JFK Is the Reason

Forty-six years ago today, JFK was shot to death in Dallas, Texas, presumably by Lee Harvey Oswald. Unless of course you believe Oliver Stone, or your sketchy retired neighbor who has told you in confidence on several occasions that he was in fact the gunman on the grassy knoll.

Texas Is the Reason's 1996 magnum opus Do You Know Who You Are? (yes, I'm fully aware that their discography is rather limited) dwells on the conspiracy theories surrounding Kennedy's death, if only in that there are song titles like "The Magic Bullet Theory" and "Back and to the Left." Beyond these allusions, there's a lot of fantastic second wave emo to revel in. I mean, of records from this era, I like Mineral's The Power of Failing better, and I'm gonna let it finish, but "Back and to the Left" is one of the best songs OF ALL TIME. Kicks like an angry horse that had its hay soaked in pepper sauce, drank a couple cases' worth of energy beverage out of its trough, and oh yeah, the barn's on fire.

I think that's PETA on the line. I should probably go now. But I mean, if they can go after Barack over a fly, I should be able to get away with a metaphorical statement that happens to involve a horse to describe a song, right? Right? [If you need me, I'll be in hiding]

Texas Is the Reason - Back and to the Left

Buy 'em up:
Revelation

(I figured that posting a Dead Kennedys song would have been a super cop-out. I mean, if I wanted to go down that road, I could have posted Franz Nicolay's "Jeff Penalty," a song about the band named after JFK and RFK. But that would have been a bit of a stretch.)

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That's news to me, Sunday edition:

• NPR did a roundtable discussion on the role of the label that's pretty interesting, you can find that HERE. (via Punknews)
  
• Also, apparently you can scrobble plays to Last.fm from within The Hype Machine. Good to know for those of us who are overly obsessed with quantifying the degree of their obsession with music.
  

----------------------------------------------------------- And a random video for good measure:

Tonight I Burned the Lyrics, 'Cause Every Chorus Was Your Name

I've been listening to The Avett Brothers ever since I heard the track "Matrimony" off of 2006's Four Thieves Gone: The Robbinsville Sessions. So when they were featured on the NPR All Songs Considered Tiny Desk series a few months back (highly recommended podcast, BTW), I was intrigued. This is video of that performance. The first song, "Laundry Room," is pretty much dynamite. One of the songs that made up the soundtrack of my summer, for sure.



Oh, and their new album I and Love and You drops tomorrow.

P.S. The Swell Season's Tiny Desk session was also quite good. You know, 'cause Glen Hansard's kind of a baller.