A Country We Should All Be Proud Of

As part of it's Independence Day greetings, Headcount pointed out that America isn't a perfect country but rather a work in progress. "As American citizens, it's our job to point it in the right direction. That's the principal it was founded on 236 years ago." And they're doing that the way they know how to do it best-- combining music with democracy. And this summer they have 4 bands on the road making that connection: Wilco, Phish, Dave Matthews Band and Furthur. You can follow along online at the HeadCount blog which new tour journals are posted every few days.

Wilco's leg is part of Patagonia's and the League of Conservation Voter's Vote the Environment promotion. LCV's offers a record of every member of the House and Senate, based, respectively on how Members voted on 35 and 11 crucial roll call votes. They list every House Member and every Senate Member with their scores. Wonder who the best friends and worst enemies of the environment were this year? The best in the House (scores of 100%):

Tim Bishop (D-NY)
Judy Chu (D-CA)
David Cicilline (D-RI)
Hensen Clarke (D-MI)
Yvette Clarke (D-NY)
Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO)
Gerald Connolly (D-VA)
Diana DeGette (D-CO)
Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
Janice Hahn (D-CA)
Rush Holt (D-NJ)
Mike Honda (D-CA)
Jay Inslee (D-WA)
Steve Israel (D-NY)
Barbara Lee (D-CA)
John Lewis (D-GA)
Jim Moran (D-VA)
Grace Napolitano (D-CA)
Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA)
Bobby Scott (D-VA)
Jose Serrano (D-NY)
Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)
Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)

And the worst in the House (scores of 3% or lower):

Mark Amodei (R-NV)
Dan Benishek (R-MI)
Paul Broun (R-GA)
Francisco Canseco (R-TX)
Jason Chaffetz (R-UT)
Virginia Foxx (R-NC)
Trent Franks (R-AZ)
Louie Gohmert (R-TX)
Tom Graves (R-GA)
Wally Herger (R-CA)
Doug Lamborn (R-CO)
Billy Long (R-MO)
Randy Neugebauer (R-TX)
Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)
Paul Ryan (R-WI)-- Ayn Rand reveled in filth and pollution
Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI)
Bob Turner (R-NY)
Joe Walsh (R-IL)
Kevin Yoder (R-KS)

In the Senate, there were no really difficult votes and it was very easy, even for corporate whores, to get perfect scores; there were 30 of them-- Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Tom Carper (D-DE), Chris Cooner (D-DE), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Kay Hagan (D-NC), John Kerry (D-MA), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Joe Lieberman (CT), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Patty Murray (D-WA), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Jack Reed (D-RI), Harry Reid (D-NV), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Mark Udall (D-CO), Tom Udall (D-NM), Mark Warner (D-VA), Jim Webb (D-VA) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).

And there were 13 perfect zeros-- Roy Blunt (R-MO), Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Dan Coats (R-IN), John Ensign (R-NV), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), John Hoeven (R-ND), Mike Johanns (R-NE), Dick Lugar (R-IN), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Rob Portman (R-OH), Pat Roberts (R-KS), John Thune (R-SD) and Roger Wicker (R-MS).

Meanwhile Dave Matthews Band is doing a similar thing with Volkswagen, registering rock'n'roll lovers all over the South. Phish's own charitable arm, The Waterwheel Foundation, is coordinating Phish's efforts, which includes there first full-on tour since 2004. And Furthur (which features Phil Lesh and Bob Weir from the Grateful Dead) has been registering the most voters of all so far.

As you know, Rick Scott's GOP passed some laws in Florida that pretty much put voter registration groups out of business in the state. Just in time a Federal judge threw out some key provisions of the law. So... the Florida leg of the tour is back on. On July 18-21 they’ll be registering voters at Dave Matthews Band shows in W. Palm Beach and Tampa, and there are more concerts to be announced.

They're also registering voters at almost every music festival in America between now and the election. The next one is the High Sierra Music Festival in Quincy, CA this week and then everything from the Newport Folk Festival (with Wilco) at the end of the month, Farm Aid in Pennsylvania with Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews in September and Austin City Limits in the middle of October in Zilker Park with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jack White, Neil Young and the Black Keys to Lollapalooza in Grant Park (Chicago) August 3, 4 and 5 (with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Black Keys, Black Sabbath, Jack White, Sigur Ros, Doctor Dog, The Shins and tons of other bands). And that's just a few. You can check out the whole list of festivals here. Prepare to register to vote... or suffer the consequences.

