So, as a starter, happy New Year! I’m glad to be back after a short break. So where are we now a few weeks into a new year? Well, shit is still bad. As you might note by the title to these episodes – we are still in a deadly pandemic. In Los Angeles, where I am located, things are really bad. There are more people dying here every day than at anytime in the past 11 months. While there is hope on the horizon we are experiencing the surge caused by a catastrophic failure of people to listen to the advice and act. Here we are at a point where community spread is so high that we just passed 1 million (1,000,000!) COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, and confirmed its first case of the new, more contagious coronavirus strain first reported in the United Kingdom. This week the county also reported 14,669 new cases of COVID-19 and 253 additional deaths, bringing the county’s totals to 1,003,923 cases and 13,741 fatalities. See it’s bad.
Then there is the insurrection in the nation’s capitol as the 4 years of chaos under the Trump regime well documented in these pages comes to an insane end. There is still a couple of days until Biden is sworn in but as we should all be aware – that is no guarantee that there will be a peaceful transition of power. Honestly, these past 4 years have been exhausting with this nut bag in control of the reins of democracy. I am hopeful that the tyranny of the minority will end and the rest of us can confront the real issues created and exposed during the past 4 years including the economic disaster caused by the failed response to COVID-19, the harsh reality that the U.S. has institutionalized racism and economic disparity, climate change, and the other social diseases that are symptoms of economic inequality in a very politically divided country. I fear that we are in store for a very rocky ride to get out of the place where we are trapped now. Well, there is always hope….
As you should know by now, the beginning of a new year is also a state of transition for Tales From The Drop Box. Episode 189 delicately balances the urge to present a flurry of new releases that always arrive at the beginning of a new year with those that were released at the end of the last one. Then, there is always the ones that I just didn’t get to play or missed along the way. So, this is really a long way of saying this is a mixed bag of tunes, but all in my mind really good. This I believe is the best way to start a new year – contemplating the last one but always moving forward. So, with that said have a happy and safe new year. We are still going to rock our asses off.
Here is what you’ll find in Episode 189 (2021-01):
Shitkid – “Downtown Apartment” (Crotchrock EP)
Ben Kweller – “Hold Me Down” (Circuit Boredom)
Babe Corner – “Killer” (Killer EP)
The Dirty Nil – “Ride Or Die” (Fuck Art)
Viagra Boys – “Ain’t Nice” (Welfare Jazz)
Some Stranger – “Meet In Secret” (Meet In Secret Speak In Code)
lié – “Drowning In Piss” (You Want It Real)
Osees – “Nervous Breakdown” (Live At Big Sur)
The Avalanches – “Gold Sky (feat. Kurt Vile)” (We Will Always Love You)
Slow Worries – “When We Go Out” (Careful Climb)
Foxy Shazam – “Burn” (Burn)
Descendents – “Hindsight 2020″ (Suffrage 7”)
Happy. – “April Is For Fools” (Imposter Syndrome)
The Stone Roses – “I Am The Resurrection” (The Stone Roses)
Gotts Street Park – “Favorite Kind Of Girl” (Volume Two EP)
Tales From The Drop Box Episode 189 (2021-01)
I’m about to have a nervous breakdown my head really hurts if I don’t find a way out of here …. Down, down, you bring me down I hear you knocking down my door and I can’t sleep at night …
I was almost emotional watching the moms and dads in Portland intercede between the criminal government agents and the demonstrators in the on-going public discussion about race in America. I never thought I would ever see the day that the federal government would use a secretive unmarked paramilitary force to kidnap citizens off city streets and use an unlawful level of violence against demonstrators all to, arguably, protect against vandalism of federal monuments erected as a reminder, in some instances, of our country’s oppressive and racist past and the ongoing struggle for equality by the disenfranchised because of race, gender, disability, and privilege. Wow, that was a long sentence. Here is the short version – the Trump administration’s actions violate the constitutional rights of peaceful and lawful protestors. No one is condoning vandalism, violence or anarchy. I am not an anarchist. Anarchy only exists in my mind. What is being missed in the Fox masquerading as “news” opinion network’s daily screed is that the government represents the majority of the people i.e. we apparently elected our representatives. When the majority represented by government agents interferes with the peaceful minority’s right to disagree with the majority, this interference is the first step towards the majority repressing minority viewpoints. That action, is tyranny.
