When Naked Raygun frontman Jeff Pezzati put together his post NR band The Bomb, he was undoubtedly under a massive amount of scrutiny.

Like a punk rock Paul McCartney moving on to Wings or Johnny Rotten starting PIL - comparisons to his beloved and highly influential first band were inevitable.

The Bomb is clearly nobody's version of Wings.

For about a decade now the Chicago band, comprised of Pezzati, guitarist Jeff Dean (The Story So Far, Tomorrows Gone), bassist Pete Mittler and drummer Mike Soucy (both from The Methadones), have been churning out amazing punk rock. The latest Speed is Everything may just be their best record yet in an already impressive career.

Guitarist Jeff Dean was kind enough to put up with a handful of questions about the new record, working with J. Robbins and punk rock supergroups.

So you guys are in a number of different bands. Does that make The Bomb a supergroup? A side project? Or a full-fleged band?
I don't know if you would call us a "supergroup", but we are a full on band. (Jeff) Pezzati started the band in 1999, and with the exception of us taking a break for about a year, the band has been active since it started.

So do your other bands get jealous when you spend time with another group?
No way! We are all good friends, and I think we all manage our time wisely. I have a lot more time on my hands to work with than the other guys, so I'm able to play in more bands than everyone else, but there is never any jealousy or anything like that.

What was J.Robbins like to work with?

J. has recorded our last two records, so when we were getting ready to record our previous record "Indecision" there was a lot of talk about who we wanted to do it. I've always been a fan of J's bands as well as his producing/recording. Pezzati and J have been friends since when NR (Naked Raygun) and GI (Government Issue) played shows together back in the 80's, so it just made sense to get him on board. I gave him a call and he was really into the idea. J. is hands down my favorite engineer I've ever recorded with. When we were recording "Indecision", all of us got along so well, and he could understand where we were coming from with ideas, etc. We just clicked. So, that is why J will be the only one to record our albums as long as we are a band. At this point, he almost feels like the 5th member! Ha, ha!

Who else is on the album?
This record was a real collaboration between all of us. I still write the majority of the music, with Pezzati writing most of the lyrics. But, this time everyone in the band contributed, as did J. He wrote the music for one of the songs on the record. J also did backups on a lot of the songs too. Dan Yemin (Paint it Black, Lifetime) did vocals on one of the songs, as did Bob Nanna (Braid).

How long did it take to record Speed is Everything?
We recorded all of the music and most of the vocals in about six days here in Chicago at a studio owned by my friend Andy Gerber called Million Yen. Then about a month later, Pezzati and I flew out to Baltimore to mix it and add some additional vocals at J.'s studio Magpie Cage. I think we were there for five days.

Anything else you want to add?
I guess that I hope people check out the new record Speed is Everything. All of us are really proud of it, and if you are a fan of our band or Naked Raygun or whatever, I think you will enjoy it.

Live radio. Bit of a novelty these days for those of you who may not know... it's basically all prerecorded, robotic. No theater-of-the-mind, no vibe, no dialogue. A jukebox dictated by charts and numbers, not humans. And certainly, no one behind the mic picking a song and playing it simply because they feel like it, keenly led by that two-way street between programmer and listener that has to happen for radio to be magic.

By some strange collision of the cosmos, that's the kind of radio I grew up learning thanks to a team of seasoned programming mentors at my first station in Vermont. The pay sucked but still, we had the bug. It was simple. Find great music. Play it. Be human. Create compelling radio. Those were the unquestionable standards and we worked our asses off to achieve them. Hell, even the commercials made for great listening. No joke. All because, first and foremost, we were fans; fans of each other and fans of the ideal... the ideal being to "create a product or service that makes the world a better place" (Guy Kawasaki 101). Corny? Definitely. But powerful.

These days, it's rare for any of us to engage in true participatory listening [...]

A Triple-A radio programming veteran, Kate has served as Music Director of the Loft at XM, Midday Host at WYEP, Evening Host at both WNCS and WUIN, as well as Content Supervisor for Pump Audio. Currently, she's the CEO of Outlandos Music, a new-music discovery service for grown-ups. Kate has been nationally recognized for her ardent presentation of music and her ability to champion talented, compelling artists.

Worst. Nashville. Venue. Ever. - The Bluebird Café. We know, because Oscar Wilde says so.