Jammin' The Vote With Dave Matthews, Wilco, Phish and Bob Weir

PDA is going to be registering people to vote and talking with them about progressive solutions to American challenges at Crosby Stills and Nash concerts across America starting next month. And they'll be talking about progressive candidates who can make a difference, like David Gill in Illinois and Norman Solomon in California. Blue America will be working with them on a project that will put a rare and beautiful numbered, signed Neil Young art print into the hands of one lucky winner. You'll be hearing more about that very soon. But there's another organization working the rock'n'roll circuit, particularly the jam band circuit to register voters and that's Headcount. Like PDA, Headcount is a grassroots organization; unlike PDA, Headcount is a non-partisan group. It's primary function is to use the power of music to register voters and raise social consciousness. Since 2004, HeadCount has staged voter registration drives at over 2,000 concerts and signed up over 175,000 voters. With questions looming about young voter turnout in this election cycle-- between disappointment with promises from 2008 and GOP efforts to disenfranchise young voters, some major rock bands are hosting voter registration drives at all their summer concerts.

Headcount's “Great American Road Trip,” is a cross-country trek taken by young volunteers who are following the Dave Matthews Band, Wilco, Phish and Furthur (Grateful Dead) across the country, just to register voters at each stop on each tour. Because, as our friends at Headcount like to ask, "what's more American than rock'n'roll?

They expect to register voters at 103 concerts and cover 15,000 miles. Each band has been assigned a crack Headcount team of 2 to 4 volunteers who will be augmented in each city by another 10 local volunteers. Anyone 18 years of age or older can sign up to volunteer at HeadCount.org.

The HeadCount team is traveling to each Dave Matthews Band show in a Volkswagen Routan minivan-- and filing dispatches from the road on the HeadCount blog. Volkswagen of America, Inc. and Dave Matthews Band’s Bama Works Fund are covering all the volunteers’ travel costs.


HeadCount set an all-time record for a single concert tour when they registered 12,161 voters with Dave Matthews Band in 2004. That year, turnout by voters age 18 to 24 jumped 11 percent. It was by far the largest increase among any age group. In 2008 that trend continued, with young voters being the only age group to show an increase in turnout.

However, it will take some work if that trend is to continue. A recent Wall Street Journal poll found that only 43 percent of young voters said they were very interested in the Presidential election, compared to 65 percent in a poll taken at the same time of year in 2008. Another poll by Gallup said that only 56 percent of registered voters under the age of 30 plan to cast their ballot in November.

One of the best ways to increase voter turnout is by welcoming new voters into the democratic process. In 2008, over 72 percent of the voters registered by HeadCount turned out to vote, according to an independent study by the Washington, D.C.-based New Organizing Institute. That same study said that over 4 million votes were cast that year by individuals who registered to vote through independent groups like HeadCount.

New Wilco-- 'Cause I Love Ya

You can listen to the whole new Wilco album, Wilco for free. It'll be available in the stores, etc on June 30. Posting the free stream on there website, the band wrote:

"Well, we made it nearly a month with copies of Wilco (the album) floating around out there before it leaked. Pretty impressive restraint in this day and age. But the inevitable happened last night. Since we know you're curious and probably have better things to do than scour the internet for a download (though we do understand the attraction of the illicit), we've posted a stream of the full album ..."

WILCO TURNS DOWN DEMOCRATIC PARTY BOSS/HACK RAHM EMANUEL-- ROCKS OUT FOR OBAMA

It doesn't happen that frequently but every now and then I get stopped in the street by a perfect stranger saying, "Didn't I see you in that movie?" Hmmm... which movie? "You know, the one with Wilco." Oh yeah, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart. I was president of their record label and when I retired the very first move the label did was drop Wilco. Big mistake; Wilco is a signature band and the Warner Music Group soon ate shit and signed them up again-- for even more money. I was in the film talking about this stuff.

I doubt I ever had a political discussion with Wilco although it isn't inconceivable that I told them what I thought of Bush stealing the 2000 election or what I thought of his Iraq agenda or something like that. I'm positive I never discussed Chicago politics with them. In fact, until I read it in CongressDaily today I had no idea that their vile representative had asked them to play a fundraiser for him. Had I know, you can bet I would have chimed in. Hint: they live in Chicago.

