Talkers Magazine is a trade industry publication related to talk radio in the United States. Its slogan is "The Bible of Talk Radio and the New Talk Media". In addition to radio, it covers talk shows on broadcast and cable television as well as Internet-only shows and podcasting. The magazine is self-described as nonpartisan, advocating the advancement of conservative, progressive and apolitical talk radio.^[1]

History[link]

Twice a year, Talkers publishes rankings of the top-rated radio talk shows; these rankings are often quoted in newspapers and other publications. Talkers also publishes a yearly "Heavy Hundred"^[2] list of the top 100 radio talk shows across the country. Beginning in 2006, it published the "Talkers 250" to expound on the "Heavy Hundred", listing #101 to #250, though in alphabetical order by genre instead of order of importance. In 2002, it published a list of the top 25 radio and television talk shows each of all time. In 2009, it published the Frontier Fifty ^[3], listing in alphabetical order a "Selection of Outstanding Talk Media Webcasters."

The magazine was launched in Summer 1990 by current publisher Michael Harrison. It publishes 10 issues per year out of Springfield, Massachusetts. The magazine is owned by Talk Media, Inc.

Online[link]

The magazine's online counterpart is TALKERS.com, which provides free access to all content from the print version. Talkers also produces its own original podcasts via their sister site, PodJockey.com

External links[link]

• Talkers Magazine Online
• PodJockey

References[link]

Gucci Mane
Gucci Mane performing in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on August 29, 2010.
Background information
Birth name	Radric Davis
Born	(1980-02-02) February 2, 1980 (age 32) Birmingham, Alabama
Origin	Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Genres	Southern hip hop, gangsta rap
Occupations	Rapper
Years active	2005 – present
Labels	1017 Brick Squad Records, Asylum, Warner Bros.
Associated acts	1017 Brick Squad, Young Money, V-Nasty, Yo Gotti, Soulja Boy, Plies, Usher, Young Jeezy, E-40, French Montana, Maino, Jadakiss, CTE, Lil' Kim, Birdman
Website	www.guccimaneonline.com

Radric Davis^[1] (born February 2, 1980),^[2] better known by his stage name Gucci Mane, is an American rapper. He debuted in 2005 with Trap House and followed with albums such as Hard to Kill in 2006, Trap-A-Thon and Back to the Trap House in 2007. In 2009, his second studio album The State vs. Radric Davis was released, and The Appeal: Georgia's Most Wanted was released in 2010, and is his highest charting album so far. Gucci Mane has released many other mixtapes and independent albums as well.

While serving a six-month jail term for assault in late 2005, Davis was charged with murder, though the charges were later dropped due to a lack of evidence. In 2009, he served a year-long county jail sentence for violating probation for his 2005 aggravated assault conviction.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Davis was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and later moved with his single mother to Atlanta. He enjoyed writing poetry as a child, and began rapping at age 14.^[1]

[edit] 2005–2006: Trap House and Hard to Kill

In 2005, Davis released his independent debut album entitled Trap House, which featured the successful single "Icy" with Young Jeezy. Disputes over the rights to this single caused a rift between the two artists. Hard to Kill followed in 2006. Hard To Kill included the hit single "Freaky Gurl". The song peaked at number 12 on the Hot Rap Tracks, number 19 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, and at number 62 on the Hot 100.

[edit] 2007: Back to the Trap House

The official remix of Freaky Gurl featuring Ludacris and Lil Kim was included on his 2007 commercial debut album Back to the Trap House. Gucci Mane appeared on OJ da Juiceman's "Make Tha Trap Say Aye" and began working on various mixtapes.^[3] Gucci Mane signed to Warner Bros. Records in May 2009.^[4]

[edit] 2009–2010: The State vs. Radric Davis

He appeared on remixes of the songs "Boom Boom Pow" by The Black Eyed Peas, "Obsessed" by Mariah Carey and "5 Star Chick" by Yo Gotti and made a guest appearance on Mario's "Break Up" (he has made 17 guest appearances total in 2009). Gucci Mane's second studio album The State vs. Radric Davis was released under the label Warner Bros. Records on December 8, 2009. Its first single, "Wasted" featuring Plies, was originally from Mane's 2009 mixtape Writing on the Wall. It peaked at number 36 on the Hot 100, number 3 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, and number 3 on the Rap Songs making it Gucci Mane's most successful single to date. The second single is "Spotlight" featuring Usher. The third single is "Lemonade". The fourth single is "Bingo", featuring Waka Flocka Flame and Soulja Boy Tell 'Em. On October 2, 2009, Gucci Mane was listed at number 6 on MTV's annual Hottest MC in the Game list.^[5]

Gucci Mane performing on August 29, 2010.

