All posts by Chris DeCarlo

Art, Entertainment, Lists, Music

Tops of the Decade Part I

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Yes, I know there is still three months left of the decade, but I do not feel like waiting said time to do this post. So, basically here are my favorite songs for each year of the 00s. I cannot believe the decade is coming to an end! It was ok…. but musically fantastic. Enjoy.

1) Fatlip- What’s Up Fatlip?- 2000
2) The Shins- New Slang- 2001
3) Against Me!- Baby, I’m An Anarchist!- 2002
4) Johnny Cash- Hurt- 2003
5) Head Automatica- Beating Heart Baby- 2004
6) Page France- Chariot- 2005
7) King Khan & BBQ Show- Too Much In Love- 2006
8) Black Lips- Bad Kids- 2007
9) Jay Reatard- See/Saw- 2008
10) Deerhunter- Disappearing Ink- 2009

Clearly independent record labels dominate. 7/10 songs were on independent labels. Fuck Yeah! Top Albums are coming next….

Chris

Art, Culture Jamming, Music, Politics

Band Spotlight: Tom Jefferson

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Top Album: The Declaration of Independence (1776) This is Tom at his finest; one incendiary motherfucker. Before he completely sold out with 1803’s corporate shilling Louisiana Purchase. No expansion my ass!

Top Lyrics: “Whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government.” and “A little rebellion now and then is a good thing… the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

Chris

Art, Books, Entertainment, Films, Lists, Politics, religion

Which Was Better?

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I’m going to throw out some titles and deem whether I feel the novel/book or the film was better. Of course I’m only including works I’ve both read and viewed.

1) Fight Club– Film (novel was very close though)
2) Willy Wonka/ Charlie and the Chocolate Factory– Film (1971)
3) One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest– Film
4) The Shining– Novel (I love the film too)
5) A Clockwork Orange-Film
6) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas– Novel
7) Fast Times At Ridgemont High– Film
8) The Motorcycle Diaries– Novel
9) Manufacturing Consent Book
10) The Outsiders– Novel
11) The Autobiography of Malcolm X– Book
12) To Kill A Mockingbird-Novel
13) Of Mice and Men– Novella
14) Julius Caesar– Play
15) Macbeth– Play
16) A Christmas Carol– Novella
17) A Separate Peace Novel
18) Girl, Interrupted– Novel
19) American Hardcore– Book
20) The Great Gatsby– Novel

Chris

Art, business, Culture Jamming, Entertainment, Femmes, Lists, Music

My Favorite Record Labels

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1) Sub Pop– No Age, Nirvana, Beat Happening, Mudhoney, Soundgarden, The Shins, Handsome Furs, Wolf Parade, The Vaselines, Iron and Wine, Modest Mouse, Rogue Wave, Sebadoh, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Postal Service

2) SST– Black Flag, Meat Puppets, Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth, Bad Brains, Minutmen, Husker Du, Descendents, Soundgarden

3) Matador– Jay Reatard, Sonic Youth, Fucked Up, Cat Power, Mission of Burma, Yo La Tengo, Pavement, Interpol, Lou Reed

4) In the Red– Black Lips, Jay Reatard, King Khan & BBQ Show, Mark Sultan, Dirtbombs, Vivian Girls, Deadly Snakes- Nice, little label!

5) Vice– Black Lips, King Khan & The Shrines, Death From Above 1979, Fucked Up, The Raveonettes

6) Domino– Animal Collective, Arctic Monkeys, Lou Barlow, The Fall, Stephen Malkmus, Will Oldham aka Bonnie Prince Billy, Pavement, Elliott Smith,

7) Rough Trade– The Smiths, Arcade Fire, Galaxie 500, Beat Happening, Vaselines, Libertines, Babyshambles, Mabuses, Butthole surfers, The Moldy Peaches, The Raincoats, Sufjan Stevens, Stiff Little Fingers, The Strokes, The Veils,

8) Bomp!– Black Lips, The Stooges, The Germs, Dead Boys, Devo, Mark Sultan, The Modern Lovers, The Warlocks

9) K Records– Calvin Johnson, Beat Happening, Beck, Bikini Kill, Built to Spill, Kimya Dawson, Modest Mouse, Vaselines

10) Alternative Tentacles– Jello Biafra, Dead Kennedys, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, D.O.A, Half Japanese, Butthole Surfers, The Crucifucks, Lard, Melvins, Wesley Willis

11) Touch and Go– Big Black, Rapeman, Shellac, Jesus Lizard, Scratch Acid, Butthole Surfers, Naked Raygun, The Rollins Band, TV On the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Urge Overkill

12) Dischord– Fugazi, Minor Threat, The Evens, The Teen Idles, The Nation of Ulysses, Scream

13) Fat Wreck Chords– Descendents, NOFX, Anti-Flag, Against Me!, Propagandhi, Rise Against

14) Epitaph– Bad Religion, Social Distortion, NOFX, Descendents, Green Day, Circle Jerks, Vandals, Converge, The Sounds of Animals Fighting,

15) Saddle Creek– Bright Eyes, Two Gallants, Tokyo Police Club, Cursive

16) Merge– Arcade Fire, Dinosaur Jr, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Vallye Band, … And You Will Know Us By the Trail of the Dead, Lou Barlow, Buzzcocks

I’m probably forgeting some. Oh well. Feel free to post suggestions.

Chris

Art, Entertainment, Music

The Return of the Fuzz!

