Audio Book: God Is Not Great

God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
by Christopher Hitchens (Author)

Although I'm a libertarian at heart, and I do believe in some higher power, this audio book opens up a new paradigm, when it comes to the "classical" way we think about religion. If your up for a very interesting argument for why there may be no god (divine creation), then gives this a listen. Warning: It's hard to get your head around this (for me anyways), but Christopher Hitchens is a living maverick when it comes to today's intellectuals. I find him very entertaining regardless. It should make those barstool conversations a little more interesting with your friends. I know this post is not ROCKNROLL, but anyone who can stretch the mind like an elastic band is okay by me. - wino

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Hitchens, one of our great political pugilists, delivers the best of the recent rash of atheist manifestos. The same contrarian spirit that makes him delightful reading as a political commentator, even (or especially) when he's completely wrong, makes him an entertaining huckster prosecutor once he has God placed in the dock. And can he turn a phrase!: "monotheistic religion is a plagiarism of a plagiarism of a hearsay of a hearsay, of an illusion of an illusion, extending all the way back to a fabrication of a few nonevents." Hitchens's one-liners bear the marks of considerable sparring practice with believers. Yet few believers will recognize themselves as Hitchens associates all of them for all time with the worst of history's theocratic and inquisitional moments. All the same, this is salutary reading as a means of culling believers' weaker arguments: that faith offers comfort (false comfort is none at all), or has provided a historical hedge against fascism (it mostly hasn't), or that "Eastern" religions are better (nope). The book's real strength is Hitchens's on-the-ground glimpses of religion's worst face in various war zones and isolated despotic regimes. But its weakness is its almost fanatical insistence that religion poisons "everything," which tips over into barely disguised misanthropy.


GOD

Snake Flower 2 - Renegade Daydream (2008)

Snake Flower 2's first full-length, "Renegade Daydream" [Tic Tac Totally], is so utterly bitchin': it's overdriven, romping-in-the-red hot-rod rawk for kids whose minds were forever fractured by dog-eared, rifled copies of Nuggets LPs, Steppenwolf's gnarlsome guitar tone, Roger Corman cinematic cheapie sleazies, and the Standells' heightened snot levels. Renegade Daydreams' supercharged, fuzz-doused frenzies are the choicest tidbits plucked from, Melton says, "the first batch of songs I wrote after I escaped from the South". Kimberly Chun - San Francisco Bay Guardian

Snake Flower 2 is the musical vehicle of one Matthew Melton, a San Franciscan transplant from Memphis who has had his name attached to such covert rock'n roll projects such as the Memphis Break-Ups and Bare Wires in recent years, but is just now coming to bear fruit with his own accomplishments in the second incarnation of Snake Flower, appropriately titled Snake Flower 2. This week, they are embarking out on a West Coast tour that drags their unique pop/psyche sound up and down the Pacific seashore, lacing everyone's drinks with angel dust, and reiterating the solid fact that San Francisco is churning out some of the best creative material in the country these days. With slight nuances of Memphis heavy hitters like the subtle twang of the Reigning Sound loosely tied into their pop rockets, they intertwine melodic T.Rex-isms and obscure Electric Prune-ings with post-garage songwriting so well, it's almost creating it's own sub-genre as we speak. Their debut 7" EP on the Italian label, Shake Your Ass Records was a sleeper hit of 2006 and added their name to the top of the list of 'snake' monikered bands previously battled out by A Feast of Snakes, Deadly Snakes and Charming Snakes, among many others. Just like the original wave of 60s primitives who blew their minds wide open with actual instrumentation and developed clever angles of the original rock'n roll formula, the lineage from Snake Flower's humble beginnings to their current blossoming force of annihilation is short but effectively succinct. If you're still salivating for another taste of Snake Flower 2, brace yourselves for a follow-up 7" called "Talk About It" on Tic Tac Totally Records due out any minute, and even more importantly on the horizon is their debut album titled "Renegade Daydream" coming soon also on Chicago's Tic Tac Totally label. - Todd Killings: Victim Of Time

Snake Flower 2

Slide it in!

