Artist Entry: the_Network guitarist Kevin and the truth behind the boob tube

“Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe.” –Thomas Jefferson. 1817

News.

News is what happened or will happen, right? Well, no, it isn’t. News is what someone says it happened or will happen. A healthy democracy is dependent on a well informed citizenry. That is a regularly agreed upon statement among objective people. When we, as citizens, are aware of what is going on in our country and the rest of the world, we’re in a better position to decide what we want from our leaders. The problem is that power hungry people know this as well. The Russians tried to control behavior, the U.S. government wants to control opinion, and the U.S. mass media rarely hesitate to give them a hand. So we need news and we get news, but who’s giving it to us and what’s their motivation? Who pulls the strings at our news sources? In order to answer these questions, one must first look at who’s in charge.

Let’s look at television. Basically, all networks (besides my band) are owned by a handful of huge conglomerates with billions of dollars and plenty of international interests. (*The following companies own far more channels than what is listed, but I’ll mention only their news outlets and Comedy Central.) AOL/Time Warner owns CNN, Headline News, and 37.5 % of Comedy Central. General Electric owns NBC, CNBC, 50% of MSNBC (w/ Microsoft), has stakes in regional news channels, and NBC and CNBC in Europe and Asia. Viacom owns CBS and 50% of Comedy Central. Disney owns ABC. News Corporation owns Fox and the Fox News Channel. Bertelsmann owns almost all of the channels in Europe. Those companies, along with Sony, Vivendi, and AT&T, basically own everything you see on TV. (*Google “The Big Ten” to see the ridiculous amount of crap these conglomerates own.) Many of the above mentioned stations share interests in a variety of channels, newspapers, radio stations, magazines, etc. Personally, I get sick thinking of how much they own. I own some guitar stuff, some jeans, and whatever t-shirts bands are nice enough to give me (hint hint).

This kind of ownership can greatly affect a news channel’s output. For example, NBC’s “Today Show” deleted a reference to the General Electric Company from a report on shoddy products that was televised November 30, 1989. NBC is a subsidiary of RCA, which is owned by General Electric. Also, GE has secured millions of dollars in defense and military contracts, earning itself a place among notorious war profiteering companies. With this in mind, how critical of U.S. military interventions are NBC, CNBC, and MSNBC really going to be? Many of the above mentioned companies’ CEO’s are staunch conservatives and have interests in other organizations that benefit from war. For example, CBS has board members from the Amoco Corporation and NBC shares board members with J.P. Morgan & Company. J.P. Morgan & Co. helps manage $290 billion of the Sabah family’s money in Kuwait. Perhaps that could help explain why the U.S. Government ignored Saddam Hussein’s atrocities until he invaded Kuwait, a huge U.S. cash cow.

This is why the overused “liberal media” label just kills me. Conservatives love to look at journalists and call the company they work for “liberal.” You know, those Volvo-driving, latte-drinking, tree-hugging liberals controlling the media. How many times have you heard conservative talk show hosts blaming the “liberal media” for making Bush look like an idiot? (A fucking one-year-old could do that.) Even Bill Clinton whined to Rolling Stone that he did not get “one damn bit of credit from the knee-jerk liberal press.” And of course, George W. Bush complained that the media “are biased against conservative thought.” If the U.S. mainstream media were biased against conservative thought, they wouldn’t exist!

Follow the dollars, find the problem. You want the news? A few people are getting rich controlling vital information and millions of people are getting dumb listening to what billionaires want them to. I mean, 1% of the U.S. population owns 50% of the stocks! I could go on and on and probably will in my next few blogs. So, if you’re bored by thinking, don’t tune in here, tune into your television.

*Yea, I used some sources for this blog, but this isn’t college, so I ain’t citing shit.

