The recent CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report indicates that eight cities in the northwest U.S. (Boise ID, Seattle WA, Portland OR, plus the northern California cities of Santa Cruz, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, and Berkeley) reported the following data on deaths among those younger than one year of age:

4 weeks ending March 19, 2011 – 37 deaths (avg. 9.25 per week)10 weeks ending May 28, 2011 – 125 deaths (avg.12.50 per week)
This amounts to an increase of 35% (the total for the entire U.S. rose about 2.3%), and is statistically significant.

Of further significance is that those dates include the four weeks before and the ten weeks after the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster. In 2001 the infant mortality was 6.834 per 1000 live births, increasing to 6.845 in 2007. All years from 2002 to 2007 were higher than the 2001 rate.

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/mmwr_wk/wk_cvol.html

Just saying.

I don’t see much of the music “lefties” in my day to day as a working L.A. musician.

The idea of a majority of artist-types being lefty or liberal is WAAAYYYY off, in my experience many of those replies reflect what I see these days, this weird kinda libertarianism that’s rooted in the most strict Rand-ian principles from like 7th grade.

Nuance, humanity, understanding and empathy take a far back seat to rigid adherence to ideals that are not only impossible to actually implement in the real world, but would only work in fiction, which is where they were popularized.

Here’s the thing, although while I was touring my records I would often get angry, (sometimes extremely and close to violent) responses to my political views, the rabid frothing right-wing anger I currently see from my fellow musicians is what I find the most disturbing. And I feel like it reflects the same shift in the music being produced…in other words, the type of thinking that gives you 60′s era CSN, Dylan, Mitchell, Baez etc al, does NOT jibe with the current working music landscape, but rather the kind of lockjaw-ed, pissed off, rigid, corporate minded, and “I’ll get mine and FUCK you” kind of thinking that I now see so much of amongst working musicians works pretty well in the current music environment.

I think that’s not surprising, and I think they both shape and strengthen each other.

It’s never been that kind of mind that was a creative force. That kind of mind has always been behind the scenes, predictable, a follower, a sideman, a seller, a middleman. The creative mind tends to be an outsider, open, fluid, interested, humane and unpredictable.

Of course those are HUGE generalizations and many exceptions can be found, but it reflects what I see around me.

You can use my name, if they know me they already know what I think.

So if you want to get it on a deal that will only be available to people on our mailing list, go to our website at Facebook, go to the “My Band” tab, about halfway down enter your email, and wait for the deal, it will be in a day or two. (Don’t worry, the mailing list is NOT housed at Facebook if you’re not an FB fan, and we will NOT bug the crap outta you.)

I have to say, this band is REALLY good, and this record is also REALLY good, and while it’s not like STILL at all, I consider to be one of the best things I’ve worked on, and I can’t wait for you to hear it, I think you’ll agree……best thing is, it’s one of those things that you like MORE as you hear it more, instead of getting bored because you heard all there is to hear the first time around……this stuff is deep and there’s a LOT of very subtle touches that you will hear as you go deeper in…..I’m very proud of it, in fact I’M a fan of DSG!

WB

Celebrity Fight Night Stage at sound check

*UPDATED WITH NEW PHOTOS*

Wade and Glenn Frey

So last weekend I played with Glenn Frey at the Muhammad Ali Celebrity Fight Night Benefit, subbing for my buddy Jonathan Clark, and I had a blast!!

The band and crew and staff are killer at their jobs and really a nice bunch of people as well, they made the job of coming in and covering the gig easy and fun, its hard to suck when everyone around you is doing their thing so well….and Glenn is……well….he’s Glenn Frey for chrissakes, he’s very cool and you know, those songs, and seriously, when he starts singing them it’s like “shit, that’s Glenn Frey singing that, and here I am”.

Stage

Yeh, it’s really fucking cool, I’ll admit I’m kinda “WOW” about it…..

I can’t thank Jonathan enough for putting me into the situation, he’s really been great to me on a number of things, don’t know how I’ll ever catch him up on them……but at the very least check out his stuff, he’s a monster singer/player/writer, check him out! (If you’re a friend of mine on Facebook, you can find his FB stuff that way as well.)

Wade and Reba backstage

I met and hung out with some very cool people, a few quick people of note, J.R. Robinson (drummer on half the music you’ve heard in your life, whom I’d met a coupla times over the years, but turns out he’s super personable and funny and just a regular guy and funny), Reba McEntire (who I was kinda bugged by when she dogged the Dixie Chicks at a CMA awards thing a few years ago, but turns out she couldn’t be cooler and more normal, so hey, you know….we aren’t all gonna agree on everything, she’s great in person), Kris Kristofferson (who caught us right as we were going off the stage and couldn’t have been more complimentary and excited and just COOL AS SHIT cause he’s like, KRIS KRISTOFFERSON standing there telling you how much he liked it….and yeh I was kinda standing there going “Man, you just made my week saying those things to me, cause you’re…..” well, you know…and of course he wasn’t saying it just to me, he said the same to a coupla of the guys, but what a nice guy!), Victor from the Canadian Tenors (we hung out and talked both nights at the bar……I keep saying this but what a cool guy, and those guys are bad ass singers, dunno what’s gonna happen with them but I think it’s gonna be good), Muhammad’s wife Lonnie Ali (again, super nice and gracious, very classy and appreciative) and really many more people, but most of all Danny Grenier, Marty Fera, Rich Mangicaro, Will Hollis, Chris Mostert, Michael Thompson and the staff/crew for making me feel welcome and helping out with my questions, this is a killer bunch of players and a great hang! And of course Glenn for having me back, it’s a blast!

