Since the rise of Napster and file-sharing, it seems like every single music fan, tech pundit, opinion columnist, and blogger has an opinion on what's wrong with the music business, and how things should change. There's been a lot less conversation about how the technology shifts have actually affected the many professional independent musicians who have not been the subject of "future of the music business" trend pieces.

Cooper McBean of The Devil Makes Three joins Paul at Casa de Gato for a conversation about how technology and the Internet have transformed the lives of professional independent musicians for better and worse, the shady corners of the music business the Internet hasn't disrupted, connecting with fans online, those "future of the music industry" trend pieces, whether bands using Kickstarter are enterprising or lazy, and Cooper's advice for aspiring musicians.

During Breaking News, Cosmologist Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein joins us to discuss the latest Cylon (military drone) news, the case of Bradley Manning, microagressions and Shit White Girls Say To Black Girls, why science is the 99%, and the enigmatic case of the Lesbian Bigfoot hunter.

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Show Notes:

Breaking News

• Motherboard: The Cargo Chopper That's Hauling Drones to War
• Danger Room: Marines Want iPads to Control Robo-Copter Brains
• Danger Room: Almost 1 In 3 U.S. Warplanes Is a Robot
• Motherboard: Are Drones Collecting Too Much Information
• New York Times: Judge recommends Manning charged with all counts
• Wikipedia: Daniel Ellsberg
• Shit White Girls Say To Black Girls: blog.franchesca.net
• Microagressions
• Scientific American: Science Is the 99%
• YouTube: Neal Degrasse Tyson on Bill Maher
• Cryptomundo: Out Bigfooter Speaks Up For Lesbian Tolerance
• San Diego Gay & Lesbian News: Lesbian Biologist on Cult Hit Finding Bigfoot Spills the Beans

Cooper McBean Interview

• Danny Barnes: How To Make A Living Playing Music
• The New York Times: Sex, Drugs and Updating Your Blog
• The New York Times: Frustration and Fury: Take It. It's Free.
• Techdirt: Amanda Palmer Talks About Record Labels, Art, Commerce & Retiring To Open A Juice Bar
• Crowdfunding Nation: The Rise and Evolution of Collaborative Funding
• Wikipedia: Jeff Mangum
• Wikipedia: Brian Wilson
• Mule Train

About the Guests

Cooper McBean is a member of The Devil Makes Three, which recently released the live album Stomp and Smash: Live at the Mystic Theatre and will be touring with Flogging Molly in early February. He also fronts the country and folk band Cooper McBean and the Vested Interests. Originally from Vermont, Cooper now calls Austin his home, and can be found on Twitter @thecoug.

Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is a cosmologist holding a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her first postdoc was a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellowship in the Observational Cosmology Lab at Goddard Space Flight Center. Find her professional work online at cprescodweinstein.com and her non-professional blog at chandapw.tumblr.com.

Episode Markers

00:02:39: Breaking News with Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
00:51:19: "Bangor Mash" by The Devil Makes Three from the album Longjohns, Boots and a Belt
00:52:15: Interview with Cooper McBean
01:24:18: "Over The Gates" by Cooper McBean and the Vested Interests
01:54:02: "Black Irish" by The Devil Makes Three from the album Stomp and Smash: Live at the Mystic Theatre
02:20:19: "Gracefully Facedown" by The Devil Makes Three from the album Do Wrong Right

Credits

Radio Free Ruin art: “As Things Fell Apart (Jewelers)” by Carrie Sieh
Radio Free Ruin theme: “FT2 Theme” by Phil Manley from the album Life Coach used with the gracious permission of Thrill Jockey Records

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One benefit to digital media is that it's much easier to collect lists of all you've consumed over the year. As a result, this is possibly an overly-exhaustive list of the books, writing on the web, music, and television I enjoyed to varying degrees in 2011. I'd like to think this sort of exercise serves some purpose other than self-indulgence, though it's certainly a manifestation of that; there's value to getting a broad view of what you've been reading, watching, listening to, and thinking about over the year, and sharing it with others. It's so damned easy to get consumed by the endless news stream of the Twitter news cycle that such reflection may be more important than ever. If nothing else, it's a worthwhile personal exercise. Hopefully it'll send you in some new directions as well.

(All listed in no particular order.)