Rahm Emanuel was a little put off when Wilco played a fundraiser for Obama last month. Emanuel is playing it neutral even though he's part of the Clinton Machine because Obama is the home state boy but he was pissed because after Clinton "gave" him the congressional district as a reward for narrowly pushing through NAFTA, Emanuel had to face actual voters and he asked Wilco to play for him. Being polite, Wilco said they don't do politics. Emanuel now says "Their perspective has changed." Either that or they're smarter than he gives them credit for being.




UPDATE: EMANUEL GOES PSYCHO ON BILL CLINTON

Democratic candidates and freshmen could have told him that his former poodle Rahm Emanuel has long since turned into a vicious pitbull. Clinton got a taste of it himself when the presumptuous upstart called the former president and barked at him about his role in the primaries, demanding he pipe down.

TOM DeLAY AND DICK ARMEY GRUDGE MATCH CONTINUES-- ARMEY INVOKES JERRY JEFF WALKER, DWT COUNTERS WITH WILCO

OK, everyone now knows former right-wing partners in crime, Tom DeLay and Dick Armey, hate each other's guts. DeLay's ghost writer viciously attacked Armey in the silly book he wrote under DeLay's name, a book even DeLay hasn't bothered to read. After DeLay stumbled all over himself when confronted on live TV with a quote from "his" book calling Armey names-- he claimed he never wrote it and then claimed he didn't have his glasses when the interviewer offered to show him the underlined passage-- Armey struck back.

In recent months, he's called Mr. DeLay "sneaky" and "conniving" and said he should never have been entrusted with public office. Two days after the GOP lost Congress in November's elections, he published an essay in the Wall Street Journal that implicitly attacked Mr. DeLay and his tactics, lamenting that the vision of smaller government that propelled Republicans to power in 1994 had given way to an emphasis on social wedge issues meant to rile the GOP base. Borrowing a phrase from the corrupt superlobbyist and DeLay ally Jack Abramoff, he complained that Congress had turned into a "favor factory."

In today's Dallas Morning News Armey suggested Jerry Jeff Walker had a song that answered DeLay quite well, "The Pot Can't Call the Kettle Black." You Tube doesn't have it but don't fret, I'm not going to offer you "Mr. Bojangles," "Rodeo Cowboy" or that "L.A. Freeway" song. I found something far better, Wilco doing "Pot Kettle Black" live. I hope this makes Mr. Armey's point. If only more Republicans would spend some time listening to Wilco!

YOU MAY NOT GET TO HEAR MUCH WILCO MUSIC ON THE RADIO... UNLESS YOU HEAR SOME SHERROD BROWN CAMPAIGN ADS!

It always flips me out when self-important politicians think they can just steal songwriters' music and use it for their campaigns. Not surprisingly, while I was running Reprise Records it was always the Democratic politicians who would call up and ask if they could use our artists' music. Clinton/Gore were eager to use Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow," but they were only going to do it with the band's blessing. Oddly enough, the political party that makes believe it stands for the sanctity of private property rights, the Republicans, never asked. They just used and hoped no one would complain. I remember when John Hall, who's iconic "Still The One," was stolen by Bush, did complain and told Bush to stop desecrating his song by playing it at his rallies. (I wish Hall would have done the same thing when Bush's favorite former Democrat, Joe Lieberman, in true GOP tradition, also illegally appropriated "Still The One." Hall let it slide since at the time Lieberman was still sort of making believe he was a Democrat.)

Anyway, it hardly surprised me when a friend in the Sherrod Brown for Senate campaign called me and asked me if I would contact my old pals in Wilco and ask them for permission for him to use "Monday" in one of his campaign ads. Having spent some time interviewing Sherrod and blogging with him as part of the Blue America campaign, I already knew he's a real person and a cool guy. But still... I mean Wilco hasn't exactly achieved the same level of mass recognition as Fleetwood Mac, and "Monday" isn't exactly... "Still The One."

But what Wilco is, is an unpretentious, Midwest, all-American band with an all-American sound that fits really well with Sherrod and with a campaign based around his all-American values. They also happen to be personal faves, musically, of Congressman Brown. And with taste like that... wow!

Yesterday I pointed out a Sherrod supporter's use of the classic "My Boyfriend's Back" in a clip about the interlocking relationships between George W. Bush and Mike DeWine. Today, Sherrod's campaign has a clip up on YouTube about who Sherrod is. It's very fitting that the music is Wilco's. Take a look: