Just got a note from the folks at epitunes saying they selected my band, Beltaine’s Fire, as their featured artist for the day yesterday, which was perfect because we had a show last night (well, last night and this morning… i just got home actually) and a little extra publicity never hurt anyone. Anyway, here’s what they had to say:

Beltaine’s Fire musical style is unlike anything you’ve heard of before. Fusing traditional Irish and Scottish music with rock, folk, and rap elements, Beltaine’s Fire has succeeded in creating a truly unique sound that is still instantly accessible.

The group, consisting of Emcee Lynx (rap vocals, singing), Laura Noel (bass, backup vocals), Chris Darbyshire (drums), and John Dougal (Banjo), is rapidly gaining a loyal fan base in Northern California. They’re performing tonight at Ireland’s 32 in San Francisco and have a number of shows scheduled throughout NorCal in the month of September.

a big thanks to whoever pulled us out of the magic hat over at epitunes!

the original story is up on the Epitunes Blog, drop by and let ‘em know you appreciate their covering us and vote for the article.

Posted: August 31st, 2007 under Beltaine's Fire, music.
Comments: none

Our radio spot on kkup last friday went off pretty well, our drummer got stuck in traffic and arrived after we’d already started so we couldn’t set up his full set, it would have been too disruptive since we were already live on the air, so he ended up playing with just his snare drum. the result was a set that was way mellower, much more folk-y then anything we’ve ever done before. considering the venue that was probably a good thing. I dunno though, if anyone happened to catch it on the air and wants to let us know how we sounded we’d love to get some feedback.

In other news, we’ve been making steady progress on the album, this is a good thing. Last night Laura and I finished re-recording the vocals for the new Beltaine’s Fire album to remove all the cursewords and fix a few other minor issues. I’ve resisted going “clean” with my lyrics for years, but with the band we’ve got a bunch of opportunities to get radio play, we just have to make sure that the cd’s we send are “radio friendly”. Problem is, we can’t afford to mixdown and master 2 version of the album the way artists on the big labels do, so the only real option if we want to get heard is to make our actual album ‘radio friendly’. Read more »

Posted: August 28th, 2007 under Beltaine's Fire.
Comments: none

a fun little quote for all the republicans & democrats who like to spout nonsense about how in a time of war we should all rally ’round the flag and support “our” government.

“If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”

Samuel Adams, (1722-1803)

Well said.

Posted: August 28th, 2007 under culture war.
Comments: none

Here’s a dirty little secret that cops all over the world know but doesn’t get talked about much - it’s incredibly common for police departments everywhere to plant undercover agents in protests dressed up as “anarchists” so that they can either have them start some sort of disturbance or violence - giving the police an excuse to come in and arrest everyone and violently break up the protest - or have them act as a snatch squads to grab and arrest people out of the crowd. Here’s an example of a couple undercover cops in Canada trying to go with option A and create a false impression that a peaceful protest is “violent” by waving around (but not actually throwing) rocks.

At first they succeed in stirring up conflict between the real anarchists and the other protesters, but fortunately the main guy catches on to the fact that they’re cops - not anarchists at all - and the entire crowd turns on them and shouts them down until they give up and cross over into the police lines.  I’ve seen stuff like this happen literally dozens of times over the years, but usually it doesn’t get caught on video.

Another favorite used by police provocateurs is throwing empty plastic water bottles at the cops in uniform.  they’re so lightweight that there’s no chance they’ll actually hurt their fellow cops, but it allows the police to say that the protesters were throwing bottles and gives them an excuse to bring out the tear gas and rubber bullets.  Keep this in mind next time you hear a new reports that blames “violent anarchists” for starting trouble and giving the police an excuse to shut down a demo.

Posted: August 23rd, 2007 under culture war, politrix.
Comments: 1

gonna go looking for more like this now…

Posted: August 22nd, 2007 under gods & religion, video.
Comments: none