Pages tagged “barack obama”

When the White House changes party hands, there's a tradition among outgoing staffers to play harmless prank. Junior Clinton officials famously rubbed the Ws off the keyboards in the West Wing before President George W. Bush took office. But the current commander-in-chief has just pulled a doozy on his successor.

With a sensational ending now in tow, Edward Norton’s Class 5 Films has sold television rights for its unfinished Obama documentary to HBO for “low seven figures,” according to Variety.

It's not like it was really a question who Mavis Staples was pulling for in the election. And once it actually happened, releasing the former Staple Singers' Live: Hope at the Hideout the day of seemed liked it had been an awfully well-conceived idea.

When The Hush Sound stopped by Paste Studios a few months ago, we had no idea they would perform what would become our most-watched video on the internet. While we're not sure their song "We Believe (In Barack Obama)" changed the course of the election, it has made for some repeat viewing on the web.

Now, the Hush Sound is back with exclusive behind the scenes footage from the "Medicine Man" video shoot. 

Click above to watch what happens when Greta and gang take over a haunted mansion to shoot the video for Hush Sound's new single.

Related links:
The Hush Sound on Myspace

Not only will the country see a new president come January in Barack Obama, but one of his biggest celebrity supporters—Bruce Springsteen—is aiming to release an album to coincide with his historic inauguration.

Last night, the United States elected Barack Obama as its 44th President, making him the first-ever African American to hold that position. Your Paste:Local Chicago editor, Althea Legaspi-- along with a quarter million other supporters-- witnessed history as Obama delivered his first speech as President-elect at Grant Park in his hometown.

When we learned Josh Brolin would be playing George W. Bush in Oliver Stone's new film W., we were inspired to cast actors to portray some other American presidents. The rest, as they say, is history.

Tonight, Senator Barack Obama will make his fourth guest appearance on The Daily Show. The Democratic Presidential nominee will join the program's host, Jon Stewart, via satellite from Florida, where his campaign continues with less than a week until Election Day.

Hillary Clinton's done it. So has John McCain. Sarah Palin, too, just last week. Now it seems it might be Barack Obama's turn on Saturday Night Live, if rumors are to be believed. The junior senator from Illinois will supposedly appear on the show on Nov. 1, just in time, before the election (finally) comes to a close on Nov. 4.

Shot through the history of comedic cornerstones like The Simpsons, Saturday Night Live and Spinal Tap is comedian Harry Shearer. His newest project, Songs of the Bushmen, takes musical aim at the Bush Administration, lampooning Colin Powell (“Smooth Moves”), Paul Wolfowitz (“Wolf on the Run”) and Karl Rove (“Turd Blossom Special”) amongst others. The album’s cover even features a portrait of George W. Bush with a bone through his nose—offending Clear Channel enough to get banned from billboard advertisements.

Last Wednesday night, a blue-collar hero went down in history. Toledo, Ohio’s own Joe Wurzelbacher—aka “Joe the Plumber”—was invoked no less than 26 times, making him more central to the third presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama than anything else, including taxes, education, the war, terrorism, the environment and energy independence.

Seeing as how a playlist about plumbers would’ve been pretty short, today’s Current Events megamix will focus simply on great songs about guys named Joe. Here’s to you, plumber man!

These are trying times to use America as a unifying name, but that's exactly what DC's These United States does. Still, don't be thinking that this band travels to hoot 'n holler Lee Greenwood covers. On its recent sophomore album, Crimes, helmsman Jesse Elliott shouts about thieves and murderers and hubris and sins and salvations... (Alright, so maybe America is a fitting metaphor).

If American voters valued musical taste as much as political prestige, Barack Obama would win a landslide presidential victory this November. On that note, Andrew Bird, The Fiery Furnaces, Guster and others (including some "special secret musical guests") will play at the Barack Rock fundraiser tomorrow at Brooklyn's Music Hall of Williamsburg to help Obama and VP nominee Joe Biden on their way to the White House.

In honor of this Friday night's presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama (the first of three)—and my obsession with politics as full-contact sport—I've compiled the following playlist to tell the story of the 2008 election so far. Whether you're red, blue, independent or other, enjoy.

Part I: The Primaries 

“Changes” - David Bowie

The Thin White Duke sings about what us young (and old) Americans want in Washington this year.

Part 2: The Conventions/The General Election Begins

“Nearly Lost You” - The Screaming Trees

A blistering grunge-rock anthem for the almost-barred Michigan and Florida delegates, who—after much heated debate—were finally seated at the Democratic National Convention.

Part 3: The Media

“You’re The Best” - Joe Esposito

CNN claims it’s got “The Best Political Team on Television,” while Fox News claims it’s got “The Best Political Team Ever.” With slogans this superlative, how come the coverage sucks so bad?

Barack Obama has gotten plenty of love from the music industry. Did you notice all the acts that worked for him while on the campaign trail? Now, the Democratic presidential nominee has announced plans to release Yes We Can, a campaign soundtrack and ode to his slogan of change by empowering the people.

