The Great Leap Forward

AOTP tonight on HomeGrownradioNJ.com.

Yes, I'm still alive and on the air tonight from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. EST.

Try the Brown Samana show right before AOTP, from 7 to 10 p.m.

HomeGrownRadioNJ.com

Tom Verlaine - Dreamtime - Tracks 4-6.

04. Tom Verlaine - The blue robe

05. Tom Verlaine - Without a word

06. Tom Verlaine - Mr. Blur

All Over The Place - HomegrownRadioNJ.com - 23 Mar 2007 (#43).

This AOTP is somewhat shorter than usual, but is no less entertaining.

AOTP - 23 Mar 2007 - Part 1 [80 min - start to The Fratellis]

AOTP - 23 Mar 2007 - Part 2 [44 min - Tom Verlaine to end]

Dixie Chicks	Not ready to make nice	Taking the long way	Columbia	12:02 AM
Ray LaMontagne	Trouble	Trouble	RCA	11:58 PM
Johnny Cash	I got stripes	Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison	Columbia/Legacy	11:56 PM
The The	SwineFever	NakedSelf	Nothing/Interscope	11:45 PM
The Clash	White man in Hammersmith Palais	The Clash (US)	Epic	11:41 PM
Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros	Sandpaper blues	Rock art and the x-ray style	Hellcat/Epitaph	11:36 PM
The Good, The Bad & The Queen	History song	The Good, The Bad & The Queen	Parlophone/Virgin	11:34 PM
Greg Sage	Straight ahead	Straight ahead	Enigma	11:29 PM
Tom Verlaine	Always	Dreamtime	Infinite Zero/Warner Bros.	11:25 PM
Albert Hammond Jr.	101	Yours to keep	Scratchie/New Line	11:21 PM
The Fratellis	Flathead	Costello music	Cherrytree/Interscope	11:18 PM
Diesel	Sausalito summernights	Watts in a tank	Regency/Atlantic	11:05 PM
Wir	It continues	The first letter	Mute/Elektra	11:04 PM
The Frank And Walters	Something happened to me	Beauty becomes more than life	Setanta/Red Ink	10:56 PM
The Fatima Mansions	Something bad	Lost in the former West	Radioactive	10:53 PM
Duncan Sheik	Bite your tongue	Brighter/later - A Duncan Sheik anthology	Atlantic/Rhino	10:49 PM
Paul Simon	Everything put together falls apart	Paul Simon	Warner Bros.	10:41 PM
The Waterboys	When will be married?	Fisherman's blues	EMI	10:38 PM
Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers	Back in your life	The best of Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers	Rhino	10:36 PM
Radiohead	I will (Los Angeles version)	Com lag	Parlophone	10:34 PM
Christopher O'Riley	Airbag	True love waits	Odyssey/Sony	10:30 PM
Michael Franks	Living on the inside	Tiger in the rain	Warner Bros.	10:25 PM
Tina Brooks	True blue (alternate take)	True blue	Blue Note	10:16 PM
Don Cherry	Taste maker	Where is Brooklyn?	Blue Note	10:09 PM
Marcus Roberts	Maurella	The truth is spoken here	Novus/RCA	10:04 PM

No, Americans are not smarter than a 5th grader.

[Note: The title of this post is probably not grammatically correct, but bear with me. Trust me, I'm an American - I know what's best for you!]

This post isn't about that show, but AYSTA5G? pisses me off because it's another excuse to revel in big, shiny American stupidity. Caught a little of it last night and the contestant could not answer this:

If y = 3x and 3x = 12, what is y?

The kid got it right, but the adult was totally stumped and ended up quitting the show (or "dropping out" in the show's parlance).

(answer: y = 12)

Speaking of big shiny American stupidity, check this out:

[Courtesy of This Modern World and Down With Tyranny.]

Political websites that are worth your time.

I haven't been much for politics these last few months, so I thought I'd point out some of the sites that I rely on to keep me informed.

Daily Kos - the number one liberal website in the US and likely the world. It's my homepage. Can't make it through the day without peeking at it once or twice. You a Democrat? Hate Bush? You should probably be at DK.

Crooks and Liars - A close second, except for the fact that it lacks the community that DKos thrives on. Still one of the best, especially for clips from The Colbert Report, The Daily Show and the "news" networks.

This Modern World - Home of comics artist Tom Tomorrow (aka Dan Perkins). Also on point with political commentary. His weekly strip is indispensable. Bonus points to TT for growing up in Iowa City.

Hoffmania! - Run by Howard Hoffman (who used to be a DJ on WABC in New York back when radio was worth a damn), Hoffmania! is an entertaining mix of opinion and politics. Howard also runs an Internet radio station called Great Big Radio.

The Rude Pundit - Foulmouthed. Balls-out. Tells it like it is. Takes no prisoners. And other cliches. Prepare to be dazzled.

Tom Verlaine - Dreamtime - tracks 1-3.

Sorry about the silence - not much to say lately, but that could change.

Dreamtime is a tough one to find on CD, going for $150 on Amazon. That's a little much.

01. Tom Verlaine - There's a reason

02. Tom Verlaine - Penetration

03. Tom Verlaine - Always

Bad weather no AOTP.

We're getting clobbered by a major ice and snow storm. Travel isn't safe, so no trip to western NJ tonight. Next week, I'll be back on the air but the show will be slightly shorter (by 30-60 minutes) because I have another job fair to attend.

Think Tree - eight/thirteen.

Before we begin: I was going to post eight/thirteen but I just found out that' s it's all available on iTunes. Stay tuned as I look for something else. Thought I'd give you the links anyway.

***

Here's one that's a little out of character for H2FCDs - a techno/industrial outfit from Boston, Think Tree. I saw them once at the Rat and was fairly impressed, probably because they were a lot different from the garage rock shows I was used to seeing.

Their full length CD Like the idea (released on Caroline) is fairly easy to find, but eight/thirteen was going for $92 on GEMM last I checked.

Here's an interview with Think Tree from the tail end of their career in 1993.

Arcade Fire at #2.

Neon Bible made the Billboard 200 album chart, duplicating the Shins' feat earlier this year by debuting at #2. (The Shins are hanging in at #30.)

Also note: Air at #40, Bright Eyes at #57, Son Volt at #81!

Billboard 200 album chart

[courtesy of Coolfer]

Hard to find: The Wild Swans.

I was thinking about doing Bringing home the ashes by The Wild Swans which hasn't seen the light of day since its release in 1988. Good thing I didn't because it looks like that album, along with its followup, the not-nearly-as-good Space flower will be released in April with some extra songs.

Magnitude (The Sire years) on SirenDisc.com