With his latest e-mail, Urie proudly writes how the response “has been remarkable – nearly 14,000 messages to Congress have already been sent!”

Yes, almost 14,000 messages! That’s right, less than 14,000 people took the enormous amount of time needed to fill out an online form.

That’s a lot of messages. Here’s how to put it into a greater perspective:

-It’s nearly 4.98 times the number of physical copies that The Melvins’s The Bride Screamed Murder sold in its first week, enough for that band to crack the Billboard 200! (2,809 copies)

-It’s nearly 4.39 times the number of people who tweeted about The Huffington Post’s brief about the cover of Katy Perry’s new album in less than seven hours! (3,189 tweets)

-It’s nearly 7.5 percent of the number of people who like Animal Collective on Facebook! (186,650 likes)

-It’s nearly 1.2 percent of the number of visits to the Hype Machine in May 2010! (1,162,556 visits according to compete.com)

-It’s nearly .0056 percent of the number of views Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” has gotten on YouTube! (249,115,097 plays)

You get the picture. Urie’s stand on the issue aside, the man should certainly be concerned that, despite the number of people who filled out an online form to support him, there are millions and millions of music lovers, fans and consumers who, for one reason or another, aren’t getting behind him.

You can read Urie’s email below:

Dear LEOR ,

The response to the industry’s campaign on music piracy last month (below) has been remarkable – nearly 14,000 messages to Congress have already been sent!  The feedback and interest among our community has been overwhelming.   Together, I am confident Congress will hear our call — but we need to be louder still.

If you have not yet sent an e-mail to Congress via this link, please do.  It only takes a moment and will make a difference.

If you have already sent an e-mail to your members of Congress – thank you.  Please consider making an even bigger impact by asking your friends, family and colleagues to join us.  You can easily forward the e-mail by clicking here.

I’ll be in touch in the weeks ahead to update you on Congressional activity and other opportunities to get involved in protecting and defending the industry and art form that we all love.  In the meantime, be sure to join our Facebook community on www.musicrightsnow.org for news and information of interest.

Sincerely,
Jim Urie
Learn More at www.musicrightsnow.org

Image via Wikipedia

All New York Magazine‘s Vulture blog needed was a short headline and YouTube video to get the point across:

McLovin Is in a Band!

Yep. McLovin is in a band. Stop the Internetz! Such news is of vital importance, especially when actor-musician Christopher Mintz-Plasse is referred to as the nickname of a character he played in a popular 2007 film.

I get it. So goes the culture of celebrity, or those merely recognized for a part in a movie. Which is a shame, as Mintz-Plasse certainly has more to him than just one role as a second-string character in “Superbad.” But some fans of The Young Rapscallions, Mintz-Plasse’s band, may not get it. Just ask YouTube user shutupjemma, who posted the following on one of the band’s videos:

Who cares if Chris is on drums? The point is that he’s a good drummer and they’re all good musicians who make amazing music. The point is the BAND, not just Chris.

Fine point. Except that shutupjemma’s comment was posted the same day The Young Rapscallions made their presence known online, and a large part of that success was due in part to Mintz-Plasse’s Twitter account and some coverage of the band’s famous drummer.

Which begs the question. Is the point the band? Why have people simply referred to The Young Rapscallions as “a band with McLovin” instead of describing the actual band?

Obvious points aside, but it’s rather unfortunate to say that Mintz-Plasse is the sticking point for the band. They sound like a novel pastiche of bro rock acts with greater namesakes, be it a little bit of Jack Johnson-inspired melodies or the “curveball” influence of Rage Against The Machine. At most, the band just sounds like a mix between misinformed quasi jam-blues and a fourth rate, watered-down version of Cage the Elephant.

But really, they just sound like they’re still struggling to find their voice. Which is funny that in just a couple days they’ve garnered even the slightest bit of fanfare. Any other group would toil for years to tweak their sound until it reflects their voice. Instead, The Young Rapscallions are stuck with the signature chicka-chicka-yeaaaaah of McLovin – not even Mintz-Plasse at that – obscuring some semblance of individuality.

