The initiates who have started to climb the masts and run the boats have the look of new cops at a riot. They are hungry for battle and feel the rhythm of yet-begun protracted streetfights thrumming in their veins. This is the day they told themselves would come, whether through clenched teeth or tightened eyes, like some sort of political apocalypse, a partisan version of Revelations.

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With the mainstreaming and co-opting of internet community sites, it’s refreshing to see some independent thought in the land of the MySpace World Order.
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Over a month after Coachella, Dave comments and reviews Southern California’s annual Bacchinalian exultation. That, and french robots, which are really cool.
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Neil Young’s latest album has been a long time coming, that’s how I see it. The content: anti-war sentiment, sad warnings about human impact on the earth, and distrust of and frustration with government are not new territory for Young. Subject matter wasn’t the hold up. Nor was it the composing, recording, post production or release-these were all accomplished in less than a month. The distillation of concepts Young has played with for decades has taken time. Living With War is the latest edition of “pay attention, listen up and stand up” brought about by the latest series of events to warrant it.
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Journey into a world where your boss isn’t very good at their job and people always fail up. Strange, isn’t it?
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Some songs are just crying out to be played live; they are just bigger in person than on the album. Just like some songs don’t work or lose their magic in a live setting. I mean, it’s hard to imagine Postal Service live isn’t it? No thank you. So why did I take you on this journey? I want to acknowledge the bands who bring something to a live show, who take their album to the next level, and I want to chastise the bands who offer very little or nothing at all. And maybe you’ll thank me for that.
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The issue at hand is not that Barry Bonds is an asshole. What IS pertinent, however, is that he is currently being vilified as some sort of “baseball history tainter.”

This is patently not fair.

A genius new look at an underexposed and constantly ignored subject: steroids in baseball and the women who love the men who love them.
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Birdmonster challenges its listeners to get up, dance, sing along, and really experience the feeling they’re trying to convey in their songs. Recently, I got a chance to sit down and chat with David, Justin, and Peter. Check out what they have to say about the band, their new record, touring with the National and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and the music industry.
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slide whistle
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Pattern Is Movement are an indie rock band from Philadelphia. Recently, drummer Chris Ward was kind enough to give me a few minutes of his time to answer some questions.
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You probably have a myspace. You’ve grown old of friendster. You check gmail every 2 minutes automatically with googleChat. You’re even an avid reader of launchcommit. Of course you’re blogging. But do you last.fm? It’s doubtful. Right now, this very second, there are only 1407 users on the last.fm radio. That’s nothing. Many no name bands have more so-called friends than that linked to their myspace profile.
But why bother?
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I was sort of kind of dating this boy recently who had the troubling habit of forgetting that he should pay attention to me. Some of you might say, forget about it, but as some of you may also know, I am a girl. There is something inside of me that is hard wired to track even the tiniest details of a developing relationship in the same way a Star Wars geek would pick over George Lucas’s dead rotting carcass. “Obsession” is a good word I guess.
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Recently I abandoned checking my voicemail completely. “If people really need to tell me something, they will tell me when I call them back. Or else they will call me again. I hate checking my voicemail.” These were my thoughts, and frankly, I turned out to be almost completely correct. Between December 28th, 2005 and February 23rd, 2006 I received 37 voicemails.
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Since last December, I’ve spent the last half-hour of each Sunday night lying in bed, listening to my computer speakers with a big grin on my face. Why am I so content, you ask? Well, it’s not the joy of going back to work on Monday. No! The reason I am bound by hysterical fits of laughter is because I am consuming a weekly dose of The Ricky Gervais Show, the podcast led by Ricky Gervais but also starring Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington.
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At one time, every newlywed couple in Germany received as a gift a copy of their Chancellor’s book, Mein Kampf. It’s a classic story in some ways. Sales of the book were sluggish until the author rose to supreme power and dictated that his government buy the book and make it required reading; in the end it turned out maybe more people should have read the book earlier, because some things might have not happened the same way – but to add insult to injury, a bunch of people, millions actually, read the book now that it is too late.

There are a lot of really great articles about this complicated issue. But this isn’t one of them.
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