[edit] 2010–present: The Appeal: Georgia's Most Wanted and other projects

After being released from jail, Gucci Mane stated that he would start or change the label name from So Icey Entertainment to 1017 Brick Squad Records. The Appeal: Georgia's Most Wanted, was released on September 28, 2010.^[6] The first single from this release was titled "Gucci Time",^[7] produced by Swizz Beatz. It premiered on Gucci Mane's official MySpace page on August 6.^[8] The single also features Swizz Beatz and was released to US urban radio stations on August 24, 2010.^[9]

On March 18, 2011, Gucci Mane released his 10th EP, The Return of Mr. Zone 6, mostly produced by Drumma Boy.^[10] It debuted at #18 on the Billboard 200, and is his highest charting EP. The album also debuted at #2 on the Rap albums chart and #8 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. He also released a collaboration album with Waka Flocka Flame named Ferrari Boyz on August 5, Gucci's first collaboration album.^[11] It's first single is "She Be Puttin On" featuring late-fellow Brick Squad labelmate Slim Dunkin. Ferrari Boyz debuted at #21 on the Billboard 200. Gucci Mane released another collaboration album, this time with rapper V-Nasty, called BAYTL, on December 13.^[12] The album's first single is "Whip Appeal" featuring P2theLA.^[13] Three days after the album's release, while traveling to the video shoot of "Push Ups", a song from BAYTL featuring Slim Dunkin, the latter got into an argument with another person who shot Dunkin dead at an Atlanta recording studio.^[14] On February 5, 2012, Gucci Mane released his Trap Back mixtape. It features guest appearances from Yo Gotti, Rocko, Waka Flocka Flame, Jadakiss, 2 Chainz, and Future, the latter three recently appearing on Young Jeezy's third studio album Thug Motivation 103: Hustlerz Ambition. The first single is the mixtape's title track.^[15] Music videos have been filmed for the songs "Quiet", "Face Card", "In Love With a White Girl" featuring Yo Gotti, "Chicken Room" featuring Rocko, and the title track, and "Sometimes" featuring Future.^{[16][17][18][19][20][21]} Trap Back has been met with positive reviews so far, scoring a 7.8 from Pitchfork Media, a 7.5 from AllHipHop, and an "L" from XXL.^[22][23][24]

Legal issues[link]

2001[link]

In April 2001, Davis was arrested on cocaine charges and sentenced to 90 days in county jail.^[25]

2005[link]

On May 10, 2005, Davis was attacked by a group of men at a house in Decatur, Georgia. Davis and his companions shot at the group, killing one. The corpse of one of the attackers, Pookie Loc, was found later behind a nearby middle school. Davis turned himself in to police investigators on May 19, 2005, and was subsequently charged with murder. Davis claimed that the shots fired by him and his party were in self-defense.^[25] The DeKalb County district attorney's office dropped the murder charge in January 2006 due to insufficient evidence. The previous October, in an unrelated matter, Davis had pleaded no contest to a charge of aggravated assault for assaulting a nightclub promoter the previous June; at the time the murder charge was dropped, he was serving a six-month county jail sentence for this.^[26] Davis was released from jail in late January 2006.^[1]

2008[link]

In September 2008, Gucci Mane was arrested for a probation violation for completing only 25 out of 600 community service hours following his 2005 arrest for aggravated assault. He was sentenced to a year in the county jail but was released after six months.^[27] He was incarcerated in the Fulton County jail for probation violation^[28] and released on May 12, 2010.^[29]

2010[link]

On November 2, 2010, Gucci Mane was arrested for driving on the wrong side of the road, running a red light or stop sign, damage to government property, obstruction, no license, no proof of insurance and other traffic charges. He was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital.^[30]

2011[link]

