The Baghdaddios are pleased to announce the release of their BRAND NEW album, "My *ss In Two Parts" - on Never Gonna Get Signed Records on Friday, April 4!

In celebration we’ve loaded up our first single from this new epic CD, "Muskrat Walk Of Shame" for FREE PREVIEW AND DOWNLOAD"! Yes, now you can be the first kid on your blockhead to own the new Baghdaddios tune - and at 0 dollars it’s a STEAL even at twice that price!

Just go to our MySpace page and it’s the first song - right there at the top.  Yep, it’s THAT easy.........

All the classic Baghdaddios song elements are there: the expert musicianship, the stellar, clearly annunciated vocals, the superior backing harmonies, the solid song structure and well-thought out lyrics.

This, all, with the incredibly-sterling production that Los Baghdaddis have been known for since time immemorium - or something like that!

And, for the first time EVER on MySpace: the full lyrics for a Baghdaddios tune has been printed although tunesmith extraordinaire, Kenn Rowell, suggests you access said "werds" only after listening to the track.

Quoth the birthday boy: "We’ve worked very hard on this one and wanted to get this out for our loyal fans in time for the beginning of baseball season - even though this has nothing to do with baseaball - or seasons for that matter. OK, car waiting, meet you at the bar, gotta go".

All this - plus a certificate for 15% off your next electro-shock therapy session can be purchased through iTunes after their near-legendary show at The Bitter End @ 147 Bleecker Street on Friday night, April 4 at 9PM. (cheap plug).

Peace,
The Baghdaddios
Kenn, Neil, Phil und (Pick A Name)
NYC

Earlier today a good friend who's placing our tune "Abbie Hoffman" (from our debut CD, "Willie Horton Hears A Who") on a few high-profile websites asked me to write a quick "blurb" about how I came to write the song - what was my inspiration, etc.  This is what I wrote, I hope you can dig it.

EVERYONE knows who Abbie Hoffman is - or if they don't they should. The man practically invented demonstration-as-performance-art. He drew attention to problems that were plaguing our society at the time like our involvement in the War in Vietnam, urban decay, the need for health care for the elderly, substandard living conditions in our inner cities. One of the last times he was arrested was because he and his fellow-activist son, Andrew, were giving out needles to junkies in public - as a way of helping combat the spread of A.I.D.S. But, sadly, Abbie couldn't get a post-Gordon Gecko, 80s world to listen to his message of "Change starts with you". When he took his life in 1989 it signaled the true end to the 60s counter-culture revolution. One of it's most positive and strongest voices had silenced itself - frustrated with the corporate globalization of our culture. America, Inc. - and equally frustrated with a mass populi that just didn't seem to care.

I remember hearing him on the Howard Stern Show talking about Live Aid - and he made a great point: sure it's good to help starving people around the world - but he felt that our media and government were turning our attention to far away places - at the expense of those less fortunate in THIS country - it was more glamorous to hold a benefit concert for people in Africa than it was to confront the ugliness in the depressed mountain towns of Appalachia or the cyclical poverty that self-perpetuates itself in our ghettos and slums of every major U.S. City. You might not have agreed with everything he said - or even the way that he sometimes made his point - but this was a man who truly laid his life on the line for his personal beliefs - along with his personal health, reputation and even personal fortune. And regardless of which side of the fence you stood on you HAD to admire the man for that.

This song is dedicated to every starry-eyed dreamer who ever wanted to make his or her little section of the planet just a LITTLE bit better for their fellow man and woman.

Amen Brutha, Amen Sistah.

