As promised, Episode 25 of Tales From The Dropbox is being released with only a short delay after the one I gave you earlier this week. As a special treat this is the 2^nd all female vocal episode of Tales From the Dropbox. Seriously, this year is producing some terrific records in a wide variety of genres from female fronted rock/punk/pop artists and Episode 25 I think demonstrates the breadth and diversity of the music of these great musicians – if you take the time to listen.

Tomorrow is Memorial Day so the only issue of merit is the sacrifice of the women and men and their families whom have served the interests of our nation. Regardless of your individual beliefs about war, there is no denying the sacrifice these honorable individuals have given for the belief in our country and the democratic ideals which define our nation. Similar sacrifices were and are made by servicepersons throughout the world and those should be remembered as well because to remember is to give meaning to those deaths. That sacrifice, in America, is explained by the pledge of allegiance, thirty-one words that define democracy and our commitment to those ideals:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

The pledge stands as an affirmation of unity. Memorial Day stands as a remembrance for those individuals who sacrificed, together, for the United State of America. Given the current state of racial disharmony and distrust of government in our nation, perhaps reflecting on these ideals encompassed in the pledge and which we, in shorthand form, describe as “freedom” and for which so many of our fellow citizens gave their lives in pursuit – with liberty and justice for all – can reorient our thinking towards achieving the ultimate democratic ideal – unity – one nation and indivisible.

You can honor these brave freedom fighters and their families by remembering them.

Here is what you’ll find in Episode #25:

1. Sweet Jean – “Main Street” (Monday to Friday)
2. Buddies – “Gumbo” (Confusion)
3. Beebe Gallini – “Little Sister” (Need All The Help I Can Get)
4. Wild Belle – “Coyotes” (Dreamland)
5. Misty Miller – “Stars” (The Whole Family is Worried)
6. Adia Victoria – “Head Rot” (Beyond the Bloodhounds)
7. Giant Peach – “Deserted” (Tarantula)
8. John Heart Jackie – “Race Car” (Episodes)
9. Slow Worries – “Bedside Manners” (Slow Worries)
10. Kitten Forever – “Souvenir” (7 Hearts)
11. Bird of Youth – “Sons & Daughters” (Get Off)
12. A Giant Dog – “Not A Miracle” (Pile)
13. Dream Wife – “Lolita” (EP01)
14. Pity Sex – “Orange and Red” (White Hot Moon)
15. Against The Current – “Running With the Wild Things” (In Our Bones)

Who’s going to fix this broken home held together with string and stone…take your money f_ck it honey … who is going to win?

KFR

I know, a little late on posting this information as these releases have been in the dropbox rotation for at least 2 weeks, but if you haven’t had a chance to check them out now would be a good time to do that before I move on to something new. Most of these releases have been featured on the Tales From The Dropbox podcasts, and a number of these should have been featured, but I wasn’t able to fit them in to the format I have arbitrarily decided works for both you and me! I am sure that I will circle back and pick some of these up to play on future episodes … but maybe not.

As always, the selected and recommended releases below are chosen to give you a sweet music fix but not an overdose of sonic goodness. So, feel free to sample to select the stuff that fits your palate! Anyway, onward and upward … here is the list:

