BP Oil claims to be a friend of the environment, but its green image has been butchered due to a massive oil spill.

On April 20th the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded, caught fire, and sank over the course of 36 hours. The rig is owned by Transocean and leased to BP. Nearly 100 workers made it ashore safely, while 21 others suffered minor and critical injuries. Families of 11 missing workers presume that their loved ones have perished in the explosion. The public was initially alerted there had been no oil spill, but the government soon updated that message. Two active leaks, spewing an estimated 5,000 barrels per day, have been detected, while complications have halted any efforts to seal off the well. At this rate, it will take just over a month for the spill to surpass the 1 million gallons the Exxon Valdez rig expelled two decades ago in Alaska, where wildlife is still ingesting oil. Though it's more than 50 miles from the Louisiana coast, oil from the rig is beginning to creep upon Venice and Port Fourchon. Inflatable foam barriers, or booms, have been strategically placed in efforts to minimize damages, which BP will be legally responsible for. But are these efforts too little too late?

Updates on multiple news outlets are keeping Americans abreast of the magnitude of the disaster. Florida has declared a state of emergency in six of its coastal counties. Other far-reaching effects will continue unfolding in the weeks and months ahead.

Environmental concerns include the devastating massacre of marine life and possible destruction of wildlife reserves. Media outlets, however, have been focusing on how this will impact the seafood industry. Fishermen are scampering to harvest oyster, shrimp, and other marine life. Many struggling Gulf industries are still in a recession following the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina, and this man-made disaster is likely to further depress food and tourism, currently a bright spot of New Orleans' economy. This will also affect jobs related to Louisiana's $3 billion fishing industry; but hundreds are already in line for oil-spill clean-up positions.

A month ago President Obama announced a plan to allow new offshore oil drilling in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. This catastrophe could threaten those plans. "No additional drilling has been authorized, and none will until we find out what happened here and whether there was something unique and preventable here," he said on ABC. He called for investigations of working oil rigs, and new safety precautions to be implemented in hopes to avoid any further "accidents."

Local organizations are seeking volunteers to assist in the cleanup and to rescue oiled wildlife. Matter of Trust has been accepting donations of hair since 2000 to create booms and mats to soak up oil in crises such as these. Find out how to donate here.

With Record Store Day only a few weeks behind us I'm sure everyone still has their recently purchased vinyl on heavy rotation. But how long until you put those heavy black things away substituted by your trendy light-weight iPod? We know one man out there who loves his vinyl and that's Jack White. Known best for his bands The White Stripes, The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather, Mr. White also owns a record store in Nashville, TN called Third Man Records, which only sells vinyl.

So it seems quite fitting that when his newest band The Dead Weather want to give us an early peak at their second album 'Sea of Corwards,' they don't go about it in your typical online streaming format. Starting at 1pm EST today you'll be able to watch and listen to the entire album being played on an old school record player. It will be available for 24 hours.

In an age where quantity seems to triumph over quality on so many levels it's nice to see someone taking the time help us appreciate the value in playing an analogue record vs. a stripped down mP3. He's not the only musician who feels this way. In a recent HeadCount interview, Bob Weir talked about how analogue music moves people, and our bodies reject the digital format.

If you're turned on by streaming record, check back Monday May 3rd at 6pm EST when the band plays 'Sea of Cowards' live in its entirety at Third Man. It will be available on myspace.

Yesterday, Latin American pop star Shakira met with residents and press in Phoenix, Arizona to denounce Arizona’s new immigration law that will authorize law enforcement officers to stop suspected illegal immigrants and demand proof of citizenship. She says:

“I don’t want to see this law tarnish what this country stands for. We cannot let fear and injustice take over. As human beings I think we have to stand up for equality  and stand against laws that teach our children intolerance and discrimination.”

The law, which aims to discover illegal immigrants and get them deported, has been criticized by many including President Obama and Jeb Bush.

Other Latin musicians who have spoken out about the new law include Ricky Martin, Paulina Rubio and Larry Hernandez.

