New Song! It’s about freakin’ time.

We’re sorry we’ve been so slow. We’ll stop it.
Enjoy our new song about escalation in Afghanistan, the changing rationales for it, and the absence of a consensus on what winning really looks like.
The footage is from Brave New Films excellent Rethink Afghanistan series.

What Is It We’re Doing There [...]

New Song About the Employee Free Choice Act

This is our first new song in ages. Thanks for sticking with us. We hope the mandolin part was worth the wait.
We wrote “My Heart Belongs to Cleveland” as a response to Republicans in Congress who pledge support for working people but oppose the Employee Free Choice Act.
If card check is good enough to decertify [...]

New blog where I will write more stuff not related to my band

The Mannequin Shop: mannequinshop.blogspot.com

Seats Open in Supreme Court, Smashing Pumpkins

They’ve both lost key members. It’s up to two of Chicago’s finest to replace them. Nearly everyone with an opinion and an internet connection has an idea of who the replacement should be. Yes, the Supreme Court and the Smashing Pumpkins have a lot in common right now.
On the heels of Billy Corgan’s announcement that [...]

The tweenbot adorableness

Here’s an experiment done by a student at my non-alma mater alma mater, NYU. She built a robot that could only move forward and decided to see if strangers would help it circumvent obstacles to get from one corner of Washington Square Park to the other, presumably without buying drugs. It’s very cute. I do [...]

Going on a short tour

We’re getting in the van for a little swing up north in a minute.
Tonight (Saturday) the 21st – SF, CA – Bottom of the Hill
Monday the 23rd – Portland, OR – Kelly’s Olympian
Wednesday the 25th – Boise, ID – 28th + Davis
See you soon!

New York Times Hilarious Fail

No Kisses, No Cameras — corrected.

The first Max and the Marginalized song was “No Kisses, No Cameras”, about the ban on photographs at Dover Air Force Base when flag draped coffins were returning from the combat zone. The official line was that it was out of respect for the fallen, but anyone with a hint of a brain knew it [...]

Chris Rakestraw = Funny Guy

Fri. Feb 13, evening:
INT. Garage Pizza, Freddy vs. Jason on TV.
Max: Who wins, Freddy or Jason?
Chris: THE VIEWER.
Sat. Feb. 14, evening
INT. Studio
Max: It’s cool, you know I’m pretty adept at writing lyrics on the fly.
Chris: That must be a really tiny pen.

Recording update

So, we’re making a full-length album. We’re keeping a few of the earlier recordings but mostly rerecording songs. We didn’t really know going in which ones we were going to do but we had to start somewhere:

I have to say, it was a big feeling of accomplishment to see how many damn songs we’ve done [...]