February 20, 2013

Music Review: “Bad Boys” by Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside

album cover

TRACK 4

“Bad Boys”

From Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside’s Untamed Beast

PARTISAN

Liner notes: The unholy love child of Howlin’ Wolf and Fiona Apple, Sallie Ford gleefully shouts, “I can fuck/I can drink/And I don’t care what you think,” with rude drums and twangy rockabilly guitar amplifying the uproar.

Behind the music: The Portland-based singer (and daughter of noted puppeteer Hobey Ford) cites Tom Waits’ 2002 album Alice as an inspiration.

Check it out if you like: Shilpa Ray, Zola Jesus, Cat Power, and other charismatic oddballs.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

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Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

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