ALTERNATIVE NEWS SITES

Fairness and Accuracy in reporting: www.fair.org

Independent Media: www.indymedia.org

Public Citizen: www.citizen.org

Non-Violence Web: www.nonviolence.org

Voices in the Wilderness: www.nonviolence.org/vitw

School of the Americas Watch: www.soaw.org

Global Exchange: www.globalexchange.org

Earth Justice Legal Defense Fund: www.earthjustice.org

World Trade Observer: www.worldtradeobserver.org

Online Anarchist Community: www.infoshop.org

Missionary Service News Agency: www.misna.org

The Emperor’s New Clothes: www.tenc.net

Third World Newsreel: www.twn.org

One World.Net: www.oneworld.net

Third World Network: www.twnside.org.sg/

“April 16”: www.a16.org

Side note from Moderator: If you want to see who owns what, check out the Web site for the Columbia Journalism Review.

Artist Entry: Hi. I'm Guy Kozowyk, and I'm addicted to 'Brickbreaker'

Just another day at the office

I've been trying to get all of my bands to participate in this blog and wouldn't you know it, the hypocrite I am, I had never contributed one myself. Until now!!! This entire tirade is inspired by the fact that it's Saturday night and I just beat "Brickbreaker" on my phone (the shitty, but super addicting pong-type game that comes pre-installed on every Blackberry).

The weekends have always been associated with wild nights out, friends and partying. Until you're away on tour eight months out of the year for seven years straight and all your old buds who would've started calling at 5:01 p.m. on Friday afternoon to see what's up for the weekend assume that you aren't going to be around and stop calling. Eventually, you lose touch and you become the outsider to poker night, pay per view get togethers and general debauchery. You just have to hope you'll find a female who is dumb enough to put up with the abusive schedule and deal with the lack of companionship so you ensure yourself something to do when you get home. And if that isn't available, thankfully God created video games for children, teenagers, college kids, the late-twenty something record label owner/band guys....losers of all ages!

I got back from a tour with Converge, The Red Chord, Genghis Tron and Coliseum about a week ago. I've been completely exhausted and slammed by all the regular catch up work. To decompress, I've found myself buried in a handful of video games. When I was out in Los Angeles, I found a new best friend in a kid named Travell who works for EA Sports who hooked me up with a short stack of Xbox 360 games-- "Army of Two," "The Orange Box" and "Battlefields 2." The night I got home, my brother Michael and I played "Army of Two" start to finish on the easy level. It was fun primarily because of the brotherly bonding experience associated with the four hours of non-stop terrorist killing, but the lack of bosses and a disappointing end sequence infuriated me to the point where I don't know if I will ever play it again.

Most games I can't just casually play. I'll go eight months without touching a controller before having a three-day binge with no sleep. Mike started the "Orange Box," which is actually three or four games in one including "Half Life" and "Portal." After finishing "Army of Two," I just couldn't stand to be in front of the television any longer and watching the 3D strategy game, "Portal" was giving me a headache. I made some comment about why anyone would want to play this mind-numbing game with no enemies whatsoever. I'm making my escape back to my workload when he drops the life ruining comment, "Ever play the 2D Portal on the computer? It's pretty wild." He tells me to search Addictinggames.com and sure enough I find it seconds later. I should never have even looked.

ADDICTING GAMES DOT COM! Of course it's going to ruin your life. It's like trying to casually shoot heroin or something. It just doesn't work like that. Next thing you know, I'm glued to the computer for hours cursing out whoever game up with this retarded 30 level game. It was probably two sleepless nights later when I finally beat it and wanted to put a gun in my fucking mouth over yet another frustrating end sequences.

Which finally brings me to tonight and "Brickbreaker." I got a new phone with this little curse installed on it a couple months ago and on many occasions I find myself bored and killing time with this basic pong-style "hit the ball at the bricks and try to break them. Repeat." You pick up weapons along the way like lasers and multiple balls and for the first 13 stages it is smooth sailing. And then it just kicks in to life ruining mode where it's pretty much impossible.

Since I'm having the video game binge week, I picked up "Brickbreaker" this evening and went for it and in some stroke of luck, I actually made it through all 34 stages within two tries. I'm about to spoil it for everyone-- the game just fucking starts over!!! Like Dr. Mario repeating over and over and over and over on level 24 regardless of what speed you have it on or how quick you kill the shitty viruses, it just starts over. No end screen. No congratulations. Wouldn't you know it, your name goes on this giant top score chart -- my best score ever still leaving me in 42,566th place. I didn't even crack the top 20,000!!! Even when I win I'm a loser! Seriously, I'm not the type of guy to go throwing fits or punching walls, but my Blackberry almost went out the window in a fit of nerd rage.