By Coco Hames

Nashville is a land of many wonderful things, like honky tonks, good  local beer, places you can go shoot guns (NOT outside my front door  you PSYCHOPATH who yells "EINSTEIN!" at every one of your seven Jack  Russell terriers, my little sister's in town for GOD'S SAKE have some  MANNERS) and musical camaraderie... the latter being something that  takes some getting used to.  There's a line in an early episode of Dr. Katz where Dr. Katz is wearing a fragrance because he had had a lady  friend over, and his friend at the bar notices the cologne, and Dr.  Katz says, "It takes some getting used to."  And his friend  asks if that's the name of it, "It Takes Some Getting Used To". It's a funny exchange, I'm not doing it justice.  But previously on  Lost, anywhere we'd lived or run around, we've been a potentially/actively violent punk troupe, which was easy, since that takes no acting.  Gotta keep people out of my space, off my back, out my business, off my friend, etc.  It was just a safe and logical way of operating, and we're very  comfortable with that.

However, since we've moved to Nashville, we've made some really nice friends.  Fear  not, we've tempered nothing (e.g. still stay WAY too late at the bar and molest the bartenders, still play loud, still fall  down and get blood EVERYWHERE, still throw pint glasses at creeps who brush Poni's ass, still fight, still French, still play our creepy '50s and '60s beat that will usually clear a room, though we're still dancing the night away) but our behavior scares some of them, or at least alarms them.  A lot of these friends are also musicians.  Some of them punks, some of them neo-garage candy sweets, some of them singer/songwriters.  And the singer/songwriters always feel compelled to play shows at the most obnoxious venue I have ever set foot in (not to be confused with the official worst venue ever, El Corazon in Seattle), the Bluebird Cafe.

 Possibly the harrowing snobbery can be conveyed through their official tagline and  mantra, which they proudly have prominently featured at their venue, on all of their literature and on their website: "Shhh!"

 Does anyone else think this is DISGUSTING?  How DARE you?  "Shh"? The rockers I know do not LIKE rules, let alone being told to hush up when they're out drinking.  And besides that, if you're GOOD enough, you have the ability to silence a room, haven't you ever been to a show like that?  You're jabbering on and one of two things happens:

1)      the rocker on stage gets annoyed at your texting or chatting and calls you out/throws a beer at you (which I myself have done, or have had verbally done TO me by the late, great John Mayer); or

2)      your conversation gets interrupted by how good a song or sound is and you just shut up.  You shouldn't tell people they have to be dead silent or you'll kick them out of the bar!  That is so gross.

 SO gross.  Every time I pass that place I just scowl and growl like Mad Madam Mim.  (Who, by the way, is my Disney villain mascot, if anyone ever asks you, "Hey who do you think Coco's Disney villain mascot is? Ursula from the Little Mermaid?"  "Yeah maybe, she's got good songs and they kind of have the same hair..."  No!  It's Mim.) It just really makes my ass twitch.

Get this (from the Bluebird's website): "As a listening room, quiet is requested at all times during a performance - which is why our slogan has become "Shhh!" You are welcome to drink and eat with us at any time, but if you are looking for an evening of conversation there are more appropriate places in Nashville."

 Did I mention they serve food?  They are a restaurant AND a bar, and their waitstaff is cute, and large groups of friends go on, like, a friends' night out... I just don't get it.  And, I don't like it. And listen, if you do, and you're some Nashvillian who's like, "OMG, I  LOVE the Bluebird, you must have gone on a bad night or something!" SAVE IT.  It's over.

Johnny summed it up on stage once (sometimes all-ages venues have rules about beers on stage) and it would have sounded trite and whiny coming from anyone else, but then that's Johnny's charm: "Man, I got into rock and roll because I don't FOLLOW rules." Here, let me prove a point.  The only reason I know anything about this GODFORSAKEN institution is because my singer/songwriter friend Landon Pigg (you can hear his creamy sounds and see his sexy moves in the film Whip It) and my  singer/songwriter friend Frally Hynes (who does pretty much the saddest cover ever of Patsy Cline's "She's Got You" - WHICH, by the way, the tiny baby early Ettes covered in 2004 in a Dee Dee Ramone 1-2-3-4 way, OMG where is that...) took me to see our friend Lucy Wainwright perform.  Lucy Wainwright (yes, it is in her blood) writes  beautiful songs, and sings real nice, so when I was feverishly whispering with Landon at the bar, I was jolted away from my conversation by something beautiful she did.  And I paid attention. And then this really gnarly yodel-style folk singer got up and whoosh, right back to my high-voltage murmur WHICH, by the way, got us in trouble several times.  As in, we got "shushed."  Uh, and then we left.  Landon has actually gotten kicked out several times.  I'm like, uh, what do you do with your tab?  Do you have to be like, oh, okay, yessir, let me just sign my tab aaaaaaand, yep, there's the tip, okay I guess I'll be on my way, so sorry for the, you know, noise...