Books

Books Read in 2011

• Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon's Secret World • Trevor Paglen
  A fascinating road trip narrative and journalistic feat that offers a rare glimpse into "Black" America—the clandestine military installations, extraordinary rendition (torture) sites, and military satellites hiding in slightly-obscured sight.

• A Visit From The Goon Squad • Jennifer Egan
  Egan's novel hit me in such a viscerally emotional place that it's tough for me to engage with this one critically. One of the most generous considerations I've read of the staunch principles of youth, and how they give way to necessary compromises or bind individuals into a state of arrested development.
• The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires • Tim Wu
  Sobering look at the historical precedents for how previous revolutionary communication technologies such as radio became corporatized, consolidated and controlled.
• The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop • Dan Charnas
  An engaging, comprehensive history of hip-hop, a genre that has rarely shied away from the tightly-intertwined relationship between artistic expression and the business of music.

• Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter • Tom Bissell
  Interesting investigation of the problems of narrative in video games—why do attempts to impose a ludic, film-style narrative on games always fail? What do MMORPG's and sandbox games say about the future of narrative? What are the narrative constraints of the platformer? Does Grand Theft Auto take on a different meaning when experienced high on coke in Baghdad after the siege?
• The Dream of Perpetual Motion • Dexter Palmer
  An enchanting sci-fi world undermined by the book squandering what seems to be an implicit feminist critique with a disappointing conclusion that only serves the fantasy-world of the despicable male lead  character.
• The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise • Michael Grunwald
  Engaging look at the 100+ year effort to "civilize" the Everglades, a region that serves as a strikingly effective microcosm of so many of America's historical ills—Manifest Destiny, genocide, ill-considered development, predatory lending, environmental destruction, and the tenacious commitment to remaining in wars where there is no winner.
• Steve Jobs • Walter Isaacson
  Isaacson didn't seem to please anyone—Jobs' critics, curious observers, or die-hard Apple nerds—with his unfocused biography, but it was still an interesting read, for its unusually critical view of Jobs (given that it was an authorized biography) and the brief glimpses it provided into the thinking of an idiosyncratic world-changer whose figure looms large over Cupertino, the town I where I spent my teenage years.
• Dignity • Ken Layne
  The editor of Wonkette and one of our finest contemporary voices of righteous moral outrage gets (even more) serious in his fiction debut, a collection of communiques between members of co-op outposts established in foreclosed-upon McMansion parks throughout California in an all-too-plausible, totalitarian near-future America.

• America Pacifica • Anna North
  A captivating debut novel set in an impoverished, libertarian dystopia established on a tropical island in a near-future where the United States has been besetby a new Ice Age.
• Unfamiliar Fishes • Sarah Vowell
  I've never been able to stomach Vowell on This American Life, but I increasingly suspect that may have to do with TAL's own shortcomings and overly-precious, ingratiating tone than any particular contributor. A brisk overview of America's misadventures in Hawaii, from pious missionaries to drunk, skirt-chasing sailors to the political opportunists who convinced a somewhat-reluctant United States to annex the islands.
• Radiohead's Kid A (33 1/3) • Marvin Lin
  Not particularly interesting when it focuses on long-shopworn debates over authenticity and artistic influence, but when Lin situates the album within its political and technological contexts, it's a fascinating read.

Currently Reading

• The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom • Evgeny Morozov
• American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865-1900 • H.W. Brands

In The Queue

• Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution • Sara Marcus
• Sunnyvale: The Rise and Fall of a Silicon Valley Family • Jeff Goodell
• Cambodian Grrrl: Self-Publishing in Phnom Penh • Anne Elizabeth Moore

• Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City • Greg Grandin
• Follow Me Down • Kio Stark
• American Colonies: The Settling of North America • Alan Taylor
• Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's Facing Future (33 1/3) • Dan Kois

