In January 2029, I will volunteer to help scrape every last vestige of trumplandia from DC's built environment and set the city back to the way it was. The U.S. needs a Marshall Plan to restore America's institutions, regain public trust, and heal our many physical and emotional scars.

Morals, ideals, awareness, progress Let yourself be heard

Real life example of a 12th century animal fable #leopardsatemyface #Politics #News

If you haven't read Jean Baudrillard's "Simulacra and Simulation" and "America", both written in the 1980s, I recommend you do. His explanations of hyperreality and postmodernism were scarily prescient. We live in the world he foresaw 40+ years ago; no one knows what's real or not real anymore.

New album out today on Means of Production, for Bandcamp Friday. It’s Walk Talk & Audio by Cofferdam. Give it a listen!

Czonka: this Friday night at Galactic Panther art gallery in old town Alexandria. Just a few blocks from King St Metro. With two very good bands I’m looking forward to seeing.

Ebo Taylor, 1936-2026 youtu.be/z54HkbHg8Ec

It’s officially out! The Electric Grandmother’s first vinyl LP is now available at electricgrandmother.bandcamp.com/album/do-you.... Order a copy today and I will personally mail it to you. Or catch them at Pie Shop on Saturday, February 21 and buy one there. It’s super-fun and catchy—trust me.

I’m delighted to announce that Means of Production’s next release comes out on vinyl on February 1st: The Electric Grandmother’s “Do You Want Sitcom-Core, Or Do You Want the Truth?” It’s a collection of 18 of their top bangers, including a new tune, “Jurassic Park for Sharks”. Pre-order the LP now!

Every January 9, I think about this song, by one of the most criminally unheralded post-punk bands ever: Dog Faced Hermans, from Scotland. Busy drums, rumbling bass, dissonant squalls of guitar, and the lead instruments are trumpet and viola. Everything about it is perfect. youtu.be/wPPuDfZVKqQ

After the holiday onslaught is over, come see Czonka on Sat. Jan 3 at Quarry House in Silver Spring (w/ Cash on the Nail & Fashion Crime; we're on first), or the next day at 6 pm, Sun. Jan 4, at Smash in Adams Morgan (w/ Neon Grlz). Our pal Pete Duvall will join us on guitar for 3 songs, both shows.

The only xmas song I fully support:

50 years ago today, one of the most tragic shipwrecks in U.S. history took place in eastern Lake Superior. I heard this song a lot when I was a kid and listened intently to the horror in the words. It still gives me chills today. youtu.be/FuzTkGyxkYI?...

Two things. Thing 1: Tone, Czonka, and Oms tomorrow night Sat 11/1 at Galactic Panther, Alexandria. Thing 2: Means of Production is releasing Electric Grandmother's first vinyl LP early next year! 18 songs! Do you find them offensive? TOO BAD. Their songs are catchier than any other DC band. Fact.

Didn't get tickets for Shudder to Think in DC this Friday night? Come see this instead at Comet Ping Pong: Czonka and Minibeast, featuring Peter Prescott of Mission of Burma. Czonka will have guest guitarist Pete Duvall on a couple of songs. @minibeastband.bsky.social; czonka.bandcamp.com

I've added all of Pitchblende's recorded output to Means of Production's Bandcamp page. Please check it out! Every song we recorded is there, except for a few songs for which I don't have a digital version to upload. pitchblendedc.bandcamp.com/music

Mind-blowing that albums like Fables of the Reconstruction, Atomizer, Psychocandy, Head on the Door, Rites of Spring, and New Day Rising are all 40 years old. I wonder if kids today look at this music as being quaint, like we looked at Bing Crosby, Cab Calloway, Perry Como, and other acts from 1945.

I'll watch and enjoy most any music documentary, but the DEVO doc is especially good. Its thesis is that DEVO was the most misunderstood band in the world, because although they dressed in silly, attention-getting outfits, their critique of a world gone mad was dead serious. More relevant than ever.

I saw a sign for a new restaurant on Wisconsin Ave yesterday: "Coming Soon: DELHI BELLY". Um, do they not realize that "Delhi Belly" is a fun way of describing diarrhea? That's like opening a Mexican restaurant and calling it "Montezuma's Revenge".

Pretty excited about this one. Czonka's next show is Friday 24 October at Comet with Minibeast, featuring Peter Prescott of Mission of Burma. They kind of sound like PiL if they were from New England instead of England. youtu.be/Br-wid75zS4?...

