Shakin' Shakin' Shakes

Hi.

Two Fridays in a row. Getting back on that stupid horse. Don't get used to it.

Now. I love the Rude Pundit like a foul mouthed uncle, but I gotta say I think this is wrong. I understand the argument, and certainly concede that the money to be recouped is minimal at best compared to the recovery and bailout spending necessary, especially if the frauds want to lawyer up.

But this argument is like saying you shouldn't try to collect parking tickets because they don't amount to much of the City's budget. It's about justice, playing by the rules of society, and what is right; although the cash flow is always appreciated. The contracts required the bonuses to be at least equal to the asshole's 2007 bonuses; that's not a bonus, it's salary. Good work if you can get it, but these guys truly think of themselves as Masters of The Universe and if they can't see the inherent effrontery of this, they need to be slapped down; if it takes clawback taxation, so be it. Once the country has become majority owner, contracts are open to renegotiation. If it's acceptable for the UAW, it's acceptable for A-I-Fucking-G.

It's to Chris Dodd's shame that he let his bonus clause be defanged. He's been a good progressive, but the idiocy of that move should rightly imperil his re-election. The banksters pay you, Dodd, but the people elect you and the people do not see this as justified.

I do agree with Rudy that the overall focus needs to be on sweeping economic and financial reform, however. Tax-raping these few asswipes will feel good and help right a little karma, but it will do nothing to keep it from happening over and over and over....

So, here is a baker's dozen of Friday music, to help us get our drank on and forget our debts. Blood is a more flexible term than CAN be imagined, Snag.

1. National Health, The Kinks. Album came out in the midst of the first energy crisis, when $1 gas was freaking people out. We were so young, right?

2. Coffee Drowned, Arms & Legs & Feet. Milwaukee locals alts, headed up by a literate gent named Mike Benign. A friend of mine would do sound for them; Benign had a muddy middle range voice, so without a good mix it would tend to get obliterated. They only released the one disc, but it was pretty good, pretty good. eventually they added a horn section, became more pop-oriented, and named themselves Blue In The Face.

3. Accidental Man, Marillion. From the live disc Smoke. Without Mullet-boy.

3. Organ Grinder, Murder By Death. Carnival music for the end of the world.

6. 911 is a joke, Public Enemy. When this was written, it was.

7. Looking For Love, The Cars.

9. Down Love, Paul Westerberg. At least he's not dead.

8. My Impossible Dream, Ultrasound. Very short lived band. I picked up on them from the music blog War on Silence, and fell in love with their debut/ swan song album, the double disc Everything Picture. An impossible sounding cross pollination of alt, metal, punk, noise rock a la Sonic Youth, art-rock, and jam bands. Internal tensions broke them up before they even completed their first tour, but I managed to score all the singles as well, including a great cover of My My Hey Hey. They blast through this anthemic song, which then winds down with a muttered monologue in the background, sounding like something off Dark Side Of The Moon. You've got to hear it. I will bet Brando would love it and Pinko will hate it. AG will tell me I'm old and out of touch.

6. V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F. , Fishbone. Yes, the title stands for something. Manic punky ska funk to even make the white boys jump.

9. The Jungle, Wooldridge Brothers. Another local. Wrote about their newest one here, this is from an older album. It's on iTunes, for those with interest; as well as their previous band, the Squares. Very accomplished alt-americana with nods to the Kinks, elvis Costello and the like.

9. Shooting Shark, Blue Oyster Cult. Ahhhh, one of my many guilty pleasures. good extended song from a weak album, Buck Dharma co-wrote this with Patti Smith. It's lovely, really.

10. New Damage, Soundgarden and Brian May. Interesting collabo on a Greenpeace benefit disc.

13. Skin and Bone, The Kinks. More Kinks? O, I'll take it. A long time ago, random visitor and recovering Republican Nick complained that I must not have any Kinks, because it never showed up in the Randoms. Saving it up for all at once, I guess. But when you're doing a dozen or so songs out of 35,000, it takes a while to get through them all. Yesterday my son said "I've been riding in your car for thirteen years, and we've never heard all the songs in the iPod."

Thanks for riding in my car, everyone. You pay for gas, OK?