Samoa Boy has built his A-Town enterprise into a one-man conglomerate over the last decade.  He produces, DJs, teaches dance and manages a stable of bands, all of which sometimes blends together, as when he produces a show featuring bands he manages that include his dance lesson up front and him DJing between sets.  He sets up the PA and designs the fliers with his other hand.

His swing night at the Verdi Club, featuring Stompy Jones, has become an SF Tuesday night fixture.  Stompy itself plays about 20 dates per month as the most successful of the nine bands in the A-Town empire.  He also finds time to present touring bands like Petunia and the Vipers or Big Sandy and the Fly-Rite Boys.  Check out his Zombie Prom, featuring the voodoo swing of Slim Jenkins and a coffin picture booth, October 28th.

T.R. Hunt‘s Spirit Vibrations has been working its way up the food chain for two years, producing a variety of independent bands at various locations.  She started Spirit Vibrations after her teaching job was crunched by the recession.  She’s taking full advantage of social media, notably Facebook, to make her events happen.  T.R. differs from most independent producers because she’s into a wide range of styles including singer-songwriter, reggae and indy rock.  Her next twang show will feature Hellbound Glory, Misisipi Mike and The Midnight Gamblers and The GoldDiggers at the Red Devil Lounge on November 12th.

Talk about living on the edge, Shelby Ash not only lives the high risk life of an independent producer, he also owns The Music Store, one of the last of SF’s vanishing breed of record/CD/DVD outlets.  He’ll produce just about anything that is from the Americana catalog, but most of his shows draw from the bluegrass and western bands.  Shelby Ash Presents shows can be found regularly at places like Red Devil Lounge, Cafe DuNord and Plough and Stars; his September show at the Great American Music Hall featured The Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit and Brothers Comatose and was a resounding success.  He’s also got the holidays covered with a “Boo-Grass” show coming for Halloween and the “Turkey Trot” for Thanksgiving, and he’s also been a mainstay producing the SF Bluegrass and Old Time Music Festival every February.

There are other twang producers to be sure, but they mainly stick to one show per month, or less, that barely pays the bills.  The unsinkable dX, who has The Knockout to run, has dusted off his independent producer’s hat to get third Thursdays twanging at Blondie’s Bar and No Grill.  Handsome Hawk Valentine has done a fine job bringing third Saturdays to life with the “Haight Street Hop” at Milk Bar.  Our roving reporter, Greg Yanito, tells HWS that this could be moving to another venue and maybe another night, thus providing a handy example of shimmy-shammy associated with a music producer’s life.

Other producers are responsible for one-offs, house concerts and DJed shows; most of which incur bills rather than pay them.  Yes, it’s generally a labor of love, but without independent producers there would be a lot less music around to enjoy.

Hicks with Sticks is back on the radio with two August shows featuring 2010-2011 tracks from the Bay Area’s hillbillies and rockabillies, including new releases from the Whisky Richards, Loretta Lynch, Midnight Trio (Livermore’s finest), Whisky Pills Fiasco, The Coburns (ex-King Cab members and San Leandro’s finest) and Laura Benetez (Cottonpickers).  Tune in to find out what’s twangin’ throughout the Bay Area.  Both shows will be broadcast and webcast.

The first show, Peter Thompson‘s Bluegrass Signal on Saturday 13, 6:30 -8:00 (KALW.org), typically features Hicks with Sticks as a guest, but this time both Peter and bluegrass will be taking the day off for the amplified side of roots Americana with Jose Segue guest-hosting.  The second show, Why, Baby Why on Tuesday 30, 11:59 pm – 1:00 am (KALX.Berkeley.edu), will have DJ Meaty Paws at the controls while Jose passes the platters and handles back-announcing.  Each show features a different playlist to “optimize the listening experience”.  Why, Baby Why listeners should plan ahead for a Wednesday morning sleep-in, for optimization’s sake, as audio creeps ever closer to this site.