Kenn Rowell (of The Baghdaddios), NYC, June 26, 2007

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(This was originally posted as a bulleting on Sunday, April 15, 2007) We were having a quiet Sunday - it's raining big-time in NYC and we were just looking forward to riding out the storm and quietly going about our business (you know, laying around, suckin' down Wild Cherry Pepsi, waiting for The Sopranos to come on, etc.). And then we started getting MySpace messages from our friends - turns out some scumbag computer geek has hacked into The Baghdaddios' MySpace page and is sending all of our friends SPAM in their comments section - get this, it's about getting some jive-ass free shopping card from Macys! I don't know WHY anyone would resort to this. Maybe back in the early days of the internet there were a lot of naive people out there who might have fallen for this shit. Well, guess what? It's 2007 now, geniuses! You think some schmuck is going to see one of these SPAMs in their comments area and go "WHOA - I gotta click on this and get me one of these????? DUH! It has the REVERSE EFFECT, MORONS! We'd personally like to find the computer-geek lame-o's who are creating this 'net pollution and vigorously throttle them. We don't even LIKE Macys - and no amount of SPAMing is going to get us to go to their store. Or to buy a damned iPod - or to have our weiners enlarged. We're happy with our currents stores, iPods, cell phones and weiners, THANKYOUVERYMUCH! Guess what, dipsticks? We've changed our settings to "must approve first" in the comments area. Now EVERY comment that you send The Baghdaddios has to pass our say-so before it sees the light of day. And we can assure you that we will never sign off on stuff like this. We'd rather take our page down than advertise for you idiots! We further urge all of our friends to change the settings on THEIR pages, too. Don't let these jerks get over on you, either. Check out our comments section - there are NO Macys gift card "advertisements" up on our page. So THERE! Also, if you get a SPAM comment or email from us? Let us know - A.S.A.P. - we want to take the necessary steps to keep this garbage from happening again! Finally: do yourselves a favour and change your MySpace passwords on a regular basis. I think we're going to have to do that from now on, too. Yeah, it's more work - but if that's what we have to do to stop this from happening, c'est le vie! Finally - I think we need to let the corporations who are getting shoved down our throats know that they're either pissing everyone off - or if they're not behind it then someone is fraudulently giving them a black eye. As a matter of fact, we don't think we're going to even WALK near a Macys store until those stupid "gift card" SPAMMERS go away! If we work on this together we can rid the internet of SPAM. Again, sorry to our friends - but rest assured: we were NOT behind this. We stand for rock 'n roll, loud music, beer, freedom and partying. NOT FREE iPODS! Thank You, The Baghdaddios NYC

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(This originally posted as a bulletin on Friday the 13th, April 13, 2007) But that doesn't keep us from getting our mugs in the news. Check this link out - this is off the website for the L.A.-based Synthesis Magazine: http://www.synthesismagazine.net/2007/04/12/triple-threat/ Our lead singer, Kenn was fortunate enough to run into the crew from Synthesis at the Sire Records party at SXSW, while covering the music festival for our very own New York Waste. They threw down and exchanged photos, CDs, magazine issues, etc. When we sent them our pics, Daniel T. from Synthesis decided to throw up a post on the mag's blog site. We all thought it was pretty nice of him and just wanted to share it with you, that's all. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled workday......... Peace (and Happy Friday The 13th!), The Baghdaddios NYC

(this was posted, originally as a bulletin, on March 27, 2007)

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It was 15 years ago today that Nyack resident and queen of the local indie underground, Lisa Horn (now Lisa Hold) helped put together the "Listen!" benefit concert for A.I.D.S. awareness with our very own Kenn Rowell. It was there that Kenn (who was playing with his college band: "The Magnificent Pagan Gods") and future Baghdaddios drummer Neil Richter (who was then playing with "Broken Toys") first met - eventually deciding to join forces and form The Baghdaddios - later that year. 15 Years ago, tonight, the "Listen!" concert raised over $3,600.00 - and a LOT of public awareness. Quothe Kenn: "It was one of the things I am proudest of in my life. Thank you for being a part of that with me." Yes, it's been 15 years - and the fight still goes on. In the spirit of the "Listen!" concert and in the spirit of everyone who participated in one way or another - NEVER give up! Always, The Baghdaddios NYC P.S. - Pass this on to anyone who might care. (Frankly, we all should!)