On January 4, 2011, A judge in the Superior Court of Georgia’s Fulton County ordered rapper Gucci Mane to a psychiatric hospital, according to court documents. The documents reveal that his lawyers filed a Special Plea of Mental Incompetency on Dec. 27 arguing that he is unable “to go forward and/or intelligently participate in the probation revocation hearing.” ^[31]

On September 13, 2011, Davis was given a six month county jail sentence after pleading guilty to two counts of battery, two counts of reckless conduct and one count of disorderly conduct.^[32]

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

• 2007: Back to the Trap House
• 2009: The State vs. Radric Davis
• 2010: The Appeal: Georgia's Most Wanted

Collaboration albums[link]

• 2011: Ferrari Boyz (with Waka Flocka Flame)
• 2011: BAYTL (with V-Nasty)

EPs[link]

• 2009: Wasted: The Prequel

Compilation albums[link]

• 2008: Hood Classics

Independent albums[link]

• 2001: La Flare
• 2005: Trap House
• 2006: Hard to Kill
• 2007: Trap-A-Thon
• 2009: Murder Was the Case
• 2011: The Return of Mr. Zone 6

Mixtapes[link]

• 2006: Chicken Talk
• 2007: Bird Flu (Southern Slang)
• 2007: Ice Attack
• 2007: Ice Attack: Part 2
• 2007: No Pad, No Pencil
• 2008: EA Sportscenter
• 2008: Gucci Sosa
• 2008: Mr. Perfect
• 2008: The Movie
• 2009: Bird Flu: Part 2
• 2009: The Movie: Part 2 (The Sequel)
• 2009: Guccitendo
• 2009: Writing's On the Wall
• 2009: The Burrrprint: 3D (The Movie: Part 3)
• 2009: The Cold War: Part 1 (Guccimerica)
• 2009: The Cold War: Part 2 (Great Brrritain)
• 2009: The Cold War: Part 3 (Brrrussia)
• 2010: Mr. Zone 6
• 2010: Jewelry Selection
• 2010: Gucci Classics
• 2010: Ferrari Music
• 2010: Buy My Album
• 2010: Burrrprint (2) HD
• 2011: Gucci 2 Time
• 2011: Writing's On the Wall 2
• 2012: Trap Back
• 2012: I'm Up

Collaboration mixtapes[link]

• 2007: Guapaholics (with Shawty Lo)
• 2008: Definition Of A G (with Yo Gotti)
• 2011: Brick Squad Mafia (with 1017 Brick Squad)
• 2011: Free Bricks small>(with Future)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gucci Mane

• Official website
• Gucci Mane on Myspace
• Gucci Mane at the Internet Movie Database

Code talkers was a term used to describe people who talk using a coded language. It is frequently used to describe 400 Native American Marines who served in the United States Marine Corps whose primary job was the transmission of secret tactical messages. Code talkers transmitted these messages over military telephone or radio communications nets using formal or informally developed codes built upon their native languages. Their service improved communications in terms of speed of encryption at both ends in front line operations during World War II.

The name code talkers is strongly associated with bilingual Navajo speakers specially recruited during World War II by the Marines to serve in their standard communications units in the Pacific Theater. Code talking, however, was pioneered by Choctaw Indians serving in the U.S. Army during World War I. These soldiers are referred to as Choctaw Code Talkers.

Other Native American code talkers were deployed by the United States Army during World War II, including Cherokee, Choctaw, Lakota^[1] Meskwaki, and Comanche soldiers. Soldiers of Basque ancestry were used for code talking by the U.S. Marines during World War II in areas where other Basque speakers were not expected to be operating.

Use of Cherokee[link]

The first known use of Native Americans in the American military to transmit messages under fire was a group of Cherokee troops utilized by the American 30th Infantry Division serving alongside the British during the Second Battle of the Somme. According to the Division Signal Officer, this took place in September 1918. Their outfit was under British command at the time.^[2]

Use of Choctaw[link]

In the days of World War I, company commander Captain Lawrence of the U.S. Army overheard Solomon Louis and Mitchell Bobb conversing in the Choctaw language. He found eight Choctaw men in the battalion.^[3] Eventually, fourteen Choctaw men in the Army's 36th Infantry Division trained to use their language in code. They helped the American Expeditionary Forces win several key battles in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in France, during the final big German push of the war. Within 24 hours after the Choctaw language was pressed into service, the tide of the battle had turned. In less than 72 hours the Germans were retreating and the Allies were in full attack.^[3]

These soldiers are now known as the Choctaw Code Talkers.