José Ortega y Gasset in “The Revolt of the Masses” (1930) recognized the issue of the mass mind:
As they say in the United States: “to be different is to be indecent.” The mass crushes beneath it everything that is different, everything that is excellent, individual, qualified and select. Anybody who is not like everybody, who does not think like everybody, runs the risk of being eliminated. And it is clear, of course, that this “everybody” is not “everybody.” “Everybody” was normally the complex unity of the mass and the divergent, specialized minorities. Nowadays, “everybody” is the mass alone. Here we have the formidable fact of our times, described without any concealment of the brutality of its features.— Chapter 1, “The Coming of the Masses”
The Fascist and Syndicalist species were characterized by the first appearance of a type of man who “did not care to give reasons or even to be right”, but who was simply resolved to impose his opinions. That was the novelty: the right not to be right, not to be reasonable: “the reason of unreason.”— Chapter 8, “Why the Masses Intervene in Everything and Why They Always Intervene Violently”
Sound familiar?
Finally, in case you haven’t heard, Burger Records is no longer a record label and Lollipop records is also in the middle of a reckoning. Both labels are accused of participation in rape culture and support of artists who have engaged in abhorrent behavior with and towards young female fans and scene followers. Please support those brave individuals who were have come forward and expose the truly dark side of Los Angeles’s garage rock/indie scene.
I should also shout out Globelamp aka Elizabeth LeFey, who has tried for several years to have her voice heard regarding her time with Foxygen and now seems to be finding support in the indie community.
For details on what is transpiring in the Los Angles indie rock scene and so you can form your opinion as to what has happened, what is currently transpiring, the bands, record labels, and music festivals involved and, more importantly, the young women and their treatment, follow these IG accounts:
Space Age Playboys – “Rocket Girl” (New Rock Underground)
Viagra Boys – “Lick The Bag” (Common Sense EP)
Varsity – “Heaven Sent” (Fine Forever)
Starflyer 59 – “Miami” (Miami)
The Head & The Heart – “Sun Is Rising” (Living Mirage: The Complete Recordings)
SiM – “Black & White” ( Thank God, There Are Hundreds Of Ways To Kill Enemies)
The Destructos – “The Sight” (Blast!)
The Detectors – “The Decline” (Ideology)
Swampmeat Family Band – “Friends In The Floor” (Muck)
Hanni El Khatib – “Alive” (Flight)
The Outcasts – “Sex And Glory” (BBC Radio 1 John Peel Session, 29 September 1982 (1982-85)
Blushh – “Make It Better” (RIP Apathy)
We’re sittin’ ’round on the couch we were makin’ words with our mouths we had a pile of junk that’s already runnin’ out . . . I can’t believe I survived! It’s all around and upside down. I’m alive! How can this be true?
I honestly didn’t think that it would take a real pandemic for me to restart production of these broadcasts albeit from an underground bunker where I am now holed up. But it did and I did. I am back for now and bringing you the usual oddball assortment covering all the good musical genres. That last statement confirms that I am acknowledging that there exists a few genre of music that are just un-freakin-listenable. This episode follows my traditional rules for musical selection: If it’s catchy – I’m playing it. If it’s not catchy – I’m not. See simplicity is good during a pandemic. “Wear a mask,” wash your hands”, “stay the F away from me” are also other fine examples of the guidance we need to hear now in order to survive. And I assure you that you will survive the Covid-19 pandemic – if you keep downloading and listening to Tales From the Drop Box. The music in this edition would have been the tracks comprising the next episode I would have released in 2019. I know its way late but the music is still excellent! We’ll start fresh next episode, okay?