I'm not ragging on open mic nights, although it has been many, many years since I've been to one.  I mean, you cut your teeth there, you don't ever want to go back.  You can read a previous blog to find out the kind of places I used to set up mic and guitar... I don't want to talk about it.  But I have a problem with this place. Blech.  And no, I'll never be going there again.  I remember having a whisper-out with one of the cute waitresses because she had pretty hair, and I whispered, "Oh, do you use Bump-Its?" and she whispered back, "No, but I have extensions, see?" and I felt her hair and I whispered "Ohhhh!  They're good, do you get them done here in town? I used to get them when I lived in LA but I haven't done them in years, I wonder if I would if I knew someone here." and she whispered, "Oh, my friend does them!  I'll give you his number!" and I whispered, "Oh, that'd be great, thank..." and then "SHHH!" from some woman who I ASSUME worked there?

 Unrelatedly, just WHY should boys have all the fun?  If I were better dressed, better behaved and differently, ahem, "equipped" they'd call me a bon vivant.  I'm like Oscar Wilde in moccasins and a sailor shirt.  Basically I'm Oscar Wilde.

 See you on the television!

 coco

***

Blurt "co-co-editor" Coco Hames fronts The Ettes - Hames on guitar, Jem Cohen on bass and Poni Silver on drums. Their Greg Cartwright-produced album Do You Want Power arrived in stores last fall, their music was featured in the Drew Barrymore-directed film Whip It, and you bet we've got a big feature on the band in the latest issue of BLURT. Check out the band's MySpace page for music and tour dates.

This week, LETTERS FROM THE ROAD features the legendary Pete Droge (OMG!)... we are MASSIVE fans here at Outlandos. Hopefully you will be, too.

Incidentally, for a refresher, LETTERS FROM THE ROAD is our guest post series where we invite musicians we are utterly nuts about to take over and write whatever they like. Three rules: it has to be in the form of a letter, it has to have something to do with music, and the weirder the better. Fun stuff!

What I love about this post from Pete (and I hope I don't embarrass him too much) is that number one, he was a tad skittish, as a lot of folks are about publishing a blog, if blogging isn't your usual thing, perfectly human reaction (and its nice to know our idols are human). It's great though is that none of it has to be perfect, it just has to be genuine for me --- and for you --- to dig it. And Pete's got genuine in spades, as you can read below. But what's more is, this idea of his is quite smart... if you're going to dive into an iconic catalog, chronologically doesn't always make sense. This would make a good book actually, a guide to the best order in which to sift through iconic catalogs. You up for that Pete?

Thanks for letting me twist your arm to do this one!

Dear Music Fan Who Is Not up to Speed on JJ Cale, Leonard Cohen or Gram Parsons,

I find that where you enter an artist's catalog can make a huge difference on how they connect with you. Case in point, my friend who thought, "I really should check out this Bob Dylan cat that so many hipsters are into... hmm where to begin? How about his first album?" Seeing as Bob is so adored for his writing and his first record consists of mostly covers this is probably not the best place to enter his body of work (If you have not heard his version of Man of Constant Sorrow go get it right now... George Clooney, eat your heart out). I digress. I have many times served as mid wife in the birthing of a newborn Dylan fan. I am always shocked, outraged and ultimately jealous of anyone who is naive to all things Bob. Generally speaking, with Bob, I would point the newbie towards Bringing It All Back Home. Side One is Bob 101. Opens with Subterranean Homesick Blues, need I say more? Side Two, Bob 201. Opens with Mr. Tambourine Man and closes with It's All over Now, Baby Blue, and in between those two, Gates of Eden and It's Alright Ma, (I'm Only Bleeding). After that, I would point them to more records from the 60s like Highway 61, Times They Are a Changin', and Blonde on Blonde before sending them out to other eras (Oh Mercy, Time Out Of Mind, Infidel, Planet Waves, Blood on the Tracks, Basement Tapes and so on).