(this was originally posted as a bulletin on March 26, 2007)

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You don't have to be part of a band or an artist to understand how annoying SPAM is. Usually we don't tolerate unsolicited comments or MySpace messages from people hawking cell phones or tracking programmes or any of that other rot. But, one place where we conveniently look the other way is when our fellow artists (indie or otherwise) hits us up about an upcoming show or CD release. Why? Because we've all been there before - and maybe, someday, we may find it necessary to hit up all OUR friends for something that WE feel is important to the band or for some cause that we really, truly believe in. So you can imagine how unbelievably annoyed we were when we received an add email from a band - as far as we can tell they're an indie band, not with any label to speak of - out of NYC, just like us, promoting an upcoming show at a local venue - and when we clicked on the "Add to Friends" button (after all, if you're going to ask us to support you by attending your shows we expect to at least be FRIENDS, right?) we see THIS lovely message: "Buddahead does not accept add requests from bands." We couldn't believe it! I mean, we don't even KNOW this band and they're hitting us with a SPAM email and asking us to come out, pay a cover charge and see one of their shows - but on top of that their profile was set to "does not accept add requests from bands". Hypocritical? Damn straight it is! And, yes, it IS a pet peeve of ours when ANYONE on MySpace - but most especially bands and/or fellow artists - practice what is nothing more than blatant discrimination against their fellow indie artists - all of which, just like us, are struggling to be heard above the din! We sent them an email saying "Let's get this straight: you SPAM us about an upcoming show and yet you don't allow add requests from your fellow indie bands?" Of course there was NO response. And we let it go for about a week - after all maybe they're SO popular and SO big that they don't have time to read all their fan mail. Finally, after a long enough period of time passed we sent them ANOTHER message - asking them to PLEASE respond, telling them that we really DID want to give them the benefit of the doubt and that as fellow indie artists that we need to work together for each other. Again, nothing. Three days went by and we had had enough. We blocked them. And we sent them the following email: "You know, It takes REAL balls to spam people for one of your precious shows when you have your profile set to not accept add requests from your fellow indie bands. We're all in this together - or at least we should be - but your attitude appears to be "me first, screw you". The whole idea behind MySpace was a free sharing of ideas and networking. By setting your profile the way you have you're basically saying "Hey, accept us as fledgleing artists - but we're not interested in hearing from YOU!". It would be one thing if you didn't accept adds from people you don't know - to us that's more than understandable. But if you're open to hearing from strangers but not from BANDS then we take that as a high insult. Maybe you think you're better than all those other unknown bands. Trust me, you're not. (NO band is!) We even wrote back, twice, the 2nd time practically begging you to reconsider your profile setting. This doesn't hurt US - we're doing fine on our own. It's our fellow, small-time indie bands that we're concerned about. But you didn't even bother writing back or oherwise answer us. Guess you think you're too "cool" or good to bother replying to a nowhere, unsigned band like ours. Read this and read it good: The Baghdaddios ARE "indie to the death". We respect ANY artist and any band - so long as they don't resort to cut-throat tactics. We are blocking your profile and urging everyone on our MySpace friends list to do the same. We don't care how popular you are, how many hits you have, how many sold out shows you do. It's not about that - and it never