Friday, Jun. 27, 2008

Not even music is safe from politics

By Jeremy Dutton, Herald staff writer

It's hard to escape politics these days, even when seeking solace in music from an already terse presidential campaign.

The two are becoming so entwined that the task of putting on some headphones and cranking up the dial can no longer calm the din of talking heads.

Just look at these bits over the past few weeks:

-- I think it was on the Daily Show where I saw former Orleans singer John Hall (who happens to be a congressman now representing New York) verbally slap John McCain for using the group's hit song Still the One at a campaign event. It also just opened up another avenue for McCain haters to compare him to George Bush. Apparently this spat also arose when Hall took the president to task for using the same song in 2004.

-- Earlier this month, Gov. Chris Gregoire kicked off her re-election campaign at a Cave Singers concert at Neumo's in Seattle. Anything strike you as weird about that sentence? It would be like going to a Cave Singers (way indie stuff by the way) with my mom. She's cool, but not that cool. Just imagine telling your friends about the show the next day.

Friend: "How was the Cave Singers show?"

Me: "Amazing. They played Dancing On Our Graves in all its foot-stomping glory. Tight harmonies. So much fun."

Friend: "Did anybody open for them?"

Me: "Uhh ... yeah ... Gov. Gregoire."

Friend: "Huh? ... "

You get the idea.

Top record stores

I was checking out Paste Magazine's online list of the top 17 record stores in the country recently and was actually OK with it. They honored the wonderfully huge and diverse Music Millenium in Portland.

And while I would definitely have included the beloved Easy Street Records in Seattle, this is a national list we're talking about here, mentioning luminaries like Amoeba and Waterloo.

But Music Millenium bears the torch well for the Northwest. Go to: www.pastemagazine.com/action/article/7609/the_record_store to see the list for yourself.

The whole thing also kicked in my weekly lament on the lack of a quality music store here.

Best Buy is way thin on selection and while Hastings has a wider catalog, it misses the boat on some key releases.

I have been in far too many times where the only response I get is: "No, we didn't get that in, but we can special order it for you."

Yeah I can too -- it's called the Internet.

* Jeremy Dutton: 582-1525; jdutton@tricityherald.com