Wade and Victor of the Canadian Tenors

On the way home in the Phoenix airport we saw this…..odd but kinda cool….

I guess it could be called Yoga Dancing....?

Ok enough gushing, it was a great weekend, followed by back to being Mr. Mom, which was the best of all!

The Biscuit gives the Ice Cream some business

*UPDATE*

I found some photos online that are preview shots from Getty Images linked to from a Glenn Frey fan page, they have badging on them and all that, but it’s kinda fun…

Wade and Glenn Frey

Wade and Glenn Frey

Wade and Glenn Frey

and I’m playing a longer set at Arnie’s in Tujunga, some songs will be with the house band, here’s the info on that –

Come out and see some music goodness!

Starting at 11am EST/ 8am PST, the song will be up and ready, remember to DOWNLOAD it, not just listen because the only thing that counts as a vote is the download!

Tell your friends, tell your Mom, tell the guy on the corner!

I appreciate it, I think it’s a really good song and could use the exposure this will bring, I hope you can help out…..

Thanx – Wade Biery/STILL

“ReverbNation, the leading marketing platform for more than 500,000 artists, labels, managers, and venues, has announced the launch of a new music discovery program called Playlist 7 sponsored by Microsoft Windows.

Congratulations on inclusion in next week’s Song Pool! Your song will go live on the Playlist 7 site on Monday 1/18/10 at 11:00 am EST.”

These things tend to turn into popularity contests, with basically whoever can get the most downloads moving farther along……so acts tend to really get into this, and now ME TOO!

So what exactly do I need from you?

On or after (for 1 week) Monday 1/18/10 at 11:00 am EST/8 am PST, go to http://www.reverbnation.com/playlist7, sign up and download “My Ecstasy” by “STILL”.

That’s it!

You will be helping massively, because each download counts as a vote. Some of the songs that have moved into the next round didn’t need many votes to move up, so every one counts! The sign-in is really easy in this contest, if you have a Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter account you can do it with that without another step…..if not, maybe this is a good time to get into whichever of those you’ve been thinking about….?

If you would like to go the extra mile (awesome of you!), please go to my ReverbNation page at http://www.reverbnation.com/still (it actually IS a pretty great music site, even for the artists…), sign up as a fan, and add yourself to my “Street Team”, where I have a “mission” about the contest, with goods for the team if we can move on to the next round. In the mission there will be ways to get the word out, banners, and other things you can easily do that will help tremendously.

So yeh, reading the rules it looks like I’ve made $57 just to get this far (WOWWWWA…. Vienna’s going to YALE now dude), and that’s cool, but I would make much more ($507) if I can move it to the next round (enough to pay for the Pro Fools junk I just bought) but it’s really not about that….as you can guess it’s all about the EXPOSURE, and this thing will be getting a lot of that from Microsoft. THAT could help things along for me a great deal, and THAT’S why I’m bugging you with hat in hand, hopeful you can take a minute and help.

Here’s more blurb about the contest –

“The program will showcase emerging artists from the rock, pop, alternative, hip-hop, latin, jazz, and electronica/dance genres. Music fans from around the world will choose 7 artists each week to appear in ‘Playlist 7’ and receive additional promotion and cash compensation. The first fifty songs are already available:

“Windows’ generous sponsorship of this program means that more emerging Artists will be heard as well as compensated for their art,” said Jed Carlson, co-founder and chief operating officer of ReverbNation.com. “It’s a great way to bring bands and brands together for mutual benefit.”

OK there it is, please help out if you can, I truly appreciate it!!

WB

I recorded this video on a Jailbroken iPhone 3G, which isn’t supposed to even be able to do this, so what is up with Apple anyways? This can be done, so Apple should just add this functionality as part of the basic software in the gear, what is the deal with that? This kinda thing is why people are Jailbreaking these things in the first place, they just want to use them the way THEY want to use them….me included. Having done it to mine, I can say without reservation that it ROCKS, and that everyone who has an iPhone and is even a LITTLE techy should do it, though I’m not sure you should unless you’re pretty good with computers in general, since a lot of the benefits come with some tinkering….

Anyways, since I’m not posting as much here, (fricking Facebook, just easy I have to say, like McDonald’s, though I won’t eat there, but I’ll get the ice cream sometimes….even though I know it’s probably NOT ice cream, dunno WHAT it is) I thought I’d drop this out there just to touch base, talk to ya soon!

WB

Watch this, please!

We now know WHAT they did, HOW they did it, and of course WHY……and yet people are still arguing about the most illegitimate issues, while people CONTINUE to pay for what has to be considered one of the most heinous non-violent (though not victimless by any measure) criminal acts in recorded history.