Enough on Bob. I'm sure you are all up to speed already. Let's get to some folks that some of you may not be into.

JJ Cale. I remember the first time I heard JJ Cale... or John as his friends call him... yes, that's right, the name John Cale was taken (ok musical hipsters, John Cale was a member of what seminal ban? Anyone... anyone? Yes, THE seminal band of all seminal bands, the Velvet Underground. Very good). I digress. Where was I? Oh yes, the first time I heard JJ Cale. In my Datsun 210, on the once great rock station KISW (Seattle's Best Rock). I know this song, but holy shit --- this is way swampier than Clapton's version, I thought. It was of course the original version of Cocaine that Eric had the big hit with [...]

A Triple-A radio programming veteran, Kate has served as Music Director of the Loft at XM, Midday Host at WYEP, Evening Host at both WNCS and WUIN, as well as Content Supervisor for Pump Audio. Currently, she's the CEO of Outlandos Music, a new-music discovery service for grown-ups. Kate has been nationally recognized for her ardent presentation of music and her ability to champion talented, compelling artists.

I have kind of a strange New Year's Eve tradition: I make a list of everything I'd like to be free of. Then, I burn it. And then I flush it. Double catharsis.

On that note, I thought it might be handy to have a list of the Top 10 CUT THROUGH THE NOISE posts of 2009 to not burn/flush and to hopefully (!) reread/re-forward:
1. Content Is Not King
It’s YOUR job to identify and celebrate your fans, to turn them into super-fans; your brand runs on super-fans.

2. The New Free
Free is dead. Over. Overdone. We killed it.

3. Size Matters
It's not the length that matters... it's how you use it.

4. I'm Broke But Here's $100 Anyway Sell me a shared experience. Not only will you get my money (even when I don’t have it to give) but also free publicity (as I brag to all my friends) [...]

A Triple-A radio programming veteran, Kate has served as Music Director of the Loft at XM, Midday Host at WYEP, Evening Host at both WNCS and WUIN, as well as Content Supervisor for Pump Audio. Currently, she's the CEO of Outlandos Music, a new-music discovery service for grown-ups. Kate has been nationally recognized for her ardent presentation of music and her ability to champion talented, compelling artists.

Official Release Series: Discs 1-4

(REPRISE)

www.becausesoundmatters.com

Rating: (9)

On Neil Young's Official Release Series: Discs 1-4 (Reprise; www.becausesoundmatters.com): The first time I heard Neil Young was on my stereo while lying on the top bunk in my room. Sunlight beat down on the east-facing window, heating the curtains until the must smelled up the whole room. That copy of After the Gold Rush was clean, being a recent purchase by my friend, who lent it to me. I thought he was nuts to have purchased an LP when cassettes were the wave of the future. I also thought the artwork-patchy jeans, acoustic guitars-screamed "country and western" artist and, when I played the record and it didn't sound like Kiss or Prince & the Revolution, decided it sounded country enough to be country, whether it was or not.

I didn't listen to Neil Young-willingly-for years. If he came on the radio, I made fun, whining along to "Old Man" and "Rockin' in the Free World," even as those songs started to make sense to my (woefully slowly) maturing mind. Eventually, I grew to appreciate the work of Crosby, Stills and Nash, but only figured out Young's connection to them when I ordered 4-Way Street from Columbia House. On the strength of "Ohio" and "Southern Man," I penciled the corresponding numbers to the then-new Young album Sleeps With Angels into the boxes on the CH form.

When it came, I found myself only really connecting with "Piece of Crap" and, once more, emulating Young's voice, which had taken on a crotchetiness that made "Piece" sound like my grandpa bitching and moaning. Ha! He said ‘crap.'

I know. What a douchebag. Did I really get anything from listening to "Ohio" and "Southern Man?" Looking back, I was connecting only to the sound of the songs and not what they said. I hadn't learned, hadn't grown up enough, to appreciate the hypocrisy of a Bible-thumper's racism or the significance of a protest gone horribly wrong. I was happy in my bubble where the events of the world affected someone I didn't know-and where my Kiss Alive! poster, a symbol of all that was well and truly cool and relevant, towered above my headboard.

Makes me kinda sick, actually. I know pretty much everyone starts stupid and ignorant, but man... I took a long time to pull my head out.

