above: “Impeach the President” by The Honey Drippers.

“Impeach the President” was a 1973 song written by Roy C. Hammond Read more…

It’s been brought to our attention that at times the Countdown selections here at EF perhaps veer a bit too much towards the….unconventional? Arbitrary? Irreverent? Well so be it, that’s just how we roll, and you know what? There are a hell of a lot of other lists gumming up the internet that are just as arbitrary as our attempts at quantifying misguided marketing attempts at co-opting hip-hop culture, using Palintological reasoning to our own advantage, and making some sense of Aerosmith’s eternal relevance.

We consider these other irreverent lists as kindred spirits to our own weekly Countdowns, and to do them proper EF justice we figured we’d do a roundup of the most arbitrary ones from the past month. Yes that’s right, it’s a countdown of a countdown, so let your postmodern freak fly as we bring you our top 8 arbitrary music countdown lists found online (because 10 is too logical and you know, 8 is a special number for us). Look out, it’s about to get meta up in here. Read more…

When we first heard that The Beatles, MTV Games, and Harmonix are officially teaming up to create an all-new videogame based on the music of the Beatles, well Read more…

Of the many enjoyable ancillary activities during CMJ, can anything even touch the time-honored pleasure of people watching?

Uh, yeah, we think so, and we’ve got the transcripts to prove it. You see, people not only look funny, but they say funny things. And whether that entails laughing with them, or, in other cases, laughing AT them, overhearing conversational snippets, impromptu onstage rants, and drunken ramblings has kind of become its own worthwhile pursuit for us during CMJ.

To commemorate an especially vibrant week of pull quotes, we’ve assembled a list of our favorites (in no particular order) but decided to give it a bit of a twist. Below, you’ll find things we overheard last week; 11 of them are absolutely, legitimately true, but four are definitely, patently fabricated. Can you guess which ones we heard and which are just figments of our sleep-deprived minds? The answer key is at the bottom…. Read more…

Editor’s Note: We’re suspending our usual daily editorial schedule to keep this article readily accessible for you throughout CMJ week. Check back often to EF for continued CMJ show coverage.

And here….we….go! CMJ: Confidently Masochistic Jokers, each and every one of us who feels we can traverse the mind-boggling breadth of shows (click here for visuals) about to go down over the next week. Perhaps you’ve gone on the CMJ site and made your own itinerary, not a bad move, but that doesn’t take into consideration all of the day shows and unofficial goodness that’s just bursting at the seams. Don’t panic though, EAR FARM is here to instill some order into the next week of your lives. CMJ - like all good forays into combat and mindless benders - requires tactical planning, stoic commitment, and flawless execution. Or at least an idea of what the hell is going on.

Below we’ve mapped out every day for you, pretty much hour by hour, with our personal picks and suggestions along with some MP3s scattered throughout. We tried to pretty much list bands only once (with a few exceptions, such as in our Day Party lineup) so if you’re freaked out that this schedule prohibits you from seeing the Vivian Girls or Women, chill out, you’ve got about 238 other opportunities not listed here. And please, feedback is welcome; what did we miss here? Who are you most excited to see this week? Take a deep breath, it all starts here….. Read more…

Not everyone had as much fun as the kid pictured above did Read more…

The Academy-Award nominated, Emmy-winning, ever-brilliant entity known as South Park returns this Wednesday following a brief hiatus. Over the last dozen years, Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s brainchild has evolved from a simple gross-out cartoon intent on pushing the boundaries of basic cable to a whipsmart satire of contemporary American politics and culture (intent on pushing the boundaries of basic cable). At times, the turnaround from current event to grist for the South Park mill has been staggering; many episodes have gone from conception to broadcast within as little as two weeks.

As such, it’s fairly likely that if a story is making waves in society, you’ll be treated to Parker and Stone’s refreshingly simplified and hilarious take before the ink has had time to fully dry. And when we’re really lucky, we get treated to an episode inspired by some inane aspect of the music industry that the duo just can’t resist picking apart, because let’s face it, there’s lots to make fun of here. So here we present our top 10 favorite South Park music-related episodes, realizing fully of course that there are many more we left out (including, for the obvious reason that it’s not an episode, the Academy-Award nominated South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut). Honestly, you wouldn’t even believe how many times we got Rickrolled while foraging for clips on YouTube, and yet we persevered to bring you the crème de la crème: Read more…

Over the past week, Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin has been taking a lot of heat for the answers she gave in an interview with Katie Couric on CBS News. The portion that’s getting the most critical attention is that bit about Palin’s foreign policy credentials… Read more…

