Death Knells: Muzak and Analog TV

A) Muzak filed for bankruptcy today. The company began in the 1930s to make elevator rides less scary by piping benign music. (Maybe we should put in a bid to make elevator rides more scary?)

B) If you live in the Bay Area, you may want to check out the Funeral for Analog TV at the Berkeley Art Museum, featuring an eulogy delivered by author Bruce Sterling. The DTV switch has been delayed until June, but it's never too early to kill your television. You can bring your old analog set to be recycled; the first 40 sets to arrive will become a part of the analog TV memorial pile. This event is brought to you by the Berkeley Art Museum and the Long Now Foundation (Brian Eno's foundation)

Funeral for Analog TV
w/ Paul Saffo, Bruce Sterling
February 17, 2009 @ 7pm
Berkeley Art Museum
2621 Durant St
Berkeley, CA

Jello + Fucked Up = Ramones

Fucked Up played at the Independent in San Francisco last night. Jello Biafra jumped on stage for the encore to sing "Blitzkrieg Bop" with them. Here is a video of this joyous occasion, courtesy of Umlaut. Read Umlaut's excellent review of the show here!




Bonus video: A snippet of Amebix's "Largactyl" with Jello singing backup, also courtesy of Umlaut.

An Experiment: Open Thread!

This blogging thing is still new to us, and there's always room for experments. So here is an open thread; go ahead and post what you will. Do you have questions for us? Want to make yourself available for a cabinet position (since Obama seems to have a problem filling those jobs)? Want to pontificate on your favorite AT bands and releases? Want to guess why this guy decided to smuggle pigeons in his pants (as well as an eggplant, some seeds, and an egg in his luggage)?

***

I'm going to address the comments posted so far up here in the main post since Blogger won't let me reply to individual comments. (Let me know if you prefer that I respond in the comments instead of adding to the main post.)

Dear JGY, the Concerned Canadian Citizen:

I have very limited knowledge of Jello and the Axis's current activities, however, I do know that the band has been rehearsing regularly. They were planning to play some shows in Fall 08, but due to scheduling conflicts, that didn't happen. We hope that there will be some live dates in 2009. As of now, there are no concrete plans I'm aware of, for a tour or an album. Of course, as soon as we know anything, we'll let you know! I will tell Jello that his presence is wanted in Ontario.

Dear Krista:

Thanks for liking us. Maybe you can send us a Valentine to cheer us up in this bleak economic climate?

Speaking of economic climates, I wonder if banks have the basic math skills or common decency to accept your check written out for "Thirty Seven and 832/100 Dollars" as $45.32. They will probably perform some "service" to "correct your error" and will collect a fee for that "service." They always find a way to charge you for some bullshit, so-called convenience, including interpreting "Thirty Seven and 832/100 Dollars" as $45.32. Someone else may have a more optimistic response than what I've offered, though.

Dear disconnected:

Yes, I've checked out Conservapedia. Maybe there will be a blog post--we're always looking for material so thank you for the suggestion.

Dear chipthedestroyr:

NoMeansNo decided to leave Alternative Tentacles in 2001 or thereabouts, after they released No One. It was an amicable parting, though we were sad to see them go. Now, they have their own label Wrong, through which they have reissued their back catalog. In our mailorder, we carry some classic NMN releases on Wrong here. We still have the Jello Biafra with NoMeansNo record The Sky is Falling and I Want My Mommy.

Dear David:

You can get your Fuck Facts (#2 and #3 only) through our mailorder. Maybe some day, we'll wise up and scan those things and post them as PDFs.

Dear PlanetClaire:

Thanks for your support all these years! Recently, we did make free sampler CDs (in 2006 and 2007 to be exact) that we sent out with our mailorder orders and gave out through indie record stores. We hope to do something like that again soon. Until then, please check out the free mp3s on our site. It's not as cool as a nifty CD with artwork, but it's free!

As for Tragic Mulatto, they were around before my time at AT so I don't know what the band members are up to these days. I'm not 100% sure but I don't think their records were released on CD (I only have their stuff on LP myself). Right now, the only Tragic Mulatto releases we have in stock for mailorder is Chartreuse Toulouse on LP.

The Alternative Tentacles closed the UK office in 1997. But we Yanks would be happy to put kisses on your invoices!

Zines will never die

The Guardian has a great story by Simon Reynolds on zines (yes, on paper) in the age of blogging, and how there's a strong interest in tangible and/or analog media like zines and vinyl in the "limitlessness and hyper-linked pseudo-connectivity" of the Internet. It's probably nothing you Alternative Tentacles pals don't know or think about already, but it's a good read anyway.

(image: Guardian)

PSA: Grudge Rock on Monday 2/2

First Monday of every month at the Re-Bar in Seattle is Grudge Rock, a rock-n-roll game show hosted by Prof. Jake Stratton of BloodHag. Two Seattle bands face each other in a version of Family Feud with rock-centric surveys answered by 100 musicians, record label shitworkers, etc. And the stakes are high: the winning band gets to keep all the door money! In addition to the game show, you'll be treated to live sets by each band. If you live in the Seattle area, you should schlep over to the Re-Bar and check it out. What are you gonna do on a Monday night anyway (because you wouldn't admit to watching Gossip Girl in a billion years)?

This coming Monday features a battle royale between Akimbo and Helms Alee. While both bands are superb, you can probably guess which band I'll be rooting for.

Grudge Rock
First Monday of every month @ the Re-Bar
1114 Howell St
Seattle, WA 98101
(206) 233-9873

(Image: Grudge Rock)

Never-before-seen Bill Hicks set on Letterman this Friday

Standup comedy albums get a lot of play at Alternative Tentacles HQ, so we're elated to find out that Late Show with David Letterman will air a never-before-seen set by the late Bill Hicks. It was taped back in October 1993, but never aired because it was deemed "too hot for TV" back then. Cancel your plans or set your DVRs for this Friday night (1/30) at 11:30pm. Bill Hicks' mother will be a guest on the show. The transcript of the censored set is here.

(Photo: BillHicks.com)

Bloggity blog, do come back.

Huzzah! We set up a blog for Alternative Tentacles while we look under the couch cushions for change (and time) to redesign the ol' website. You can now add us to your RSS reader and post comments, two things you weren't able to do on our site. It's not a good looking blog, but to paraphrase Farmer Hoggett from Babe, "That'll do, blog. That'll do." Everyone on staff will contribute here so you can get to know us better and perhaps check out some of our picks from our ever-expanding mailorder. We hope to get our bands to contribute, too!

We will continue to post updates on the Alternative Tentacles site as well as our MySpace and Facebook pages, but this will be the place where you'll find more than just new release, tour, and other strictly-record-labely business. If you have questions or comments about the blog, please contact me at maiko (at) alternativetentacles (dot) com.

Oh, and happy inauguration day! If you haven't read Jello Biafra's open letter to now-President Barack Obama, you can read it here. Aside from the most awkward oath of office in history, this is my favorite thing about the inauguration:


(Photo: LA Times)

You know he HATED looking totally immasculated in that wheelchair at the most watched event in recent history. It's so awesomely Dr. Strangelove.

Thanks for reading, and do come back!