When I finally did, it was because another friend, much farther down the road, found the CD copies of Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and Tonight's the Night he thought he'd lost and, somewhere along the line, had replaced. In that time, I'd learned about the discord between Young and Lynyrd Skynyrd over "Southern Man" and how "Sweet Home Alabama" was their response to the song, which forever altered how I heard both songs. The line "four dead in Ohio" now evoked a heaviness, a combination of dread and remorse, in my viscera, and sent a chill down my spine. 

Finally I got my own copy of After the Gold Rush-it was less than two years ago, and at least six years since I got Nowhere. Although I listened to them both plenty of times, start to finish, in car, in my office, alone and with company, life-and the flood of promotional CDs I've received since taking this job, pushed them to the outskirts of my collection, where staples languish while new artists file in and out, demanding various level of attention. Some of them leave strong, defined imprints on me and others mere footprints in the soft soil of my consciousness.

It's winter now, days before Christmas. The last time I listened to a Neil Young album was August, on a road trip through southern Utah while my wife and daughters slept. I don't think they heard a note, but I did. It was Harvest, and it was one of those magical uninterrupted listens that happen less frequently now as life hurtles past me. It was interesting to note how the red rock canyons of St. George gave way to the sagebrush-the normal, dry variety and the fire-blackened shadows of that-of central Utah as "Old Man" played. I didn't mimic Young. Instead, I pondered what the song means to me now as the grown son of an overgrown infant, and what it could mean to my daughters when they reach the age of reason.

This box set, the fancy 180-gram deluxe limited-to-3,000 copies audiophile's-wet-dream whose components I've considered for the better part of the last ten days? I don't know what the format has to do with anything. To me, it's just presentation. The quality of sound is superior to my compact discs and MP3s, but that's not what I get out of the music. Holding these records in my hand now, letting them play in my office as snow falls outside and I sweat road conditions and deadlines and Christmas, I don't know what the big deal is about the heavy wax and audio quality.  

I do know this: Every time I listen to Neil Young, I get at least one part of that summer day back... and then some. My youth and the accompanying sense of wonder and future have eroded, such that they're beyond my grasp, and I'm still ashamed for that boy who couldn't get a handle on Neil Young's music when it was handed to him on a slick black platter. But I'm happy for the not-quite old man who gets to hold the album cover again and hear the music and know just what Shakey means, why it's important, and how it pertains to my life now and my days to come.

As this would be a "review," it occurs I should tell you why it's good and why you should pay attention or money-assuming, of course, that Neil Young still hasn't creeped into your collection. I would cough up some adjectives, but since I'm pretty happy with the way I came to Shakey, I can only recommend that, when you decide you're ready for his songs, you listen well.

***

Neil Young's Official Release Series: Discs 1-4 features his first four albums on 180-gram vinyl with gatefold covers and a nice, sturdy box to keep ‘em lookin' real good. Incidentally, those four albums are Neil Young (1969, reissued with the original art/cover), Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969), After The Gold Rush (1970) and Harvest (1972). It retails for $149.98 and came out December 1. There's a gold-disc CD edition, too. That'll set you back $84.98. www.becausesoundmatters.com

Out ‘n' about in the City of Angels with Blurt's roving shutterbug (12/1 - 12/14).

By Scott Dudelson

(pictured above) Vic Chesnutt - Live @ The Echoplex (www.attheecho.com) - 12/2

Guy Picciotto (of Fugazi) - Live w/Vic Chesnutt @ The Echoplex (www.attheecho.com) - 12/2

Trainwreck (featuring Kyle Gass of Tenacious D) - Live @ The Roxy (www.theroxyonsunset) - 12/3

Brian Wilson - Live @ The Canyon Club (www.canyonclub.net) - 12/4

Charlie Hunter - Live @ The Mint (www.themintla.com) - 12/6

Tenacious D - Live @ The Echoplex (www.attheecho.com) for the Winston Calling Benefit (http://winstonsvillage.bbnow.org) - 12/8

Frank Black & David Lovering (of The Pixies)- Live @ The Echoplex (www.attheecho.com) for the Winston Calling Benefit (http://winstonsvillage.bbnow.org) - 12/8

Jack Black (of Tenacious D) & Frank Black (of The Pixies) - Live @ The Echoplex (www.attheecho.com) for the Winston Calling Benefit (http://winstonsvillage.bbnow.org) - 12/8

Flea (of The Red Hot Chili Peppers) - Live @ The Echoplex (www.attheecho.com) for the Winston Calling Benefit (http://winstonsvillage.bbnow.org) - 12/8

Billy Bob Thornton & The Boxmasters @ Brixtons - 12/9

Jonathan Richman  - Live @ The Mint (www.themintla.com) - 12/10

***

Scott Dudelson is a music journalist and concert photographer based in Los Angeles.  Scott is also the Chief Operating Officer of Prodege, LLC, the company behind www.swagbucks.com.