Use of Comanche[link]

Comanche code-talkers of the 4th Signal Company (U.S. Army Signal Center and Ft. Gordon)

Hugh F. Foster Jr.'s Comanche codebook

Adolf Hitler knew about the successful use of code talkers during World War I. He sent a team of some thirty anthropologists to learn Native American languages before the outbreak of World War II.^[4] However, it proved too difficult for them to learn the many languages and dialects that existed. Because of Nazi German anthropologists' attempts to learn the languages, the U.S. Army did not implement a large-scale code talker program in the European Theater. Fourteen Comanche code talkers took part in the Invasion of Normandy, and continued to serve in the 4th Infantry Division during further European operations.^[5] Comanches of the 4th Signal Company compiled a vocabulary of over 100 code terms using words or phrases in their own language. Using a substitution method similar to the Navajo, the Comanche code word for tank was "turtle", bomber was "pregnant airplane", machine gun was "sewing machine" and Adolf Hitler became "crazy white man".^[6]

Two Comanche code-talkers were assigned to each regiment, the rest to 4th Infantry Division headquarters. Shortly after landing on Utah Beach on June 6, 1944, the Comanches began transmitting messages. Some were wounded but none killed.^[6]

In 1989, the French government awarded the Comanche code-talkers the Chevalier of the National Order of Merit. On November 30, 1999, the United States Department of Defense presented Charles Chibitty with the Knowlton Award.^[6][7]

Use of Meskwaki[link]

Meskwaki men used their language against the Germans in North Africa. Twenty-seven Meskwaki, then 16% of Iowa's Meskwaki population, enlisted in the U.S. Army together in January 1941.^[8]

Use of Basque[link]

Captain Frank D. Carranza conceived the idea of using the Basque language for codes in May 1942 upon meeting about 60 U.S. Marines of Basque ancestry in a San Francisco camp.^[9][10][11] His superiors were wary. There were 35 Basque Jesuits in Hiroshima, led by Pedro Arrupe. In China and the Philippines, there was a colony of Basque jai alai players and there were Basque supporters of Falange in Asia. The American Basque code talkers were kept from these theaters; they were initially used in tests and in transmitting logistic information for Hawaii and Australia.

On August 1, 1942, Lieutenants Nemesio Aguirre, Fernández Bakaicoa and Juanna received a Basque-coded message from San Diego for Admiral Chester Nimitz warning him of the upcoming Operation Apple to remove the Japanese from the Solomon Islands. They also translated the start date, August 7, for the attack on Guadalcanal. As the war extended over the Pacific, there was a shortage of Basque speakers and the parallel Navajo program came to be preferred.

Use of Navajo[link]

Page one of Navajo recommendation letter, 1942.

Page two of Navajo recommendation letter, 1942.

Philip Johnston proposed the use of Navajo to the United States Marine Corps at the beginning of World War II. Johnston, a World War I veteran, was raised on the Navajo reservation as the son of a missionary to the Navajos, and was one of the few non-Navajos who spoke their language fluently. Because Navajo has a complex grammar, it is not nearly mutually intelligible enough with even its closest relatives within the Na-Dene family to provide meaningful information, and was at this time an unwritten language, Johnston saw Navajo as answering the military requirement for an undecipherable code. Navajo was spoken only on the Navajo lands of the American Southwest, and its syntax and tonal qualities, not to mention dialects, made it unintelligible to anyone without extensive exposure and training. One estimate indicates that at the outbreak of World War II fewer than 30 non-Navajos could understand the language.^[12]

