Sarah 100

I stumbled upon a great find. This blog has posted two Sarah Records compilations in their entirety: the last one, Sarah 100: There and Back Again Lane, and the first one, Sarah 587: Shadow Factory. Sarah Records is perhaps the greatest record label in music history. A boy/girl combination named Matt and Clare decided to do a label of all their favorite pop bands, releasing mostly seven inches. They had a zine called "Are you scared to get happy?" and included poems, mostly about being in love near some river in England, with each release. They decided to break up the label after 100 releases, noting their art was theirs to make and theirs to destroy, and it was perfect while it lasted.

Both compilations include the fantastic track "Pristine Christine" by the Sea Urchins, proving it as a true superhit. Shadow Factory also includes The Orchids great song "Apologies."

Here are bands featured:
The Field Mice, The Orchids, The Poppyheads, Northern Picture Library, The Springfields, Another Sunny Day, 14 Iced Bears, Boyracer, Brighter, Action Painting! and more!

Please do yourself a favor and download these if you have ever wondered what "pop" music would sound like on the radio in a perfect world, or in the future as imagined in 1966.

Sarah 100: There and Back Again Lane

Sarah 587: Shadow Factory

Sarah Records on Wikipedia

Stylus guide to Sarah's first fifty releases

Let's Talk about The Liberal Media

My boss often tells me that Air America Radio is going to go bankrupt because no one listens to it and no one likes it. He is wrong.

Above is a copy of an internal memo from ABC Radio Networks.

The message reads:

“Please be advised that Hewlett Packard has purchased schedules with ABC Radio Networks between (certain dates). Please make sure you black out this advertiser on your station, as they do not wish to air on any Air America affiliates. Please see below for a complete list of advertisers requesting that none of their commercials air within Air America programming.”

Here are the companies that refuse to have their purchased radio advertisements run during Air America programming:

Allstate
American Heart Association
Avents
Avon
Bank of America
Baye
BMW Motor cycles
Chattam…. Phisoderm, Gold Bond, Selsun Salon, Ultimate Healing Lotion,.
Cigna
Cingular
Clorox
Coke
Coty
Dean’s Morningstar
Denny’s
Discovery Channel
Eharmony.com
Epson
Expedia.com
Exxon Mobil
Farmer’s Insurance
FedEx
Foot Action
Frito Lay
GE
Gillette Venus
Goodyear
Heinekin Amstel
Hershey’s
Hewlett Packard
Home Depot
Hormel
Hyatt
Interstate Bakers
JC Penney
Johnson & Johnson
Kohl’s
Levi’s
Masterfoods (all brands}
McDonalds
Merial Frontline
MGM
Michelin
Microsoft
Morningstar
National Cattleman Beef
Nestle
Nissan
NYSE
Office Depot
Outdoor Life Network
P & G – Bounty, Charmin, Febreeze, Iams Dog/Cat food, Pepto Bismol
Paramount
Pepsi
Philip Morris
Pier 1 Imports
Red Lobster
ReMax
REI Sporting
Rent-way
Rebert Herr
Schering Plough
Sherwin Williams
Sony
State Farm
Toys R US
Travelocity.com
True Value
United Healthcare
US Navy
USPS
Visa
Walgreens
Wal-Mart
Welch’s
Wrigley
Wyeth

I am going to be taking my very small earnings elsewhere whenever possible, for the small difference it will make.

NY Times mention: link

WFMU Blog discussion: link

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting: link

another link to the memo

More info on Huffington Post: link

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To liven this post up a bit, here's Billy Bragg playing "Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards" on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on October 5th, 2006.

Kind of Like Spitting - "Valentine's Day is over"

Only a short time ago I was lucky enough to see Billy Bragg play. Tickets were kind of pricey, and thus I could not find anyone to go with me. Most of my friends had never heard of Billy Bragg, and I could only give so much explanation about how he was a big influence on tons of our favorite bands (The Weakerthans and Ted Leo are the ones that quickly come to mind). I definitely knew Billy Bragg would be great, and so I went it alone. I got to sit in the front row! I hardly ever go to shows with seats and rarely if they have seats, will I sit in the front.

Billy Bragg was fantastic. His between song banter was really great and despite me only having one of his albums, I knew a lot of the songs he played.

I figured I might run into someone I know there, and I figured that person might be Ben Barnett. I've met Mr. Barnett on a few occasions, and I saw him walking up the street with a cup of coffee in his hand a few months ago when I was driving to work. Unfortunately, I didn't meet anyone I knew there, but I did have lovely chats with the other people there by themselves (an older woman who was so happy to meet Billy a few years ago at a show in the midwest, a kid who looked exactly like me). Also, I recently heard Ben Barnett is not going to be recording under the Kind of Like Spitting name any longer. At one point a year or two ago he was supposedly going to record with my friends Kalpana as his band and be called Worker Bee. (He was even billed as Worker Bee formerly known as Kind of Like Spitting at a NY show.) In any event, had he been there I would have thanked him for introducing me to Billy Bragg through this cover.

This song is "Valentine's Day is over," which was originally off of Mr. Bragg's "Workers' Playtime" record.

Kind of Like Spitting - "Valentine's Day is over."

Buy Kind of Like Spitting releases at Redder Records

Someday boy you'll reap what you sown
You'll catch a cold and you'll be on your own
And you will see that what's wrong with me
is wrong with everyone that you want to play your little games on

Poetry and flowers, pretty words and threats
You've gone to the dogs again and I'm not placing bets on you
coming home tonight
Anything but blind
if you take me for granted than you must expect to find
surprise, surprise!

Valentine's day is over, it's over
Valentine's day is over

If you want to talk about it, well you know where the phone is
Don't come 'round reminding me again how brittle bone is
God didn't make you an angel
the devil made you a man
That brutality and the economy are related now I understand
When will you realize that as above
so below there is no love

Valentine's day is over, it's over
Valentine's day is over

For the girl with the hour-glass figure, time runs out very fast
We used to want the same things, but that's all in the past
And lately it seems that as it all gets tougher
Your idea of justice just becomes rougher and rougher

Valentine's day is over, it's over
Valentine's day is over

Thank you for the things you bought me
Thank you for the card
Thank you for the things you taught me when you hit me hard
That love between two people must be based on understanding
Until that's true you'll find your things all stacked out on the landing
Surprise, surprise!

Valentine's day is over, it's over
Valentine's day is over, it's over
It's over

Every girl that I've seen since looks just like you when I squint.

I just hit song number 6666 on my computer's iTunes. The song is "Emily Kane" by Art Brut. I downloaded it after hearing it on Sirius radio in a rented Chrysler Town and Country, which is actually a much nicer vehicle than I thought it would be.

link