was. Frankly we'd rather be out of the "business" than be associated with clueless, selfish rockstar-wannabe jerks like you. The Baghdaddios NYC -------------------------------------------------------- Let this serve as a notice to ANYONE on MySpace who doesn't accept "Add" requests from bands: We are fighting for our music industry LIVES here. This is our livelihood we are talking about. If you are on MySpace chances are that you're a pretty progressive-thinking individual, supposedly open to new and untried ideas, forms of expression and entertainment acts that you may never have heard of. What REALLY pisses us off are these so-called "cutting edge" types that have neat little handles like "Guitar Grrrrl" and "Music Man" - but for reasons that escape us won't allow "adds" from bands. Many of them have pics up on their page with them hanging out with musicians, holding a guitar, their blogs talk about checking out this band or that band - all of which sends US the message that you think you are SO cool because you're open to checking out bands - just "not hip", "uncool" or bands that aren't "happening" like, say OUR unsigned, nowhere, uncool band! Damn straight we're taking it personal! If you don't want a bunch of strangers trying to add you to pad their "friends" total number that's ONE thing. There's a designation in the controls area of MySpace where you would require someone to either provide your last name or your email address in order to be added. Now THIS makes sense - and we respect your quest for privacy or, at the very least, integrity. But to allow any ol' joker from around the globe to send you an add request - but oh boy, don't let that grungy little unknown band hit you up - that's just exclusionary. Hey, we HAVE over 11,000 friends. We're not being hurt by this lack of support - it's our FRIENDS we stand united behind. Our fellow indie brothers (and sisters) who are struggling for that first big break. If a band approaches you and you don't like their songs, their production, what they stand for or even their LOOK - hey, at least they had a chance to run it by you. But by BANNING bands from even getting a foot through the front door, hell, you could be turning away the next Nirvana or Green Day! We will NEVER be friends with people who turn a deaf ear to our friends. Period. We don't want your friendship then. Piss off. And BANDS that do this? Lower than whaleshit (and that rests at the bottom of the ocean!). How DARE you! As far as I'm concerned Buddahead, Christina Aguillera (to name a few) and any other group, person or act that is asking for OUR support - if they aren't willing to accept add REQUESTS from their fellow artists, they can go pound sand, too! Sorry if we hurt anyone's delicate feelings but we're putting our foot down, here. If you want to be our friend you better not be discriminatory. Otherwise we'd rather just take our MySpace page down and get out of the business. Read the slogan next to our pic, folks: "Indie To The Death". It's not just a neat marketing tool, it's a credo. To quote Johnny Rotten: We mean it, man! If we can't be at our friend's performances, or if we don't have the bucks to shell out for a show or a new CD, then the VERY LEAST we can do is be there for them, network-wise. It might not be much - but at least it's something. Remember: we really ARE all in this together. If you see a MySpace profile that doesn't add bands, block 'em. Pass it on. Don't let this go unchecked. We've blocked THOUSANDS of profiles - and we will continue to do so as long as we can. If you want a list of bands or individuals who have foresaken their fellow indie comrades please email us. We'll be more than happy to let you know who these narrow-minded morons are. You're either with us or against us. And, even if you can't or won't support us or our music, please, please, PLEASE support SOMEBODY indie. After all, without the indie scene we wouldn't have a future. OK, we're off our soapbox. We now return you to our already scheduled rat-race! Peace & Righteously Pissed, The Baghdaddios NYC