So that's it. My first official blog. I'm going to attempt to hide from video games for a while. And my Xbox Live gamer tag is SQUASH YOU, so now no one has to MySpace me and ask, or you can leave feedback about how I was terrible at the game or I talked shit to your 8-year-old brother on the headset during "Gears of War" tournaments. I swear, if as many people bought something from the BMA Web store as message me on MySpace about what my gamer tag is, I'd be a rich man.

Thanks for your attention.

Artist Entry: From a Second Story Window vocalist Will Jackson is surrounded by word vomit

Photo by: Enrique Parrilla from C.S.I.

Sounding Pissed and Stuff...

I'm really tired of trying to be intelligent and forward thinking around those folks out there who aren't, or have no desire to be so. It's fucking unbearable sometimes. You chill, talk, listen, and then BOOM!, you realize that what you have been paying attention to is complete filler and meaningless, no weight whatsoever. It's a travesty that no one cares about relevant topics anymore, or to be more direct, cares about the wrong things all together and then feels that sharing this misinformed nomenclature is actually important and valid, or worth talking about with other human beings. Far too many people are content being ignorant and useless in the social system that they are bringing it down day by day, word by word.

Please don't get me wrong by thinking that I feel this way about everyone out there, that's not the case. I just have had far too many conversations, aka wastes of time, with people who spout shit out of their mouths without an ounce of rhyme or reason behind it. These people are the ones out there who talk to you soulely to speak about themselves or to put down another race (this includes all forms of racial and social prejudice) or to try and connect with you just because they think they will gain something to benefit their own lives, or perhaps they just want to share with you just "how fucking wasted they were last night, man." UGHHH... Does this rip anyone else's soul apart or is it just me? I mean, come on!

I also often wonder if half the people out there are even interested in being themselves at all. Do they really give a shit that they come off as just another pawn lagging behind, ruining the game, while the world's opponents are screaming for them to move? And yes, perhaps I do harp on this idea too often, but FUCK man, it's totally valid in the world we are alive in. The drolling population as a whole is copacetic to the point of disaster and lately it seems that it is beyond human repair.

"Hey Will, did I tell you about what my cat did the other day, man. Oh, shit. He totally jumped over my coffee table, man. Whoa!"

PLEASE GOD MAY I NEVER HAVE TO HEAR THAT STATEMENT EVER AGAIN!

I'm sorry, I guess I am a little wound up today. But if you are out there and you can feel me on this, and are fed up with people who are compliant with the way things are, then please do yourself a favor and go to your refrigerator, open a beer, light a smoke, and kick your feet up, because you have earned it just for being someone who understands that meaningless bullshit does not equate to meaningful conversation, or life for that matter. WHEW!

Im done. Sorry.

Will

Artist Entry: Animosity vocalist Leo Miller's five-second rant

Big block letter t -shirts. What's the deal? I guess bands thought
it wasn't enough to remove all creativity from their music so they had
to stop putting artwork on their merchandise.

Boycott the trend!

Artist Entry: Animosity vocalist Leo Miller gets down with friends of the wicked clowns

Cleveland Ohio -- the shit is fucked up.

Our show got moved to some small town right outside of the city because the original venue closed its doors about a week earlier -- probably something to do with underage drinking. Coincidentally, the corner opposite the club that we are playing was hosting a show that was also moved last minute and our buddies Psyopus were playing along with Dance Club Massacre.
Two shows with the same audience on the same block in the same small town. Needless to say, the crowd was spread pretty thin at both shows. The sick joke of it all is that people from the Psyopus show kept coming over to our show to buy merch from First Blood but weren't even there for the set.

The promoter of our show realized his mistake and offered everyone from our tour free entrance to his other show across town to make up for the scheduling blunder. This other show happened to be a performance by Ill Bill, Paul Wall and Tech N9ne. I was excited because I have always had some curious interest in the Juggalo world and I knew that Tech N9ne was down with the clown. Furthermore, it had to be more fun that the shot gig we just played.