You've probably read The Great American Bubble Machine," Matt Taibi's famous 2009 Rolling Stone takedown of Goldman Sachs. That's the article in which he described the world's most powerful investment bank as "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."

These days even Taibbi sounds surprised by what the Securities and Exchange Commission is dredging up in its investigation of securities fraud at Goldman Sachs. In the latest issue of Rolling Stone, he writes:

Prior to the "Bubble Machine" piece, I had heard rumors that Goldman had gone out and intentionally scared up toxic mortgages and swaps in order to get short of them with sucker bookies like AIG. But – and this seems funny in retrospect – I foolishly dismissed those tales as being too conspiratorial. I thought it was bad enough that Goldman was shorting the subprime market even as it was selling toxic subprime-backed securities to chumps on the open market. The notion that the bank would actually go out and create big balls of crap that would be designed to fail seemed too nuts even for my tastes.

Today the New York Post reports that Goldman may settle with the SEC rather than undergo more of the public humiliation it's been receiving this week during congressional hearings.

But you don't have to be particularly paranoid to suspect that Goldman Sachs' alleged fraud is merely the tip of the iceberg. And if you want to go all the way in that direction, look nor further than a recent piece of gonzo journalism by Mark Ames. A former colleague of Taibbi's (the two worked together on an alternative Russian newspaper), Ames sees rot everywhere in America's financial foundation. In "Confessions of a Wall Street Nihilist, Ames (probably) fabricates a conversation with a Wall Street pal who argues that investigations like this are merely academic exercises. Because if the system's real corruption were ever exposed, the whole house of cards would collapse.

“Let’s say the government decides one day, ‘You know, we oughta listen to Che here, let’s throw the book at every firm and every executive that our people can make a case against. Because you know, gosh, it’s all about rule of law and blind justice, just like Che says.’ OK, so now this means indicting just about every serious player in finance, so they take down Goldman Sachs, they take down Citigroup, JP Morgan, BofA… and they also serve all the big funds who are at least as guilty, if not more. So they shut down Pimco, Blackrock, Citadel… maybe they indict Geithner and Summers, haul in some of Bush’s crooks… right?”...

“OK, now guess what you’ve just done? You’ve just caused the markets to completely tank. Remember what happened after the Lehman collapse? Remember how popular that made every politician in Washington? Still wondering why they coughed up a trillion bucks? They were scared for their lives; that’s why they voted for that bailout. You’d have done the same goddamn thing. But if we go after everyone guilty of fraud and theft, the market crash this country would see would make 2008 look like Sesame Street. Open that can of worms labeled ‘Fraud’ and the whole fucking economy collapses. You may as well prosecute people for masturbating. No one will know where the fraud investigation stops and who will be charged next—everyone will try to cash out, and the markets will tank to zero. And guess what happens when the markets tank to zero? Every fucking American with a retirement plan, or an investment portfolio, or a 401k—every state pension plan in the country, every teacher’s pension fund, every fireman’s pension—every last one of them will be wiped out. That’s what the Lehman collapse taught us.”

Is he right? Read your Taibbi and recall just how many former Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Lehman executive are now in government, effecting policy and working for the SEC. The boat ain't gonna rock that hard.

Fortunate are those who find their spirits lifted, have their souls touched deep down to the core. When the source of the spiritual-religious experience is music, it’s a special kind of communion. And when that music is rock and roll – the greatest of all American contributions to the world – it's a particularly powerful cast of the mystical. I know I had one of those experiences this past fall, during Phish's Halloween Set at Festival 8, held last fall in the Palm Springs area desert.

This recollection comes as a lot of us are ready to re-visit—or visit for the first time—the sounds and sights of Festival 8.  Starting tomorrow, phans will enjoy Phish 3D, the band’s first foray into cinematic three-dimensionality.

Come showtime on Halloween, the festive mood was palpable. A huge costume party of like-minded revelers had convened from their campsites. Smiles were not scarce. The air was thick with anticipation. A widely distributed Phishbill had announced that the band would be joined by a horn section and two backup singers, one of them being Sharon Jones, one of the most highly regarded exponents of the new soul movement currently afoot, for a performance of the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main St.