Best Writing I Read on the Web This Year

• Dear Congress, It's No Longer OK To Not Know How The Internet Works • Joshua Kopstein
• No Ludo: The Illogical End • Jason Johnson
• Our Siri, Ourselves • Whet Moser
• Once, We Were (Not) Troy Davis And Then We Were Something Else • Roxane Gay
• Rebecca Coriam: lost at sea • Jon Ronson
• How to Draw Comics the New 52 Way: Women Get "Fridged" Again • Anne Elizabeth Moore and Mardou
• OWS and the Downfall of the Smartest Guys in the Room • Sarah Leonard
• My Advice to the Occupy Wall Street Protesters • Matt Taibbi
• Nearly Beloved: How to Celebrate the Day You Don't Get Married • Jen Girdish
• Condo at the End of the World • Joseph L. Flatley
• Arrington, Race, and Silicon Valley • Hank Williams
• Steve Jobs, Enemy of Nostalgia • Mike Daisey
• Artists, Institutions, and the Decline of Public Discourse • Polly Carl
• Andy Rooney, Joan Didion, and the Aging Cultural Critic • Amanda Hess
• The Week Social Media Broke My Heart • Manjula Martin
• Shoplifters of the World Unite • Slavoj Žižek
• The Failure of the Occupy Movement or the Emergence of a Living Systems Organization? • Vanessa Miemis
• What Does the Bonus Army Tell Us About Occupy Wall Street? • Brent Cox
• What People Don't Get About My Job: From A(rmy Soldier) to Z(ookeeper) • Derek Thompson
• How Teen Rap Group Odd Future Turned a Posse of Nerdy White Male Critics Into Rape Apologists • Julianne Escobedo Shepherd
• Postmodernism Is Dead • Edward Docx
• Deeply Embarrassed White People Talk Awkwardly About Race • Jen Graves
• The Work of Art in the Age of Googled Reproduction • Rob Walker
• Still Holding the Leash • Matt Wood
• Voluptuous Corruption • Will Schofield
• When Alan Met Ayn: "Atlas Shrugged" And Our Tanked Economy • Maria Bustillos
• Standard Gawker English • Matt Pearce
• Atlus' Catherine And Gender Stereotypes • Eric Caoili
• The Internet Intellectual • Evgeny Morozov
• What's Really Pornographic? The Point of Documenting Detroit • Willy Staley
• Consensual Hallucination • Sally Adee
• Conrad Schnitzler (1937–2011) • Geeta Dayal
• Depression, Burn Out and Writing Code • Lance Cameron Kidwell
• The Science of Why We Don't Believe Science • Chris Mooney
• A Rough Guide to Disney World • John Jeremiah Sullivan
• Bad Education • Malcolm Harris
• How the Internet Gets Inside Us • Adam Gopnik
• The Hard Edge of Empire • Charlie Stross
• The Ten Stupidest Utopias! • Jeremy Adam Smith
• The Influence of Anxiety: The Modern Writer’s Neverending Race • Amber Sparks
• Confessions of a Black Gentrifier • Shani O. Hilton
• Permanent retro: How now is then • Michaelangelo Matos
• The myth of 'American exceptionalism' implodes • Richard Wolff
• Aftershocks: Welcome to Haiti's Reconstruction Hell • Mac McClelland
• Unlimited Creations: Filipino Mobile DJs of the Bay Area • Oliver Wang
• Pop In The Age of the Atomic Bomb • Jon Savage
• This Is Your Brain on Metaphors • Robert Sapolsky
• Chicago on the Yangtze • Christina Larson
• Hot for Creature: William Dranginis saw Bigfoot • Eric Wills
• Staying awake: Notes on the alleged decline of reading • Ursula K. Le Guin

Television

• Fringe
  I'm still on the fence about this season—my opinion's going to hinge on how the new alternate reality resolves with the previous realities, and I'm really hoping against a LOST-style "purgatory made of love" resolution. But Fringe's third season, much of which aired in 2011, stands with the best televised sci-fi ever for its delirious risk-taking and willingness to throw it all in for the small but loyal viewership that remains.
• Parks and Recreation
  Everything about this show is pitch-perfect: the Entertainment 720 subplot, Amy Poehler's impressive ability to humanize a character that Often risks broad caricature, the manic Rob Lowe and droll Adam Scott, the withering April Ludgate, and of course, Ron Fucking Swanson. Leaves me cackling like a child who just heard his first dirty joke.

• Downton Abbey
  A sumptuously-directed Upstairs Downstairs for this class-conscious age, in which the class sympathies have been inverted. Maggie Smith gets all the best lines as the Dowager Countess Lady Grantham, as it should be.
• The West Wing
  I wrote The West Wing off as centrist-Democrat wish fulfillment while it was on the air, which it is. But at its best, it harnesses Sorkin's better demons and puts that prodigiously-verbose dialogue into the mouths of actors like Martin Sheen and Allison Janney who can actually say that shit.
• Ken Burns: Prohibition
  Somehow Ken Burns was able to subdue his greatest flaws—plodding earnestness, self-seriousness, grandiosity—long enough to produce this entertaining three-part PBS documentary about one of the more puzzling episodes in the nation's history.

