October 13, 2014

The Vaselines are Back

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The Vaselines
V for Vaselines
Rosary Music

V for Vaselines

Talk about poor timing. Scottish duo the Vaselines split up in 1989, the week their debut album was released, so they weren’t around to take advantage when Kurt Cobain became a fan and recorded three of their songs with Nirvana. But things have been going more smoothly since 2008, when Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee got back together. On the rousing V for Vaselines, their second post-reunion outing, the rowdy twosome offers a fizzy update of classic male-female sparring matches in the grand tradition of Johnny Cash and June Carter, or John Doe and Exene Cervenka of X. Whether trading scruffy lead vocals or combining for bracing harmonies, Kelly and McKee make exuberant punk-pop that captures interpersonal strife with entertaining zest. Memorable snotty lyric of the week, from “Number One Crush”: “Being with you/Kills my IQ.”

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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