Baby Woodrose - Chasing Rainbows

A few years ago Lorenzo Woodrose was wandering the streets of Copenhagen, Denmark searching for kicks. In his search he met The Moody Guru, who offered him some mighty special seeds. Argyreia nervosa or Baby Hawaiian Woodrose they were called, and they got Lorenzo all fired up. As Lorenzo once said: I tried it once and wrote 5 million songs in 30 seconds and decided to make a record using this name, and he sure did. The next day, still tripping he entered a recording studio. All by himself, he recorded 14 songs of sixties inspired garagerock with loads of fuzz, tambourines, cheesy organs, snotty vocals and a whole lotta soul. These tracks would all end up on the Blows Your Mind album. To complete the recordings he once again called upon his trusty sidekick and spiritual adviser The Moody Guru to do the final mixing of the album. Finished and returning to the real world Lorenzo decided to gather a band to play these new fuzzed out tunes live. Yet again The Moody Guru got involved. Lorenzo gave him the name of Riky Woodrose and The Guru was ready to rock. All they needed to complete the line-up was a drummer. Their choice wasnt an obvious one, - instead of choosing a drummer for his skills, they chose the new kid on the block with the best taste in fast cars and women. They named him Rocco Woodrose and Baby Woodrose was ready to blow your mind! - myspace


Chasing Rainbows

The Grails of Fuzz

Baby Woodrose 7”

This is a very cool 7" single by Baby Woodrose. File under: Brian Jonestown Massacre and Kill City by the Iggster.

The new Baby Woodrose 7” contains two exclusive songs only available on this fine piece of plastic. Both songs were recorded with the intension of being included on their recent album "Chasing Rainbows" but it never happened. Not because of the quality of the songs, they just did not seem to fit in. First pressing will be a 1000 copies on black vinyl featuring exclusive artwork by Kiryk.

1.Coming Around Again
2.I Feel High

BABY

Kings Of Leon - Because Of The Times (2007)

Kings of Leon is a rock band made up of three brothers and their first cousin. Their influences include Southern rock, garage rock, hard rock, country and blues.

In March 2006, it was announced by NME that Kings of Leon were back in the studio, working on their third album. Because of the Times debuted at #1 in the UK and Ireland and entered the US charts at #25, selling approximately 70,000 copies in its first week of release. The album was preceded by the single "On Call", which became a hit in Britain. The album showed a clear evolution from the band's previous work, as the band's trademark dirty, southern-fried swagger was replaced with a more mature, polished sound. This, however, did not stop the album from becoming arguably the band's most successful commercial and critical release. Other singles from the album were "Fans" and "Charmer." The album was produced by Angelo Petraglia and Ethan Johns.

KINGS

Jerry Reed - The Essential

I just herd the sad news that Jerry Reed died in Nashville, Tennessee, on September 1, 2008, of complications from emphysema. One of my favorite road movies of all time is "Smokey and the Bandit" Jerry played the Snowman with Jackie Gleason and Burt Renyolds.

This post is for you Jerry. Cheers!

Snowball

Yesterday's Children - Selftitled ( Hardrock 1969)

While driving in my buddy's car over the long weekend, looking for a patio fueled with beer and burgers, my friend played this record . Fantastic. But "thanks" must also go to the original ripper "CHRISGOESROCK" for ripping up this great record. Serve with COLD BEER and BBQ BURGERS.

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Reissue of the Connecticut hard rock groups only LP, originally released in 1969. Not to be confused with the Chicago area punk group of the same name who appear on the Pebbles box set. From the Cheshire and Prospect areas of Connecticut, these guys started out playing classic garage fuzz-punk as demonstrated by To Be Or Not To Be . They'd progress to a hard rock style, of which the LP is a good example and worth searching out. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR HARDROCK FANS of late 60's fuzzed rock. - CGR

Children