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? BAH!
Why not release a record with good bands with the same name with songs about his deeds and how bad he sucks? Why don't we call it the same name and try to bum out his special day by releasing it BEFORE his book?
Well, why not?
Help support us producing this compilation of songs and have it released the same day as Karl Rove's memoir of the same name, "Courage and Consequence".
(not actual cover!)
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 our 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: Sarah Palin's 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.
So we've started the process in place to pay for this darned thing.
We're really hoping we don't have to pay for the whole thing out of pocket.
If you can repost the link to your social networking groups/mailing lists/internet forums, etc.
that would be wonderful.
If you can
contribute/buy an advance copy, even better!
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.
I used to be a regular here, as in... not just a regular diarist, but I read EVERY diary. Obviously this is a long time ago. I still read Dailykos every day though, even if I rarely ever post these days.
We people of the netroots are used to CONSTANTLY being asked to contribute to causes and political candidates. Some who prove worthy, some who do not. I am asking you now to contribute to a cause and also to a good old fashioned culture jam, AS WELL as to create something that should be pretty great creatively as well. Good music and good old fashioned protest.
At the level of a $20 contribution you get a physical copy of the LP AND high quality digital downloads. You get a lot more the more you can donate.
Plenty of other rewards besides that as well.
(the minimum is $1 BTW, and I'm guessing even the poorest readers have that)
EVERY BIT HELPS!
Do you know the bands on here?
Well, it's possible, my guess is probably not though, but they are all quality acts.
Generalissiimo
Cartographer
Cold Lake
United Sons of Toil
Death Dream
Have Special Power
at least 2 bands I am in. (I was in Replicator and Mount Vicious)
We're Gonna Fight the Eskimos Next
Poster Children (perhaps!)
Bottomless Pit/Tim Midgett (from silkworm) (perhaps!)
And more!
Many people have been super supportive about this and have glowed about what a fantastic idea this is. Well, we can only do this with a little help from our friends.
This is a way that you can help us realize this if you are so interested.
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.
BY DOING THIS WE WIN.
The fact that we've put together a quality product is almost inconsequential (but it will be a quality product)
Because I can guarantee that just based on our friends/personal networks and hopefully with a little help from the Netroots, we are going to bum Karl Rove out on his special day.
At this time what we need more than anything else is support. If you'd like to manifest that support as $20 for a pre-order, or another amount as just a donation. That is wonderful. When it is out, we'll need EVERYBODY's help to googlebomb, but until then...
Go here to help out
(please excuse the repost, but this site has so much traffic I wanted it to get another audience)
update!:
We're up to $220 of $3000, we've got a looooong way to go in a short period of time.
I cannot emphasize enough, even a dollar helps.
thanks.