Early in 1942, Johnston met with Major General Clayton B. Vogel, the commanding general of Amphibious Corps, Pacific Fleet, and his staff. Johnston staged tests under simulated combat conditions which demonstrated that Navajos could encode, transmit, and decode a three-line English message in 20 seconds, versus the 30 minutes required by machines at that time. The idea was accepted, with Vogel recommending that the Marines recruit 200 Navajos. The first 29 Navajo recruits attended boot camp in May 1942. This first group then created the Navajo code at Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, California.^[13] The Navajo code was formally developed and modeled on the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet that uses agreed-upon English words to represent letters. As it was determined that phonetically spelling out all military terms letter by letter into words—while in combat—would be too time consuming, some terms, concepts, tactics and instruments of modern warfare were given uniquely formal descriptive nomenclatures in Navajo (the word for "potato" being used to refer to a hand grenade, or "turtle" to a tank, for example). Several of these portmanteaus (such as gofasters referring to running shoes, ink sticks for pens) entered Marine corps vocabulary and are commonly used today to refer to the appropriate objects.^{[citation needed]}

A codebook was developed to teach the many relevant words and concepts to new initiates. The text was for classroom purposes only, and was never to be taken into the field. The code talkers memorized all these variations and practiced their rapid use under stressful conditions during training. Uninitiated Navajo speakers would have no idea what the code talkers' messages meant; they would hear only truncated and disjointed strings of individual, unrelated nouns and verbs.

Code Talkers Monument Ocala, Florida Memorial Park.

The Navajo code talkers were commended for their skill, speed and accuracy accrued throughout the war. At the Battle of Iwo Jima, Major Howard Connor, 5th Marine Division signal officer, had six Navajo code talkers working around the clock during the first two days of the battle. These six sent and received over 800 messages, all without error. Connor later stated, "Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima."^[13]

As the war progressed, additional code words were added on and incorporated program-wide. In other instances, informal short-cut code words were devised for a particular campaign and not disseminated beyond the area of operation. To ensure a consistent use of code terminologies throughout the Pacific Theater, representative code talkers of each of the U.S. Marine divisions met in Hawaii to discuss shortcomings in the code, incorporate new terms into the system, and update their codebooks. These representatives in turn trained other code talkers who could not attend the meeting. For example, the Navajo word for buzzard, jeeshóóʼ, was used for bomber, while the code word used for submarine, béésh łóóʼ, meant iron fish in Navajo.^[14]

The deployment of the Navajo code talkers continued through the Korean War and after, until it was ended early in the Vietnam War.

Cryptographic properties[link]

This section duplicates, in whole or part, the scope of other article(s) or section(s). Please discuss this issue on the talk page and conform with Wikipedia's Manual of Style by replacing the section with a link and a summary of the repeated material, or by spinning off the repeated text into an article in its own right. (September 2010)

Navajo code talkers, Saipan, June 1944

Non-speakers would find it extremely difficult to accurately distinguish unfamiliar sounds used in these languages. Additionally, a speaker who has acquired a language during their childhood sounds distinctly different from a person who acquired the same language in later life, thus reducing the chance of successful impostors sending false messages. Finally, the additional layer of an alphabet cypher was added to prevent interception by native speakers not trained as code talkers, in the event of their capture by the Japanese. A similar system employing Welsh was used by British forces, but not to any great extent during World War II. Welsh was used more recently in the Balkan peace-keeping efforts for non-vital messages.

Navajo was an attractive choice for code use because few people outside the Navajo themselves had ever learned to speak the language. Virtually no books in Navajo had ever been published. Outside of the language itself, the Navajo spoken code was not very complex by cryptographic standards and would likely have been broken if a native speaker and trained cryptographers worked together effectively. The Japanese had an opportunity to attempt this when they captured Joe Kieyoomia in the Philippines in 1942 during the Bataan Death March. Kieyoomia, a Navajo Sergeant in the U.S. Army, but not a code talker, was ordered to interpret the radio messages later in the war. However, since Kieyoomia had not participated in the code training, the messages made no sense to him. When he reported that he could not understand the messages, his captors tortured him.^[15] Given the simplicity of the alphabet code involved, it is probable that the code could have been broken easily if Kieyoomia's knowledge of the language had been exploited more effectively by Japanese cryptographers. The Japanese Imperial Army and Navy never cracked the spoken code.

