(guest blogged by Howie Klein)

A friend turned me on to an indie band from Florida a few years ago--friends of his--he said he was 100% positive I would love. He was right. They're Against Me! They're not exactly a new band, more like an underground band that is just starting to surface. Tom Gabel, the singer and guitar player started playing as Against Me! a decade and a half ago. He was just an impassioned singer-songwriter back then. Now he's an impassioned singer-songwriter with a kick ass punk band behind him. Do you ever hear older folks who were against the War in Vietnam complaining that there are no young musicians making socially relevant music anymore? They're wrong; they're just not going to the right places to listen.

You won't find Against Me on too many corporately owned radio stations or see them on former music TV channels like MTV. A better place to hear and see their music is at MySpace or YouTube. Tonight the band's first video, "White People For Peace," from their Sire Records debut NEW WAVE (which comes out next month) is our LNMC song.

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I don't think the Pentagon was really trying to develop a gay bomb. I think it was just a marketing ploy to sell more Erasure and Madonna records. Or maybe you have a diffferent theory? Tonight's lnmc contest is to find the 5 gayest songs ever recorded. Here's one that strikes me as... pretty gay:

Send your list of 5 really gay songs to downwithtyranny@aol.com and win a musical package that transcends sexuality (although... admitedly, if you have any gay friends on your Xmas list...) The prize: a COLOR ME BARBRA dvd (including fabulous bonus poster!) and a rare-- never sold-- promo CD for OUTFEST, the 19th Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival which has 15 songs by a wide range of artists from Nick Cave, Stevie Nicks, Book of Love and Enya to Ennio Morricone, Depeche Mode and New Order.Congratulations to James for winning the Pearlman/Sony Rock On contest. Thanks for being part of the LNMC Community!

(guest blogged by Howie Klein)

Easy contest tonight. Just weave these two random songs together into a little news story-- could be about anything; use your imagination-- and you could win a 2-CD set of the ESSENTIAL GEORGE JONES. The songs are "Windy" by The Association and "House of the Rising Sun" by The Animals. Send your entry-- not too long-- to downwithtyranny@aol.com

LNMC story of the night: I went to see John Hammond play at the Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village in the middle 60s and he had this amazing guitar player, Jimmy James, who played guitar with his teeth. After the show I went over and asked him to come play at my school and he said he would love to but "these fellas," pointing to some Animals, who he introduced me to, were taking him to London to be in their band. He didn't stay in their band long and he didn't keep that Jimmy James name long either. He started his own band and when he returned to America, he did come and play my school, immediately.

(guest blogged by Howie Klein)

I mentioned before that I spent some time in 1977 touring England with the Clash and that that was how I became a Specials fan. Well, the Clash also introduced me to Generation X, Billy Idol's old band. The guitar player, Tony James, was Mick Jones' best friend and he used to come around a lot. It was obvious Billy wanted to break free of the confines of the tiny punk scene, where people didn't quite take him seriously anyway, and become a pop star, which sort of happened later. But Tony and the guys made him sing some pretty cool songs while he was still in Gen X.

Years later, a friend and I turned Sammy Hagar on to Patti Smith and he covered "Free Money." This was post-Montrose and pre-Van Halen and Sammy was happy for the attention he got from Patti fans all over the world. He asked me for another suggestion and I sent him a tape of "Wild Youth" by Gen X. He called me up a few days later and said he couldn't do it because it sounded too anti-Semitic. Isn't it cool for someone from Fontana to be so... sensitive?

No prize tonight but I do have a question. What do you like better-- the Gen X song or the Patti song (at the link)? Or something by Sammy?

And congrats go to C&Ler Jackie for winning the George Jones CD set.  Thanks for being part of our LNMC community.

(guest blogged by Howie Klein)

I don't know, for the life of me, what made me think of this song on this Independence Day.

Maybe you do; and if you do (if you're the kind of mind-reader I know lots of LNMC participants are), you can win a 2-CD set, The Essential George Jones, a career spanning retospective, 1956-1999, all the big hits frpm this all-American singer-songwriter.

Now this song by The Specials (Special AKA) was a big hit too, but only outside of the U.S. The 2 Tone thing never really took off on this side of the pond. This Coventry-based septet got going in 1977 and I saw them when I went on a U.K. tour with The Clash for whom they opened. I thought they were powerful and infectious and couldn't get enough of them. Although they had had at least one #1 in the U.K. before "Free Nelson Mandela," this was the one that brought them the most international acclaim. But what does it have to do with July, 2007? And don't forget to throw in something about Martin Luther King's "Free at last!"

Send your entry to downwithtyranny@aol.com

And Congratulations to C&Ler Marc of LA for his winning entry for the last contest!