The pre-show music was cut and the lights went dark. The unmistakable grooves of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” were heard, loud and clear. Thriller, after all, had been widely discussed by phans as an apt, and oh-so-fun, possible choice for Phish; as much for its inviting rhythms as for its timeliness in the year that the King of Pop had moved from Neverland to Foreverland. But, weren’t we hearing Exile On Main St.?!

We quickly figured it out, thanks to two giant screens flanking the stage. “Thriller” faded, and there was Michael’s face, from the song’s famous video. Michael leans down off camera and returns into the frame as a ghoul. His girlfriend screams.  Then, for the next five-plus minutes, we get a masterfully edited barrage of images and sounds – a quick sensory-overload history of rock and roll. Those 99 teaser albums on the Festival 8 website? They flew by right in front of us. The Ramones gettin’ down to a funk beat and accompanied by Miles Davis’s sublime trumpet. The Beastie Boys MC’ing while Aerosmith laid down the groove. Jerry Garcia playing guitar over Bootsy Collins’s shoulder. Bits of Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” intercut with bits of Metallica hammering. Rush backing up Leonard Cohen. The multifarious sounds of the last 40 years or so conjoining to form a multimedia remix, an edited-together mash-up made up of so much wonderful musical history.

The gods of rock had been summoned.

Then: black-and-white images of the Rolling Stones circa 1972.  Mick Jagger: shirtless, sexy, spaced-out. Keith Richards:  dropping a TV set off a hotel rooftop. The band and an overweight cop: navigating a backstage maze, making its way out to the stage. Fade to black. Then: Phish. The band arrives onstage in full flesh and color, circa late-2009.

They rip into the first song on Exile, “Rocks Off.” It's been some 37 years since Exile was recorded in the south of France. A debauched set of chord strums, a snare snap. Repeat twice. Then fire up the whole band. The song doesn’t just get things going – it launches us. Amid a swirl of dizzy blues riffs and deep-soul horn blasts, we’re off and running. The song chronicles, with no lead-in pussyfooting, the pure raunch the Stones were living to the hilt at that time: "Headed for the overload/ Splattered on the dirty road/ Kick me like you’ve kicked before/ I can’t even feel the pain no more."

Phish’s choice to cover Exile was fraught. The reason 2009 was a glorious reunion year was that they had broken up five years earlier. And one of the main reasons they'd decided to part ways in 2004 was that the addictions and dysfunctions of the preceding years had exacted a toll too high to ignore. So, to delve into this material was no mere exercise. No. They were here to exorcise. As Rolling Stone's David Fricke had noted in his Phishbill essay: “What Phish are doing tonight is more than covering a record. They are telling, through these songs, their own stories about ecstasy, madness, and survival.”

The next truly significant moment came a few songs later. We’d already heard a kickin’ version of the Stones’ version of Slim Harpo’s slow-roil blues boogie, “Shake Your Hips.” And the album’s only well-known hit, “Tumbling Dice” was way better than I had previously realized. It was the eighth song, however, that had juice I just didn’t see coming. Even after many listens to Exile, I'd never paid much attention to “Torn and Frayed.” Silly me. Turns out the song is the absolute heart of the album. It starts off innocently enough as a pleasant country-blues ditty that takes the listener through a musician’s natural habitat of “ballrooms and smelly bordellos/ And dressing rooms filled with parasites.” Fricke notes that the song paints a “portrait of the artist as a mess but never more than one great lick away from redemption.”  This was the first song, and one of only a few in the whole set, that the band took for an improvisational ride and jammed out. And they did so gorgeously.  Trey Anastasio coaxed sweet, superlative soloing out of his instrument. And the redemption was practically palpable – for all of us. Building and peaking, the song’s deceptively simple chord structure was used a vehicle for the sort of emotional playing that lies at the heart of great soloing. As I danced my little heart out, I smiled big, chills and tingles abundant.

