You're gonna be bothered by how cool I am.

There was a nice piece about them and their new album in the New York Times this past weekend (it's here, though you might have to register and it will eventually disappear into the paid archive). I've never listened to their music and know very little about country in general, but I came away with the feeling that I'd like to go buy the record just because I was so impressed with the way they've not backed down after getting basically blacklisted and kicked off of country radio for making a single comment.

I remember there were accusations that one of the huge radio companies, Clear Channel, actually paid for a "protest" where their CDs were smashed by a bulldozer; the same company was supposedly run by Bush friends and donors and had also organized pro-war rallies ("Bomb France"). More than anything else it made me wonder why on earth we deregulated ownership of radio stations in 1996 - before that it would be impossible for a single company to own so many stations and have so much control.

Last night on Access Hollywood, I saw a clip of a group of people smashing their CDs after the Texas comment. One of the little boys joining in was wearing a Harry Potter tee-shirt. The mind, it boggles.