(guest blogged by Howie Klein)

Beverly Sills became famous, one of the most celebrated opera divas in the world, after she had done her best work (with the less than prestigious New York City Opera). A coloratura soprano-- the lightest of the sopranos, it amazed everyone that she was able to pull off difficult roles like Aida and Cleopatra in Handel's Guilio Cesare, but it was her dazzling performance of Cleopatra that broke her career wide open. LNMC afficianados will surely remember Bubbles either from Lisa's mention of her in Season 8 of The Simpsons or for her stunning singing of "Da Tempeste il Legno Infranto." But... just in case, we have it-- the song, not the episode-- for you below.

Beverly died yesterday at 78 years old. Down With Tyranny has the ultimate obituary.

(guest blogged by Howie Klein)

  When Nirvana was putting together Nevermind, an album that set the tone for the rock music of the 90s, they weren't all that famous. They couldn't make their album art budget stretch far enough to use a stock photo of a baby swimming so the photographer they hired, Kirk Weddle paid $200 to some friends of his, Renata and Rick Elden, for their use of their 4 month old son, Spencer, for the shot. In 2001, in honor of Nevermind's tenth anniversary (and his own tenth birthday) Spencer did the shot again for Rolling Stone.Last year Spencer, a Nirvana fan, told the NME that at 15 Nevermind still rocks his world. "You still hear the singles being played on the radio and it just doesn't sound dated. Most bands around today can't even get near to what Nirvana did on that album, and I'll always be happy to be a part of it." Today is Spencer's birthday and LNMC wants to wish him a happy one!

(Guest blogged by Howie Klein)

Last night Morrissey was David Letterman's guest on The Late Show. Morrissey's been touring behind his latest solo release, Ringleader of the Tormentors, but the LNMC decided to go way back and dig up a Smiths fave from Morrissey's early days as a galvanizing singer, songwriter and performer.

UPDATE: Looks like the video Howie had was removed, so enjoy this Smiths tune instead...

So a little contest tonight for Morrissey's legion of Crooks & Liars fans? Half a dozen simple questions about his songs. Just send the answers to and win something special to listen to that is somewhat Morrissey-related that can't be purchased in a store (a surprise).

1- What happens if a doubledecker bus crashes into us?

2- What is meat?

3- In what song does Moz claim to be the sun and the earth along with a need to be loved "just like anybody else does?"

4- Not having a stitch to wear keeps Morrissey from what?

5- Which Morrissey video has visual cues to Lord Byron, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, James Dean and "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out?" 6- Who was Hector?

And, by the way, congratulations to Craig Burney for winning the Armageddon Dildos contest last week

(guest blogged by Howie Klein)

Chances are if you've seen a recent picture of me, you've seen a Building A Better Spaceship hoodie. I have several. I don't wear them when the temperature gets above 90-- unless I'm worried about being forced into an air-conditioned enclosure. Aside from really nice hoodies, this South Bay-based L.A. band also makes some really good music. I've been listening to their demos and seeing them play live shows for a couple years.

And today I realized that they'd probably have something shareable via YouTube. They do-- "This Time:"

And tonight's contest will take some sleuthing, and looking in the right place. I have to admit, it's a hard one. But I've come up with a great prize: a boxset called LEGENDS OF COUNTRY-- CLASSIC HITS OF THE '50's, '60's & '70's. (There are songs by Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Hank Williams, George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Buck Owens, Waylon Jennings, and lots more... 57 songs including 49 #1 hits.)

So just tell me the relationship between Building A Better Space Ship and the Bush compound in Crawford. In the explanation I'm looking for two words-- a 3 letter word and a four letter word. Good luck-- and send your entry to downwithtyranny@aol.com

A few nights ago, we gave away a Sire boxset and all you had to do was name your 3 favorite Rough Trade songs. I thought LNMC members might be interested in knowing which artists came up the most frequently in the approximately 250 entries: Arcade Fire, The Smiths, Libertines, The Strokes, Cocteau Twins, Soft Cell, Delta 5, The Decemberists, Belle & Sebastian, Stiff Little Fingers, Sufjan Stevens, Gang of 4, Kleenex, James Blood Ulmer, Pere Ubu, Cabaret Voltaire, Young Marble Giants, The Fall, Scritti Politti, Antony & the Johnsons, Swell Maps, Sebadoh, and Ian Dury. All good stuff.

The winner was Eric with Galaxie 500, Delta 5 and Jarvis. Congratulations, Eric.

(Guest blogged by Howie Klein)

Kurt is an LNMC contest winner from Vancouver (WA) who just turned me on to a great new band from the U.K., The Brakes. And although they caused some stir with a song bashing a discredited American political figure and for their anti-war "Porcupine or Pineapple," it's really their music that is making them the hottest commodity in the U.K. music scene.

Here's the Rough Trade video for the U.K. hit "All Night Disco Party."

CONTEST: This isn't the first time Rough Trade has found an underground band and helped make them international stars. Send us a list of your 3 favorite Rough Trade-released hit songs (by 3 different artists). The coolest list gets its creator a cool Sire Records box set (3 CDs plus a DVD), JUST SAY SIRE: THE SIRE RECORDS STORY. Send your list to downwithtyranny@aol.com.