VVM hits SXSW Hard

houstonpress.com – Village Voice Media, the Houston Press’ daddy company, has announced the line-up for this year’s SXSW day party at La Zona Rosa, set for March 19 at noon. The show hasn’t disappointed since Rocks Off has been aboard, with 2008 bringing the Black Keys, HEALTH and …Trail Of Dead and last year the Crystal Antlers, M. Ward, Cursive and Gomez enlivening five-hour event.
This year’s line-up is just as striking as the previous two, with current indie darlings and Rocks Off faves Surfer Blood, The xx, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart and the legendary Superchunk rounding out our bill. We told we know how to stack the deck, kids.

Trent Reznor Raises Close to a Million for Sick Fan

Trent Reznor has been a driving force in music since he exploded on the scene in 1990. His raw emotion pours onto the stage and into the crowd. Lately, NIN has been on their fairwell tour, and it looks like they are reaching out to the Twitter public for financial support for a fan in need. Great story.

Twittering Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor opened a campaign last Wednesday to raise money for Eric De La Cruz, a Nevada Medicaid patient in need of a heart transplant. Both Nine Inch Nails and tour mates Jane’s Addiction are offering special deals for the remaining shows on their tour to fundraise for De La Cruz’s hopeful transplant.
A $300 donation will grant concert attendees access to the pre-show soundcheck and a meet-and-greet with the band, while $1,000 will get you backstage for dinner and relaxing with the band, as well as stage-side viewing for the show, autographs and pictures. For fans without tickets, a $1,200 donation comes with two tickets to the show and VIP treatment backstage. This is NIN’s final tour, so fans of the band will want to seize this opportunity.

De La Cruz was turned down from transplant lists because of the lack of transplant centers in Nevada. Reznor became aware of his situation after De La Cruz’s sister, former CNN.com news anchor Veronica De La Cruz, began a fundraising campaign on her website. The campaign is as much to raise money for Eric as it is to raise awareness of Nevada’s limited transplant opportunities, and to petition Senator Harry Reid and other Congress members for improved legislation.
Read the rest at: pastemagazine.com

Zack de la Rocha Returns to Phoenix

Phoenix New Times – The folks that put thousands in Phoenix’s streets February 28 to protest Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the 287(g) program are ready to do it again May 2, with Rage Against the Machine frontman Zack de la Rocha slated to participate as he did before.

The difference this time is that the anti-Arpaio march will start at the Wells Fargo Building downtown, where the sheriff keeps two pricey floors of executive offices. It will end with stops at Joe’s Estrella and Durango jails.

“It’s to highlight the 287(g) agreement,” explained Phoenix civil rights leader Salvador Reza of the decision to march to Joe’s gulags. “And how 287(g) is being used in the jails. It’s not good in the jails or in the streets. It’s also to highlight all the abuses that are going on in there, like with the broken arm lady, the broken jaw lady, and anyone else who as been abused in there.”

Reza’s referring to the fact that the 287(g) program has deputized 160 of Arpaio’s men to enforce federal immigration law. Arpaio not only uses these men in his anti-immigrant hunting sweeps and in his worksite raids, but also in the jails, where they often coerce and sometimes physically injure undocumented immigrants who are being held pending their transfer to ICE custody.
Read the rest of this entry »