I got "searched" at the door before entering and the security dude failed to find the huge knife clipped in my pocket. This was somewhat discomforting because I have heard stories about how crazy these wicked clown events can get. I walked in to find pretty much exactly what I expected, which turned out to be even less exciting in the end.

The place was completely packed. The majority of the crowd was fat sweaty white guys with Lebron James jerseys many of whom were fully face painted and sporting some sort of Juggalo, hatchet-man tattoo or necklace. There were lots of guys with braids, weird contact lenses and a ton of super scandalous fat chicks. By the time I arrived, most of the crowd was really sweaty and the face paint had smeared into some wet gray mess. Straight up, Paul Wall and Ill Bill sucked -- just simply garbage -- but Ill Bill was wearing a Cannibal Corpse "Tomb Of The Mutilated" shirt, which was killer.

I was surprised to see Tech N9ne play after Paul Wall because that dude has all kinds of huge MTV hits and Tech N9ne has almost no media support, but I guess it was the power of the hatchet.

Feeling out of place, I left the show pretty quickly, but I realized something. Our show sucked, meanwhile these guys wearing clown paint are riding around in a shiny nightliner, filling every club they play with people who are all wearing their shirts and hockey jersey's that can cost up to $200.

What the fuck is going on? What talent do these fucking clowns have? That being said, what I realized is that I need to start wearing some God damn clown paint and start living "crazy."

With the way these past few shows have been, you might be seeing Animosity make that change sooner than later. Until then, I guess we'll keep it brutal.

Artist Entry: the_Network guitarist Kevin jabs the American idle

Forget the hacked off limbs. Forget about “Collateral Damage.” Forget the coffins. Forget the record oil profits. Forget the big contracts. Forget the widows and orphans. Forget the U.N. Sanctions. Forget the infrastructures! Forget all the valid reasons to storm the White House lawn.

Gasoline is $4 a gallon!

I get scared when the administration seems either too stupid or too lazy to even keep gas prices reasonable. Seriously.

Gas prices; the one thing that has the most effect on the most Americans, and the monarchy can’t, or won’t, keep them down. Have we become that passive; that complacent?

What also frightens me are many Americans’ reactions to the increased prices. The issue becomes another one of those annoying little conversation lubricants we love to whine to each other about. The planet’s natural resource, oil, and all that encompasses, is reduced to water cooler fodder. The most incendiary topic on the planet has been given a slot right between "American Idol" and baseball.

So forget water-boarding. Forget Guantanamo Bay. Forget Hurricane Katrina. Seriously, forget FEMA. Forget yellow cake and Valerie Plame Wilson. Forget the 9/11 Report. Forget Group Think. Forget the “liberal media.” Forget wire taps. Forget the orange and red terror levels. Forget Halliburton and Lockheed and Martin. Forget Afghanistan and Pakistan. Forget anything that requires the slightest bit of research and/or critical thinking.

Gasoline is $4 a gallon!

Shit, you might as well tell me that my "American Idol" vote doesn’t count. The gas prices are directly in front of us everyday and, eventually, people will have to pay attention. They literally won’t be able to afford not to. And when people take a little time to find out why their gas costs so much, perhaps they might stumble across some of the other above-mentioned topics.

Maybe a pizza delivery driver from Arkansas will read that a CIA report said that the U.S. sanctions placed on Iraq since the first Gulf War have resulted in the deaths of roughly ten thousand civilians a month. Maybe he or she will learn that the majority of those dead civilians were infants and the elderly.

Maybe a mechanic from Florida will read somewhere that a CIA report written before the U.S. attacked Iraq proved that Saddam Hussein had no means of making nuclear weapons and that the CIA agent who authored the report had their identity made public by someone very high up in the Bush administration.

Maybe someone will compare the U.S. media to Nazi propaganda. Maybe people’s anger will grow proportionately with their awareness. Maybe someone will knock the fucking water cooler over.

Like I said, gas prices are just one of those annoying things people like to whine about, myself included.

