Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace, Peaches, Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears, Dr. John, Jackson Browne, Bridget Everett, Sandra Bernhard, and Ani DiFranco will be performing at Cyndi Lauper’s holiday show at NYC’s Beacon Theatre on December 9th.
Aj Dellinger, writing for the International Business Times:
Ajit Pai, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), proposed implementing a budget cap on the commission’s program that helps Americans with low incomes pay for broadband and phone services.
Pai’s plan, titled “Bridging the Digital Divide for Low-Income Consumers,” would place a “self-enforcing budget cap” on the FCC’s spending on its Lifeline program. The proposal is likely to be voted on during the FCC’s meeting on Nov. 16.
The bullshit going on over at the FCC may be getting less coverage than some of the other atrocities in this country right now, but make no mistake, it’s bad.
Procrastinate! Music Traitors has posted an update stating that the Brand New limited vinyl will not be shipping until “mid-November.”
The Limited vinyl unit is facing an unfortunate brief delay from our pressing plant, but we expect to be able to ship orders to all customers by mid-November.
Adam B. Vary, writing for Buzzfeed:
In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Rapp is publicly alleging for the first time that in 1986, Spacey befriended Rapp while they both performed on Broadway shows, invited Rapp over to his apartment for a party, and, at the end of the night, picked Rapp up, placed him on his bed, and climbed on top of him, making a sexual advance. According to public records, Spacey was 26. Rapp was 14.
Kevin Spacey responded on Twitter and used his response to publicly come out as homosexual. I think Richard Lawson said it best, “Coming out as a gay man is not the same thing as coming out as someone who preyed on a 14-year old. Conflating those things is disgusting. This expose the gay community to am million tired old criticisms and conspiracies.”
Niall Horan has the number one album in the country this week:
The set, which was released through Capitol Records on Oct. 20, starts with 152,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Oct. 26, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 128,000 were in traditional album sales.
Brand New returned the charts at #15 with 9,752 copies sold.
A professor with close ties to the Russian government told an adviser to Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign in April 2016 that Moscow had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails,” according to court documents unsealed Monday.
The adviser, George Papadopoulos, has pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about that conversation.
And:
President Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was indicted Monday on charges that he funneled millions of dollars through overseas shell companies and used the money to buy luxury cars, real estate, antiques and expensive suits.
The charges against Mr. Manafort and his longtime associate Rick Gates represent a significant escalation in a special counsel investigation that has cast a shadow over Mr. Trump’s first year in office.
These are all bad people doing bad things in the most boneheaded way possible. Our country will be trying to fix the damage done by these clowns for decades.
Chris and Roger from Less Than Jake are the latest guests on Mike Herrera’s podcast.
Jia Tolentino, writing at The New Yorker:
When she was twelve, she made her dad take her to see Underoath, a post-hardcore band that, like her, circles Christian ideas without courting a specifically Christian fan base. “It revolutionized my world to watch someone imploring the audience in that way,” Baker said. (She has a stick-and-poke tattoo of the band’s logo.) It was soon after this that she got into the local punk scene. “A house show feels like a true faith community, socialist and communal,” she said. “The lead singer is less than two feet away from thirty people who are screaming the same thing. Punk teaches the same inversion of power as the Gospel—you learn that the coolest thing about having a microphone is turning it away from your own mouth.”
Annie Zalesk, writing for Stereogum:
And make no mistake: Since Fall Out Boy returned from a nearly four-year hiatus in 2013, they’ve adapted quite well to the modern music landscape. The band has six RIAA-certified platinum singles, with three of these (“My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light ‘Em Up),” “Centuries” and “Uma Thurman”) certified multi-platinum. Their two most recent albums (2013’s Save Rock And Roll and 2015’s American Beauty / American Psycho) are also certified platinum, and they play outdoor sheds and arenas, something few formed-post-2000 modern rock bands attempt these days.
I enjoyed this piece.
Guttermouth have released a statement saying they’ve been removed from Punk ‘n Brew Festival in Huntington Beach:
To our fans, we regret to inform you that it is true, we are no longer playing the Punk n Brews fest. We received an email stating we are no longer on the bill. We wish we could give you all the explanation you deserve but we were not given one. Stay classy HB.
The National Archives have released 2,891 new documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The New York Times explains:
The papers were posted online by the National Archives and Records Administration around 7:30 p.m. Thursday in compliance with a 1992 law, and represent a treasure trove for investigators, historians and conspiracy theorists who have spent more than half a century searching for clues to what really happened in Dallas on that fateful day in 1963.
And:
“We’re not going to find some secret memo from J. Edgar Hoover drawing out the escape path for Lee Harvey Oswald,” he said. “The public expectations are very high — they’ve heard about secret files, they know they’ve been locked up for all these years. The average person may think there’s a bombshell in there.”
But Mr. Posner said the files might draw a fuller picture of the early 1960s beyond the specific questions about the assassination. “This is all about the Cold War and spooks and spies and Mexico City,” he said. “This is about a time when we know the government was in league with the mob to kill Castro. Cold War scholars and historians may find this as interesting as Kennedy assassination researchers.”
A 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy has been detained by federal immigration authorities in Texas after she passed through a Border Patrol checkpoint on her way to a hospital to undergo emergency gall bladder surgery.
The girl, Rosamaria Hernandez, who was brought over the border illegally to live in Laredo, Tex., when she was three months old, was being transferred from a medical center in Laredo to a hospital in Corpus Christi around 2 a.m. on Tuesday when Border Patrol agents stopped the ambulance she was riding in, her family said. The agents allowed her to continue to Driscoll Children’s Hospital, the family said, but followed the ambulance the rest of the way there, then waited outside her room until she was released from the hospital.
What the fuck are we doing as a country? This is absurd.
Brianna Sacks, writing for Buzzfeed:
Reddit is purging Nazi, white supremacist, and other hate-based groups from its site as part of a new policy change announced Wednesday that targets and bans certain violent material.
The popular discussion site, which has struggled with how to monitor and remove vitriolic and offensive content in the past, said in a statement that it had decided to retool certain rules and regulations that were “too vague” and ban material that “encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence or physical harm against an individual or a group of people.”
Gee, what a concept.
Netflix will be airing a Stranger Things “aftershow” called Beyond Stranger Things. The Hollywood Reporter has the details:
The streaming giant is launching Beyond Stranger Things, a post-show rehash for the sci-fi phenomenon that debuted in 2016. Hosted by writer, producer, actor and “superfan” Jim Rash, the show after the show promises to explore the inspiration for the series, tell behind-the-scenes stories and analyze every aspect of the second season, including answering all burning questions.