I saw Pulp at Anthem last night and am happy to report that Jarvis Cocker's slow transformation into Charles Nelson Reilly is now complete. (It was an entertaining show, but the resemblance is uncanny.)

I love Galactic Panther, a cool little gallery and performance space in Old Town Alexandria near King St Metro. But it's funny that the ticket link describes Tone as "emerging" when they've existed for 35 years. In fact, my old band, Pitchblende, first played with Tone at 15 Minutes in DC in 1991.

On Saturday, August 16, my band is playing at Comet Ping Pong in DC with the most excellent Shadow Riot and Hammer No More the Fingers. Our second LP will be available. Come for the pizza, stay for the tunes!

“I’m once again asking you to support local bands, including Czonka and Right Chipper, who play this Sunday night at Galaxy Hut. Now, I’m more of a Dylan, Baez, and Guthrie (Woody not Arlo) fan. I don’t get math-rock, kraut-rock, snout-rock, or whatever. But Coldplay can’t have all the fans.”

“Cattle die, kinsmen die, you yourself die // But I know one thing that never dies: the judgment of a dead man’s life // he is truly wise who has traveled far and knows the ways of the world.” -from The Hávamál, a collection of Old Norse poems from the Viking Age

NEXT CZONKA SHOW ARLINGTON VIRGINIA SUNDAY JULY 20 TATER TOTS & BEER PLUS RIGHT CHIPPER IS SICK

Had to go into the office today, and didn’t feel like fighting insane traffic and tropical storms on the way home, so I decided to stop and have a grilled cheese with pickles, a mountain of tots, and a strawberry-pineapple wheat beer instead. Viva Galaxy Hut.

Hello. My band Czonka is playing a show tomorrow night (Sat 6/28) at Pie Shop in Northeast DC. We go on first at 8. If you haven’t heard Czonka, we’re like Flight of the Conchords, except we’re not from New Zealand and our music isn’t the slightest bit funny. New album: czonka.bandcamp.com

SURPRISE “The Geography of Nowhere” by Czonka Digital album out today. Vinyl shipping in August. czonka.bandcamp.com/album/the-ge...

I never realized how dark the lyrics of the Marseillaise were until today. Thus always to tyrants. youtu.be/7MQ-SC9bmp4?...

Feeling confident

Big summer ahead for my band, Czonka. New album plus a raft of shows. Git some.

Still one of my all-time favorite cartoons: “Gwarnica” by Mike Riley

Screenwriter: “This is a story about an autistic man who’s really good at math and launders money for organized crime and has difficulty making connections with people.” Movie Exec: “ecchh, pass…” Screenwriter: “He’s also a kung fu expert who donates the money to charity?” -THE ACCOUNTANT (2016)

Speaking of Louisville-based artists: I’d never listened much to Circle X until this week. But Prehistory and Ivory Tower are incredibly dense and compelling pieces of music up there with This Heat, and I’m mad at myself for not checking them out 30 years ago. youtu.be/FynWQhIs-kE

Listened to Palace Brothers’ “For the Mekons et al” tonight, wondering what it reminded me of, and realized it’s the same song as “Good Guys & Bad Guys” by Camper van Beethoven, recorded 8 years earlier. Yes, A-D-E is a common chord progression, but the structure and melody are unmistakably similar.

Up next: Saturday 28 June.

I saw a bumper sticker the other day that read “Please Be Patient — Stupid Driver”, and frankly that’s the sort of self-awareness and personal responsibility I’d like to see more of on the roads.

Anyone else going to this at Howard Theater on Sunday night? They play with conviction and power; take note mealy-mouthed bands. youtu.be/Tcv_mdXmB_g

@mlarmoyeux.bsky.social snapped this photo of me playing an Irish frame drum called a bodhran in the studio two months ago. I’d only learned the technique a few weeks before recording, but it turned out alright, and is featured in a song on Czonka’s new album “Geography of Nowhere” coming in summer.

I saw The Alarm at a roller rink in Norfolk, Virginia in 1985, and they blew the goddamned roof off the place. RIP Mike Peters youtu.be/r7QM5k2Y0bE

Sesame Straße. Nummern für Kinder.

The Leopard, killin it at punkrock karaoke.

Tracking Czonka album no.2 this weekend.