Brad Paisley Wears Pants And Plays A Bad Guitar
Brad Paisley‘s mostly instrumental Play was the guitar freak’s album of 2008. The cat rips in just about any style you throw at him (dig “Turf’s Up,” below). But Play was something of an aberration. A country superduperstar with more than a dozen number-one singles, Paisley has a Zappa-like propensity for casually clever lyrics that…
Sarah Silverman’s World Hunger Solution
She makes it sound so easy (and a little dirty, too).
Carlinhos Brown: ‘Poverty Is Not An Excuse For Anything’
Along with Gilberto Gil, Carlinhos Brown is one of the great Afro-Brazilian activist musicians. A seemingly ubiquitous drummer, Brown lead the great 100-strong bloco Afro percussion group, Timbalada, and is also a prolific songwriter (for Caetano Veloso, Sergio Mendes, and Marisa Monte, among many others) and community firebrand. On the DVD World Music Portraits: Carlinhos…
Interview: Security Pro Marshall Rodriguez On Nitrous
Over the last few years the battle between concert promoters and people who sell nitrous oxide balloons has escalated to almost an all-out war. Standing on the front lines is Marshall Rodriguez, a fan who launched a security company in 2000 that specializes in festivals and jamband-oriented concert events. His company, Marker Security, has since…
Pseudo Pot Legalization Hurts Drug Cartels. But Is It Enough?
It’s an argument marijuana legalization advocates have been using for years: If marijuana were legalized and regulated in America, drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) and gangs would be put out of business. But how much truth does that argument hold? The expansion of medical marijuana dispensaries and growers in California, Michigan, and Colorado could provide all the…
Animal Rights To Dominate All-Vegan World Peace Yoga Conference
A sometimes-vitriolic debate is raging in the yoga community about whether yogis should a) be politically active, and b) follow a vegetarian diet. Although ahimsa (nonviolence) is the primary yoga ethic, some teachers argue that vegetarianism is too restrictive and violates ahimsa by potentially causing harm to the student. Other teachers, notably Jivamukti Yoga founders Sharon Gannon…
Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize: ‘Oslo Trumps Copenhagen’
According to NPR, that’s what a surprised Barack Obama said to his wife early this morning upon hearing he’d won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. This award is more about idealism than concrete accomplishments; more about “Yes we can” than “Yes we did.” Or as Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa told the Associated…
Interview: State Radio’s Chad Stokes Urmston
When State Radio pulls into town for a gig, fans are likely to find bandmembers working in a food bank, protesting in the streets, or doing something equally decent long before the doors open. Dedicated to human rights and common decency, the trio has created a deep bond between political activism and hard-rocking onstage agitprop….
Hitler Learns Phish’s Halloween Album
John McCain Urges Troop Build-Up In Afghanistan
On one side is a population increasingly uncomfortable with the president’s handling of Afghanistan. (Approval for his policies has dropped from 56 percent in April to 44 percent in September.) On the other side are John McCain and other Republican leaders, who want Obama to as much as double the 68,000 American troops already in…