Hi everybody.
So if you're interested, I'm going to be on the nationally syndicated Mike Malloy show talking about Project: Courage and Consequence on friday 1/22 at 6:30 PST, 9:30 EST. That's 960AM in the bay area. I'm actually a huge fan, so that's kind of awesome.
If you don't listen to Mike's show (and really... you should!)
You can find out how to listen here.
Thanks for all of your dedicated support to bumming out Karl Rove!
For the record, we are 42% of the way to our fundraising/pre-order goal of $3,000 with 9 days to go.
(details below!)
The idea began as an internet rant and quickly has expanded since then.
Karl Rove, Bush's brain, the man behind George W. Bush's presidency wrote a memoir and had the unmitigated gall to call it "Courage and Consequence". I'm irritated by a lot of things, but this really rubbed me the wrong way. The architect of the Swift Boat Veterans, 2 wars, and our economic crisis taking a victory lap and making money on book tours? Courage?
The original idea was a "one off band" that wrote a bunch of songs about how lame/bad for America, and the world, Karl Rove is, release it at the same time and Googlebomb the whole internet to sow as much chaos into his book release as possible. Success would be measured by the amount of disorder brought to him, and by nothing else. Even if it never went further than my group of friends it would be worth it.
However, the response was overwhelming, and soon enough enough fantastic bands were interested that it only made sense to do as a compilation. It made sense to create something positive from this. The idea is to release free downloads of the record via the website, with participants, friends, fans, and the internet linking to it and raising its google search results, and a beautiful QUALITY vinyl record for audiophiles and those with the desire for a physical product. Additionally the artwork, for both, should be very similar to the book. (Ala: Going Rouge vs. Going Rogue)
It is a little known fact that most conservative books go to the top of the best seller list and quickly fall off because they are purchased en masse by right wing think tanks and churches and then given away for free.
We believe that by getting this project ready by the time Karl Rove's disgusting memoir is released we will be able to garner considerable attention (and maybe even confuse conservative book buyers) and, while it will be artistically viable on its own, will be a wonderful example of culture jamming.
Many more established and older artists such as Bob Dylan and Neil Young have called out wondering where the political voices are in music today. They are here but because of the nature of the current music industry we need some help to do anything that gets over the signal to noise ratio.
We stand against Karl Rove, his tactics and what he has wrought, and reject, in its entirety, the idea that turdblossom should get to do his victory lap unanswered.
Any additional money not going to the production of the physical compilation will be going directly to the bands and artists involved in this project, split in an even manner, to recoup recording costs. We do not plan on taking one cent of money as profit.
Costs for pressing of this record and digital distribution are just shy of $3000, there is mastering, laquer pressing, processing costs, labels, shrinkwrap, inserts and jackets... and that's just the physical production, not including the actual recording costs which are mostly handled by the bands.
My qualifications for this:
I was the international head of Bands Against Bush, whose only crime was registering young voters, yet it still got me on a "watch list".
I have played in rock bands for over 10 years, completed 5 US tours, and countless smaller ones, and independently released and distributed 5 full length albums, multiple eps and online singles.
Consider this a massive excercise in free speech and an earnest attempt to ruin a man's day that has directly wrecked so many lives.
Track listing (final sequence and track names listed shortly): Poster Children
The Heavenly States
Generalissimo
Cartographer
Cold Lake
United Sons of Toil
Death Dream
Have Special Power
Victory and Associates
Hurry Up Shotgun
Lambs of Abortion
We're Gonna Fight the Eskimos Next