Metallica’s ninth studio album, Death Magnetic, has “officially” been out for little over a week, but what a week it was. Awarded a degree of media attention that could only have been eclipsed by Jesus coming back to release The Second Coming: A Hip Hopera via iTunes, Death Magnetic has grabbed far more headlines than your average run of the mill chart-topping, Rick-Rubin-produced comeback metal album probably ever should. From Jessica Simpson to Mrs. Sarkozy, foot-long beards to fine wines, it’s Metallica’s world…we’re just reading the headlines. So for this week’s countdown, we’re running back the top ten Metallica-related stories that dominated the week that was (with a keen eye towards avoiding any “magnetic” puns wherever possible). Read more…

XKCD is “a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language” published three times per week by Randall Munroe, a former contractor for NASA. It’s my favorite regularly updated webcomic and well worth checking out each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Today, here on EAR FARM, we’ve collected ten of our favorite xkcd comics that deal with music in one way or another. Stop. Collaborate and listen.

• 10. Keeping Time (below)

  

• 9. The Perfect Sound (below)

  

• 8. Digital Rights Management (below)

  

• 7. Boombox (below)

  

• 6. Guitar Hero (below)

  

• 5. Important Life Lesson (below)

  

• 4. With Apologies to The Who (below)

  

• 3. Music Knowledge (below)

  

• 2. Rock Band (below)

  

• 1. M.C. Hammer Slide (below)

  

In anticipation of The Bell House’s grand opening on September 18th (following a private opening on the 17th), I did a little reconnaissance mission this past Thursday in order to get a firsthand look. My curiosity was rewarded, because Jack (Skippy) McFadden - co-owner and booker of the Bell House (and booker at Union Hall) - graciously agreed to take me on the grand tour of the premises as the fully realized vision of the space continued to take impressive shape around us.

Armed with a camera and perhaps an inappropriate number of questions, I compiled the following picture tour to give you 20 vicarious views of Gowanus’s newest gem, The Bell House. But first, here’s what Skippy had to say in a press release circulated just hours after my visit there… Read more…

For the uninitiated, EAR FARM has a community called The Goondocks where people can download exclusive mixes and MP3s Read more…

Let’s face it, after trekking from Cleveland to New York in a single afternoon - only to be greeted by several hours of rush hour gridlock nastiness - the last thing the gypsy gents of Bombadil probably wanted on Friday evening was to be stuck in EAR FARM’s inquisitive crosshairs. And lucky for them, the traffic jam actually saved them; the original plan was for all of us to meet up early and commence a friendly Q&A over a few drinks. The traffic gods had other plans though, mercifully spitting them out of the Holland Tunnel and onwards to the Living Room with no time for interrogation and only moments to spare before delivering another blisteringly awe-inspiring set. Yes, they had momentarily dodged our questions, but for how long?

About 24 hours….Bryan Rahija - guitar, vocals, dapper suit - was good enough to answer our 10 burning questions via email the following day (as well as show us a clip of their tour documentary, see below) just in time to add a little Bombadil to your Monday. Enjoy! Read more…

Madonna turned the big 5-0 this past Saturday and while EAR FARM did nothing “official” to mark the occasion, you better believe much of the weekend was dedicated to an appreciation of her music, video, and fashion skills. The main focus: her entire catalog.

While perusing Rolling Stone’s Top 50 Albums of All Time and listening to her fifth studio album, Erotica, something occurred to me. Read more…

A recent article over on the Townhall Blog portrays John McCain’s usage of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears in a campaign ad as a tactical maneuever based not on any nefarious political precedents but rather on a model established in the 90s…..by Aerosmith. Come again?

Well it actually makes a lot of sense, especially when considering the following:

“Heading into the early 90s, they (Aerosmith) had to be wondering how they could possibly compete in the MTV video age with up-and-coming stars like Eddie Vedder and Kirk Kurt Cobain — guys who were half their age. Their answer was to cast two beautiful young actresses, Alicia Silverstone and Liv Tyler to star in the videos. Meanwhile, Steve Tyler, Joe Perry — and the other Aerosmith guys — were, more or less, in the background of these videos. It worked; the videos for Cryin’, Amazing, and Crazy were huge hits on MTV — and Aerosmith successfully launched a second (or was it their third) career comeback. By teaming their music with younger images, Aerosmith successfully marketed their music to a new generation who otherwise might have viewed them as old fogies.”

The truth is, if McCain truly did look to Aerosmith for inspiration on how to remain eternally relevant, he honestly could not have picked a better source. They are the undisputed masters of this dark art, hands down. The triple-headed monster of “Cryin’”, “Amazing”, and “Crazy” - and their cousins Doc, Dopey, and Grumpy - was a force of nature; it felt like Aerosmith OWNED MTV during that period. And yet, it only comprises one chapter in their never-ending odyssey towards immortality. In this week’s Countdown, we give you five other trailblazing master strokes of cultural relevancy from the pioneers of public relations, Aerosmith: Read more…