The church vibe was undeniable. Read more »

Bottled water sure is convenient. But it's also coming under new scrutiny.  The Story of Stuff created this fascinating video about bottled water that will likely make you think twice about how “smart” that Smartwater is:

HeadCount artist Dave Matthews is at the forefront of musicians calling for action on this nation’s overuse of bottled water. DMB has teamed up with Brita and Nalgene for the FilterForGood campaign which encourages the more sustainable practice of drinking filtered tap water from reusable bottles.

Check Dave out on Pandora.com where he talks about his motivation and commitment to sustainability practices. The front page of Pandora is currently featuring a FilterForGood streaming station primarily populated with music by DMB and other HeadCount artists like Jack Johnson and Ben Harper.

HeadCount is proud to be able to enhance your Furthur experience.

Thanks to AEG Live, CID Entertainment, the Furthur family, and especially HeadCount board member Bob Weir, HeadCount is offering a pair of VIP packages for the group's June 26 show at Coney Island's MCU Park (home of the Brooklyn Cyclones baseball team). Your tax-deductible contributions will assist HeadCount in its ongoing efforts to facilitate participation in democracy.

VIP packages come in two sizes, Benefactor and Guest, each of which include a ticket to this sold-out show, an open bar before and during the event, and viewing from a private patio with a panoramic view atop the stadium. For a few dollars more, Benefactors will enjoy a pre-show meet-and-greet, photo, and autograph encounter with Bob Weir, as well as a buffet dinner.

Already have a ticket? Just subtract $50 from the package price of your choice and enjoy the perks.

What are you waiting for? All the details are right here.

(photo by David R. Jennings)

If there was an award for not mincing words and appealing to a political base, Alabama Republican Tim James may win it. The gubernatorial candidate suggests offering drivers license applications in English only. "This is Alabama. We speak English. If you want to live here, learn it," he said in a recent TV ad.

Whether it's good for his campaign remains to be seen, but if his goal was to get attention on YouTube he's succeeding. Check out this mash-up with a clip from Pulp Fiction.

What do politicians and platypuses have in common? According to Omar Ahmad, neither creature can tell directions and both have very strange breeding habits.

Omar Ahmad is an internet start-up specialist who sits on his hometown city council in San Carlos, CA. In the concise TED Conference presentation below, Ahmad argues that the best way to engage politicians like himself in the digital world is via old-fashioned pen and paper.

He explains why a hand-written letter to your representative is more persuasive than either email or a phone call. And he gives four simple steps for writing effective letters that will reach your congressman's desk and have them calling you the next time they're voting on your issue.

Visit HeadCount's main issue page to learn more about issues important to you and the musical community, enter your zip code to find out who your representatives are, and get writing!

Because somebody has to tell politicians and platypuses which way to go.

Rock the Earth kicked off Earth Day by announcing this year's Planet Defender Awards. The environmental organization chooses recipients in three categories: artist, community leader, and grassroots activist. The 2010 winners are Bonnie Raitt (at left), Laurie David and Louie Psihoyos, respectively.

Elected by Rock the Earth's national volunteer staff, each winner demonstrates "the importance of protecting the planet" and contributes significantly to environmental awareness. Musician and long-time social activist Bonnie Raitt often plays benefit concerts for the sustainability movement, specifically forest policy. With Senator John McCain and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Laurie David is co-founder of Stop Global Warming, an organization committed to creating a movement through which Americans across political party lines can play an active role in sustaining our undeniably warming planet. David said, “It's not about everybody doing everything, but it is about everybody doing something and together, with small acts in our daily lives, and big acts from the international community, we all can help stop global warming.”

In the same vein, photographer and Oceanic Preservation Society executive director Louis Psihoyos is tackling the global depletion of drinkable water. His Oscar-winning feature documentary The Cove reveals the shocking truth about a secluded cove in Taiji, Japan, and, in turn, the state of our planet. “Due to pollution, plundering and acidification everything in the oceans, from the great whales to plankton is in peril. These are huge issues but I have hope. We don't need (to) turn around all of humanity - sometimes great social change comes from a few noble acts of passionate individuals,” Psihoyos said.

Past recipients include the Dave Matthews Band, Jack Johnson, Incubus, and grassroots activists Jessy Tolkan and Karen Cragnolin – all of whom have joined the collective call for action, one beat at a time.