Mixed Bag

First, and most importantly, in response to my recent concern about what one can do in the case of a crisis, McSweeney's has provided a feature called: Ten Things You Can Do For Sudan, which provides pragmatic, concrete actions that you can take.

Secondly, and significantly less importantly, I heard a lot of new music this weekend, some of it great, here are my favorites:

OzoMatli: great mix of musical styles, huge band, and my favorite, a brass section. The trombonist looks like he came from a ska group, which reminds me of my youth, when I briefly played trombone for a ska band called "Flaming, Hot, and Crunchy." That is not a joke. At any rate, check out the jukebox on their website to hear some of their stuff.

Michael Franti and Spearhead: sort of reggae, with a strong political message, but not one that I found irritating, patronizing, or ill-informed. He also put on an amazing show. Great energy, really worked the crowd, and lots of fun.

Assembly of Dust: a jam band, which I usually don't love, but they were pretty much amazing. Also, the roommate's coworker loves them. Which cracks me up, because he really doesn't seem the type.

The Brakes: lots of fun, cute guys, the lead singer has a great voice (if not a pretty face) and the lead guitarist went to a Jewish summer camp with some of my friends.

North Mississippi All Stars: fun, if not super-awesome, and one of the guys that they tour with used to tour with Carbon Leaf.

Least favorite? Backyard Tire Fire, who weren't great, and then during a DOWNPOUR sang a song that said, basically "rain, don't go away." Yeah, it is really easy to say that under the comfort of a STAGE. Jerks.