Tom Drohan and Gayle Schmidt were on a train platform in Spain looking at this picture of their house in flames.  Pam Brandon had just returned from visiting her parents in France to find her home in ruins.  Drohan/Schmidt occupied the lower flat at 434-436 Waller, Pam Brandon lives in the upper flat.  There was no loss of life, pets, or a Martin guitar which was saved by the firemen, but everything else is now gone.

All have strong ties to the Bay Area Americana community.  Pam Brandon leads Belle Monroe and her Brewglass Boys (bluegrass), sings in Lost Weekend (western bop/swing), and sings in D’lilah Monroe and the Tomcats (swing).  Tom Drohan plays stand-up bass as a Brewglass Boy and as a Tomcat.  He’s also in the Shut-Ins (hulabilly) and plays bass with his wife in Gayle Lynn (Schmidt) and the Hired Hands (Americana/country).  They’re all great people to have at a party, especially at the Waller St. parties they’ve hosted themselves.

The Haighteration blog, which reports Lower Haight news, carried the picture above and more details here and here.  The-434-436-Waller-Fire-Relief-Page Facebook page can be found here.  Fundraisers are being organized and will be on the Hicks with Sticks Calendar and in comments to this post.  All three are bounce-back people, but their need for help is clear.  Let’s rally!

NEW BANDS

MSP's Mighty Tighty Whities

There have been several attempts to derail the Mighty Slim Pickins, usually in the form of personnel changes, but lead singer Leigh Crow says this time it’s over for sure, as in really, really.

Three other bands have sprung from the MSP’s ashes. The Patsychords’ name gives them away; Roxanne Chick1, the MSP’s bassist before Lala, is a ‘Chord.  The Rumble Strippers are also new and Eden Heartattack, the MSP’s drummer, is now a Rumble Stripper. These bands will be twangin’ thar’ thang on the El Rio‘s patio on Sunday 3/12 along with Dolorata and Sassy, benefiting the SF AIDS Foundation.

The band to be named later is something Leigh Crow and MSP’s other lead singer, Nettie Hammar, have yet to brew up, but brew it they will. Daughter of MSP is only its working name.

Kitty Rose had been a regular at El Rio’s Cowgirlpalooza, at Dolores Park Cafe and assorted venues between SF and her home north in Ukiah. But Kitty and Katharine Cole, currently in The Battlin’ Bluebirds, are a persona and a person sharing the same hominid enclosure, so to speak. So if Kate killed Kit, it was nobody’s business but her own. Kitty Rose had put out three strong CD’s which was all she needed to do. Katharine Cole is on to newer things including a possible move back to SF, and a CD so dark it will make Marianne Faithfull‘s Broken English seem like a tanning salon.

PIRATE CAT RADIO SOAP OPERA

The loonies really have taken over the asylum at Pirate Cat Radio.

By way of background, Pirate Cat was founded 14 years ago by Monkey (his legal name) to broadcast at 87.9 FM and stream over the web. The Federal Communications Commission shut down the broadcast side in 2010, about the same time that Monkey acquired a licensed NPR station, KPDO, in Pescadero, north of Santa Cruz.

Apparently an 80% interest in Pirate Cat had been sold to SF resident Raymond Chen, but Monkey maintains that Chen only bought 80% of the Pirate Cat Cafe which shares space with the station.  However, Monkey also told the DJs, who pay monthly dues to fund Pirate Cat, to pay Chen, then a month later told them to pay into what appears to be a personal account of Monkey’s. Monkey maintains that Pirate Cat, a non-profit itself, had been rolled into KPDO, hence the reason for the change of accounts.  The DJ’s rebelled and set up their own account. The Golden Rule of Capitalism is that he who has the gold makes the rules.  Pirate Cat Radio (a.k.a., the asylum) had been pirated by it’s DJs (a.k.a., the loonies), but not for long.  The station and site have both been down for weeks.