Check back here at 11:25 p.m. EST for a Saturday Night Live live-blog, where I'll be joined by Paste publisher Nick Purdy. Will Michael Phelps be funny? Will Lil Wayne meet FCC standards? Will Barack get an SNL bounce? And will Tina Fey come back to play her doppelgänger, Sarah Palin? (She looks more like Palin than Laura Roslin). We're just glad SNL doesn't suck these days.

11:25pm:  Well, Barack's not going to be a part of the show - Hurricane Ike making it in appropriate according to his spokesman....still thinking TIna Fey will do Palin but we'll have to wait and see.  Also got to figure Phelps & Lil Wayne should do something together given their whole Olympic connection.—Nick

11:30pm: There's Tina as Sarah!  Nailing the accent right off with Poehler as Hillary.—Nick

11:35pm:  That's just downright spooky. Already this is better than the USC-Ohio St. game. Tina Fey obviously has an advantage over anyone else who's done an impersonation of a president, but damn was she spot on. Nice nod to the "Tina Fey" glasses too. Tim are you with us?—Josh

11:37pm: Wow. Amy Poehler with the quick wardrobe change. Already gone from Hilary to Michael Phelps' mom. And there's Shatner! Looks like a game show coming up.—Josh

11:46pm:  Unless Tina Fey plans to do this all Fall, I think they should have had Kristen Wiig do the Sarah Palin bit.  The bit was decent but the jokes were a bit mailed in to me.--Nick

11:47pm:  1st skit post-monologue was a particularly uninspiring quiz show apropos of nothing - but did include new cast member Bobby Moynihan who clearly is attempting to fill the Belushi-Farley role.  Kind of eerie actually.--Nick

11:52pm:  What the hell is this retarded swimming locker room skit?  Did they seriously just have Will Forte just dance around in front of most of the cast for nearly a whole minute?  The huge, long trailer for  Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist has been more entertaining than the skits.  Yikes.--Nick

Fans of Radiohead and Barack Obama alike are in for a tough decision this evening: watch Obama's sure-to-be-historic speech accepting his party's nomination, or catch a live webcast of Radiohead's last American concert (for a while) at the band's official website. (Fortunately, there are such things as TiVo and YouTube.) Radiohead bass player Colin Greenwood announced earlier today that the band will be streaming its sold-out Santa Barbara, Calif. show this evening.

Just in time for the Democratic National Convention, the indie-pop quartet “The Hush Sound” have released their own super-catchy Barack Obama campaign song.
    The group’s lead singer, Greta Salpeter says the song began as joke, which included the lyrics “We believe in Barack Obama;loves you and he loves your mama.” But the punch line slowly turned into a full-blown song, and Salpeter says she realized she wasn’t kidding anymore. “We’re actually pretty serious. He cares for people young and old, why not write a song about him?”  
    Despite their conviction, Greta and her co-writer Darren Wilson decided to keep things light, opting out of using a will.i.am-style delivery featured in the wildly popular Obama tribute “Yes We Can”, and going for a Will Smith-inspired rap.  While it may never reach the viral success of the “Obama Girl”, Fall Out Boy has picked up the song for their Democratic National Convention Mixtape which is currently making the rounds in Denver.  So far, neither the Hush Sound, nor Fall Out Boy have given word on a possible follow-up release of a Joe Biden tribute song.

Click Above to watch "We Believe (In Barack Obama)"

This just in: Sheryl Crow really, really wants to get Barack Obama elected. The Grammy-winning singer has just announced a partnership with Rock the Vote entitled the Sheryl Crow Voter Registration Drive,”where registered members can access a free download of her timely song “Gasoline.” Even better, the first 50,000 Rock the Voters to get three additional friends to register can download Crow’s Detours album for free.

For the first time in almost two decades, Georgia just might be a battleground state in the November election. Converting the peach state from red to blue is no mean feat, but the folks at ObamaRad.com are looking to do just that with their new line of Barack Obama t-shirts. Joining the illustrious ranks of The National, three Athens, Ga.-based musicians are offering pro-Obama (prObama?) designs screenprinted on American Apparel tees. They'll be donating 25% of t-shirt sales to the Georgia Campaign for Change.

Apparently “one of the most famous celebrities in the world,” Paris Hilton recently announced plans for her own run for the White House.

It's the worst-kept secret in politics these days that Barack Obama loves hip-hop. Whether he's name-checking Lil Wayne or getting that dirt off his shoulders, Obama has amassed an all-star cotérie of rappers willing to back the Democratic Party nominee. He even had Hova offering a voice of encouragement for voters in the Ohio primary, for cryin' out loud. The National can seem a little anemic in comparison to the C-E-O-of-the-R-O-C.

Hungry for change in this Fake Empire? Looking for a president who hopefully won't Start A War? The National think that Barack Obama might be just the man for the job. If you share their opinion, now's your opportunity to support your candidate of choice (not to mention Paste's 2007 Band of the Year) by purchasing an oh-so-clever t-shirt from The National's website.

With only one officially released recording in the last five years, we all sort of assumed it would take something special to remove Cody Chesnutt from his indefinite hiatus from music. That something turned out to be Barack Obama.