first, another 15 great albums of 2011...

it's really hard to listen to all music that comes out. in fact, it's not possible to listen to much more than about 500 new cds in a year, and that's only if you have no other life and you only give most of those 500 a quick once over. but i would suppose that at least 3000 cds get released across the usa every year. this. as i get ready to unleash my best of 2012 list, here's a look back at some that would be on the list, only they were a year old by the time i got to hear them :( still great though, check em out!!! and if you want a flash back to the best of the best of 2011, here's that blog.

snake rattle rattle snake – sineater
an immediate fixture of the denver underground, this is the kind of thing that gets me going. i did not hear this until they played at treefort in march 2012, otherwise it would no doubt have been in the top 10 of 2011.



brother dan – the orb

brother dan is a side project of the guitarist for atomic mama, this is almost better. But then when atomic mama plays versions of these songs, then is when everyone in the world wishes they lived near boise. Lets not forget to mention that the atomic mama “bodies in the sun” ep wasn’t on the list either for some reason, presumably because i didn’t include eps last year.

radiation city – color of the industry
the first time I saw these guys. It was in 2011 & I was only a few blocks away in pendleton when I saw the fb update saying they would be playing. However, i saw the post as they were playing & saw only the last song. the next chance at the same venue in p-town was absolute magic.

tim blood & the gutpanthers – summer of our discontent

i wish i somehow knew what albums were released everywhere. how is anyone supposed to know about something in a tucked away corner of idaho? if only you could see these guys & then meet tim blood, they’d be your favorite band without any doubt. i mean, take it from dj panda, who has no interest at all in punk rock. she still wants to marry tim blood.

miwa gemini – fantastic lies of grizzly rose
dark mythmaker music that is somewhat like disney, if disney made music. thinking about that, it probably doesn’t sound like a compliment, but it really is. you’d think she’d be huge in japan, instead she is rather obscure. japanese music fans only turn obscure musicians into heroes when they’re from other countries. homegrown musicians have to pack 20k seat theatres to be legit. that’s ok, kid yoshida give big hugs to miwa. if panda gets to marry tim blood, kid yoshida better get to marry miwa gemini.

death songs ep
don’t know why they call it an ep with 8 songs on it, but phenomenal output by portland singer/songwriters formerly of shaky hands.





japanese popstars – controlling your allegiance

don’t let the name fool you, they’re from northern ireland. this album features appearances by members of the cure, jon spencer & m83. as such it won some awards, none better than being on the second mention list by kid yoshida.

lykke li – wounded rhymes
what else can I say about her, everyone already knows. she was the second most famous musician last year next to adele. but then i don’t listen to famous musicians all that much so it took me a while to get around.

kory quinn & the comrades – waitin for a train
not that this is a one-hit wonder album at all, but the song “only a hobo” is one of the few songs that can make me cry. especially when he played it live in union. then when the guy gets together with bitterroot to make up the low down whiskey rebels, there aren’t much better shows to see live.

helms alee – weatherhead
seattle hard rock is not dead. it lives on the shoulders of helms alee. all hail! the rest in jail.

bootsy collins – funk capital of the world
a return to the mothership! the funk god comes for real!

fool’s rush – turn all your bad feelings into good ones
this is like portland’s version of tim blood & the gutpanthers. when in p-landia, look see them at the bomb shelter. you won’t be safe anywhere else.

gringo star – count yer lucky stars
hotlanta rockers bring it with a raw passion. they will blow up into superstars, very soon.

sallie ford & the sound outside – dirty radio
her appearance on david letterman (the same week as typhoon) gave a lot more credibility to portland music scene. and she sure smoked it! it almost made me get a tv, but nothing will likely ever make that happen, not even the hippest hipster in all of hipsterville, usa.

stevie nicks – in your dreams
usually i prefer christine to stevie, but man this is as close to the old school fleetwood mac as you can get. of course it helps when dave stewart & lindsey buckingham are on the record, but still stevie in a return to old school form.

80? my ass!

Dear Judge,

Please examine the above picture. That is Obi Wan Kenobi on my dash. He sits with the top of his head at 71-72 mph. It is therefore quite noticeable when I am driving over that speed. Moreover, when I get any faster than about 75, Obi Wan rattles off onto the floor. When I saw your highway patrolman south of Prosser the other day, I looked down and saw the peg of the speedometer right at the top of Obi Wan’s head. This is to say that there is no way I was going 80 miles per hour.

I understand the system needs to acquire money somehow, so I will pay even though I’ve done nothing wrong. But, I will not pay more than $40 per month. It already took me two months to save enough money to even afford the gas to get to Yakima for Christmas. I can’t pay the full amount at once. I hope that’s fine. The system works. It made its point. I will stay in Oregon now.

kid yoshida

november rabble rousers of the month

rabble rouser of the month nominees ~ november 2012 please drop a line with your vote for this month's rabble rouser!!

dillon warden mother of 3 year old fined $2500 for son trying to pee in the front yard; cop ken qualls fired for issuing the ticket

tammy baldwin ~ first openly gay US senator, elected this november in wisconsin defeating tommy thompson, former four-term governor.