Generally, we stick to music here on the OUTLANDOS blog. But once a month, we digress. The idea being that if we share the same taste in music, we likely share the same taste in other stuff, lifestyle stuff. It's kind of like what we do with THE DAILY DOSE; by associating music with "other stuff" --- in this case wine and cheese --- it adds a greater value to the music, an expanded aesthetic experience. So that's the theme for IN SHORT, monthly recommendations of "other stuff" that we think you'll like, will perk your interest or at the very least make you chuckle. Hence, a review of 2009, the Top Five:

1. Fans



It's a recurring theme around OUTLANDOS HQ, not only the power of fans but also what to do with it (more on that next week). But for now, just again touching on the idea that We can help.

2. Boxed Wine



Been trying it out this year and I can honestly tell you, it's not bad. As in, good. Especially for a table wine around the house. And both cheaper and environmentally more friendly with 4 to 6 bottles of wine condensed into one box. Less waste. Black Box is our current fave, if you can find it [...]

A Triple-A radio programming veteran, Kate has served as Music Director of the Loft at XM, Midday Host at WYEP, Evening Host at both WNCS and WUIN, as well as Content Supervisor for Pump Audio. Currently, she's the CEO of Outlandos Music, a new-music discovery service for grown-ups. Kate has been nationally recognized for her ardent presentation of music and her ability to champion talented, compelling artists.

You read that right, it's the Top 9. Two qualifiers: 1) an album totally worth the price, your money will be well spent and 2) an album that's stood up on replay, ad infintinum. Hence, there were only nine. Trying to squeeze in a 10th felt like a copout. And we can't have that. So, just in time for your shopping lists, our faves around Outlandos HQ for the past year:

1. Michael Miller, I Made You Up



Awash in a melodic swath of near-psychedelic ether, Miller's sound teeters between that delicate dream state of newborn refuge and Milky Way haze. But don't let the SoCal singer-songwriter thing fool you: Miller's unassuming yet gumptious approach places him squarely alongside the likes of troubadours Pete Droge/Steve Forbert but with flecks of Supertramp/Bowie-style transcendental grandeur. No kidding. Which is why it's my top pick.

2. Chris Velan, Solidago



Solidago was on my tops last year because I had an early copy (the release was April 2009) but it's so good I'm putting it on the list again. The scoop: cunningly disguised as jangly chill-lax pop, Solidago reveals whipsmart songcraft and no-bullshit guitar rockers juxtaposed amidst easy-going ditties. Think Paul Simon, Tom Petty, The Wallflowers, Bob Marley. The kind of political/romantic moxie that makes me think hell yes, I too am a Hard Way Learner.

3. Mike Gent, Mike Gent



A pop masterpiece. Seriously. It’s easy, it’s smart, it’s fun, AND it has balls. Like Wilco used to (think Box of Letters, Monday). Speaking of balls, Mike’s other band, the Figgs, has long been one of my favorite badass live outfits.

4. Glasvegas, Glasvegas



Timeless Glasgow glampop at its uber-finest. Echo and the Bunnymen-esque, bigger drums. Shit-hot.

5. Gidgets Ga Ga, The Big Bong Theory



Fountains of Wayne meets Cheap Trick meets Strawberry Alarm Clock. Lots of bouncy, chimey guitars, and an authentic garage sound. Plus the album has a million songs on it. Loads of bang for your buck [...]

A Triple-A radio programming veteran, Kate has served as Music Director of the Loft at XM, Midday Host at WYEP, Evening Host at both WNCS and WUIN, as well as Content Supervisor for Pump Audio. Currently, she's the CEO of Outlandos Music, a new-music discovery service for grown-ups. Kate has been nationally recognized for her ardent presentation of music and her ability to champion talented, compelling artists.