Monkey appears to have fled to Europe. He’s not taking calls or answering emails though he has been sending out press releases, which nobody believes, to “clarify” things. Meanwhile, PCR defections, notably to FCCFreeRadio, have been brisk.  Talk about a radio drama.  Monkey, however true a visionary, seems to have been napping during his leadership development courses.

HAIGHT STREET HOP

The Haight Street Hop plans to become a fixture on first Fridays. Handsome Hank Valentine hosts the event at Milk Bar, across from Amnesia Records. It’s a vintage record hop featuring rotating DJs, burlesque, a pin-up contest, the Wak Shack doing hair, and a free dance lesson at 9:00.

The first of its kind was held on March 4th and was such a success that there was hardly room to dance. The crowd came dressed for success and DJs Okie Oran and Samoa Boy dipped into their wonderful 45 collections to keep ‘em jumpin’.  It’ll be free before 10pm too!

KUSF SOLD LIKE A FULTON STREET TART

"For whom the bell tolls KUSF, if not for thee?"

The skull and crossed microphones are no more.  The University of San Francisco sold its station, KUSF at 90.3 FM, in a $3.75 million secret deal to the University of Southern California which was nothing more than a front for the station’s transfer to giant Entercom Communications, owner of classical KDFC.

A haven for non-commercial music and non-English language programs, KUSF went silent with no notice to its staff, students or listeners.  The station, whose frequency was donated to USF in 1973, now broadcasts classical music as KDFC.

Protest of the sale was swift and emphatic.  USF President Stephen Privett led a meeting that packed a 500-seat auditorium, but, like a contrite bishop explaining a pedophilia scandal, he adopted a demeanor of heartfelt concern to mask a familiar message, “The Church of Rome does what it wants when it wants.  Deal with it.”  SF’s Board of Supervisors will issue a non-binding resolution that “decries the loss of the cultural and community asset,” to provide the cover they need even as Privett feeds their resolution into his shredder.  Pray, pay and obey, y’all.

And a measly $3.75M for an urban FM station!  Whazzup wid dat?

Naturally, this is going to put pressure on the greater Bay Area’s six remaining college FM stations as provosts, presidents and deans weigh educational and community responsibility against cash on the barrelhead, son.  Enjoy them while they last.  www.saveKUSF.org

KZSC, 88.1, UC, Santa Cruz
KFJC, 89.7, Foothill College
KZSU, 90.1, Stanford University
KALX, 90.7, UC, Berkeley
KCSM, 91.1, College of San Mateo
KSCU, 103.3, Santa Clara University

SAN FRANCISCO BLUEGRASS AND OLD-TIME MUSIC FESTIVAL

San Francisco’s bluegrass and old-time music festival hits venues throughout the Bay Area from February 11^th to 20th.  The festival, an 11-year-old production of the Northern California Bluegrass Association, is known for a rich assortment of West Coast and Bay Area acoustic Americana bands, though the event branched into electric, minimally, years ago.  Emily Bonn & The Vivants, The Good Luck Thrift Shore Outfit, Hang Jones, Gayle Lynn and the Hired Hands, Misisipi Rider and the Pine Box Boys, none of which come close to trad bluegrass, are among the stars that SFBOT will showcase.  The Stairwell Sisters, Dry Branch Fire Squad and 60 others will be keeping it true to its acoustic roots.   Schedule.

NEW CD RELEASES FROM BAY AREA BANDS

Four new CDs dotted the January twangscape.  Jon-Emery and the Dry County Drinkers, an edgy honky-tonk outfit from Sonoma County, has released one.   This Jon-Emery is not to be confused with the Jon Emery Band from Austin.  Here’s Sonoma County Jon-Emery’s video.

Don Burnham, the fearless leader of the western swing big band Lost Weekend, has released a solo CD, I Dreamed Count Basie Was A Cowboy.  He did it with his Lost Weekend pals and it is western swing, but why it isn’t a Lost Weekend CD is a secret.

The East Bay’s 77 el Deora has cut its third, “The Crown and the Crow’s Confession”; and Marin’s Blue Diamond Fillups have given birth to their first.  Their “Drive Like Lightening, Crash Like Thunder” video remains a HWS favorite.