In any case, Chris, don’t quit your day job. Seriously, it sounds great. You get to be in highly entertaining films with a lot of heart and/or sociological theories behind them. And that ain’t a bad way to go.

The Young Rapscallions – “Are Fish in Tanks Insane?”:

[youtubevid id="zhAcBjdyIn8"]

The fake ID scene from “Superbad”:

[youtubevid id="uBSQabGk-wo"]

“Role Models” trailer:

[youtubevid id="wtFESEqa9fA"]

The Soft Pack’s “Answer To Yourself” featuring Christopher Mintz-Plasse (for “Kick-Ass”):

[youtubevid id="Qc3VAnJQuqA"]

Gosh, is it almost Record Store Day again? I’ve waited so long for this day to come!

And I’ve been a really good music writer this year, Record Store Day Man. Honest I have. (Well, unless you ask brokeNCYDE.) I wrote my heart out about all the bands I liked, and even the ones I disliked, during the past year. I tried my darndest, and I think I deserve something nice on this Record Store Day.

What I want more than anything else this year is to find a random album that I will immediately love. I want to just stumble upon it, I want it to be a fortuitous occasion where the clouds part and a light beams down on that album cover as if to say, “yes, this is the one!” No press releases, no hype, no nothing. I just want to find a new record I’ll like without any pretension of “cool” or big weighty name behind it or anything. And I promise I’ll take good care of the record, and play it three times a day, and make sure it’s in good condition and everything!

I understand I may not find my dream album on Record Store Day. Even if my dream is crushed to pieces and my heart is ripped out and stomped upon, I still know the true meaning of Record Store Day.

In any case, I’ve also enclosed a list of other items I would be happy to receive on Record Store Day. Any combination of the following Record Store Day releases and exclusives would be much appreciated:

Against Me! – I Was a Teenage Anarchist acoustic 7″

Beach House – Zebra 12″

Beastie Boys – White Label 12″

Black Keys – Tighten Up/Howlin’ for You 12″

Black Moth Super Rainbow – Eating Us double LP

David Bazan – Live at Electrical Audio CD

Devo – Fresh, What We Do 12″

Dum Dum Girls/Male Bonding – Pay For Me/Before It’s Gone 7″

The Get Up Kids – Simple Science CD

Happy Birthday – Shampoo, Alien 7″

The Hold Steady – Heaven is Whenever LP

Hot Water Music – Live in Chicago 7″

LCD Soundsystem – Pow Pow 12″

The Magnetic Fields – 69 Love Songs 10″ set

The One A.M. Radio – Credible Threats 7″

Queens of the Stone Age – Feel Good Hit of The Summer 10″ picture disc

Soundgarden – Hunted Down/Nothing to Say 7″

Ted Leo & the Pharmacists – The Oldest House, North Coast 7″

The Thermals/The Cribs – mystery split 7″

TV On The Radio – Dear Science, 12″

Weezer – Ratitude Happy Record Store Day CD (NOTE: Despite my previous ripping of Ratitude song “Can’t Stop Partying,” this has reworkings of “classic” Weezer tunes. And Kenny G. Can’t pass that up!)

That should do it…

Oooh, wait! Also, a copy of I Need That Record! on DVD, which is also being released on Record Store Day. And an ION Portable Turntable if possible, as a lot of these vinyl-only deals don’t come with a download card, and I’d like to be able to convert the songs to MP3 format and play them wherever I go!

Anyway, I know you have a big Saturday ahead of you, and I don’t want to disturb you from fulfilling the wishes of all the other music geeks out there!

Merry Record Store Day!

-Leor

P.S. I left you a virtual milk and virtual cookies on your Facebook page. Enjoy!

[youtubevid id="OePVFP7NJrQ"]

Normally, I’m not one for self-promoting on my blog here, but I can’t help but get this story out there. As a friend who organizes DIY shows in Boston posted on my Facebook wall said: “This community has gone horribly under-appreciated for many years.” And that can be said for the DIY and all-ages community country-wide, not just in Chicago.