Written by Kenn, this is in response to this Blog entry: http://attaboy.tommydoc.net/?p=1284, which makes reference to this NY Press article: http://www.nypress.com/18/8/pagetwo/newshole2.cfm. Additionally, check out the online petition to save CBGB's which can be found in this Blog: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=10212123&blogID=20187683&Mytoken=20050416151206.

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Yeah, I've heard how Hilly could have purchased the building for what now appears to be a pittance, back in the 70's.  I didn't realize that it was as early as 1975 and I didn't realize that the asking price back then was as high as $100,000.00.  Think about it: $100,000.00 for a commercial building - anywhere BUT New York - might still be a little pricey even today.  But this was THIRTY YEARS ago.  Oh, sure it's Manhattan but we're not talking Times Square, the Upper East Side or South Street Seaport.  This was in the BOWERY.  Even in the early 80's it was a ratty place.  I had a cousin who once came out of there after playing a gig in the mid-80's and found some derelict stealing the battery from his car, which was parked almost DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF THE PLACE!  I found a website on the 'net that gives you the value of money from 1975 in 2003 terms (http://eh.net/hmit/compare/).  According to this analysis $100,000.00 from 30 years ago in today's terms (or close-to-today's terms) would be valued as follows:

In 2003, $100,000.00 from 1975 is worth:
$342,245.72 using the Consumer Price Index
$278,000.00 using the GDP deflator
$345,519.71 using the unskilled wage
$498,444.10 using the GDP per capita
$670,444.97 using the relative share of GDP

So we're looking at a best case scenario of the owner of a crumbling bar in the middle of a depressed area, surrounded by winos, junkies, drug dealers, pimps, hookers and other like-minded scurvy could buy the building in that neighborhood for $342,245.72 in today's terms (actually, it's probably more - considering this analysis left off at two years ago).  A worst case scenario would be buying into that same demilitarized zone for almost $700,000.00?  Really, if you were faced with that proposition would YOU mortgage your life away for that 'hood?  I could just see Hilly's accountant stroking out on him when he ran it by him.  C.B.s was never - as far as I could see - a big money-making enterprise.  You could only get a few hundred people in there at best and, contrary to this New York Press writer's "take" on the talent pool not every night featured Blondie or The Talking Heads.  All you have to do is go back into the History page on C.B.'s website and look up the bills.  Yeah, the various bills were littered with luminaries who's names we all know now - but they were very much in the process of "becoming" way back then.  I understand that Nirvana played there during the "Bleach" years - but the place was far from S.R.O.  Iggy and the Stooges, Blondie, the Talking Heads and yes (all bow) even The Ramones all have their stories of playing for empty or near-empty houses back in the early days.

And to take the stance that "CBGB's weekly schedule is padded with little scrubs playing dreadful, derivative songs to small clusters of friends" is nothing short of one generation romanticizing the past at the expense of the current generation.  As we've all been privy to, you can't possibly predict which emerging groups or music movements will stand the test of time and what will go the way of "Ant Music".  Back in 1982 most critics were willing to bet their walkmans that Madonna would be last week's news by the same time, next year.  It was Cyndi Lauper that everyone was putting their money on as the talent with real staying power.  So who's to say which of the "scrubs" (of which we consider ourselves very much a part of!) that are playing the string out will be forgotten within the month or will someday rock your world! 

And SO WHAT if we lost The Bottom Line, Max's Kansas City, the Mudd Club, Irving Plaza, Club 57 and most of the legendary jazz and other music genre venues of years past?  We were stupid enough to let them tear down Ebbetts Field without a fight.  Should we apply that same historic myopia toward Yankee Stadium?  Wrigley Field?  Fenway Park?  Over a hundred years ago the idea of preserving a historic building was considered a luxury.  As a result we lost some of our most beautiful examples of architecture to the wrecker's ball in the name of "progress".  Only a few decades would pass before we would start kicking ourselves.  Hence the emergence of the Historical Preservation Society.  To rationalize the systematic dismantling of the universally-acknowledged "birthplace of punk rock" by saying "Well, we've already lost Max's Kansas City" is nothing short of ludicrous! 

Speaking of Ebbets Field, let's draw further parallels between baseball and this writer's jaded look at the "scene's" current prospects and talent pool.  In baseball, just because we don't have Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio and Reggie Jackson it doesn't mean we should break up the Yankees.  Hey, after all, you have to admit those days of 5-straight World Championships or 15 out of 18 World Series appearances are gone and never coming back.  Except they did, briefly (6 out of 8 Series appearances, three straight titles).  How much we would have missed if we wrote off today's incarnation of a legendary franchise solely on the basis of "it'll never be the same"!  I'm sure there are those who would argue that today's Yankees teams could not hold a candle to the various Murderer's Rows of the 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's and early 60's.  But that's merely a matter of perspective and (above all) opinion.  I'm sure most gen-X baseball fans would vehemently disagree if some time traveler were to try and get them to agree that Jeter, Williams and co. would have to take a back seat to Rizzuto and Dimag.  And rightfully so: with all due respect, precious few of us were there for Don Larson's perfect game.  But we were there for David Cone's.  And maybe that pales in the eyes of a purist but for a new generation that's the only experience with perfection (baseball wise) that we know.