VINYL JUNKIES SHARE THEIR SECRETS

The Bay Area’s record collectors keep providing us with new surprises.  The latest is Joe Goldmark’s new site VinylBeat.com, which also links to his new blog on Amoeba.com.   It has four sections, one of which is an LP Label Guide with pictures of over a thousand labels and information on when the styles changed.  This is handy when trying to figure out if you have an original pressing.  Another section features “five high-end price guides that are more in tune with the market than any previous guide.”  Goldmark, who moonlights as the Fearless Leader of The Seducers, also manages Amoeba SF, so he’s got the vinyl value thing under control, unlike the many vinyl price guides that are rated “R” for ridiculous.

Other vinyl junkies have been spinning old school Friday R&B session, first at the Jay ‘n’ Bee Club, and recently at ReTox on 20^th near 3^rd in Dogpatch.  DJ’s Samoa Boy, Okie Oran, Sergio Iglesias and Rockin’ Raul are moving on.  Stay tuned.

NEW VENUES THAT TWANG

The 50 Mason Social House is one of the newest venues for roots Americana.  They’re still working out their sound system, yet it’s nice to know they’re alive and booking.  It’s also hecka easy to get to being one block away from Powell Street Station.

The Presidio Yacht Club has got to be the diviest, blue collar yacht club north of SF’s Bayview Boat Club.  The Lonestar Retrobates play there every first Thursday.  It’s located just northeast of the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, at the east end of Horseshoe Cove in Fort Baker.  You reach the back of it’s building it’s by driving through a dirt parking lot with potholes deep enough to swallow a Smart Car.  The road then continues to the left, darkly, until the club and its parking lot appear.

Beer and food are affordable, Maria behind the counter is friendly, no one is wearing a Commodore’s hat or smoking a meerschaum pipe, and it’s view is spectacular.

49 SPECIAL: 49 Special (self)
THE B STARS: Behind the Barn (N/A)
BROTHERS COMATOSE: Songs From the Stoop (self)
BIG B AND HIS SNAKEOIL SAVIORS: Big B And His Snakeoil Saviors (A’Okay)
DALTON MOUNTAIN GANG: Dalton Mountain Gang (self)
DAN HICKS: Crazy f0r Christmas (Surf Dog)
DARK HOLLOW: We’ll Meet Again Sweetheart (demo – self)
DAVE CRIMMEN: Full Circle (self)
DOUG ADAMZ: Bernardo’s Seranade (Magi Productions)
DOUG BLUMER: Sounds Like This (Ethic)
DR. ELMO: Bluegrass Christmas (Time-Life)
EARL BROTHERS: Earl Brothers (Big Hen)
ERIC THOMPSON: Kleptograss (Herringbone)
EVIE LADIN: Float Downstream (self)
THE FANCY DAN BAND: Sing to Survive (self)
FRANCESCA NAGEL: Everything Must Change (self)
FRANK SOLIVAN & DIRTY KITCHEN: Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen (Fiddlemon)
GOLDDIGGERS: GoldDiggers (Self)
HI-RHYTHM HUSTLERS: Across the Dial (self)
JERRY GARCIA ACOUSTIC BAND: Ragged But Right, Almost Acoustic (jerrygarcia.com)
JINX JONES: Rip and Run (Home Brand Records)
JODY STECHER & KATE BRISLIN: Return (self)
KATHY KALLICK BAND: Between the Hollow & the High-Rise (Live Oak)
KITCHEN HELP: Kitchen Help (self)
KNUCKLE KNOCKERS: The Knuckle Knockers (Yodel-ay-hee)
LARIATS OF FIRE: Jack Jenkins’ Last Ride (self)
LUKE ABBOTT: Take Me Home (Tone Way)
MARIA MULDAR: Christmas At The Oasis (Stony Plain?)
THE MEN OF LA MANCHA: Misisipi Rider Presents… (self)
THE MISSION THREE: Big Time (self)
NELL ROBINSON: Nell Robinson in… Loango (Red Level Records)
OAK GROVE:  Family Bluegrass Band (self)OMGG: Obviously Minor Guys and a Girl (self)
PETER ROWAN BLUEGRASS BAND: Legacy (Compass)
PLAIN HIGH DRIFTERS: Plain High Drifters (self)
PURVIS & THE STRAY DOGS: Rock the Dog Park (Special Projects)
RAGTIME SKEDADDLERS: Ragtime Skedaddlers (Mandophone)
RED MEAT: Live at the World’s Smallest Honky Tonk (Ranchero Records)
SUZY THOMPSON & DEL RAY: Hen Party (Hobemian)
TAMARA LITTLE: Coming Up For Air (Magic Wheel)
TUTTLES with A.J. LEE: Introducing … (Back Studio)
WEST COAST RAMBLERS: West Coast Ramblers EP (self)
WHISKY RICHARDS: No. 1 (self)
WRONGLERS: Jamming For Faint Praise (self)