Growing up in the DC Metro area spoiled me. The very moment I wanted to see a concert by a band I loved, I was able to go. For the most part, I never had to worry about age restrictions holding me back from seeing a musician or act. It wasn’t until I moved to the Boston area that I understood how lucky I was being able to see bands I enjoyed as a teen, and how thoroughly odd it is that there are roadblocks for kids who want to see music in so many cities across the country.

I’ve got to say thanks to everyone I interviewed for this piece. Without them, I couldn’t have put together the article. So, thank you Kevin from the All-ages Movement Project, Todd P., Matt from Schubas, Jim Grimes, Efrat from Chicago’s Business Affairs and Consumer Protection Department and Ian MacKaye.

Most of all, I’d like to thank the people who opened their basements and living rooms to me (and countless strangers) and allowed me to document what happened there. So, to Jason at Enemy, Christine at Ottoman Empire and, most of all, Matt (and co.) at Strangelight, thank you.

Here’s a little clip of a performance by Algernon Cadwallader at Strangelight before I began to work on this piece. Enjoy:

[vimeovid id="9261206"]

Image via Wikipedia

The answer has finally come for those who questioned how Facebook can be used as a tool for changing our society. According to Prefix Magazine, that day has come, as a pickle has surpassed Canadian bro-rock act Nickelback in Internet popularity:

It’s been almost two weeks—a lifetime in Internet years—since a Facebook group was set up to see whether a lowly pickle could gain more fans than hoary old grunge throwbacks Nickelback. The good news is: the campaign was successful, the pickle has emerged triumphant, and we can all now move on to join one of the other ‘Can [insert inanimate object] get more fans than [insert name of failing/tiresome celebrity]?’

Now that society has completely changed forever, what can Facebook users do with the website? Surely, there must be something out there as important as a popularity contest between a delicious, brine-drenched cucumber and a vomit-inducing, brine-drenched band, right? Maybe uniting behind a cause that affects the way people think about a hot topic issue, such as the impact of global warming, and providing an open forum for people to gauge their thoughts on the cause, provide insightful feedback and organize to improve society?

No? Well, what if we pit a macadamia nut against global warming? What’s better? Take to the Interwebs!

The Washington City Paper‘s City Desk blog has the down-low:

According to an eyewitness, a D.C. Police detective (pictured above w/ gun) went nuts after kids pelted his Hummer with snowballs at 14th and U Streets NW this afternoon. The veteran detective got out of his car and eventually grabbed for his gun, displaying it to the crowd. He did not immediately identify himself as a police officer. He calmed down once his fellow uniformed cop arrived.

Is all fair in love and (snowball) war?

Clearly, this is a situation that was escalated due to the, shall we say, climate. Though many folks online have been keen to attack the cop, it’s easy to forget how nerve-wracking it can be when you’re driving through a blizzard. And factor in the fact that D.C. is one of the major metropolitan areas least prepared to handle snow, and almost anything will make you jump.

However, the detective did go overboard in his reaction to his car coming under snowball fire. Road rage is something that inconveniences so many drivers, but the majority of people who are angered by traffic, weather or being pelted with extra ammunition from a snowball fight wouldn’t react by waving a gun at a crowd. Considering the man in question was a police officer (it is still unclear if he was undercover or simply off duty), he should have known better.

As for the crowd reacting the way it did, these are one of the consequences organizers of flash mobs may have to prepare for in their “worst case scenario” playbooks. It’s always difficult to try and organize a free, all-inclusive event such as a snowball fight that is guaranteed to bring in several hundred people because one has to consider how people will react when they’re surrounded by hundreds of people throwing snowballs. As the events in D.C. have shown, most of the time people are cordial towards complete strangers (even helping get a marked-cop car out of the snow). But every once in a while, someone makes a mistake such as throwing snowballs at the wrong car, and unfortunately, the organizers of such events end up paying the consequences. Hopefully, this case will, if anything, show the overreactions of local officials when community members attempt to put on their own spur-of-the-moment event.