• The Hour
  It was a long year without any new Mad Men, but this engaging BBC knockoff helped fill in the gap.

Music

New Music I Enjoyed in 2011

• Civilian • Wye Oak
  Layered, nuanced, adult songwriting that belies Jenn Wasner's years, with a tight grasp of dynamics that brings to mind early PJ Harvey.
• Wild Flag • Wild Flag
  Carrie Brownstein takes a break from roles as a NPR commentator and performer in the hacky side-project of an SNL player to remind us why she's one of the greatest rock gods of my generation.
• Smother • Wild Beasts
  Grown-ass English men do the unprecedented: record an enveloping indie rock album about grown-ass male sexuality.
• House of Balloons • The Weeknd
  R&B act draws inspiration from contemporary rock music, as R&B acts have done for decades, bloggers and music critics mistake this for being a new phenomenon and freak out. Regardless, great pharmaceutically-addled sex jams for the Percocet set, with nods to Portishead and, less probably, Beach House.
• Within and Without • Washed Out

• The Rip Tide • Beirut
  Beirut's blog buzz era is long gone, but Zach Condon continues to prove himself as one of his generation's best songwriters, and matures sufficiently to release an album of relatively-upbeat songs.
• Dive • Tycho
  Gauzy ambient electro, like Boards of Canada minus the aphasia.
• Nine Types of Light • TV On The Radio
• Strange Mercy • St. Vincent
  Probably the most muso-nerd album I've ever enjoyed, Annie Clark tempers her Berklee College of Music provenance with real, and real great, songwriting chops.
• Raven in the Grave • The Raveonettes

• Let England Shake • PJ Harvey
  The most alive-sounding thing she's recorded in years?
• Life Coach • Phil Manley
  He of Trans Am and The Fucking Champs fully indulges his Krautrock tendencies.
• Mariachi El Bronx (II) • Mariachi El Bronx
• Hurry Up, We're Dreaming • M83
  It's bloated and unfocused, but there's a single great album buried in there. Would earn a spot on here for "Midnight City" alone.

• Player Piano • Memory Tapes
  Ignore the "chillwave" albatross: this is some of the most incandescent synth-pop in recent years.
• C'mon • Low
  As unlikely as it may be, late-period Low (The Great Destroyer and on) is far more interesting than early-period Low.
• King of Hearts • Lloyd
• Watch the Throne • Jay Z and Kanye West
  It's great. Or at least, 3/5 of it is. Jay Z is back, after a long vacation.

• The Big Roar • The Joy Formidable
  A fierce contemporary reformulation of shoegaze, Britpop, and noise-pop.
• 101 • Keren Ann
• The Hood Internet • The Hood Internet
  The closest thing we're likely to get to an "album" by the Chicago mashup demigods, a collection of remixes and original "covers" they've recorded.
• Sound Kapital • Handsome Furs
• Ceremonials • Florence and The Machine

• Gravity the Seducer • Ladytron
  Ladytron's chilliest, most teutonic, and potent album to date.
• Looping State Of Mind • The Field
• I Am Very Far • Okkervil River
  The rare band that starts out mediocre and somehow ends up great mid-career.
• Hiding From Our Time EP • Computer Magic
• Metals • Feist
• Take Care • Drake

• Last Summer • Eleanor Friedberger
  None of the Fiery Furnaces' many annoying traits—the forced, studied experimentalism, the ersatz slam poetry-by-way-of-riot grrrl lyrical detours—are in evidence on Friedberger's solo debut, which is instead a tight collection of economical indie-pop in the traditional style.
• Zonoscope • Cut Copy
• Rapproacher • Class Actress
  Sex, drugs, privilege, numerous Madonna nods, more sex. Your mileage may vary.
• Salt for Salt • Brown Bird
• Halo • Blackbird Blackbird