1. Wax Witches – Memory Painting [2016]
2. The Drones – Feelin Kinda Free [2016]
3. September Girls – Age of Indignation [2016]
4. Kakkmaddafakka – KMF [2016]
5. Autolux – Pussy’s Dead [2016]
6. Dropkick – Homeward [2016]
7. Hotel Lights – Get Your Hand in My Hand [2016]
8. High Violets – Heroes and Halos [2016]
9. Heavy – Hurt & The Merciless [2016]
10. Lumineers – Cleopatra [Deluxe Edition] [2016]
11. Moberod – Ransom Notes [2016]
12. Rachael Yamagata – Covers [2016]
13. Into It. Over It. – Standards [2016]
14. Frightened Rabbit – Painting of a Panic Attack [Deluxe Edition] [2016]
15. Electric Gravity – Electric Gravity [2016]
16. Black Market Karma – Plastic Hippie [2016]
17. American Hi-Fi – Acoustic [2016]
18. Black Mountain – IV [Rough Trade Exclusive] [2016]
19. Bob Mould – Live from Studio X [2016]
20. Hit The Lights – Just to Get Through to You (Preorder song) [2016]
21. Interpol – El Pintor Remixes [2016]
22. Jayhawks – Paging Mr Proust [2016]
23. Kid Congo & the Pink Monkey Birds – La Arana Es La Vida [2016]
24. King Tuff – Wild Desire (2012, Reissue) [2016]
25. Masked Intruder – Love and Other Crimes (Preorder Single) [2016]
26. Me Like Bees – There Will Be Time [2016]
27. Mean Jeans – Tight New Dimension [2016]
28. Men Of North Country – This City [2016]
29. Miserable – Uncontrollable [2016]
30. Pity Sex – White Hot Moon [2016]
31. Plastic Flowers – Heavenly [2016]
32. Prism Tats – Prism Tats [2016]
33. Pvris – White Noise [Deluxe Edition] [2016]
34. Rachael Yamagata – Acoustic Happenstance [2016]
35. Rob Zombie – The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser [2016]
36. Rogue Wave – Delusions of Grand Fur [2016]
37. Royal Wood – Ghost Light [2016]
38. Say Yes – Real Life Trash Mag [2016]
39. Shonen Knife – Adventure [2016]
40. Strumbellas – Hope [2016]
41. Thief Club – Just Give Up [2016]
42. Travis – Everything at Once [2016]
43. Walking On Cars – Everything This Way [2016]
44. We Are Scientists – Helter Seltzer [2016]
45. White Stripes – The Complete John Peel Sessions [2016]
46. Wire – Nocturnal Koreans [2016]
47. Sales – Sales LP [2016]
48. Skating Polly – The Big Fit [2016]
49. U.K. Subs – Ziezo [2016]
50. John Doe – The Westerner [2016]

Look for me to circulate my top secrets by email … just like Hillary.

KFR

I didn’t think I’d get a chance to get out another podcast in this month. My trial schedule, unfortunately, has substantially interfered with this diversion that is a immense source of joy to me. I hope that joy is evident in the content of this week’s episode. I think the wait will, upon reflection, be worth the minor irritation of not having some new tunes last week to put that wiggle in your waddle! I am also going to try to pump out another episode quickly so you and I will both be back on schedule.

This week’s newsworthy issue is email. Thank goodness I do not utilize personal emails for my top secret stuff as Secretary Clinton chose to so do. I learned, by reading the Office of the Secretary: Evaluation of Email Records Management and Cybersecurity Requirements report, that “[a]t a minimum, Secretary Clinton should have surrendered all emails dealing with department business before leaving government service and, because she did not do so, she did not comply with the Department’s policies that were implemented in accordance with the Federal Records Act …” What???? This is government speak for “Hillary did not follow the rules.” The real news story however, is that Hillary continued to screw up and not follow the email security rules as did her State Department predecessors. Why the big deal? Well, there are a large number of people who do not like the U.S. and access to top secret information could have cost the lives of Americans in those places where the U.S. is not well liked and American citizens have a high propensity to be killed.

As noted in the report the problem in the State Department is systemic: “[a]s is the case throughout the Federal Government, management weaknesses at the Department have contributed to the loss or removal of email records, particularly records created by the Office of the Secretary…. These weaknesses include a limited ability to retrieve email records, inaccessibility of electronic files, failure to comply with requirements for departing employees, and a general lack of oversight.” I feel better about Hillary now because apparently everyone in the State Department also does not care to follow the email security rules.

While some [insert name of offended Republican] will certainly blow this news out of proportion to the harm actually caused by Hillary, the report clarifies what most of us know about our government: the challenge for our elected officials is to strive to become competent and not be arrogantly stupid. Clearly, those working for the State Department were not only negligent but were also unwieldy “beasts” slow to change and respond to the serious concerns raised by failing to recognize the potential threat of top secret information contained in those emails being obtained by our enemies. And getting this information is easy. See ‘Guccifer’ Says He Hacked Hillary Clinton’s Email and ‘It Was Easy’. So, what we have is a presidential candidate not smart enough to recognize the serious threat utilizing personal emails to transmit top secret information. Defenders will claim that it is all innocent. That is not the point. We want to elect the smartest person to the position of President and it is difficult to argue that Hillary is the smartest choice when the average citizen can figure out that her actions were not only stupid, but dangerous.