Artist Entry: Dance Club Massacre vocalist Nick Seger and six chapters of random blasts

"Six Chapters of Random Blasts"
by, Nick Seger

Chapter 01: Greetings

A Black Market Activities Blog. This is pretty neat. Let the fans get to know the bands a little, more about themselves, and how unpredictable tour can be. For starters, my name is Nick Seger and I am the guy that screams stuff for Dance Club Massacre. Black Market Activities picked us up in January 2007 and it’s been a hell of a ride since. Mitch told me about this cute little blog section and gave the orders to write. Mitch is our guitarist and member of the band that is glued to the internet and message boards and sites concerning the metal/punk/hardcore/whatever scene. He also assumes responsibility of mainly all of the business and phone calls. So since I had written a few blogs (Random Blasts) in the past for our band's site he suggested I spill out some of my thoughts or "random blasts" right here... IN THE OFFICIAL BMA BLOG!

Chapter 02: Too Illegit to Quit

I never really search the Web for message boards about bands and tours. On the Internet I spend my time checking out what’s going on with Chicago sports teams, funny videos, or any wrestling news site (I'm the biggest wrestling fan you will ever meet.) But Mitch of course being Mitch, once showed me this Web site called Lambgoat.net. I thought I would peruse this one due to the abundant comments about my band!

"Oh golly! I bet there are some nice things about me in here! Maybe a CD review! How fun!" said the oblivious chump named Nick, whilst pushing up his glasses and pulling apart some delicious string cheese.

Wait a minute here. Why...why these guys are just mean! "Why God, why did Black Market sign this band? This band isn't legit at all. They look like a bunch of pre-teens posing as the real deal. Pftt, great. Another false grind, metalcore breakdown brat pack who probably never played a show in their entire lives -- and they're not legit. Pfft, I bet they don’t even know who Isis is, let alone Botch or Neurosis. What a bunch of assholes."

It gets worse after that. The next link Mitch sends me is a review of our album Feast of the Blood Monsters. Not a thing was mentioned about the music. It was actually about how we looked, and how we had the word “Massacre” in our name.

Well then, to those "legit" uh, "core" fans out there, I guess I will just have to apologize that I look younger than I am. I'm sorry I don’t have an Isis sweatshirt. I’m sorry that we got stuck with a band name that eventually resembled at least 500 others -- and I'm sorry that we're not dead yet. But hey, you'll never know, while we continue to tour maybe a semi-truck will run us out of our lane, losing control of the wheel and taking us over a cliff, where our mangled bodies tumble out of the window of Vince McVan (thats the name of our van), to have us all be impaled by long thorny branches, and then our blood will slide down the roots where the earth can digest our illegitimacy and then you can blame our wretched souls that now impregnate the earth for its demise -- whenever that may be. : )

Chapter 03: Hakuna-Matatour

Tour for DCM is a funny thing. It's the best of times and it’s been the worst of times. Once upon a time, in the summer of 2007, we arrived to one show somewhat in the beginning of the "Brokeback Mountour" with Architect and Destroyer Destroyer.

It was agreed that the promoter provide some sort of catering for the three struggling bands. Nothing special. Nothing specific. Just something. Now, its one thing to just not have food. Whatever, we don’t do contracts, and we can always just hit up some food after the show. But one guy actually had two small containers of fly infested warm potato salad and a bag of chips, which he claimed cost him $80. He said because he spent that much money on the catering, he did not have enough money for the actual guarantee for the three of us.

Another similar situation that happened on that tour was when a couple who threw a show for us said they didn't have enough money to pay the bands but we could stay at their house -- they lived in a mansion. On that tour, we usually stayed in a Super Wal-Mart parking lot, grilling and playing bean bags all night. But it's OK, we have a million MySpace fans right? We should be rich.

Like every tour, the first day was a little awkward of course, meeting new guys you will be spending the next month with. But it didn't take long at all to become great friends. Oddly enough Architect at first wanted nothing to do with us and expected us to be little scenesters that in no way should be on a label with the caliber such as Black Market Activities. By the second day we earned their respect and are pretty damn good friends. In fact we are staying with them right now in Syracuse, NY, since uh... the end of this last tour didn't go so hot.

Chapter 04: Devon Heresy -- Get the Tables!!!!