Older Music I Enjoyed That Was New To Me in 2011

• La Roux • La Roux
  Soaring vocals, seductive production, taut and emotionally resonant songwriting—case study in what great dance-pop can be.
• Trunk Muzik 0-60 • Yelawolf
  2010: The year a second great white MC emerged.
• Flockaveli • Waka Flocka Flame
• Epic • Sharon Van Etten
  I don't usually enjoy singer/songwriter music, except when the singer and the songwriting are this excellent.
• The Knot • Wye Oak
• We Are Young Money • Young Money
• Hands • Little Boots

• InnerSpeaker • Tame Impala
  Psych-rock that doesn't forget psychedelic's long relationship with pop.
• Still Night, Still Light • Au Revoir Simone
• Love 2 • Air
• HaHa Sound • Broadcast
• Voodoo • D'Angelo
• Past is Prologue • Tycho
• Entire Belle and Sebastian catalog
  Never too late?
• Always, Sometimes, Seldom, Never • Tears Run Rings
• Station • Russian Circles

Old Music I Enjoyed Years Ago That I Rediscovered in 2011

• Zooropa • U2
  Rule of thumb: the more Brian Eno fingerprints (and Johnny Cash!) on a U2 album the better.
• Soul Food • Goodie Mob
• Ruthless by Law • RBL Posse
  Not a single subpar song on here.

• In The Wee Small Hours • Frank Sinatra
  The Chairman's most elegant and subtle set.
• Entire pre-Reveal R.E.M. catalog (particularly: Automatic for the People, Out of Time, Murmur, Document)
  I listened to enough R.E.M. in high school and college to last a lifetime, but the band's long-overdue breakup this year had me digging them out of the dusty corners of my 1 TB hard drive. Despite playing all these albums to death from 1992 through (roughly) 1998, they make for great late-night road trip music, and the sophistication and maturity of the songwriting allows the albums to hold up better than the music of most of their contemporaries, while revealing new layers for adult listeners.
• Too Far To Care • Old 97's
  See Ruthless by Law.
• Kid A • Radiohead

• Outer Perimeter • Presage
  Schizophrenic instrumental hip-hop with a healthy dose of pre-Millennial paranoia via Coast to Coast AM.
• Dots and Loops • Stereolab
• Trans-Europe Express • Kraftwerk
  I've long "liked" Kraftwerk, but only this year really came to appreciate the glacial chill and the metronomic rhythms that make their music so iconic.
• The Hot Rock • Sleater-Kinney
• Music Has The Right to Children • Boards of Canada

• No Need For Alarm • Del tha Funkee Homosapien
  The möbius strip flow and dusted production on this album could sustain an entire career. Unfortunately, they did.
• Aquemini • Outkast
  They never again reached this peak, but god, what a peak.
• Musik von Harmonia • Harmonia
• Queens of the Stone Age • Queens of the Stone Age
  Nowhere else is the influence of Kraftwerk and Krautrock on Josh Homme's songwriting as apparent.
• Radio Ethiopia • Patti Smith
  Sounds like a collection of arcane incantations to a faded era of decadence.
• Moon Pix • Cat Power

Other assorted media I enjoyed in 2011

• Bombay Beach
  A transfixing experimental documentary film by Alma Har’el about the denizens of Bombay Beach, near the Salton Sea, the epically-failed attempt from the ’20s through the ’50s to establish a resort in the middle of the desert.

• Sin and Punishment: Star Successor (Wii)
  At this point, I have little patience for a video game that demands close attention and revels in complexity. If I'm going to think, I'd rather read a book or catch up on my long Instapaper queue. Sin and Punishment: Star Successor is precisely the type of game I'm looking for, and one rarely made these days: a twitchy shooter that envelops the player in its inventive world.

• This Has To Be Funny • Marc Maron
  I was a bit dubious about Maron's first comedy album in years: as loyal a listener to WTF with Marc Maron as I am, Maron's neuroses, mom (and dad) issues, and fear of commitment are often the least engaging elements. But Maron's a pro, and that's evident in this tight, wickedly hilarious, emotionally excoriating set.

Image by Andy Gilmore

It's been far too long since I made a mixtape, so here's an extra-long two hour one to make up for lost time. May be my best one yet! It's conventionally schizophrenic: emo R&B, dance-pop, indie rock, legacy synth-pop, "chillwave" (AKA "contemporary synth-pop by and for stoners",) and of course, some hip-hop bangers. I'm going to try to get a new one of these up every month. 