Post-war recognition[link]

Congressional Gold Medal awarded to Navajo code talkers in 2000

Monument to Navajo code talkers in Window Rock, AZ

The code talkers received no recognition until the declassification of the operation in 1968.^[16] In 1982, the code talkers were given a Certificate of Recognition by U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who also named August 14, 1982 "Navajo Code Talkers Day".^[17][18]

On December 21, 2000 the U.S. Congress passed, and President Bill Clinton signed, Public Law 106-554, 114 Statute 2763, which awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to twenty-nine World War II Navajo code talkers. In July 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush personally presented the Medal to four surviving code talkers (the fifth living code talker was not able to attend) at a ceremony held in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, DC. Gold medals were presented to the families of the 24 code talkers no longer living.^[19]

On September 17, 2007, 18 Choctaw code talkers were posthumously awarded the Texas Medal of Valor from the Adjutant General of the State of Texas for their World War I service.^[20] On December 13, 2007, H.R. 4544, the Code Talker Recognition Act, was introduced to the House of Representatives. The Code Talker Recognition Act recognizes every code talker who served in the United States military with a Congressional Gold Medal for his tribe, and a silver medal duplicate to each code talker, including eight Meskwakis.^[21]

Popular culture[link]

The 2002 movie Windtalkers was a fictional story based on Navajo code talkers who were enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in World War II. The movie was criticized for featuring the Navajo characters only in supporting roles, not as the primary focus of the film.^[22] The film's plot was fabricated about white bodyguards being ordered to kill them should they fall into enemy hands.^[23] It was further criticized for its use of stereotypes of both Native Americans and east Asians.^[24]

The 1959 movie Never So Few features Charles Bronson as Sgt. John Danforth, a Navajo code talker.

The historical novel Code Talker portrays a group of Navajos serving in the Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater during World War II.

The popular comic strip xkcd includes a panel that discusses code talkers: [1]

See also[link]

United States Marine Corps portal

• Native Americans and World War II
• Navajo Nation
• Navajo people
• Navajo language
• Southern Athabaskan languages
• Choctaw code talkers of World War I
• United States Army Indian Scouts
• Navajo I

Notes[link]

References[link]

Bibliography

Web

External links[link]

• Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture – Code Talkers
• Official website of the Navajo Code talkers

v t e  Navajo Nation Politics and institutions Council (Council Chamber)  · Supreme Court  · Chapter houses · Police Culture and education People · Language · Music · Weaving · Navajo-Churro sheep · Navajo Preparatory School · Diné College · Navajo Nation Zoological and Botanical Park · Miss Navajo Media Ádahooníłígíí · Navajo Times · KTNN Radio History The Emergence · Dinétah · Navajo pueblitos (1600s–1700s) · Navajo Wars (1800s) · Long Walk of the Navajo (1864) · Navajo Scouts (1873–1895) · Livestock Reduction (1930s) · Code talkers (1940s) Communities List of Communities

Kurt Vile
Vile performing at Roskilde Festival 2011.
Background information
Birth name	Kurt Vile
Born	1980
Origin	Lansdowne, PA[1]
Genres	Rock, heartland rock, roots rock, lo-fi, indie rock
Occupations	Musician
Instruments	Vocals/Guitar/Trumpet/Banjo/Keyboard
Labels	Matador Records
Associated acts	The War on Drugs

Kurt Vile (born 1980) is an American musician and singer-songwriter, signed to Matador Records as a solo artist in May 2009.^[2] Vile is a founding member of The War on Drugs.

His music has been likened to that of Bruce Springsteen.^[3] His influences include Fleetwood Mac, John Fahey, Bob Dylan and FM Rock generally.^[4] His first album for Matador Records is titled Childish Prodigy.^[5] In an interview with Women's Wear Daily, Sonic Youth bassist and singer Kim Gordon was asked, "Your guilty pleasure right now?" Gordon replied, "Listening to Kurt Vile's latest CD, Childish Prodigy. Guilty because I listen to it too much..."^[6]

Vile released two previous solo albums, God Is Saying This To You and Constant Hitmaker, on Mexican Summer and Woodsist, respectively. He plays solo shows as well as shows with a backing band called The Violators,^[2] which at times includes former The War on Drugs bandmate Adam Granduciel.

