines….amazing album.

    Jaga Jazzist – One-Armed Bandit

    Nuts.  For real…one of my favorites so far this year.  Mixtures of drum and bass, free jazz, some prog-rock, a little Afrobeat – all electrified.  And it’s the amazing from the first listen going forward.  I think the video will be a lot better at explaining what I can’t.  I have a feeling this will make some best of 2010 lists.

    Sade – Soldier of Love

    Just a beautiful album really.  The sincerity and clarity of her voice and the band’s sound have never been better.  What I love most about her is the honesty in the lyrics, she’s not bending or hiding the song’s meaning behind any sort of wall.  It’s all very raw and straightforward.  And like the other albums, very succinct and to the point….no long drawn out conclusions.  Very good grown up music – Sade lovers need this.

    Gil Scott-Heron – I’m New Here

    Best album of the year so far.  Amazingly done.  I literally have nothing I could say that’s bad about this album.  It’s basically perfect.  We’re talking spoken word…singing…the interludes….the music…everything is absolutely perfect.  I’ve been a huge fan for a while – and it’s nice to know that he is recording again, because he still has a lot to say to us.  The title song alone is…just….man…yo.  Easily the pick of the week, month, year…..and even this early on, it’s been a good year for tunes.

    Freddie Joachim/Question – Study Guide

    This is one I found via the dope J.Pitts Show podcast.  They let a cat named Zemba run the show with some ill beat instrumentals…and some of the tracks on this album made his playlists.  (you can find that dope shit in places you listen to other dope shit…lesson to all you out there.)  The album title is exactly what the music was intended to be used for – studying or work.  Nice pick-up.  The video shows Freddie making a track – not on the album btw….still cool.

    Martyn – Fabric 50

    Future bounce, dancy dubstep.  It’s meant to be played as one single party track….and that’s how you have purchased it on iTunes – a single 1hr, 11min, 25 sec. track/album.  Straight up “turn my house into a club” music.  It serves the function well.

    Al Green – I’m Still In Love With You

    In my opinion – this is his best achievement.  People love to name-check the features like the title track…Love and Happiness….an excellent cover of Roy Orbison’s Pretty Woman.  But Simply Beautiful…..a lot of you will recognize it as a sample in Talib Kweli’s Good to You.  But man…that track tell you all you need to know about this album.  Guys – if you don’t have this track in your slowed down, sexy, and sensual playlist you put on for your current, or potential, lady – you are basically fucking up.  No lie.

    Track of the moment:

    Emalkay – When I Look At You

    Dubstep…..bananas.  One of the favorite tracks of 2009….just felt like bumping it lately.

    What is the Literacy Test?

    February 7, 2010

    Tea Party Speaker Just Wants To Go Back To Pre Civil Rights/ Voting Rights Days…Is That So Wrong?

    The opening night speaker at the Tea Party convention suggested a return to a “literacy test” to protect America from presidents like Obama — a segregation-era method employed by southern US states to keep blacks from voting.

    In his speech Thursday to attendees, former Republican congressman Tom Tancredo invoked the loaded pre-civil rights era buzzword, saying that President Barack Obama was elected because “we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country.”

    Southern states used literacy tests as part of an effort to deny suffrage to African American voters prior to Johnson-era civil rights laws.

    “Prior to passage of the federal Voting Rights Act in 1965, Southern (and some Western) states maintained elaborate voter registration procedures whose primary purpose was to deny the vote to those who were not white,” a website for civil rights veterans explains. “In the South, this process was often called the ‘literacy test.’In fact, it was much more than a simple test, it was an entire complex system devoted to denying African-Americans (and in some regions, Latinos) the right to vote.”

    “Because the Freedom Movement was running “Citizenship Schools” to help people learn how to fill out the forms and pass the test, Alabama changed the test 4 times in less than two years (1964-1965),” the site adds. “At the time of the Selma Voting Rights campaign there were actually 100 different tests in use across the state. In theory, each applicant was supposed to be given one at random from a big loose-leaf binder. In real life, some individual tests were easier than others and the registrar made sure that Black applicants got the hardest ones.”

    White applicants could be approved even if they didn’t pass the test.

    “Your application was then reviewed by the three-member Board of Registrars — often in secret at a later date,” the site continues. “They voted on whether or not you passed. It was entirely up to the judgment of the Board whether you passed or failed. If you were white and missed every single question they could still pass you if — in their sole judgment — you were ‘qualified.’If you were Black and got every one correct, they could still flunk you if they considered you ‘unqualified.’”

    Tancredo, who is known for his sharp anti-immigrant rhetoric, also attacked what he called the United States’“cult of multiculturalism,” and tore into 2008 Republican Presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

    “Thank God John McCain lost the election,” Tancredo told the Tea Party crowd, citing his positions on government spending and immigration.

    “This is our country,” he added. “Let’s take it back.”

    Southern voting registrars could employ literacy tests arbitrarily. They included dauntingly difficult questions, aimed at keeping those they didn’t want enfranchised from voting.

    For example, an Alabama literacy test required would-be voters to know esoteric facts about the US political and legal system (one of the literacy tests can be read here in PDF form).

    Among the questions:

    “If a person charged with treason denies his guilt, how many persons must testify against him before he can be convicted?”

    “If a president does not wish to sign a bill, how many days is he allowed in which to return it to Congress for consideration?”

    “If the United States wishes to purchase land for an arsenal and have exclusive legislative authority over it, consent is required from [fill in the blank].”

    The answers to the above questions are two, ten and the legislature, respectively.

    Tancredo called Obama a “committed socialist ideologue,” and referred to him by his full name, Barack Hussein Obama.

    ABC News reported that the former Colorado representative’s speech “received enthusiastic applause at times,” but said the crowd did not fill the ballroom in which the event was held.