Meat indie rock band The Ettes.

By Coco Hames

Has anyone noticed how hipster snobs are pronouncing Vietnamese pho "phuh"?  Is this the correct, indigenous pronunciation or something?  Because it isn't an isolated incident, I must have heard at least four hipster snobs pronounce it as such in the last month, coast to coast.  Well, whatever, I'm not playing that game.  I don't play games with my food!  I eat it!  

Now, because Obama isn't really DOING anything at the moment (he's so not busy, it's crazy...) we need to start wrangling up legislation to outlaw factory farming.  My grandparents were hog farmers, my mom grew up on a farm, and she asked me "What's factory farming?"  Factory farming is the phrase used to describe the machination of animal farming and prevalent industry (and consumer, presumably) disregard for the health and welfare of the animals we eat.

You could go to YouTube and look up "Meat Your Meat", or visit peta.org and see pretty much anything they have documented there, and you could get an idea of what factory farming is, and why we should not do it.  It's bad for the planet, it's bad for the animals, which is bad for us (H1N1 anybody?) and it is cruel and inhumane.  You don't want to eat a sad pig do you?  I don't.  I want my bacon happy and healthy.

Jonathan Safran Foer FINALLY gets to the point in his new book I won't recommend at all to anyone, Eating Animals.  PS - nobody informed me this was a glorified collegiate essay, I.  Cannot.  Stand.  That.  Shit.  Hey alla y'all Susan Sontags, listen up!  If you are an academic writer, please fall off your high horse and just deliver the info with simple, elegant, educated panache, will you?  There is nothing I dislike more, NOTHING, than playful academia.  Who do you think you are?  Take all of your English classes and your grammar classes, learn and use proper Latin and the Dewey Decimal System, that is all important, but do not wag your academic finger at me from your ivory tower of reference books, get to the effing point.  Which, like I said, Foer FINALLY does (seriously, second to last page in the book), ahem:

"It shouldn't be the consumer's responsibility to figure out what's cruel and what's kind, what's environmentally destructive and what's sustainable.  Cruel and destructive food products should be illegal.  We don't need the option of buying children's toys made with lead paint, or aerosols with chlorofluorocarbons, or medicines with unlabeled side effects.  And we don't need the option of buying factory-farmed animals."

As Foer mentions, it really SHOULDN'T be the consumer's responsibility, I know how crazy my aunt and uncle (farmers) think I am to even worry about this stuff, and I admit, it's exhausting to go into a grocery store and put on my Terminator laser eye beam and scan and scowl at the food being offered.  Do we elect these government agencies to protect our food and drugs?  Are they appointed?  Is it more of a quorum really?  See, I'm not being preachy, I don't know that much, I cheated off of Wilson McDowell (so dreamy) in government class, though I did really like the teacher and felt a little bad about it.

This band is making every effort to eschew factory farmed meat, at home and at restaurants.  Although if Poni has to eat a chunk off of a live factory farmed cow that just happens to be walking by, she will, she is a bloodthirsty monster chupacabra and I have no control over her.  Although evidently we can eat at Chipotle?  Google that, see if I'm right, I think I read something about that.

The sentient beings argument is for another time.  Don't ask me "If not now, Coco, when?" you thoughtful, intelligent, ethically responsible vegetarians and vegans!  I don't KNOW when, okay??  I'll pull my aunt's Judeo-Christian standby about man in God's image, or else the Darwin that fits my meat-eating agenda, or else published studies on brain evolution in tandem with meat consumption!  And don't think it stops with the meat, there need to be judicious, legally enforced practices of safe, responsible farming in all aspects of the agrarian world, from taking care of the people who pick your oranges to demanding transparency as to where all that corn is going and why.

And yes, there ARE other things to worry about.  For instance, the stir fry I just made came out all one color because I forgot to pick up greens at the Turnip Truck.  Aha!  My parsley plant is still alive, you'll get greened up yet stir fry!

Forensic Files,

Coco

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Blurt "co-co-editor" Coco Hames fronts The Ettes - Hames on guitar, Jem Cohen on bass and Poni Silver on drums - whose album Look At Life Again Soon and EP, Danger Is, were released by Take Root. Their new Greg Cartwright-produced album Do You Want Power arrived in stores Sept. 29, and you bet we've got a big feature on the band in our new print issue. Check out the band's MySpace page for music and tour dates.