Here’s a YouTube video of a few cops and snowball fighters talking about the incident:

[youtubevid id="0RhossH1bm4&feature=youtube_gdata"]

Image via Wikipedia

Usually, newspaper corrections tend to fly under the radar. They appear in the paper days after the initial article with the mistake in question was published. By that time, most readers have most likely forgotten about the mistake and/or article and have moved on.

That’s not the case with Akeya Dickson’s Washington Post article on Public Enemy’s fight against poverty. The Nov. 26 article was like almost any other article you’d see in the Post: well-crafted prose with an intimate look at its subject at hand, the great hip-hop act, Public Enemy.

Unfortunately, there was a slight issue with the article, one that a few readers were quick to point out.

The article was printed in the District section, a weekly extra that is published every Thursday by the Post. So, it wasn’t until Dec. 3 that the paper published a correction for the article, which happened to be when the next edition of the District section was available. The correction also went online:

A Nov. 26 article in the District edition of Local Living incorrectly said a Public Enemy song declared 9/11 a joke. The song refers to 911, the emergency phone number.

It’s hard to tell how “911 Is A Joke” fit into the article, as it was immediately removed from the piece. (I have been unable to retrieve the original version of the article.) In any case, this is a major issue considering that song was off a Billboard-topping album released on Mar. 20, 1990 (A Huffington Post piece on the correction incorrectly stated that the album was released on May 26, 1990, which happens to be the date that the album peaked on Billboard at No. 10.) Considering that 1) the album came out 11 years before 9/11 and 2) Public Enemy were at the peak of their fame and notoriety when they dropped Fear of a Black Planet, it’s something of a big error that Dickson mistook a song where Flavor Flav raps about the (lack of) emergency responses in black communities to have something to do with September 11th. Considering the members of Public Enemy are still prominent members of the black community, its a bit reckless to say they made a song declaring 9/11 a joke when there’s plenty of evidence saying otherwise.

So, of course, the correction went viral.

The Daily Swarm posted the correction on its site a day after the correction came out. And then it made the rounds shortly thereafter.

Rachel Maddow tweeted about it.

The Huffington Post had a write up (with an inaccuracy of its own, as I previously mentioned.)

The Washington City Paper had a little post on its Arts Blog.

Techdirt took the Post to task for the error.

The Rap Up used it as ammo for the Post’s lack of hip-hop knowledge.

All told, the short correction generated more readership than the initial article did. Dickson’s piece had a Facebook widget that said four people had posted it to their Facebook sites.

444 people linked to the Post‘s correction on Facebook; 55 people plastered the link on digg.

1,890 people linked to the article on Twitter. That’s over 59 times as many people who tweeted the original article.

All of this isn’t even counting all the write-ups linking to the correction, many of which show a healthy number of posts on Facebook, Twitter and other sites.

Clearly, Dickson and the Post made an error (UPDATE/CORRECTION: As Post music/arts critic J. Freedom du Lac points out, one cannot definitively say who at the paper caused the error – it could be an editor-introduced error as much as anyone else’s error). Unfortunately, a lot has been lost in the re-tweets and re-posts of the correction. People have been too quick to jump on the Post for the error, many of whom criticized the Post for not putting a correction up sooner.

Yet, most of these individuals would have never discovered the error had the Post not written about it in the first place: only three readers commented about the error when it first cropped up. And obviously, the Post listened.

It’s true that news sources are obligated to write corrections, and the Post is doing a good job of that. Most people who criticized the Post for including a correction a week later don’t seem to realize how good of a job the Post did with its correction. The correction went in the paper in the same section that the error appeared in, thereby ensuring that people who picked up that edition the previous week (and thereby, the last time it was available) would notice the correction for an article that appeared in that section. I’d say 99.98% of people who have been angry at the Post’s late correction have made comments only after said correction went viral: that was the official apology made by the paper, making the original error public. Who knows when the original issue was changed online, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the Post fixed that error immediately after those three readers expressed their disdain at the misinterpretation of the Public Enemy song. (Another commenter actually though the group made a song called 9/11 is a joke, and made mention of it on Nov. 28. My guess is that error was taken offline shortly thereafter.)