Plus two more honorable mentions from the not-so-Bay-Area town of Oakdale due east:

GOOD LUCK THRIFT STORE OUTFIT: The Ghost of Good Manners (Heckabad)
TOM VANDENAVOND WITH LARRY AND HIS FLASK: You Outta Know by Now (Hillgrass Bluebilly)

2010 was a good year for swing and jump blues, but not so good for rockabilly bands as their shows tended to fade from the clubs.  Arguably, the local car clubs hosted more rockabilly in 2010 than the nightclubs.  Some rockabilly bands like Texas Steve and the Git Gone Trio just faded away while others like the Blue Diamond Fillups talked their way onto swing venues and others like the Mighty Slim Pickins and the RevTones took time to retool their line-ups.

The coming of age of the Hi-Rhythm Hustlers, Slim Jenkins and Lost Dog Found has breathed new life into the swing and bop scene.  Kat’s Corner, the regular Wednesday night lesson and dance event at Savannah Lounge continued to prosper under Nathan Diaz who didn’t miss a beat after Kat herself moved to the Caribbean.  The Rockit Room (formerly the Last Day Saloon) in SF’s Inner Sunset neighborhood started offering swing dancing and lessons every Sunday, and the Burrit Room at SF’s Crescent Hotel is now booking dance-oriented swing and country bands including the newest western swing kids on the block, the West Coast Ramblers.  Le Colonial on Cosmo Alley in SF’s Tender Nob has been swinging with The Martini Brothers every Thursday and now they’ve added the new and very boppin’ Cosmo Alley Cats on Wednesday nights.

New George’s in San Rafael is another new/old club that’s back on the radar.  Fourth Street Tavern used to book a band or two from the HWS Bands page each month, but that disappeared in 2010.  Nearby New George’s stopped booking bands in ’03 when it became a restaurant, but now it has a new owner who has remade it as a 1940′s era establishment with live music four nights/week.

The SF anti-fun police shut down the regular Friday night all-vinyl old-school R&B record hop at the Jay ‘n’ Bee Club because that venue didn’t have an entertainment license.  After a few months of silence, this event found new life at ReTox on 20th near 3rd in Dogpatch.  El Rio in SF became the new home for Swing Goth, an edgy lesson and DJed dance event that had been going, somewhat irregularly, at other locations in recent years.  It’s unusual in that the mix is mainly alt-rock and, yes, goth with little if any actual swing music, yet people continue to fill this niche that few imagined existed.

Hicks with Sticks expanded its radio presence with Meaty Paws on KALX‘s Why Baby, Why where we’ll be on every month that has a fifth Tuesday; the next will be announced this March.  And finally, Hicks with Sticks celebrated its 11th anniversary in November 2010.  Who would have imagined that back in 1999?

KPIG says, "Adios, SF."

KPIG is leaving its San Francisco post at 1510 AM.  In an Internet-published farewell, KPIG’s marketing main-man, Ed Monroe wrote, “…we came up short on 1510AM in SF, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying.”