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The Return of the Fuzz

Anyone out there tired of listening to the same mainstream songs on the radio over and over again? Does Coldplay sound too clean for you? Well, no need to worry, a musical elixir has arrived and it is here to stay. Within the past few years, fans and critics alike have witnessed a tornado in the revival of Garage Rock.
Garage Rock is a genre of music that emerged in the early 1960’s primarily in The United States and Canada, but certainly not limited to those two countries. Simply stated, the music was pure, raw, noisy, and often self-produced. The title of the genre literally refers to bands beginning in their garages creating the aforementioned sound and it later being reflected in their recordings. Most groups of the Garage variety have become obscure names or one hit wonders. On the other hand, British Invasion artists, like The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, and the early Beatles share elements of the no holds barred style in their work. For instance, in The Beatles’ 1963 hit, “Twist and Shout,” the vocals are rather loud and raspy. For readers who are unfamiliar with Garage Rock, listen to the tune again and you will hear it!
Despite the fact that these bands never became as commercially successful as The Beatles, The Kinks, or The Rolling Stones, this did not diminish their clear influence on future generations, particularly the first wave of American and British Punk Rock bands. In fact, Garage icons, The Sonics and The Seeds have been noted for shaping the music of several Punk pioneers, such as The Ramones and The Dead Boys, respectively.
Today, we are fortunate enough to have a myriad of young musicians, who have heard and studied the music of their parents and are injecting the latter’s style with Punk Rock attitude and Pop hooks. This is where we arrive at the revival of Garage Rock. So, what makes this style so unique? Why should consumers of music pay any attention to it? Well, for starters it deviates from the normal, almost formula-driven music listeners hear in the mainstream. Much of today’s stars record radio friendly, overly produced songs. Even artists that may not fall under the banner of “mainstream,” but have garnered commercial success maintain absolutely disparate production values than their earsplitting counterparts. Popular metal bands, Rage Against the Machine and Tool profess to dedicating years recording their LPs. Garage Revival artists, chiefly, The Black Lips, King Khan & The BBQ Show, Jay Reatard, and The Dirtbombs stand in direct contrast to these aesthetics. They release material that is unpolished and often recorded in a brief amount of time. For example, The Black Lips and the King Khan & BBQ Show joined forces and formed the super group, The Almighty Defenders and recorded a self-titled, twelve song, Gospel album in just a few days. But, this isn’t foreign in the Garage world. Jay Reatard claims to have written one of his latest songs, “It Aint Gonna Save Me,” in just one hour and recorded the number in a mere day and a half!
Fans of Rock and Roll will appreciate the fact that these modern bands are resuscitating the fun, rebellion, and simplicity of the devil’s music. So, if you miss the element of shock or dare I say danger in Rock, and then give these wild hipsters some ear time.

Chris

As seen in the UMass Lowell Connector

Books, Culture Jamming, Politics

What Does Politics Mean to Me?

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This was for my American Politics class lol

What Does Politics Mean to Me?

So, what does politics mean to me? That’s a surprisingly difficult question for me to answer, but by the end of this paper, I’m sure I will have the perfect response. For most kids my age, politics means nothing to them, at least it appears that way. For some strange reason my brain is completely engulfed in politics. Well sort of…. When I say politics, I don’t mean typical CNN headlines or vapid Congressional hearings. When I think of fascinating politics I conjure up an image of Abbie Hoffman decked out in his inverted American Flag tee shirt holding a demonstration or Howard Zinn giving a lecture to an audience of intrigued students. I often hear the term, “political junkie.” I suppose I’m more of a “subversive junkie.”
Every day the aforementioned subversive politics enters my psyche one way or another. While other teens chat about fantasy baseball teams, my comrades and I propose our fantasy political systems. One of my amigos desires a classic free market, laissez-faire, libertarian society. Another friend terrifyingly insists fascism is the path of sound politics. I personally find anarchism to be the most appealing (and most misunderstood) political philosophy. Although, I initially favored socialism. Anyway, I also co-run a blog that often features strong social/political commentary of the radical persuasion. I read dozens of dissident books, essays, and articles over the year. Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent and Jerry Rubin’s Do iT! can be found on my bookshelf, just to name a few. My friends and family make every effort to eschew engaging in debates with me because they know how much I love political bull sessions. Like most folks, I love You Tubing ridiculously funny videos, but most of the time I use this enormous resource to discover alternative forms of media, which are anonymous in the mainstream, to inform myself on how the system truly works. I do however maintain an open mind and always question anything and everything I hear, conventional or unconventional.
Being of the leftist political affiliation, I have just a tad bit of cynicism for our system. I see America as two entities: the people and the government. In an ideal society these two are one and therefore no one has to obey orders from illegitimate authority. As denizens of this great country it is our duty today to push for this kind of government for tomorrow. Since, few politicians share this view of our nation, I don’t trust 99% of them. I believe they are merely corporate stooges in the Evil Empire. With that being said, there are a select few here and there that I like and/or endorse. These include Ralph Nader (above all), Cynthia McKinney, Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, and Ron Paul, whom actually has a completely different ideology than myself, but I greatly admire for maintaining integrity in an arena where such a word is foreign. I side with him on ending the Military Industrial Complex, prohibition (the War on Drugs), the Patriot Act/FISA legislation, and the Federal Reserve.
So, to answer the title question: what does politics mean to me? I suppose it means a system in which some people win and some people lose. A system where the people in power are only concerned with their own interests and maintaining that power. But, based on my influences, there is a solid dose of resistance against this system that can never be curtailed.

Chris

Art, business, Culture Jamming, economics, Entertainment, Films, Health/Science, Politics, Soccer

South of the Border

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A trailer for the new Oliver Stone documentary on the Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez. I plan on seeing his earlier documentary, Looking For Fidel first though. This goes hand in hand with Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story for left-wing, biased movies that I generally agree with and enjoy but criticize the tactics.

Chris