You're probably sick of me reminding you at this point, but tonight is the Cold War Kids/Tokyo Police Club/Delta Spirit show in Madison, and I couldn't be more excited.
Since my fiance and I still live with my parents (for financial reasons only, trust me), we relish the opportunities we get to get out and away from the house when we can. We've got a room lined up at the Madison Concourse Hotel & Governor's Club, some friends (both from days past and from the blogosphere) to see at the show, a few favorite watering holes to frequent, and an Indian restaurant to visit. Oh yeah, and there's the concert. Makes out to be a nice little vacation wouldn't you say? Of course, that's barring our car doesn't break down and keep us from the show like Steve.
I've already posted on The Cold War Kids and Tokyo Police Club, but I had yet to check out Delta Spirit until last night and was pleasantly surprised at what I found.
California-based rockers Delta Spirit, which are currently under the Monarchy Music label, are out on tour with VLM favs Cold War Kids and Tokyo Police Club. All three bands hit The Annex tonight in Madison, WI for what is sure to be an electric show. Delta Spirit frontman Matthew Vasquez channels a voice which is somewhere between Ryan Adams and The Cold War Kids' Nathan Willett. One almost doesn't realize that "Streetwalker" is a song about sexual slavery because the sheer delicious hooks and hoarse-throated chorus keep you entranced and singing along.
Delta Spirit - "Motivation"
Delta Spirit - "Streetwalker"
Here's some "oldies" from The Cold War Kids off their Mulberry Street EP:
Cold War Kids - "Soloist in the Living Room"
Cold War Kids - "Heavy Boots"
Also, don't miss this video that Steve pointed out of Delta Spirit joining The Cold War Kids onstage for "Saint John."
Delta Spirit on the net
Delta Spirit at Myspace
Plus One Contest
Veritas Lux Mea, in partnership with +1 Music, which host great bands like The Editors and Stellastarr, are proud to bring you the Plus One Contest at Veritas Lux Mea.
Eugene is the opener of the New Line SXSW showcase party that also features great acts like Office and Albert Hammond Jr. The party is Thursday, March 15th, at the Blender Bar at The Ritz. Doors open at 7pm. 21+ only. Badge/wristband required. If you're heading down to SXSW, make sure to swing by this party and enjoy the great music from these talented acts.
Because we here at Veritas Lux Mea won't be attending SXSW (it's a long ways from Wisconsin), we're proud to help support the party and the festival with a contest.
The prize is a copy of the new Albert Hammond Jr CD, the Robbers on High Street’s EP, and Midnight Movies’ new 7inch that comes out in the Spring.
How to win? First person to email me at truthandmusic@yahoo.com with the subject line: SXSW Party gets the prize. It's that simple! Get going!
Lit Theory/Politics
He made us feel so hyperreal: The spirit of Jean Baudrillard lives on, as both George Bush and Osama bin Laden continue to trade in empty symbols
Let's get the jokes over and done with first. As his obituary in the Guardian puts it, the death of Jean Baudrillard did not take place. Was it Baudrillard who died, or his simulacrum? Has he hyperreally gone? Oh, the drolleries will be flying round the philosophy chat rooms today.
Nevertheless, within the boundaries of "reality" set by journalistic procedure, the cultural theorist Jean Baudrillard died yesterday in Paris, at the age of 77. Along with other big hitters of theoretical -isms, such as Derrida and Barthes, he'd come in for some antagonism in recent years, not least from those in the neoconservative camp, for apparently reducing a succession of historical events to a morally relativist, value-free zone. Most notoriously, he argued that the (first) Gulf war did not take place, that it was simply a succession of symbolic gestures conducted by each side, and that it only achieved the identity of a military campaign because it was labelled as such by politicians and the media.
But, in many ways, Baudrillard got it right. He is the thinker most associated with the notion of the simulacrum: essentially that modern society creates representations and copies that are more "real" than the original. Reality TV is an obvious example: something marketed on the basis of its authenticity becomes more intense and absorbing and important (hyperreal) than the authentic life we see around us. People prefer it to reality. It becomes their reality. Chantelle (a simulacrum of Paris Hilton, whose existence is another grey area) is their friend, a situation that becomes feasible because they were complicit in her creation.
The post-9/11 world provides many more validations of Baudrillard's theories, not least the spectral bogeyman himself, Osama bin Laden, a man whose continued existence is pretty much irrelevant. As long as his simulacrum, a combination of blurry photos and wonky videos, exists within the media universe, he does his job, both for his supporters and his opponents, as hero and/or villain. Even al-Qaida itself only "exists" as a loose notion of shared values, rather than a cohesive organisation. It comes into being because individuals and groups act in its name; and because we (via our political representatives and the media) also attribute those actions to it. The representation is bigger and brighter than the reality, although looking for the links between the two may be futile - as Baudrillard himself put it, "There is no more hope for meaning."
Not to be outdone, George Bush appeared in Iraq in November 2003, bearing a Thanksgiving turkey. The turkey was intended to represent the peace and prosperity that the coalition forces had brought to Iraq, thus offering a perfect simulacrum - a hyperreal symbol for something that doesn't exist. And just to add to the postmodern fun, it wasn't even a real turkey.
If Baudrillard taught us anything, it must be this: don't believe the hyper [link].
Mmmm, Tasty Chemicals
A new book 'deconstructs' a Twinkie and analyzes all 39 ingredients. Industrial-strength junk food, anyone?
photo: Damien Donck for NewsweekMarch 5, 2007 issue - As Steve Ettlinger dropped down a Wyoming mine shaft, plummeting 1,600 feet in an open-mesh cage, he wondered how many other food writers had ever donned hard hats and emergency breathing equipment in pursuit of a story. But it was too late to turn back. He'd promised his editor a book tracing the ingredients in a Hostess Twinkie to their origins—and one of them was down this shaft. At the bottom, he and his hosts climbed into an open Jeep and hurtled for 30 terrifying minutes through pitch-black tunnels. Their destination: the site where a mineral called trona—the raw ingredient of baking soda—was being clawed out of a rock face by giant machines. "To say that this does not suggest Twinkies or any other food product would be an understatement," observes Ettlinger. "There you are at an open rock face, wondering why they do all this for the sake of a little snack cake"...
...it can be unsettling to learn just how closely the basic ingredients in processed foods resemble industrial materials. Corn dextrin, a common thickener, is also the glue on postage stamps and envelopes. Ferrous sulfate, the iron supplement in enriched flour and vitamin pills, is used as a disinfectant and weedkiller. Is this cause for concern? Ettlinger says no, though you wouldn't want a diet that consists solely of Twinkies. Ultimately, all food, natural and otherwise, is composed of chemical compounds—and normal ingredients like salt have industrial applications, too. Still, it gives you pause when he describes calcium sulfate, a dough conditioner, as "food-grade plaster of Paris." [READ MORE]
MORE MUSIC!
Wilco - "What Light" from their upcoming album Sky Blue Sky.