The message, as H.G. Wells in the Country of the Blind so aptly put: “[t]hose queer things that are called the eyes, and which exist to make an agreeable depression in the face, are diseased, in the case of Nunez, in such a way as to affect his brain. They are greatly distended, he has eyelashes, and his eyelids move, and consequently his brain is in a state of constant irritation and distraction.” The myth of course being that in the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

How is that for an oblique way of describing the choices we are going to have to make in November? Whatever the choice made, the next President will never be a perfect fit for a nation so divided but good God, how the F$%^%^ are we going to tell who is smart enough for the job?

Here is what you’ll find in Episode #24:

1. Skating Polly – “Picker of His Words” (The Big Fit)
2. United Fruit – “Nightmare, Recovery” (Eternal Return)
3. Tuft – “Sheep” (Look Look)
4. Stone Roses – “All for One” (Single)
5. So So Glos – “Devils Doing Handstands” (Kamikaze)
6. Modern Baseball – “Mass” (Holy Ghost)
7. Car Seat Headrest – “Just What I Needed / Not Just What I Needed” (Teens of Denial)
8. Matchless – “Thirteen” (Pills & Blades)
9. Plastic Flowers – “Lucy” (Heavenly)
10. Wakey Wakey – “Heartbroke” (Overreactivity)
11. Head Wound City – “Scraper” (A New Wave of Violence)
12. Farewell Dear Ghost – “We Were Wild Once” (Skin)
13. Motel Raphaël – “Tinder” (System)
14. The Black Room – “The Viper Room” (In This Town Lies a City)
15. Rachael Yamagata – “Worn Me Down” (Acoustic Happenstance)

I have nothing but questions, I want answers …those will fill me up… I want a great love story but I only love you when I’m drunk.

KFR

We are moving a little deeper down the river of Hades in this week’s episode of Tales From The Dropbox. Episode 23 is a little all over the sonic map, but I think you will find the happiness you so richly deserve as you listen to this episode and are transported to your special place.

I have long  wondered if we are not actually living in the dark ages with regard to certain individual rights and as you are likely aware the fixation with political correctness makes it impossible to reasonably discuss almost any topic. There is no point in most discussions of any perceived sensitive matter ( race, religion, politics, individual rights, abortion, freedom, whether green is the best color etc.) because the issue quickly becomes irrelevant and undoubtedly you will be caste as a racist, misogynist, sexist, fill-in-the-blank-ist if you disagree with anyone for any reason on any issue.  If you live here you know which ones I am talking about. Thank goodness I’m a faceless white guy from another country living in what might be the most ethnically diverse city in America, eh? #HiddenCanadians (First Use of A Meaningless Hash Tag!)

However, today a news story from England, from the BBC no less, caught my eye: “London receptionist ‘sent home for not wearing heels’” I kid you not. Apparently, temp worker Nicola Thorp, 27, from Hackney, arrived at a finance company wearing flats only to be told she had to wear shoes with a “2in to 4in heel”. When she refused and complained that male colleagues were not asked to do the same, she was sent home without pay. The outsourcing firm which sent Ms. Tharp to the company had said Ms. Thorp had “signed the appearance guidelines.”

Now this event would not ordinarily be shocking because frankly we are all aware that “appearances” matter more than “ability” but the real news not addressed by the story is that this disparity is actually legal in the UK. There is always a delicate balance in requiring a certain type of clothing while at work, but no one, in their right mind, could argue that a high heel requirement for women in the workplace strikes the required equality balance. So, what is the lesson? Nothing’s shocking. (Here you go now, a Jane’s Addiction reference for a music podcast). Nope that’s probably not the lesson from this story. Perhaps, the lesson is that as far as we think we’ve progressed as a species there are always a few stragglers. One could only imagine where we will be as a nation after the Trump/Hillary battle over the next few months. There are no winners.