A note for those of you who are actually surprised to find another episode hitting your notifications. I tried several times to release a new podcast to tide you over since my last one in July of last year. It obviously didn’t happen. I am committed to the release of a couple more of these for now because you shouldn’t make critical decisions amidst a pandemic. Really. short term thinking is better. However, we need to look forward as well, because to look in the near view mirror makes me a little angry. All this needless and avoidable death. I could go on but I won’t. This podcast is for you to escape your reality. It should make you happy. It makes me happy. I believe we need to be happy, now.
Here is what you’ll find in Episode 153:
Abjects – “Sad Song” (Never Give Up)
Muncie Girls – “Car Crash” (Sleepless)
Mobina Galore – “Back To The Beginning” (Don’t Worry)
Jaded Truth – “Social Viro” (Rx)
Have Mercy – Heartbeat (The Love Life)
Lazy Susans – “R U Ok” (Now That the Party’s Over)
Flash Forward – “Dancing In The Dark” (Golden Rust)
Circa Waves – “Movies” (What’s It Like Over There?)
Blisses B – “Six Plus One” (Tell Your Friends You Love Them And Why)
Found Items – “Still The Same” (All Bets Are Off)
The Bronx – “Into The Black” (Dead Tracks, Vol. 1)
The Briefs – ‘She’s The Rat”(Platinum Rats)
Satan Takes a Holiday – “I Believe What I See (If I See In My Feed)” (A New Sensation)
Viagra Boys – “Shrimp Shack” (Street Worms)
Material Issue – “Satellite (Demo)” (Issues Vol. 3)
Gloo – “I’m Not Gonna Change” (Stop and Stare)
I’ll kick liquor and cigarettes if it’ll help you remember me like the way that I used to be . . . I put a towel in a bag with formaldehyde I put that shit up to my mouth and get really high
So, I have a midweek episode for you! Tales From The Drop Box Episode 147 mixes up some pure pop in the form of a new track from Bad Bad Hats against some pure psychedelic garage from Ty Segall and this is juxtaposed against the pure post-pink/punk rock of the Viagra Boys. It’s a good ride, and for a Wednesday should make the drive time home a much more pleasant experience. So, while you are parked in traffic, roll down your window, turn up the stereo, and share this latest episode with your neighbors!
As you already know and it bears repeating, if the music truly mattered then radio stations would actually play good music.
Here is what you’ll find in Episode 147:
Ex Hex – “Radiate” (It’s Real)
Public Theatre – “Ghosts” (Otherside)
Buck Gooter – “Peace Siren” (Finer Thorns)
Carré-Court – “Nothing” (Out Of The Bloom)
Bad Bad Hats – “Wide Right” (Wide Right EP)
Chelsea Deadbeat Combo – “Fucked Up And Wasted” (Perspectives)
Perkele – “Winner” ( Leaders of Tomorrow)
The Castor Troys – “We Are One” (Legends Never Die)
Institute – “Cheap Time Morals” (Beat Session Vol. 6)
Basement – “Be Here Now” (Be Here Now b/w Are You The One 7”)
Fontaines D.C. – Too Real” (Dogrel)
Ty Segall – “Squealer” (Deforming Lobes)
Viagra Boys – “Down In The Basement” (Street Worms)
999 – “Damp With Tears” (Takeover)
Witching Waves – “Disintegration” (Persistence)
Look back, close your starry eyes like you want to free fall from the crystal skies yeah, I know you don’t wanna dance alone . . . You say that you can’t communicate everything’s wrong, everything that you say she said “I can’t speak to you feels like you’re someone else for most of the time”
Tales From The Drop Box Episode 122 is a legitimate exercise of free expression and protected by a Constitution. That Constitution was revealed this past week to be merely a piece of paper and not the touchstone of a democratic society. One observation that is obvious from the events surrounding the Kavanaugh appointment to the supreme court: our government is in free fall.
NB: This would be a good time to just skip to the bottom if you do not share the same political views as me or are just burnt out of a tumultuous political news environment …. Be assured that the podcast entitled Tales From The Drop Box is only about the music! We can respectfully disagree with one another as to how our government should operate but I think we can all agree that music should always matter!