So, when the state of the media is overrun with newspapers that are watchdogs and blogs that are watchdogs of the watchdogs, exactly how important are the “corrections” that appear? How good are they for the business of journalism? Well, as the Post’s example shows, corrections are still an important facet of media today. Considering the rate with which information travels today, it’s easy to make mistakes and errors, and even easier to overlook them. If it weren’t for a few ardent Post readers, that error about Public Enemy could have continued to exist in the article, unedited. And if it weren’t for the ethically inclined editors and staffers at the Post, that error might not have been fixed or brought to the attention of its readers. Had it not been for the Post’s own actions and role as watchdog over its own errors, this entire correction and error would have never gone beyond those few readers who cared to notice: It would have never gone viral.

So, while this might look like a case of a paper seriously screwing up, I commend the Post for honoring its readership by bringing such an egregious error to light, even while the blogs are waiting to pounce. It’s a higher road that I’m not entirely sure every media type would be willing to take, and thank goodness for the Post for making everything so clear.

Public Enemy – “911 Is A Joke”:

[youtubevid id="EcKhscio25M&feature=PlayList&p=07218AACE7B38D12&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=20"]

[youtubevid id="VSkT5XykJzo&feature=player_embedded"]

Where do you draw the line? When do you cut technology out of something as personal as, say, a wedding? (Besides that, isn’t there a general request for people to turn their cell phones off at something as important as a wedding?)

I understand that Dana Hanna, the groom in question, tweeted from the altar as a joke:

This was just done to be funny – we really don’t Facebook THAT often .

Does that make it better? True, the idea that someone would get on their phone to update Facebook and Twitter is rather funny… But there’s something a little odd about actually going through with the action during your wedding. It’s as if a throwaway “SNL” joke about our obsession with technology came to fruition, and that’s a bit scary. It’s sweet that Hanna would want to update his friends and family that couldn’t make it to the affair, but couldn’t he wait 10 minutes or so until the ceremony over?

I realize it’s a bit strange to discuss this, and it would appear that I’m judging someone about something as arbitrary as their own wedding. Actually, I’m just curious about the entire process itself. From my understanding, people are usually nervous or giddy or so intently focused during their wedding that they can’t concentrate on much else. I’m always one to go for a good joke (or even take it a bit far), but I’m a little bewildered at how Hanna managed to go through with updating his Facebook status and tweeting to the world when everyone there was watching. It’s a bit… odd.

However, I must say, the fact that his now-wife would join in on the fun and react as naturally as she did is a great sign for Hanna. I’d imagine some people would be a bit upset if their significant others took out a cell phone and began texting away in the middle of their own wedding ceremony. But, the fact that his wife seemed happy to grab a phone and type away without any prior knowledge that Hanna would grab his phone on the altar is a good sign. Looks like they are indeed a good match.

Cootchie-coo behavior used to be reserved for private moments in the home. But now, with the Internet’s help, people feel free to wallow in cuteness en masse, in the company of strangers.

True, before the dawn of the Internet, it was hard to find a single entity that could unload millions of pictures of adorable animals in the span of a second. But were moments of cuteness really sheltered within the confines of one’s own home before technology reared up and gave us the web? Did adults shy away from five-month old puppies running all over the park, just to rush home and froth at the mouth about how cute said puppy was? Did grandmothers really keep photos of their dozen-or-so grandchildren to the confines of their living room instead of taking those keepsakes with them in their purses? Is it cool to be cute now that the Internet is around?

I’m not so sure about that. Obviously, the Internet has made it easier to dig up these precious little gems. The ‘net’s also made it easier to dig up things from our past that we may not want broadcast to the world (wide web.)

Since its existence, the United States was looked down upon by Europeans for being “new,” for its lack of history and its focus on the future rather than its well read-past. In fact, Alexis de Tocqueville said that the one thing that would make democracy work in the U.S. was history, as it was applied in the storied knowledge of lawyers, judges and the courts. Now, with a couple plus centuries to our backs, what would Tocqueville think of our communal knowledge of self beyond the realm of law as found in the Internet? Specifically, what would Tocqueville think of something like Awkward Family Photos? Democracy in action? Or a misunderstanding of history altogether?