As for the music, by now you know the drill. An episode filled with primarily new releases traversing a variety of largely popularly unpopular genres (and indie is not a genre) by a bunch of bands and artists with little commercial impact but – some amazing and catchy tunes! As always, put the music first, eh?

Here is what you’ll find in Episode #23:

1. Larkin Poe – “Stubborn Love” (Reskinned)
2. Posies – “We R Power” (Solid States)
3. White Lung – “Kiss Me When I Bleed” (Paradise)
4. Mean Jeans – “Michael Jackson Was Tight” (Tight New Dimension)
5. Wire – “Internal Exile” (Nocturnal Koreans)
6. Rum, Forest, Rum! – “City Lights” (Maybe Means No)
7. Can’t Swim – “Come Home” (Death Deserves A Name EP)
8. Hooded Fang – “Dead Battery” (Venus on Edge)
9. Sore Losers – “Emily” (Skydogs)
10. Dropkick – “I’m Over It” (Balance the Light)
11. Joana Serrat – “Saskatoon (Break of Dawn)” (Cross The Verge)
12. Gloom Sleeper – “The Spectre” (A Void)
13. Dead Stars – “Unpopular” (Bright Colors)
14. Nate Ruess – “I Wanna Be With You” (Vinyl, The Essentials: Best of Season 1)
15. The Beths – “Idea/Intent” (Warm Blood EP)

I’ll find a way to say what’s on my mind … I will give birth in a trailer huffing the gas in the air.

KFR

Welcome to the 22^nd episode of Tales from the Dropbox! I am taking a small break from writing a motion for judgment on the pleadings and thought that another episode of the only podcast that should matter (hopefully to those in my immediate family) was warranted after the expenditure of great mental energy this morning. This is a very pop punk oriented episode filled with a ton of terrific new releases all designed to get your feet moving as your toes tap to the beat.  I have always had a soft spot for this genre – I’m a fan of both pop music and punk rock and the delicate balance of pop and punk is difficult to achieve. I think you will find that the songs in this episode, mostly, achieve that delicate balance. And where they don’t, well, I still like those songs as well. As you will hear shortly, sometimes when the  balance is lost and the pop meanderings exceed the punk quotient, you end up with a load of sugary sweet pop that is ear candy. Great in small amounts!

As you might also have noticed, for the past couple of episodes, I have also dipped into the time machine to bring forth some under-experienced tunes from yesteryear.  I have continued the trend in  this episode to dig for more solid gold sonic awesomeness that everyone (no hyperbole) should listen to at least once!

Finally, I was going to rant about the state of music is in now in the U.S. of A. but I just read that there is an irrational interest in people attending “Oldchella” headlined by the R(eally)o ld)lling Stones with other geriatric acts Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, the Who, Roger Waters, and Neil Young at Coachella’s site, Empire Polo Field in Indio, California. Consequently, no need to rant. The war has ended. I’m now a little sad. I’ll get over it…I think.

Here is what you’ll find in Episode #22:

1. Shonen Knife – “Rock n’ Roll T-Shirt” (Adventure)
2. American Hi-Fi – “Flavor of the Weak” (American Hi-Fi Acoustic)
3. Rooney – “Time Alone” (Washed Away)
4. We Are Scientists – “Buckle” (Helter Seltzer)
5. Travis – “Paralysed” (Everything At Once)
6. Say Yes – “You’re Mine” (Real Life, Trash Mag)
7. The Summer Set – “Change Your Mind” (Stories For Monday)
8. Walking on Cars – Always Be With You” (Everything This Way)
9. Prism Tats – “Weird Guilt” (Prism Tats)
10. Me Like Bees – “Changes” (There Will Be A Time EP)
11. Air Traffic Controller – People Watching” (Black Box)
12. Thief Club – “Jealous” (Just Give Up)
13. Bishop Allen – “Start Again” (Lights Out)
14. Dexy’s Midnight Runners – “Seven Days Too Long” (Searching for the Young Soul Rebels)
15. Shivvers – “Teenline” (Lost Hits 79-82)

I’ll always be with you … you’re far from me… you people watch that’s all you do.

KFR