Download it here and spread the word! (Depending on your browser, you may need to alt-click/right-click and "save download as" or "save link as" as just clicking on the link will often just play the mix in your browser.)

Unlike many bands that have merged the folk, country and '70s punk (to tepid results), Mule Train took its inspiration from a more problematic pairing  of western swing and millenial post-punk such as the Murder City Devils, and it took us a while to find a way to amalgamate those sort of influences into a cohesive sound.

In time, the country elements began to recede--except for the galloping two-step rhythms, which we played at nearly blast-beat speed--and our latent indie-rock sensibilities began to creep into the music more.

We did a bit of touring, all on the West Coast, including a Pacific Northwest tour that ended in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Yreka, CA with a VW bus with a busted transmission (story to come!) Mostly, though, we confined ourselves to the Bay Area.

As all bands do nowadays, we went on "hiatus" as opposed to breaking up when I moved to Chicago in 2006. I wouldn't hold your breath for a reunion, though murmurings do kick up on the Facebooks and the Twitters from time to time. There was probably 7 or 8 songs we never got a chance to record, which were really a leap forward from the hesitant first steps documented on Be On Your Way. (Kidding! It's great. Buy it--I only have 350 copies sitting in the trunk of my car.)

Be On Your Way got some incredibly kind notices in the press:

"This three piece from Santa Cruz, California has been gaining quite a following and for good reason: Mule Train is one of the best folk-punk bands in recent history."
-Zero Magazine

"This gripping folk-punk trio manages to do-si-do its way around its punk rock superego...seething with down-home aggression, Mule Train's twangy music demands instant affirmation."
-Metro Santa Cruz

"Cool, fuzzy, twangy cow punk...two step rockabilly beats and edgy vocals. Good time whiskey punk I say!"
- Punk Planet #66 (disclaimer: these past two reviews came prior to my employment by PP and MSC)

"Folk-rock with a punk voice, somewhat like the mellower moments of FILTHY THIEVING BASTARDS. Kind of a dirty South feel to it. Either way, it’s great!"
- AMP Magazine

I'm not going to post a full album download since the album is still out there in the world of commerce, but here are a handful of downloads:

Weapons [mp3]
Bottom of the Stack [mp3]
Rock 'n' Roll [mp3]
Carryin' On [mp3]

And an additional song from the Someday Coming Round compilation:

Dead to Rights (also known in other incarnations as the Alien-referencing "Facehugger") [mp3]

We also played an acoustic set on Central Coast radio station KPIG:

Mule Train live on KPIG [zip download]

Someday Coming Round: Deviant Twang Revisited (zip file)

Track List:

1. Mule Train - Dead to Rights
2. The Devil Makes Three -  Bangor Mash
3. Clampitt, Gaddis and Buck - Wayward Brother
4. Dusty Rhodes and the River Band - Fire in the Sky
5. The Jewgrass Boys - Jim McCann
6. Boaz Vilozny - Not in this Town
7. Power of County - Preacher Man
8. Emily Herring - Doc Bronner
9. The Juanita Family and Friends - Song of Mihitabel
10. the Strangers - Outskirts of the City at the Edge of a Desert
11. The Younger Brothers - Easy Son
12. Kids on the Couch - God
13. Steven Griswold - Needle and Twine
14. The Jesus Chords - When the Man is Getting You Down
15. Rum and Rebellion - San Luis Waltz
16. Meg Woodruff - Sunshine

This one got a fair amount of press given its provenance, including a feature in the Metro Santa Cruz (once again, before I began contributing, but not my long.)  For posterity, press clips below:

"It's the kind of album that reaffirms your faith in country music and makes doing this radio show possible." - Silverfish in the Kitchen Radio

"It's rare to find a compilation worth listening to, where only a couple of tracks stand out against a dozen other B-sides. It's even more difficult to find a decent country music compilation, a genre so vilified because of mainstream vapidness and patriotism. Someday Coming Round is an ideal primer for those who can't get past Travis Tritt, and even for those who don't have Bocephus's entire discography...Do yourself a favor and get this comp, and then do yourself a bigger favor and buy the respective records of all the bands on this comp." - Punk Planet # 72

"The phrase “deviant twang” sums up the very essence of this sampler’s sound—it’s a little bit honky-tonk, a little bit rock ’n’ roll and whole lotta dirty. Alongside some of our already established favorites, such as “Dead to Rights” from Mule Train and “Bangor Mash” from fellow local deviants The Devil Makes Three, Someday Coming Round brings us some of the greatest sounds from up and down the West Coast." - Good Times Santa Cruz

Also, credit where it's due, the cover was designed by myself and the emitable Daniel Strong, and printed (by printed I mean photocopied and colored in with Sharpies when the silkscreen didn't register right) by the two of us over beer, Vicodin, and marathon sessions of Six Feet Under DVD's.

