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(The Futureheads - Taking DIY to a whole new level)

Another MySpace discovery, and another reason, no matter what anybody says, MySpace is a great place to discover new music. I swear.

The Futureheads have been around since 2000. I came to them when I first got on MySpace, around 2006. The first track of theirs I heard was this one, Skip To The End, which wound up on their second studio album "News and Tributes". In sucked me in during the intro, and when the album came out a few weeks later, stood in line to get the album (call me neanderthal, but I still love the tactile sensation of those discs and lumps of vinyl).

Far from obscure in Europe, they've yet to make much dent here in the States. But if they persist here as they did over there, it's only a matter of time.

Aside from liking the band and the production of their albums, I love the fact that these guys have taken it upon themselves to make and distribute their own stuff, promote it themselves and have done it by word of mouth and sheer persistence.

I've been saying for the past few years that these social networks have been great for getting new music out to people who would otherwise have no access to it. How it's a unique opportunity for bands all over the world to carve out their own niche and make money at the same time. I've seen it happen over and over again. For once, art and life are on speaking terms.

And good on Futureheads for proving it can happen.

As always, do what you can to support them. Check out their site, get on their mailing list, pick up their albums. Everybody wins on this one.

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(Logo - Unsigned for absolutely no good reason - well, there is that language problem)

Back over to MySpace discoveries tonight. Logo is a band from Italy who've been kicking around for a while and are still without a label. In this day and age that's not entirely a bad thing, since iTunes and some entrepreneurial spirit are spotted working wonders with bands lately.

They've been gigging around Italy quite a bit and did a brief appearance in Memphis in connection with a Jack Daniels promotion a couple years ago. They were seen just recently playing the famous San Remo Festival - so things are looking up.

This track, which is no longer on their MySpace page is one of the first songs they posted when they signed on to MySpace in 2006. Mio Paroles is a great track with good production. Okay, it's in Italian - but that shouldn't stop you. Check them out and visit their site if you can - they can use the support and you'll be discovering a great band in the process.

Good music knows no language boundaries. Honest.

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(In a word, Mao would shit)

With the G-20 Summit going full blast, I ran across this great documentary produced by ABC Radio National Australia as part of their Background Briefing series from February 2006. It's a reminder that, as much as we complain of being flooded by goods from overseas, we're doing our level best to heap gobs of shameless consumerism all over the world as well.

We joke about MacDonalds' on the Champs-Elysees in Paris - but all the Wal-Marts popping up all over China are something else.

Stan Curry - Radio Australia Reporter: “Lined up in all their red uniforms, Wal-Mart workers begin their day with an ode to Wal-Mart. Ludwig Beethoven is probably turning in his grave. And Chairman Mao too, must be a little astonished at how his legacy is being spun.”

Clay Chandler (Fortune Magazine reporter): “ When you actually go see how they run their employees at their stores, what I was struck with was the similarities between the Chinese Communist Party Organizational pattern. They get these people together in groups, they organize them in very small cells, everybody is very aware of what everybody else is doing within their cell, and encouraged to kind of talk about each other. They sing songs together. They do little drills to create workers solidarity. They run around in red shirts. And they do Wal-Mart Company cheers. They look like nothing so much as the old Red Guard of the Cultural Revolution.”

It's interesting to see how increasingly Gordian our entanglements are becoming with the rest of the world on economic terms. We can't just assume the isolationists stance because it no longer is realistic and hasn't been for many years. Therefore, solutions to our economic situations are more complex than they ever were. Snap answers and judgments no longer need apply.

And then there's that issue of Immigration . . .

(I would urge you to check out ABC Radio Nationals website as well as streaming audio - they are one of the best and as I have said before, they offer information about our own country not generally available here. So in addition to the CBC and the BBC, add this one to your daily dial hopping for useful information).

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(Alfred W. McCoy, author of A Question of Torture, interviewed on Late Night Live - ABC Radio National, Australia. March 15, 2006)

Note: This is a re-post from May - considering the current events in the torture issue, it seems apropos to take another look at it now.

I'm always amazed at how, in order to get any information about my own country, I have to listen to the radio or watch the news from another country in order to find out what's going on.

If you aren't familiar with it, ABC Radio National is Australias public Radio network - it's the equivalent to the BBC in the UK and CBC in Canada. Like the other two, ABC National offers a massive amount of information and news that just doesn't make the mainstream media here.

Case in point - I ran across this episode of Late Night Live, while downloading a group of podcasts from 2006. It features torture/interrogation expert Alfred W. McCoy. He explains at length our history in the field of torture, the techniques used and the reasons why most of them don't and haven't worked.

It was conducted in March of 2006, shortly after the revelations of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. There are some fascinating insights to be found, especially in light of recent developments and soft peddling to the contrary.

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(Everything but tar and feathers)

Following up yesterdays post and the interview with Alfred McCoy, I located two later interviews, both done by Philip Adams on his Late Night Live radio program for ABC National in Australia. The first one, from May 22, 2006 features former Lt.Gen. Janis Karpinski and her role in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal and the second half is an interview from June 6, 2006 with former weapons inspector and detainee adviser Rod Barton.

Both worth a listen, especially in light of the recent "What Us, Torture?" tour currently going on.