Now for those of you who have not heeded the warning above and are still somewhat interested or perhaps curious in my humble opinion…
Our nation will survive this latest fall – a fall that began with the election of Trump – a vile creature that is pathological in his avoidance of the truth. I can also reassure you that at some point in the future the chaos will subside and order will be restored. However, as things stand right now, I think that we are in store for more difficult times ahead for our republican form of government.
Where does the blame lie? I think it squarely lies with us – you and me – and our inability to elect representatives “of and for” the people. This undemocratic situation would likely be easier medicine to swallow if it was the intent of the framers was to give control of the government to the citizens of the United States but, as we should all realize, the framers did not intend for the citizens to control the happenings in Washington. The framers of the Constitution envisioned a system of representative government that was, by design, created to prevent the voice of a large number of the people who elect those representatives from being heard. We are now free falling as a society because “we the people” have chosen, for more than 200 years, to ignore the obvious flaws in our system and fix the damned thing. Trump and Kavanaugh are the consequences of our collective failure.
The problem with our government is not the political party system. Although, after the sham Kavanaugh investigation controlled by the Republican party, you would tend to think that those morally bankrupt sycophants of Trump aka the Trump Party, are to blame for the state of the disunion – but they are not. The Republican party operates as the framers originally intended – to divest authority of government from the people and keep the wisdom in the hands of the “elite” few. Instead of draining the swamp, the swamp is thriving under Trump. I should probably note for you that I am not alone in this thinking. Someone actually took the time to gather empirical date to study the influence of the people on our elected representatives. Their conclusion confirms what we already know from observation that: “when the preferences of economic elites and the stands of organized interest groups are controlled for, the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.” The authors then conclude that their findings [] about democracy in America …
constitute troubling news for advocates of “populistic” democracy, who want governments to respond primarily or exclusively to the policy preferences of their citizens. In the United States, our findings indicate, the majority does not rule—at least not in the causal sense of actually determining policy outcomes. When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the U.S. political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally do not get it. (See Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens.)
The inescapable conclusion is that the fault with our present system of government lies with us and that the issues we are currently experiencing are not only systemic but also inherent in our form of government. If it is possible to somehow assign blame for the Kavanaugh debacle, then any aspersions for the result (i.e. the confirmation of a person so politically partisan that he delegitimizes the court as a check on the power of the other branches of government), should be cast upon an electoral system that is fundamentally flawed. I have pointed out some of those flaws in the past, but here is a brief list of the big ones that would suggest that our democratic republic is a sham (again, for the record, the U.S. is not a democracy):
The person who receives the most votes from the people does not win the election for President (i.e. one person, one vote).
The electoral college. Why the fuck would we vote for electors at this point in our history? 538 people vote for president – you do not. In 21 states, no matter who you voted for president, your elector can choose whomever they want to be president.
A president who lost the popular vote by 2,864,974 nominated Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to serve lifetime appointments on the nation’s highest Court;
The Senate treats residents of small states as more worthy of representation than residents of larger states i.e. it treats a person from California as 1/67th of a person from Wyoming.
None of the above makes sense to anyone who can think rationally. I know, you are going to double check me, but even a Canadian immigrant can figure out that there is something truly fucked up with a system where the people “vote” for a President and that vote is merely illusion. Why are we still doing this?
As Alexander Hamilton and James Madison made clear in the Federalist Papers, the essence of our republic would consist “IN THE TOTAL EXCLUSION OF THE PEOPLE, IN THEIR COLLECTIVE CAPACITY, from any share” in the government. Instead, popular views would be translated into public policy through the election of representatives “whose wisdom may,” in Madison’s words, “best discern the true interest of their country.” Over the years, the spin we are taught in our classrooms is that the “people” can influence the outcome of elections. However, as noted in prior rants from my window to the world, not everyone votes, not every citizen can vote, and given the gerrymandering, electoral college, and gerrymandering (again), the odds are slim that the intent of Hamilton and Madison is going to change. A good place to start the process of change would be with the way we appoint supreme court justices. Baby steps…
I started off today thinking I was going to write something about the Supreme Court and how the confirmation of Kavanaugh confirms the illegitimacy of the Court. I am still angry at the subterfuge of the Republican Party in orchestrating the clown show that took place. What is more troublesome is that the blame lies on both sides of the aisle. I am no longer confident that the U.S. Supreme Court is worthy of the respect of its citizens and that is deeply troubling. So, rather than write about the “confirmation” of the supreme court’s illegitimacy (note: capital letters are reserved for a legitimate body), what follows below is the source of that illegitimacy for you to consider as you ponder the outcome of the failed process from last week.