Someday Coming Down: A Deviant Twang Sampler (zip file)

Track List:

1. The Devil Makes Three - Ain't Nobody's Business
2. The Chop-Tops - Hey Baby
3. The Puffin' Billies - Bhune the Sheepherder
4. Mule Train - Bait & Switch
5. Boaz Vilzony - Working Man
6. The Diamond Star Haloes - Red, White and Blue
7.  Ten Gallon - White Freightliner
8. Hobo Jazz- Rocking Chair
9. The Waiting Man - Driving Nails in My Coffin
10. Two Gallants - Cocaine Blues
11. Blackstrap - St. James Infirmary Blues
12. The Blue Lady Quintet - Porcelain
13. Ladytown - Easy Come, Easy Go
14. Brown Recluse - Desire
15. Muleskinner Jones - Pretty Polly
16. Steven Griswold Trucking Project - Drink it Away
17. The Younger Brothers - Mid November

Download Paul M. Davis – No Shoes, No Shirt, No Skinny Ties (zip file)

Track List:

1. Done My Time
2. Six Shooters
3. Troubles and Games
4. Fuck Me Morose
5. Bait and Switch
6. Bottom of the Stack
7. Drinking in the Park
8. Alkaline
9. Whiskey Coma
10. Mason-Dixon Line (Saporito Mix)
11. Falling Star
12. Be On Your Way

Guest vocal appearances by Carrie Sieh and Aaron Ulrich

Lonesome Brothers - Live at the Poet and Patriot Nov 2, 2002 (zip file)

Tracks:

California’s No Place for Cowboys
Be On Your Way
Waiting All Night

Few of these bands exist anymore, though a handful do. The obvious historical quirk is the inclusion of a couple demos by our friends-of-a friend in The Thermals, who have gone on to a well-deserved measure of success (including releasing one of 2007's  most critically acclaimed albums). There are some great nuggets in here by musicians who’ve gone on to bigger things (such as Pete, with the Devil Makes Three) as well fantastic songwriters and bands that deserve a bit more historical re-estimation (including great Santa Cruz indie popsters Sin in Space, brilliant songwriter Boaz Vilozny who gave up music for organic chemistry, and Sweatitout, an amalgam of ’80s metal and the Cars that would have made Brooklynite hipsters swoon if they’d formed on the other coast.)

The other day, this blogger Steve, who runs the great Cover Freak blog and had ordered the other two CD-R comps I put together (Someday Coming Down and Someday Coming Round), sent me an email asking if I had any copies of this comp left. Unfortunately, I only have a couple copies kicking around the apartment anymore, both of which are slowly submitting to the decreptitude that awaits CD-R’s and home-silkscreened covers. His email inspired me to rip the tracks and archive them while I still could, scan the art, and post it all online for posterity.

Download Tastes Like Burning .zip file

The track listing and links to the current musical projects of the bands and musicians involved:

01> marker - road to nowhere (current projects unknown)
02> depth charge revolt - socrates diminished
03> the thermals - goddamn the light
04> sin in space - fly by night
05> pete bernhard - revenge (Pete is now in The Devil Makes Three)
06> boaz vilozny - waiting all night
07> paul m. davis - alkaline
08> the automatones - nobodys hero (current projects unknown)
09> sweat it out - takin forever (current project: The Gibbs)
10> audio crush - in love with misery (Joe Clement’s current band: Crucial Unicorn)
11> the spooks - rollin dice with jesus christ (current projects unknown)
12> the shakes - six fifty (The one document of me and Pete’s short-lived goober garage-punk outfit)
13> the thermals - it’s time to lose
14> ill lit - beating the daylights out of my nightlife
15> paul m. davis - bottom of the stack
16> zirkles unit - love inside
17> the roots of orchis - please call 874-2420

For more about Santa Cruz independent culture and DIY history, check out the awesome SCUM wiki.

Insert cover art by Koak.