    By John Byrne @ www.rawstory.com

    Jimmy Kimmel shows the Teabaggers have literacy issues of their own…

    R.I.P. Definitive Jux Records 1999-2010

    February 6, 2010

    I must say that I am incredibly disappointed by this news but at the same time…I kind of saw it coming. Def Jux has given me some of my favorite artists in Hip Hop. Cannibal Ox “Cold Vein” changed my whole perspective on hip hop all together. I remember the first time I played Aesop Rocks “Labor Days” stoned…I think I had a mini-stroke. So many great albums that will be staples in my collection and that I will never get tired of… (Fantastic Damage, Emergency Rations, 3:16 9th edition, Ravipops, I’ll Sleep When Your Dead, Cold Vein, Labor Days, None Shall Pass, Dead Ringer). The good news in all this as you will read below…El-P has stated that he will be doing more music now that he doesn’t have to tend to the label. The bad news is no more Def Jux releases…

    In honor of these release I put together a (limited) mix of some of my favorite Def Jux tracks spanning the 10 year run

    http://www.sendspace.com/file/o5wgob

    Taken from www.shabooty.com

    STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSE’S MOUTH: “From Hoopties To Hovercrafts” — by El-P

    Dear Inter-web, fans, friends and JUX family,

    People keep asking me what’s up with JUX. There’s been some talk, there have been some rumors. Some half true, some way off. Reports of our demise have been mildly exaggerated. Here’s what it really all boils down to:

    This year, a decade after starting DEF JUX and after overseeing the releases of some incredible albums including the forthcoming release of my dear late and great friend Camu Tao’s brilliant “KING OF HEARTS” LP, I’m stepping away from my duties as artistic director for the label to concentrate on what I love most: being a producer and an artist full time. This is something I’ve been contemplating for a few years now, and can’t think of a better time or, with the eventual release of Camu’s record, a more poetic way to transition into a new direction.

    This means change for JUX. Of course we’ll still have our website, we will still sell our catalog, merch and more as well as bring you news and updates on all our projects and artists. We will be releasing “KING OF HEARTS”, a DEF JUX remix compilation, a 10 year anniversary retrospective and some other goodies. But then as a traditional record label DEF JUX will effectively be put on hiatus. We are not closing, but we are changing. The process is already underway, and the last several months (for those wondering what the hell we’ve been up to) have been spent dealing with the technical aspects of wrapping up the label in it’s current form and re-imagining our collective and individual futures.

    In 2000 starting a traditional record label made a lot of sense. But now, in 2010, less so and I find myself yearning for something else to put my energy into. I also see newer, smarter, more interesting things on the horizon for the way art and commerce intersect, and as an artist and an entrepreneur, I’m eager to see them unfold. The evolution of this industry is, in my opinion, exciting, inevitable and it would be nice to see the DEFINITIVE JUX brand be a part of it. In other words, maybe we can turn this hoopty in to a hovercraft.

    All business aside, and regardless of what form JUX may inevitably take, my focus for the immediate future is going to be back-to-basics. The fun stuff: sitting in the studio and immersing myself in music, performing it for for my fans when the time comes and whatever (or wherever) else might be out there creatively for me. Thats how it all started and that’s how the next phase will begin. The days of me dedicating the majority of my time and energy into providing JUX with a constant stream of physical releases from multiple artists are on hold for the time being. My heart (and what little common sense I possess) is telling me to simplify my focus and it has always been my policy to listen to my heart.

    Truly, DEF JUX has been amazing to be a part of. So many good people. So much fun. I feel very lucky to be friends and collaborators with people who have affected and continue to affect my life and work deeply and indelibly. Working with the likes of Amaechi Uzoigwe, Jesse Ferguson, Jason Drake, and Katy Eustis at JUX as well as allies like Kathryn Frazier (biz3), Michael Bull and Lisa Socransky-Austin (to name only a few) has been incredible. These are people who worked for generally meager wages because they loved what they did and they believed in the artists and the idea of DEF JUX. Anyone would be lucky to have worked with even one person as dedicated and passionate as all of them are. They are true champions of indie music and they (and too many others to mention here) have my gratitude and loyalty forever.

    None of it would have existed, though, if not for the artists. Artists who rolled the dice on us the same way we did on them, and were there with us as we battled it all out. CAMU, MR LIF, AESOP ROCK, MURS, CAGE, ROB SONIC, HANGAR 18, CHIN CHIN, CANNIBAL OX, THE PERCEPTIONISTS, RJD2, DESPOT, SA SMASH, YAK BALLZ, CRAYZ, THE MIGHTY UNDERDOGS, DIZZEE RASCAL, DEL, P.F.A.C, ACTIVATOR, COOL CALM PETE … the list goes on. I consider them all geniuses at what they do. Every victory that they have had and will have will always feel like a victory for myself and all of us at JUX. It’s been a joy to create and even struggle with them all. It has not always been easy, but it’s almost always been fulfilling. I only hope the work we put in together helped build a path to their collective futures. They have my sincerest well wishes and genuine respect.

    Lastly and most importantly are the fans… holy shit THE FANS! Our fans are no joke. I can’t tell you how humbled I am to have felt the love and respect that they have shown us all. Even when we did things they didn’t like, they stuck around. This was their label as much as ours. We answered to them, and yet they respected that we did what we loved, nothing more and nothing less. We always will. You are why we do any of this, and I’ll never be able to express how much your support means to all of us. I think I speak for all of us Jukies when I say I love making music for you and can’t wait to make more.

    Until then, on behalf of everyone here at JUX and from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

    EL-P
    Founder/Artistic Director/Recording Artist
    DEFINITIVE JUX

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