Divine Heresy, Sworn Enemy, With Blood Comes Cleansing, From A Second Story Window, Dance Club Massacre. Believe me when I say going into this tour we were super excited. This was the most professional tour we would be doing. It was booked through The Agency Group, which is pretty respectable.

Time to put on our game faces boys! Gotta look good, gotta get tough. Maybe some booking agents would be on the sides checking out our skills. For an analogy I'm more comfortable with; it was kind of like we were in the developmental territory honing our skills, and with this tour we got called up to "WWE Friday Night SmackDown!" for some trial dark matches. If we win over the crowd, we're in the big time. Opening up the potential for bigger tours is like being an opener or mid-carder for "RAW" or "SmackDown." Okay, I promise not to talk about wrestling anymore.

Before the tour actually began our new band of brothers, From A Second Story Window, contacted us and planned a few shows together to get our asses in Colorado to begin the thrashing. Of course, on the first day we had to go to a party where we can be in a neutral setting, to relax and get to know each other a little better. There was much beer pong to be played, Taco Bell stops, free booze, and a little game called “Buffalo."

FASSW claim Buffalo is a game they were taught by Heavy Heavy Low Low. The thing is, once you swear your self in, there is no backing out. You're playing for life. Of course we swore our selves in with little to no hesitation. The rules are: If anyone has a drink in their right hand and someone yells “buffalo” you have to chug what's left. Whether it's one last sip of a tall, cool, Pabst Blue Ribbon or a whole fifth of vodka.

I have decided to not name any names for the sake of one's family and integrity -- and because I straight up love the guy -- but let’s just say by the end of that night a certain gentleman pissed in an empty bottle, and held it up in his right hand with honor and pride. Then our tour manager/merch guy James called "buffalo." Once again I will not name names, but that piss was chugged straight down without hesitation. Now that the ice was broken, we were ready for tour.

Chapter 05: Back to Developmental

Well of course the tour didn’t exactly meet our expectations of our, so called, big debut squash match against Nunzio or Val Venis. Financially some of the bands were in jeopardy. Attendance was low. Buy outs were barely buy outs. An incident occurred between the members of Divine Heresy, where they had to drop the last several dates. With Blood Comes Cleansing had already re-routed their tour to head back home to Atlanta. Sworn Enemy had their van broken into. It was a wreck! I still wanted to play the last few dates, but alas, they were canceled without the headliners. With all of this said, I have nothing but much much love for those bands we went out with.

At one point in Louisville, KY once the smoke had cleared and we were finishing at the bar and loading up equipment, "Lean On Me" by Bill Withers came on the juke box and something magical happened. We found all five bands singing the song with so much passion, arms over each other's shoulders. You had ex-members of Fear Factory and Nile. Big, bulging, muscle men. Little dorks with Star Wars tattoos. Pretty boys, fuglys boys all united as one, singing to this tune. It was like the ending of closure to a "Wonder Years" episode. So for that kind of emotion, picture some classic ballad from the '70s playing as you read the next paragraph in the narrated by the voice of Daniel Stern.

It doesn't matter how tough tour can get, touring is just plain fun. We make new friends each time we tour. Not to mention that one day you're playing in front of 200 kids in a circle pit, then the next you sell one shirt and rock your hardest to 14 kids at 6:30 in the p.m. -- and you make those kids smile. Maybe one of the big burly guys with a "Gigantour" shirt on digs your sound and buys you a beer. Maybe one of the little MySpace sluts wearing three belts tells you deep from her tainted soul that she really really loves you guys and her mom dropped her off just in time to see you. Every little bit counts my friends.

Chapter 06: The Future

Well we are here with our boys Architect for a few more days waiting to get back on the road. Next up is a tour with Psyopus, The Crinn, and Epicurean. We have already toured with Epicurean before, which might I add, was a blast. I can’t wait for more good times and great memories. Well, time to go to the liquor store before it closes. I’m thinking champagne tonight. BMA fans: we are going to keep on touring as much as possible. You know the saying: "The going gets tough, and the tough gets going." For the haters: we promise to keep being as illegit as possible!

Hey, maybe we will get gold foil shirts and sell them on our MYSPACE! MUAHAHAHAHAHA! The world is ours! And nothing can stop us!!! Except for a semi truck.