The same with C.B.s.  I wasn't there for The Ramones first gigs there (from what I understand neither was anyone else, really - just maybe a "small clusters of friends" - sound familiar?).  I wasn't there when The Stilettos morphed into Blondie.  I can't honestly tell you how it must have felt to see a young David Byrne strut across the same historic stage that I now (on occasion) call my own - and even if he were to regroup the "Heads" and bring them in for "old times sake", you're right - it wouldn't be the same!  Because David Byrne will never be 24 again!  But somewhere out there is the next David Byrne.  And Deborah Harry.  And Joey Ramone.  And sprinkled amongst them were your Slits, The Slugs and Seamonsters (who are STILL around, today) who, while never having achieved household-name status were just as influential to that early scene as those who's names continue to live on.  And it's not up to you, me or anyone else to deny future generations that cultural Petri dish where they can germinate their God-given talents and evolve - just because of the generationally-biased perception that you've seen the best already and nothing good that's new will ever come along again.  That sounds eerily like the story we used to read on the standardized tests we used to take in grade school and high school (for reading comprehension) where a clerk at the U.S. Office of Patents quit his job - because he felt that there would be no more work, since everything to be invented had already been invented.  THAT was over 100 years ago and we now know how shortsighted that sentiment was.  If you're looking for the next Ramones then, yeah, burn C.B.s to the ground.  They were a once-in-a-lifetime phenomena.  You won't see them again - and in that respect I guess that makes all of us who incorporate a little of their sound into our own style "derivative".  Then again that was the same epithet that was hurled at them when they took old rock chestnuts and girl-group standards and churned through them at break-neck speed back when THEY were the new kids in town.  Come to think of it, the crappiest band on the Mersey scene in the early 60's had to go to Hamburg to get gigs and ended up germinating and reinventing themselves until The Beatles emerged as the single-most influential musical group of the Century.  Maybe of all time.

No, I wasn't there for those legendary days.  But I do sit in C.B.s (and Otto's, and Kenny's Castaways, among other venues) today and watch a slew of bands that you'll never hear of pour their heart and soul (and dreams) out night after night - not because there's some big payoff - but because they love doing it.  Period.  Last year I checked out brand new CDs by local groups called Banana Fish Zero (since broken up), Stark (featuring Lani Ford) and F.P.ToZ (ask me if you're curious, I have links for all of them AND their music).  Chances are you've never heard of these bands and I guess - corporate influence being what it is - the odds that you will eventually hear of them (by any other means than through local or indie vehicles) are pretty slim.  But, having never sat in a half-empty C.B.s to hear Patti Smith rumble through a set or never having the opportunity to see the New York Dolls or The MC5 or The Dead Boys as anything but old men, trotted out to satiate the thirsts of a society hell-bent on nostalgia (real or invented) I would, in my never-flagging loyalty and in all my glorious naiveté throw those three CD releases and those fiercely independent (and largely ignored) bands against any from C.B.'s glory days.  Hell, it's all I know.  And I think they're wonderful.

I'm glad you have your memories.  But we're still in the middle of creating ours.  And we love C.B.s.  "Those times" that you talk about don't have to come back.  But if we "save" C.B.s then at least we can still have a strong link to a past that we proudly pay homage to every time we strap on an "axe", plug into a Marshall and tear into three and four chords with the distortion pedal's gain dial on "high".  And having that link is important when considering that we still feel that we're part of an ongoing tradition.  So what if some critic thinks it's benign (or even commercially irrelevant: The Ramones only had one gold record in their illustrious career: and that was a greatest hits compilation)?

You don't tear down Independence Hall just because there are no good "founding fathers" coming out of there nowadays.  In that same spirit (of  '76 - uh, 1976, not 1776) we should keep C.B.G.B.s alive, intact and an ongoing testimonial to the power of independent music, deep in the heart of the greatest cultural city in the world.

When you think about it, until our memories are created, that's all we've got.
Indie To The Death,
KR