Vile's "He's Alright" is featured during the credits of Eastbound & Down in the second season's finale. Vile was chosen by Animal Collective to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that they curated in May 2011.^[7]

Discography[link]

Solo[link]

Albums

• Constant Hitmaker (2008, Gulcher Records; 2009, Woodsist Records)
• God Is Saying This to You (2009, Mexican Summer)
• Childish Prodigy (2009, Matador Records)
• Smoke Ring for My Halo (2011, Matador Records) US chart: #154

EPs

• Fall Demons 7" EP (2009, Skulltones)
• The Hunchback 12" EP (2009, Richie Records)
• Square Shells 12" EP (2010, Matador Records)
• So Outta Reach 12" EP, Digital EP (2011, Matador Records)

Singles

• He's Alright 7" single (2009, Matador Records)
• In My Time 7" single (2010, Matador Records)

The War on Drugs[link]

Albums

• Wagonwheel Blues (2008)
• Slave Ambient (2011)

EPs

• Demo EP (2005)
• Barrel of Batteries (2007)

References[link]

Bob Ray is an independent American filmmaker based out of Austin, Texas.

In 1994 Ray founded the production company CrashCam Films. CrashCam Films' first productions were narrative Super 8 mm films and music videos. Bob Ray's in-camera-edited Super 8 short “Sweet Sweetroll’s BaadAsssss Spin” found its way onto indie producer John Pierson’s show Split/Screen on the Independent Film Channel and Bravo (television network).

Ray made his feature film debut with the rock ‘n’ roll stoner cult film Rock Opera. Ray wrote and directed Rock Opera with very limited resources. The film has accumulated several rave reviews and a 2003 High Times Magazine nomination for a Stony Film Award.

Ray has produced and directed several music videos, including a video for the Grammy nominated song “Fried Chicken and Coffee” by Nashville Pussy, and videos for songs by The Riverboat Gamblers, U.S.S. Friendship, Dambaby (featuring Sam McCandless of Cold), The Phantom Creeps and more.

Continuing his close affiliation with the music community, Ray has worked with The Polyphonic Spree, The Black Eyed Peas, Eels, Jerry Cantrell, Blur, Supergrass, The Rapture, Junior Brown, Jurassic Five, Puffy, Modest Mouse, Pete Yorn, Clinic, Starsailor, Don Walser, The Shins, Ozo Matli, Stephen Malkmus, Hank Williams III, X-Ecutioners, …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead and many others.

in 2007, Ray completed work on a critically acclaimed feature length documentary film about the resurgence of all-girl roller derby.^[1] Hell on Wheels tells the story of a group of Texas women who band together to resurrect the sport of roller derby.

Also in 2007, Ray launched CrashToons, the animation arm to CrashCam Films, and has been consistently creating short animated films. Current CrashToons titles include "APESH!T," "Platypus Rex," "CrashToons Presents," Rooster Lollipop," and "Limp Dictionary." Ray's animated shorts have been seen at a bevy of film festivals, on SuperDeluxe.com and currently, Playboy.com is airing two animated series created by Ray.

Bob Ray premiered his new film, Total Badass,^[2] a documentary about Austin raconteur Chad Holt on May 19, 2010. Forgoing the usual route of signing a deal with a movie distributor, the movie will instead be showcased at different venues around the United States, along with some of the filmmaker's other independent films, such as the 2007's documentary Hell on Wheels and Ray's animated shorts, CrashToons.

Filmography[link]

• The Down Side (in development)
• Total Badass (documentary; 2010)
• Platypus Rex (animated series; ongoing)
• CrashToons Presents" (animated series; ongoing)
• APESH!T a.k.a. Ape Shit (animated series, ongoing)
• Hell on Wheels (2007)
• Hillbilly Doomsday (short) (2004)
• Wrecked (short) (2002)
• Rock Opera (2001)
• Night of the Kung Fu Bastards from Hell! (short) (1997)
• Six Pack of Wup Ass (short) (1997)
• Sweet Sweetroll's BaadAsssss Spin (short) (1997)
• Cocaine Ninja (short) (1996)
• The Adventures of Donald Starkland (short) (1994)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Bob Ray at the Internet Movie Database
• CrashCam Films home page - filmmaker Bob Ray's Austin, Texas based production company
• CrashToons home page
• "Rock Opera" home page
• "Hell On Wheels" home page
• "APESH!T" home page
• Austin Chronicle; From Slacker to Rock Opera: Richard Linklater Interviews Bob Ray

^ Hale, Mike (November 18, 2010). "Sport and Grim Reality". New York Times. New York Times Co.. http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/movies/19haleroundup.html. Retrieved November 18, 2010.