Ed, (facepalm) you guys didn’t try much.  Advertising?  Advertisers?  KPIG-SF promotions?  SF events?  Marin/EB outreach?  General schmoozing?   The station produced Tim Lynch‘s one lonely Saturday SF radio show.  Lynch backed Bay Area bands to the hilt, and thanks for that, but his job was programming, not marketing.  Oh well, it might have been a losing battle from the start since local radio is a fairly dead concept among the Digital Generation.

Corporate radio cooked its own goose in the ’90s by dumbing itself into insignificance.  iPod technology drove in a few nails as did XM radio, the Internet, and services like Pandora that build personalized play-lists based on each listener’s clicks of  “like.”  KPIG was one of very few that survived the Great Radio Quality Purge due to a millionaire multi-station owner who happens to be a KPIG fan.  (Another “thanks” for that.)

But by the turn of the century, broadcast radio as an entertainment option had become an afterthought among youth married to programming its own.  The Pig’s homey, self-programming DJs couldn’t compete in a market where people think in terms of  hearing what they want when they want to hear it.  The plug gets pulled Sunday, August 15th.

Stay Away Joes

New bands form and others fade away.  Uphill Both Ways is one of the new bands with a smooth, sometimes rocking, sound and samples that can be heard here…   The Stay Away Joes are a new rockabilly group with song samples on their MySpace page…  Small Gas Engine, which has the heart of a counrty band, wants you to listen to their songs and explain to them what kind of band they are…  The Mighty Slim Pickens will be taking a break following the departure of bassist Roxanne Chicoine.  If anyone knows a female stand-up bassist who likes to slap it around, get in touch…  Lady A and her Heel Draggers have at least one more show scheduled, but we hear that it may be followed by an extended break which would be regrettable as this band seemed to be hitting a stride…  Li’l Anne and the Tune Wranglers may be on extended hiatus as well. This band emerged from the Sweet ‘n’ Lo’s and was on a roll until the departure of Danny Santos. Belle Monroe, who plays guitar with her own Brewglass Boys, stepped in to play stand-up bass and sing, but she’s one busy gal.  Meanwhile, Li’l Anne, who has been at it steadily since the S & L’s, is thinking maybe she needs to take a break from the music biz…  It looks like the Shut-Ins are going the way of the Bootcuts as a band that can abide and endure for decades by playing rarely.  Mike Roper (uke, vox) has been devoting more time to Cheetahs on the Moon and Gayle Lynn and the Hired Hands, while John Poultney (guitar, vox) has become inspired to do original material.  Let’s hope these boys still have a few more Riptide Xmas specials in them.  Theirs is the only Hicks with Sticks-approved Xmas special on the planet.

Hobo Gobbelins

Larry Bob Roberts has been presiding over the first Tuesdays Americana shows at El Rio for about two years and presented his last one this month.  Roberts’ strength was in finding bands that are somewhere on the Americana spectrum but not necessarily in country, rockabilly of any other easily identifiable niche.  The Hobo Gobbelins who closed the run are a case in point, consisting of an uncertain mix of Americana, klezmer, Irish, old-tyme, Slim Cessna, sea shanty, and any other inspiration that comes in over their transom.

The 52 Week Club is the brainchild of Willie Tea (The Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit) and Tom VandenAvond that challenges its members to write a song every week for a year.  It’s free to join and about as simple as them picking the topic and you writing the song.  The line up so far is: Week 1: The Scout, Week 2: Sandpaper, Week 3: Baked Treats, Week 4: Them Travelers, and Week 5: Basking in the Cold Concrete.  You can catch up by writing one song about a scout who was sandpapering his baked treats while traveling and tanning over cold concrete.

