March 28, 2008

MoJo Staff Picks: March 28

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mojo-staff-picks-250x250.jpgWelcome back to the “staff picks” shelf at The Riff. R.E.M.’s new album, Accelerate, is due out on Tuesday, April 1. In preparation for this event, Kiera’s selections this week (numbers 2 and 3 on the playlist) both have to do with the storied Athens band.

1. “Red and Purple,” The Dodos: Their March 18 release, Visiter, combines sort of a punk attitude (using shoes outfitted with tambourines) with, the band would probably hate me for saying so, pretty melodies, that I want to keep listening to.

2. “Orange Crush,” Editors: A mellow cover of R.E.M.’s classic. The Editors are British. Do they even have Orange Crush over there?

3. “Dazzling Display,” Steve Wynn: Turns out R.E.M. has an imeem playlist, and this one’s on it. Peter Buck + Dream Syndicate=pretty cool.

4. “Bodysnatchers,” Radiohead: I know, you’re tired of hearing about Radiohead, right? I’m recommending this track anyway. This song is revved-up tension that is pretty and strange at the same time.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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