How can YOU not be furious?

Do YOU not agree about the facts? Do YOU think that what happened is some accident? Are YOU so afraid that your precious ideas of “free markets”, (no such thing, only protection of monopolistic markets by government), will be refuted (when even Greenspan himself has admitted that he was wrong), and that there will HAVE to be regulation in order for these things to function correctly, and that will mean you were WRONG!?!?

Is that why you’re not MADDENED by what is going on?

Is it just a right -wing idea that ANY government involvement in ANYTHING is somehow “BAD”?

What the hell?

Again, we’re seeing the effects, we’re all feeling them as well and MANY people’s lives are being absolutely destroyed, (in many cases even lost) by these scum, and yet still we don’t have even the most basic official responses to this thing that even a child would suggest. And no one is SCREAMING BLOODY MURDER ABOUT THIS!!

AND…..the same people that engineered this fiasco, profited from it, and made sure that the one person who COULD have done something about it was hamstrung, those same people are STILL in power, and in some cases are even more powerful, richer and closer to the decision making center than they were BEFORE?!?!??

And you think that Obama is your friend?

It’s completely insane.

Watch this, please! Really WATCH it, and research it if you don’t believe the information reported. You will see how the people that tried to stop this thing were stifled and pushed out of the process, which led to what we have now.

You will see the same players being rewarded, and the same players continuing to run the GAME?!?!?!?

It’s insanity, how can YOU continue to sit still for it?

But he has REALLY gotten into a lather about Obama getting the Nobel peace prize, and after he sent another email that was frankly pretty clearly a bit silly and childish, I decided to look into what actually happened with the award, why they did it, and what I felt about it, so that I could respond in a meaningful way to my friend’s anger and outrage about the award, and Obama in general to some degree.

So here’s what he wrote to me (a bit out of context I admit, but you’ll get the general point), followed by my response, including some reference links.

ME: But remember, it’s not HIS fault it happened, he didn’t choose it. People that dog him for it aren’t thinking clearly, the choice is not for him to make. And I think people are behaving brutally stupid about it, the first feeling they should have, even if justifiably confused about it, is that they should be proud, and NOT do what the right is doing, which is to senselessly attack him for something that’s outside of his control. That part of this is shameful…..and it literally makes me feel bad about what’s happening in this country because of a few self-interested and callous scum who get airtime….

FRIEND: i think he’s a damned idiot (as you know) anyway
but if i were him i would just flat out refuse to accept it, since
he didnt do anything at all to deserve it and he damn well knows it

it’s jsut a further coronation of him for doing nothing

also it jsut turns the nobel peace prize into a piece of toilet paper
which these stupid norwegian liberals are handing out since they’re so overjoyed that bakwardes america finally got a black president

So here’s my response –

Well, to call him a damn idiot is obviously idiotic, and while I can understand a negative knee-jerk reaction to the award, reading the ACTUAL STATEMENT from the Nobel people can be enlightening and explains a lot. Please attempt to actually read it before you slag it or him, at least in the context of the award anyway……

And again remember, THEY are the people that decide what agenda they want to push forward, NOT Obama.

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2009/press.html

And here’s a reasonable response to the right-wing teeth-gritting and hand-wringing – http://www.salon.com/opinion/walsh/politics/2009/10/10/obama_nobel_prize/index.html?source=rss&aim=/opinion/walsh/politics –

These are both reasonable statements to make, ESPECIALLY in the light of this statement from the Nobel people –

“Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama’s initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.”

and

“For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world’s leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama’s appeal that “Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges.”"

These are reasonable and even lofty, idealistic goals and purposes, which SHOULD be encouraged. We’ve done nothing for the last 8 years but allowed ourselves to be driven down into ugliness and insanity as a national stance, taking the rest of the world down with us. The level of the global agenda SHOULD be lofty and idealistic, I would argue that it’s the best kind of dialogue for world’s governments to have in the global context, and this kind of movement MUST be encouraged.

Taking note of their own direct statements that this is their intent, I can support the award, since it is VERY clear that the change Obama and his international stance has brought mostly DO reflect those ideals, and the changes they mention as a result are indeed true.

This anger towards Obama is misdirected, and in my view reflects a powerful need by a group of people in this country to vilify by any means available a person of color that does not fit the idea “people of prejudice” have of him and his race. And to the extent that many people are prejudiced, it needs to remain personal, and not be dragged into the public discourse. It’s a base and shallow response with ugly roots, and cannot be given any value in any context, no matter how peripherally it is applied, and no matter what illusions are used to disguise it.

And yes, I DO think that “people of prejudice” are not looking at this thing for what it IS, they are instead turning it into another outlet for their racist rage, without bothering to actually understand what has actually been done here. For me, that makes them “people of willful ignorance”, and I have a bias against that.

WB

Wade Biery
STILL

661 513-3727

still@stillmusic.com

http://www.twitter.com/wadebiery

http://www.stillmusic.com

http://www.myspace.com/therealstill

http://www.reverbnation.com/still

http://www.nimbitmusic.com/still

P.S. – What do you think, is it a good award or not?