National Snack

national snack

what is your name?

Joe Carlo

how would you describe what you do?

I make music, preferably on the drums.

what are you currently working on?

I run National Snack with Gemma Storr. We are a mungrul music band from North London.

what has had the greatest influence on your work?

Lavikinga, my Mum and Dad, Fred Marshall, John Bonham, laziness and Aretha Franklin.

what is the greatest misconception about you or your work?

Man, I don’t know! That it’s any good?

what do you see as the main strengths and weaknesses of the medium you work in?

Hmm by ‘medium’ do you mean popular music in general? If so then the strength is the 3:30min throwaway nature of pop music that provides a breeding ground for so many pinnacles of human achievement and opportunities for human emotional connection on either a mass scale or personal. A song can make me shake and spit with rage and fury or it can make me fall in love or save my life. And everyone else’s too. All that food for the soul stuff is true. (Cheesy wotsit? Moi?)

The weakness – paying the rent is really difficult most of the time.

how has technology impacted upon the work you do?
Speaking about how it has impacted on me personally then I would imagine it’s the same as a lot of musicians these days – affordable, half decent recording equipment, powerful computers and the internet means it’s possible to write, record, promote, receive payment and distribute a song to people anywhere in the world without ever even leaving whichever room your gear is in. That’s some amazing tools right there. The downside of all that though is that more time updating your Myspace or website is less time writing or playing. And of course your still competing with massive record companies who the same and better tools AND millions of dollars and years of experience.

The pros definitely outweigh the cons though!

what’s the greatest piece of advice you would like to pass on?
Do what you do.

Oh and when you learn an instrument don’t do ONLY what your teacher says.

where can we find you online?

www.nationalsnack.co.uk

www.myspace.com/nationalsnack

www.twitter.com/nationalsnack

www.reverbnation.com/nationalsnack

www.last.fm/user/nationalsnack

what are you reading at the moment?

A History of Modern Britain by Andrew Marr and Travels With Charlie by Steinbeck

what are you listening to at the moment?
Lots and lots of metal. I fucking love it like no other kind of music. I guess you’ll have to edit that as you see fit.

anything else we should know?

Mungrul – (mung-grll) n.

1. A form of music from the south of Engand resulting from various interbreedings, a music of mixed or undetermined breed.

2. A cross between different styles, groups, or varieties, especially a mixture that is or appears to be incongruous.

Source – the insides of our heads.

And you all need to listen to The Red Fishes, The Jolenes, The Obscuritones, Hot Head Show, and The Dromomaniac. After listening to us of course…

[Via http://intoviews.wordpress.com]

Harkin Calls Out Republican Senators on Filibusters, Will Offer Bill to Reform Process

There are a couple of interesting tidbits in a recent interview of Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) conducted by Ezra Klein of the Washington Post.

First, he calls out a few Republican Senators by name for essentially going too far in their attempt to defeat and / or block legislation. (question in bold)

Health-care reform has, in part, focused a lot of attention on the seemingly dysfunctional process that produced the bill. Your colleague Sen. Jeff Merkley has begun talking about it. Paul Krugman and Andy Stern have focused on it. Bloggers have turned their attention to it. But you’ve been making some of these arguments since the 90s. Is the situation worse now than it was then?

It’s becoming impossible. The situation in the Senate is an offshoot of the old Newt Gingrich philosophy. Back in the 1980s when I was in the House with Gingrich and the Republicans won the presidency and the Senate, Gingrich was asked if the Republicans would ever take the House, too. He said yes, but we’ll have to tear it down first. So that’s what they did. Took them 10 years, or even more. But it was a constant attack. And now it looks like they’re trying to do that in the Senate.

In the past, we’ve always had one or two or three senators who would try to block something. The most famous was Jesse Helms. He could tie people up in a conniption. But the thing is, when he went too far, his leader, Bob Dole, wouldn’t put up with it. Neither would Trent Lott. And later on, even Bill Frist. You allow him to do so much, and after awhile, you say, that’s enough.

Now we have more of the Jesse Helms. The Vitters and DeMint and Coburn, and maybe throw in Inhofe and a couple other newcomers, and they now run the minority. You don’t have a minority leader putting them in check, saying we have to work together. Dole would never put up with what’s going on over there. Neither would Trent Lott. We’ve had 101 objections from Republicans to proceeding.

On that point, Senator Harkin tells Ezra that he’ll introduce a bill he’s offered before that would reform the filibuster process.

Tell me a bit about your reform bill. When you first introduced this, Joe Lieberman was your co-sponsor, right?

Well, I introduced that first in 1995, when we were in the minority. I’m going to reintroduce that again in January. And people are going to say I only worry about this because I’m in the majority. But I come with clean hands! I started when I was in the minority!

The idea is to give some time for extended debate but eventually allow a majority to work its will. I do believe there’s some reason to have extended debate. If a group of senators filibusters a bill, you want to take their worries seriously. Make sure you’re not missing something. My proposal will do that. It says that on the first vote, you need 60. Then you have to wait two days, and on the third day, you need 57 votes. And then you need to wait two days, and on the third day, it’s 54 votes. And then you’d wait another two days, and on the third day, it would be 51 votes.

(credit image – associated press)

[Via http://senatus.wordpress.com]