No License, No Music

UPDATE 5/20: According to Knockout partner dX the former Friday night Jay ‘n Bee Club record hop will be moving there on Sundays.  The Knockout already has two related shows: “Lonely Teardrops” every second Sunday which features vinyl-spinning DJ’s and live bands, and the all-vinyl “Shuckin’ & Jivin’” every fourth Sunday which features DJ Dr. Scott and Jay & Bee DJ Okie Oran, so it will be easy to roll everything into regular Sunday shows.  The good news is that this opens the door to live music along with the DJs.  The bad news is that, being a school night, it will be missed by those who were coming to Jay ‘n Bee from as far as San Jose and Santa Cruz.

ORIGINAL POST 5/9: DJs Tanoa “Samoa Boy,” Okie Oran, Sergio Inglesias and Rockin’ Raul Castro had a good thing going with their Friday night rotation at the Jay ‘n Bee Club on the Potrero side of SF’s Mission district, but all that has changed as of Friday, May 7th after The City’s music police dropped by to remind the club that it needed a cabaret license for DJed events.   The club is in a quiet neighborhood and a window rattling birthday bash held the weekend before likely prompted complaints to City Hall.

Knowing they’re onto a good thing, the DJs are looking to set up shop elsewhere.  Places like Club Waziema, near The Independent on Divisadero; or Homestead, formerly the Welsh bar Dylan’s, at 19th and Folsom are about the size and environment they want.

Turning to radio news, Hicks with Sticks and KALX are looking into another Why Baby, Why local music showcase in June.  Why Baby, Why is the station’s weekly Americana show that doesn’t have a regular DJ.  KALX’s twang-friendly Meaty Paws reserves a Why Baby, Why slot for new, local releases about once each year.  Airplay for any band isn’t guaranteed and HWS has most of the current releases, but one guarantee is that we can’t play what we don’t have, so if a band has something that HWS doesn’t then it is welcome to get in touch.

Whiskey, Sun Records and “good things come in threes” are American icons (or clichés) so imagine the Whiskey Richards, Real Sippin’ Whiskeys and Whiskey Pills Fiasco, playing at an alcohol recovery center near you.  As for Sun, artwork from recent releases by Porkchop Express, The B Stars and the Whiskey Richards (scoring a double!) tells the story.

At issue is the concept of secondary liability for enabling copyright infringement.   Sites like IsoHunt do not store files, copyrighted or otherwise, but they do provide connectivity between strangers who share copyrighted movies, music, software applications  as well as non-copyrighted information.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which is the guardian of copyrights for the movie industry, and IsoHunt are at the center of the fray.  The party of the first part has sued the party of the second part for being enablers of a world-wide file sharing party among parties of the third part.  The MPAA won but exactly what they won isn’t very clear because our court system needs to split hairs into tinier parts.

Part one, which IsoHunt is appealing, was a shut down order to disconnect the site’s p2p connections (trackers) as of April 5th.  Now IsoHunt is just like Google except that when a search points to a Torrent portal that hasn’t been sued by the MPAA, and there are several dozen of them, IsoHunt adds extra information about the download.

If the MPAA drove tanks he'd be roadkill.

And here is where the censorship factor enters the ring.  If a user searches a movie name like “Avatar” the MPAA doesn’t want any download source to appear.  Rather than sue every p2p into the ground where like weeds they are sure to reappear, the MPAA is also asking the court to order the censorship of keywords just like China does with searches like “Tiananmen Square.”  Except that where China’s censorship amounts to a few hundred keywords, the USA’s would extend to thousands that describe movies and songs.  Forget that “avatar” refers to more than the movie; it will be one of the many forbidden search terms in the brave new world of the copyright police.  At this writing IsoHunt.com has redirected itself to IsoHunt.hk as in Hong Kong to protest the keyword censorship proposal.

Those who think keyword censorship is beyond the absurd will do well to remember how good the MPAA and it’s music-minding cousin, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), are at getting their way.  If the same judge who ruled against IsoHunt doesn’t grant their wish, they can always turn to their campaign donation-lovin’ pals in Congress as they did in 1995 with the passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act which the MPAA and RIAA literally wrote for themselves.