With the advent of the Internet, its made it significantly easier to discover all those little foibles that could have been lost in one’s history, and resurface them for the benefit of someone else’s entertainment. And yet, while you’d think people would be quick to cover this stuff up, a lot of it exists online, clear as day.

Spreading the gospel of cute is one thing, but kitschy, embarrassing moments of our collective past, re-tooled as entertainment for the future is something that never quite existed at this level in the past. Sure, tabloids made it easy to poke fun of celebrities for decades on end. But “Star Wars Kid” probably would have had a normal life had YouTube not existed during his youth, and no one outside of Portland would have even seen a kid caked in zombie makeup say “I like turtles” had the Internet not made it easy for people to find these videos, put them online and allow them to find the large audiences that have turned so many embarrassing moments into memes.

Image via Amazon

Of course, these are a couple of cases where people are unwittingly shoved into the limelight to serve the purpose of someone else’s entertainment. But what about a site such as “Look at this fucking hipster,” where pictures of the gaudiest scene-chasing youth are placed on stage for everyone to laugh at. Some of these folks must know their image is on this site, or elsewhere online*. I mean, they’re dressing like that in public, for the most part. And soon, their image could be on the bookshelves of your local bookstore.

It’s not just “hipsters” who are dishing out the kitschy and potentially-embarrassing clothing and putting it in the public eye.  There are websites like Facebook, where one can post any embarrassing picture of a friend for people to see (and said friend doesn’t like it, you can just de-tag it.) There are places like Urban Outfitters, which has made a killing on reviving decades old pop-culture items, slapping them on t-shirts and suddenly making it trendy and fashionable for the modern, mainstream consumer.

It’s not only about unearthing kitschy or embarrassing things from one’s own history anymore, but from our own cultural heritage and our shared past as well. This past decade has been one where kitsch has reigned supreme, where observing the odd little foibles of our recent-past is not only entertaining, but a favorite pastime. There was the “I Love The (Enter Decade Here)” series. There were Chuck Norris and Vin Diesel jokes. Hell, people who had never heard of Public Enemy took Flava Flav and helped rebrand him into the zaniest little celebrity of the decade. And let’s not even get into reality TV…

Sure, there were TV shows like “America’s Funniest Home Videos” in the past, where folks could send in moments of utter shame for great cash prizes and fifteen minutes of fame. But the Internet has enabled people to become famous on their own right, and all at the price of sharing their most embarrassing little moments or foibles. Some of it is tasteless (Tucker Max.) Some of it hits a bit too close to home (texts from last night.) Some of it might be of lighter affair in later years (Cake Wrecks.) Some of it might be downright cute. But most, if not all, of it, would probably have been kept in the photo albums or basement of your parents’ house or in the annals of your memory.

Did the Internet incite the sharing of kitsch, zany past antics and a communal rebranding of the passe as culturally hip today, or did it merely allow for these things to all come together on one easy-to-use forum? Who knows, but I’d hope Tocqueville would at least get a kick out of Cake Wrecks.

*Full disclosure, I’ve had friends threaten to send in pictures they’ve taken of me to LATFH, and they graciously decided not to after I asked them to refrain from emailing said pictures.

Snowing EP Vinyl cover

I stumbled upon these guys from an article on punknews.org, and I’m glad I did. Snowing is a quartet out of Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, and they seem deeply into the Pennsylvania emo thing. Which, these days seems to be a resurgence of the kind of cataclysmic catharsis that Cap’n Jazz and early Promise Ring. It’s been swirling through the sounds of fellow PAers Algernon Cadwallader and the pre-Snowing band Street Smart Cyclist. It’s pretty immediate and just as forward thinking as anything else coming out these days.

You can grab their EP, Fuck Your Emotional Bullshit, for free on If You Make It. Below is the song “Sam Rudich,” the EP opener, and, by from what I’ve deduced from the band’s Facebook page, the name of a friend of the band members. Take a listen.

Snowing – “Sam Rudich”:

[audio http://leorgalil.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/01-sam-rudich.mp3]