Last week, the New York Times published an op-ed by Barack Obama, outlining Obama’s Plan For Iraq. It was bound to be followed by a rebuttal from John McCain. And it was– sort of.

McCain’s editorial response was submitted and quickly rejected by the New York Times Op-Ed editor, David Shipley. In his response to the McCain team, Shipley states that he’s “not going to be able to accept [the] piece as currently written,” but that he’d be “pleased” to look over a different draft.

What does that really mean? Is that editorial decision being made based on policy or content? McCain’s camp is quick to point out that Shipley served in the Clinton Administration and that the real problem is that he doesn’t agree with McCain’s policies toward Iraq and that reworking the draft would be useless unless it came with a change in policy. Full Article »

We’ve only heard three tracks or so from Rage Against The Machine frontman Zack De La Rocha since the band split in 2000, and the musical dormancy has lasted far too long for a man of his abilities. The socialist rockers completely missed the most fertile atmosphere this nation’s ever had for their brand of sociopolitical protest jams, and that’s a goddamn shame.

After years of solo-album rumors, dead-end talks of DJ Shadow / Trent Reznor / ?uestlove collabs and a half-mast Rage reunion, Zack’s finally back, and he’s onto some new shit now. He’s teamed up with Jon Theodore, percussive god and former drummer for The Mars Volta, for a new project that takes both artists in exciting new directions. They call themselves One Day As A Lion. Full Article »

Am I going deaf, or is something seriously wrong with you people?

July’s blog-darling fad band is Black Kids, a Florida quintet who’ve gone from zeros to the second coming of indie in the span of about six months. And I call bullshit.

Partie Traumatic is polished synth-pop hipster masturbation and nothing more. The bloggy kingmakers calling this kaleidoscope of regurgitation one of the “albums of the year” need to have their fucking heads examined. They also need to start realizing that they’re exactly what makes this entire internet-hype experience such a minefield. This is the kind of repugnant nonsense Heidi Montag is blasting each day as she drives ever so slowly down Robertson, giggling for the long-lens parasites.

This shit has all been done before, and better. Full Article »

That’s right, baby killers! The next time you’re tempted to make your girlfriend’s face look like it just went through a Krispy Kreme glazer, you might want to think about the heavenly soul you’re blocking from entering this world.

The Bush administration has just threatened all health organizations and facilities, including women’s clinics, declaring that they would no longer receive federal funding if they choose not to hire nurses and other employees who refuse to perform abortions or offer birth control. In other words, if Planned Parenthood wants to keep legitimately helping millions of teens each year, it has to agree to hire people who object to doing just that. Either that, or they need to polish up on their conversational skills, ’cause that’s all they’ll be able to offer.

Bush’s proposal, citing a 2001 Zogby poll, defines abortion as any drug, procedure or action that “results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation.”

Birth control prevents conception. I think we’re all in agreement there. But calling it abortion because implantation of a fertilized egg does not take place is about as psychotically absurd as it gets. Under that same definition, menstruation is abortion. So is pulling out. No sense even talking about condoms. Full Article »

At the intersection of punk and indie rock, The Hold Steady are directing traffic with a beer in each hand, laughing and staggering within inches of death. Their third and last album, Boys And Girls In America, was a raucous affair of classically debaucherous imagery and tales of hangovers and comedowns to come. Stay Positive is the aftermath, coming to philosophical terms with the wretched age acceleration that accompanies tripping your face off and religiously drinking till the world is a hazy, spinning shade of vomit. Yet somehow, in the ulcer-ridden belly of consequence, the party rages on.

The Hold Steady offer a perfect-storm combination of Replacements-style swagger, 80’s Springsteen’s all-for-one band atmosphere and storytelling prowess, a Bob Mould-meets-Joe-Strummer school of delivery and just a hint of that guy at the bar who always gets way too drunk and makes a belligerent ass of himself. You know, the one who thinks it’s hilarious to piss in the beer pitcher when nobody’s watching. Full Article »

So you’ve probably heard by now that Radiohead’s got a new video out that was shot using some newfangled laser beam space technology. House Of Cards features real time 3D recording instead of cameras, utilizing structured light and Lidar laser-enhanced scanners to model Thom Yorke’s pretty face and provide a headache-inducing visual narrative accompaniment to the song. 64 lasers rotating and shooting in a 360 degree radius, 900 times per minute, capturing all of the exterior scenes and wide party shots. Stimulating new ways to explore the godly contours of Thom’s face!! Yippee.Don’t get me wrong- I fucking love Radiohead. I can specifically recall times and places where I first heard each of their last five records or so, and I’m probably going to be sexually quarantined for slandering my girlfriend’s favorite band. But c’mon already with all the fawning praise. It’s kinda cool looking, but it’s a fuckin laser beam video, and once you get past the novelty it’s pretty boring. Besides, the song’s not even that amazing. Full Article »

Yesterday Johnny delivered something we had been planning to do for awhile: A covers mixtape. It’s a daunting task, picking 10 tracks or so out of the hundreds of great covers there are out there, and I’m sure there will be many many more to come. But there were some crucial ones that I felt absolutely should not be back-burnered. So here’s a follow-up, eleven of my personal favorites. Full Article »