betsy aguirre (miami election hijinx) evicted for assisting spanish-speaking voter to read ballot

jill stein & cheri honkala ~ green party candidates arrested trying to get into the debates

wal mart workers strike on black friday

voting time ~ september 2012 ~ rabble rouser of the month!

nakoula bassely nakoula (cerritos, calif. ~ filmmaker in hiding) created film called "innocence of muslims" that sparked violence in the muslim world when he posted a 14 minute trailer on youtube. what also sparked controversy was that using the internet violated his probation, so posting the video got him arrested for a bizzare reason unrelated to the content/political results of the film. this is creating some chatter all the way up to the president.

ron edge (baker city, oreg. ~ otec customer) rejects otec using new "smart meters" because he doesn't trust the spread of the information collected and because of potential effects on his health. he already got cancer & other ailments from agent orange in vietnam, which the VA has told him wasn't caused by agent orange. so forgive him to be a bit gunshy about what officials tell him is safe for his health. besides, he is prepared to fend for himself off the grid if they cut off his power.

Hank III !!!

click the hyperlink to hear today's special sunday morning edition of the rabble rouser show, which featured Hank 3.

that is the entire 3 hour show. if you're listening for just the part with Hank, that begins at 1 hour & 12 minutes into the show. (the first bit of the show is a bit sloppy. hey! it was sunday morning! but the part with Hank is sweet.)

enjoy it. Hank is one of the most real people in the industry. send him emails in thanks for keeping true! and also while yr at it, check out the photos from the boise show on sunday 09/02/2012.

"oregonian" one more time

dear “oregonian” I sent a letter last year, that seems to have not meant much if at all. I never received any comment and the complaint has grown. Last August, I determined that the Oregonian represented eastern Oregon in less than 2% of it’s articles and central Oregon in less than 5%. I didn’t bother to compile statistics again this year because the paper still features mostly of national and international syndicated stories and then a heavy dose of Portland stories with only Portland-area businesses finding it relevant to advertise. However, should I want to compile the statistics again this year on how frequently eastern Oregon is represented, I would not be able to very easily. In my last letter I started by saying:

“I read the “Oregonian” pretty much everyday, primarily because of the easy availability. Although the “Oregonian” is available all over Oregon, I don’t find it to represent all of Oregon very well.”

The difference now being that I am not able to read it every day because it is not available easily all over Oregon anymore. So, now, not only does the paper not report on eastern Oregon, it does not even distribute daily. We can only get the Sunday paper. This change was no great surprise, and, honestly, once a week is enough for me. However, this recent decision to stop distribution east of the Dalles magnifies the frustration. It’s precisely that the paper is called the “Oregonian” when it does not represent the entire state, only a very small portion of it. So, now that you don’t report on most of the state or make available to all parts of the state, I wish to again request the paper please change the name to the “Portlandian.” It would be representative, plus I believe Portlanders would really get a kick out of that.

Thank you for your consideration,

daniel “kid” yoshida
KEOL, La Grande

EOU vs Montana St-Northern

Dear Coach Camp, Congratulations on the victory. Two of them to start the season. I especially want to applaud you for a nice game plan on Saturday. Other than some lack of execution plays, which are quite understandable, that was a pretty well-played game. Not sure if it was worth the $12 I paid to get in, but it was fun. Unlike last year, when I wanted to write to you often irritated with play calling, I loved the consistency on Saturday. A couple criticisms I do have would help the heart rates of the fans in the stands. It could have been a little easier win based on two second half field goal situations. 1. Up by seven points, facing a fourth and ten at the 15 yard line, you chose to go for the first down/touchdown. Next time that happens, please warn me so I can sit closer to the ambulance down by the beer garden. I understand that college coaches like to take gambles and that the kicker isn’t exactly David Akers and it was into a head wind, but come on! A 30-yarder to take a two score lead is a no-brainer. It would have done wonders for the kicker’s confidence to make it, about as much as it takes away confidence not being given the chance. Plus, there are much better odds of converting the 30-yard field goal than a fourth and ten. That field goal would have been gold considering that EOU ended up with the ball back 56 seconds to go in the game tied at 14. Instead of kneeling on the ball to run out the clock, we needed a quick scoring drive. I certainly praise you for a quick, well-orchestrated march into field goal range, even though the 37-yard field goal into a cross wind was comparably more difficult than the one you didn’t attempt in the third quarter. I am, to put it simply, a Mark David fan right now. 2. That final field goal situation. On a third down run, QB Pine slides down short of the first down with 20 seconds left. EOU immediately calls a timeout. No, more like, EOU immediately calls a timeout!?! I hope that was an on-the-field decision by a player to stop the game clock with 18 seconds. My only thought was, here we go again trying for another first down… I could understand Montana-Northern calling a timeout, if they had any left. I cannot understand not letting the clock wind down. Why not either win the game on the last play or go to overtime? Why give the other team three hail marys? All that said, those two situations were about my only complaints with the game. I like the defense, a lot. And the new running back is a decent replacement for Sampson, provided he can keep his helmet on. And as obscene as it may sound, I think I like Pine more than Ware. He scrambled well under pressure, and would have had an even better day if a few passes into the receiver’s hands had been held onto. There are some weapons to be sure. Good luck against Carroll again. And who am I to say? Maybe an unorthodox play call on a fourth down will be what it takes to win. daniel "kid" yoshida