I am not the first one to note that the Supreme Court has lost the mantle of legitimacy as a check on the other branches of government. For example, see this interesting law review article from 2013: The Supreme Court’s New Source of Legitimacy which argues that legitimacy derives from either expertise or popularity and in the introduction makes this observation: “the idea that judges decide salient cases based on their political preferences has become part of the common perception and has eroded the Court’s image as an expert in the public mind.” Well, if the other source of legitimacy, as the author suggests, is popularity, I venture to say that the confirmation of Kavanaugh has sealed the court’s fate – doomed to be viewed by the public as an illegitimate body. This is troubling on many levels. Without a legitimate high court i.e. a body that is non-partisan, conscious of bias, and acting as a legitimate check on the power of the President, the U.S. Constitution is rendered meaningless as a corrupt court twists the constitution into what it desires for the master it serves and as a consequence the rule of law is no longer the dominant driver of our society. A country without respect for the rule of law is no longer a country. It is tyranny. The preamble to the Constitution recites the rationale for the form of government proposed by the framers of the Constitution: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice . . .”
Establishing justice i.e. the rule of law, is a first principle established by the founders in order to form that more perfect union. It took the Supreme Court more than 25 years to find its place as the check on the power of the other branches of government i.e. as something more than a lackey to the President. As almost every high school student should know, this role of the Supreme Court was first established in Marbury v. Madison 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803). Kavanaugh’s confirmation – an intemperate partisan – who is, as alleged by his own Yale classmates, also a liar, is the consequence of that flawed electoral system. That flawed system has also created our immediate situation – a situation where a single appointment to the supreme court effectively and perhaps permanently eviscerates the power of the court to prevent the tyranny of the presidency. The supreme court was the last remaining restraint on presidential power because the Senate no longer functions as a co-equal and Congress is irrelevant. No matter what kind of justice Kavanaugh ends up being while on the bench, it is simply not possible to turn lead into gold. Oops, that may be possible. Perhaps shit into shinola.
The Supreme Court should not be partisan. Tales from the Drop Box is partisan. . . . and will always be partisan in favor of free will, the rule of law, individual freedoms and diversity. Know the difference. Believe.
Here is what you’ll find in Episode #122:
Gouge Away – “Hey Mercy” (Burnt Sugar)
Bad Sounds – “Avalanche” (Get Better)
Northern Faces – “Firecracker” (Fingers Crossed)
Death Valley Girls – “Wear Black” (Darkness Rains)
Tommy and the Commies – “Straight Jacket” (Here Come ….)
Viagra Boys – “Slow Learner” (Street Worms)
Save Face – “Plans” (Merci)
She Drew The Gun – “Something For The Pain” (Revolution Of Mind)
Engine Summer – “Basement” (Trophy Kids)
Gen Pop – “It’s A Trap” (Start Again)
The Goon Sax – “Love Lost” (We’re Not Talking)
Night Birds – “My Dad Is The BTK” (Roll Credits)
Buzzcocks – “Love Is Lies” (Love Bites)
The Beths – “You Wouldn’t Like Me” (Future Me Hates Me)
Love is lies, love is eyes love is everything that’s nice love is not as cold as ice but that’s what that means to me . . . you were making plans, I was sleeping in. Bet you didn’t think I’d notice the bruises on your skin. Yeah, you were making plans. You were making plans, you were sleeping out.
