During Smashing Pumpkins 20th Anniversary tour Billy Corgan treated the crown to awful sound quality, over two hours of their poorest songs to date and finished off the night by having a 10 minute rant, liking the fans to ex-girlfriends ( taking all his money, and not loving him) and not trusting him. I mean, puh-lease.

Billy Corgan = worn out self-abusive circus freak

Not content with a No 1 album in Amerikkka (Thanks Ice Cube) containing the track ‘Sly Fox’, Nas was on a small podium in front of Fox News headquarters in New York City protesting what he sees as racist attacks against Black Americans and presidential candidate Barack Obama. In a brief prepared statement, the multi-platinum rapper pointed out examples of what he and ColorOfChange see as a long racist smear campaign against the Obama family: The onscreen graphic that referred to Michelle Obama as the Senator’s “baby mama”; Bill O’Reilly casually using the phrase “lynching party” to refer to attacks on the Senator’s wife; referencing to the couple’s infamous fist thump as a “terrorist fist jab.” Said Nas, “Fox poisons this country every time they air racist propaganda and try to call it news. This should outrage every American that Fox uses hateful language to talk about the person that may be the first black president.”

The rapper stood next to 19 neatly stacked cardboard boxes, with the number 620,127 taped to the side of each one — over 600,000 signatures gathered by ColorOfChange demanding that network president Roger Ailes “find a solution to address racial stereotyping and hate-mongering before it hits the airwaves.” Fox rejected the petitions, but Brave New Films says that Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report will accept them instead.

ColorOfChange reached out to Nas after seeing the lyrics to “Sly Fox” posted on the Brave New Films website. “We looked at it and said, ‘This is exactly what we’re talking about,’” ColorOfChange deputy director Andre Banks tells Rolling Stone. Just two weeks later, Nas was here speaking to fans, protesters and press spilling out into 6th Avenue, some even holding homemade signs markered with lyrics from the song. When asked if there was a response to “Sly Fox,” Nas rebutted quickly with, “Nah, they’re scared of me.”

Via RollingStone

Hear what he has to say:

Occasionally a band comes along that is the perfect antidote to the bloated sportz metal, emo-laden, booty grinding airwaves that seem inescapable. Flobots are such a band. Although their debut full length album ‘Fight With Tools’ was recorded in ’07, I’ve just come across them.

I suppose that they are a hip hop band, with two emcees rapping over live instruments. Yawn? Violin and Trumpet, bolstered with drums and bass rhythm section, and guitar. How about now?

Forward thinking, socially conscious musicians are so often drawn to hip hop’s flexibility, where lyrics like ‘U.S. is not us, and us is not we, and we are not satisfied’ can be delivered with maximum effect.  There will be obvious RATM and Linkin Park comparisons, and it could be argued that Flobots are indeed the Rage for Gen Y. (And that is a big call, if you didn’t know)

Flobots tackle racial, environmental, social and financial issues on ‘Fight With Tools’. On the track ‘Anne Braden’ (featuring audio of the lady in question) they recount the life of the famous activist in such a way that you can’t help but question your own commitment to important issues.   

Flobots make exciting music. Intelligent and piercing lyrics are delivered over genre hopping virtuosity from the mission statement ‘There’s a war going on for your mind’ to a call for action in ‘Rise’. The world is a better place with bands like Flobots in it.

THINK: Ambassadors of informed, educated angst
READ: Flobots web comic
READ SOME MORE: Fight With Tools
WATCH: Vid for ‘Handlebars’.
BUY: Fight With Tools on iTunes.

So That’s what they meant!

Marky Ramone, drummer with the legendary band, took a look at their already expansive ( ‘a’ and ‘e’ are interchangeabe in the preceding word) merchandising catalogue and decided that there was room for one more poorly conceived ( I kill me) merchandising product.

Dude - Hey Baby, how’s about I give your undercarraige a bit of how’s your father?

Chick - Oh My Gawd, you must be jokin’ me if you think that you’ll be poking me. (Thanks Lily Allen) Hang on a sec, is that a Ramones condom case? Hey! Ho! Lets Go! Safely!

As the once great Maud Flanders (RIP) once uttered: Will someone please think of the children!

Dolly Parton - Stairway To Heaven

(alt lyrics)
If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow,
don’t be alarmed now…
It’s just the hundreds of people
sifting through the root folder of Triplejaysus
and downloading tracks that haven’t been posted!

So, here it is folks - knock yourself out!