Our Response to the Royal Wedding...

TDIF Band Of The Week-Bad Manners

We've been looking forward to writing this post for a while... This week we present to you Bad Manners, one of the key bands in the 2-Tone Ska movement of the 1980's.  Bad Manners was there with the likes of The Specials and The English Beat and has had multiple UK chart topping hits and records. Bad Manners even at one time sponsored Margate FC (Ya we had never heard of them either, they are below the Conference level in the UK, but who cares... they sponsored a team!).

Bad Manners will be headlining next week at Johnny D's in Somerville Ma. on Tuesday May 3rd; we could have saved them for next week but we wanted to give plenty of notice.  Last time Bad Manners were in town they were to play at Showcase Live in Foxboro with The English Beat, but the venue did not allow them to play due to arriving late (although with plenty of time before the show started), would you expect anymore from a music venue owned by the Krafts at Patriot Place?  Nah we wouldn't either, it's kinda bullshit and I say that as someone who has been working in that industry for many years.  Long story short I ended up having them follow me to O'Briens in Allston in their RV that topped out at 50 MPH on the Expressway... We thought we were gonna get shot.

The point of this story is that with 2 hours notice they sold out O'Briens and the club turned away well over 50 people.  Showcase Live by our count had to refund at least 30 people and we all get to see one of the best shows of our life... So you need to do your duty... buy a ticket... get your ass to Johnny D's and see Bad Manners... you won't regret it... and with that we present the videos...

New England Revolution To Announce Major Partnership

Not real... but it might be on Friday...

The New England Revolution sent out a press release today about a partnership announcement.  The event is to take place this Friday with UnitedHealthcare during a soccer clinic that is being held at Gillette Stadium.

If we were betting men we would say this it the elusive kit sponsorship that we all have been looking for, and since we are betting men we flexed our Photoshop muscles. Notice 'photoshop'... that image is not real or from the team it's a mock-up that we did.

"UnitedHealthcare is an operating division of UnitedHealth Group, the largest single health carrier in the United States. Our family of companies delivers innovative products and services to approximately 70 million Americans. UnitedHealthcare's nationwide network includes 661,257 physicians and health care professionals, 80,000 dentists and 5,147 hospitals. Our pharmaceutical management programs provide more affordable access to drugs for 13 million people"

UnitedHealthcare is a publicly traded company based out of Minnesota. More info on them here.

There's no Fail in Feilhaber...

It's official, the New England Revolution have officially signed Benny Feilhaber. This is a huge addition to the Revs and will solidify a shaky midfield for sure.  Word is that he will join the team for training friday and will be available to play this Saturday against Sporting KC.As of right now we know of no injuries, I mean seriously no abductor or quad injuries on a new sigining?  That in itself is incredible (knock on wood). 

We are guessing that this signing is going to eliminate the possibility of the Revs signing a DP during the summer window as cap space must be getting tight. We think there was about $1 million in cap space at the beginning of the season, we guess that some of the new salaries are as follows: Dabo $225k, Domi $200k, Lekic $300k, Feilhaber $400k.  Allocation money may have been used  to pay down the salary cap hit of some of these contracts but since the league and the Revs like to hang out behind the iron curtain when it comes to money we aren't 100% sure where our cap stands.

This was obviously a no-brainer for the Revs, not signing him or trading him away would have been blasphemous considering the needs and shape this team is in.  The team was in the right place at the right time to be able to sign a difference maker.  A midfield including Feilhaber, Shalrie and hopefully a soon healthy Dabo has the potential to be one of the best in MLS.  Feilhaber could be the missing link in what the Revs have needed to turn the team around. We're looking forward to seeing the new Benny and the Revs...

New England Revolution Aquire Benny Feilhaber

Details are still few but the Revs have you used their #3 spot in the returning USMNT player allocation order to acquire Benny Feilhaber (CM/.AM) after both Chivas, and Philadelphia declined.  Rumor has it that his cap hit is somewhere between 300-400k dollars.  Feilhaber was previously playing in the Danish Superliga for AGF Aarhaus but left the team and signed with MLS last Friday.

Feilhaber, 26, has 38 caps and 2 goals with the USMNT including an infamous goal in the Gold Cup final in 2007 (see video).  Feilhaber has played with Derby County, Hamburg SV, and is a UCLA product.

It is possible that the Revs could still trade Feilhaber and rumor has it that Houston has made an offer.  The Revolution have not officially announced the signing as of yet.

Well Done Portland Timbers...

...well done.



(They even had 40-50 people at Gillette when they played the Revs a few weeks ago. Portland Quality > Seattle Quantity)

Revolution Advertising-Where We Are, Where We Should Be... TV/Video

So we covered the marketing campaign that the Revs rolled out a few weeks ago and we said that we would post the TV spot when it became available. Well we just noticed that it became available today. So we have our thoughts on it which basically comes down to, good concept... poor execution.

We took a look at some of the video work that other teams have done around the league. We won't sit here and go into a long winded discussion on video production (though we could) we think the other videos speak for us. Revs marketing staff.. this isn't a rip on you but consider it a kick in the butt, although we sadly also have our suspicions that there isn't the money in the budget to pull off some of what other have done; there is nothing that the marketing staff can do about that... For a team that has been struggling to get close to 8000 for attendance in the past couple of games we hope that more is put into raising the brand awareness and identity in the area...

What A Revolution Re-Brand Could Look Like

A one "M. Willis" has been posting over the past week or so about how he would "reboot" the New England Revolution.  There are some interesting ideas for sure as well as some very interesting design work.  He touches on brand identity, colors uniforms and marketing and does it well.  While we don't fully support everything, there are some great concepts and ideas that with some work have the potential to be great.

Check out his blog, if you're into that kinda stuff, for a good read...

M.Willis

TDIF Band Of The Week-The Beatdown

This week we present to you straight from America's hat, The Beatdown.  They are a recent discovery to us here at TDIF but Richard stumbled upon them while in Montreal a few weeks ago.  He brought the 12" over and we threw it on the ol' record playing machine and I was blown away.

They have a sound very similar to our one of our favorite bands, The Aggrolites, and it seems that they are trying to do the "dirty reggae" thing.  Trying may not be the right word because they are pulling it off and making it their own, I've been looking and hoping that more bands would pick up on that sound and appears that these Canadians have done it and done it well.

They are playing in Worcester on April 30th at Beatniks and unfortunately we won't be able to make that show, however we hope to see them in Boston over the summer and just maybe provide you with a chance to see them too.

Now Ladies and Germs feat thine ears and eyes on The Beatdown from Montreal, Quebec, we'll start it of with their amazing rendition of The Temptations hit 'Get Ready'...

Psycho Rajko Signed

Yesterday the New England Revolution officially announced the signing of Danish striker Rajko Lekic from Silkeborg IF in Denmark.  We previously wrote about "Psycho Rajko" here when we first heard of his trial with the Revs.

Beastie Boys-Fight For Your Right Revisted

Ya.... that just happened....Legit straight from the Beastie Boys themselves...

TDIF Band of the Week-For The Worse

Not so much with the swiss sensibilities in this edition of band of the week. We are brining it back to New England for another TDIF local favorite, For The Worse, hardcore punk at its finest. You can catch them this Saturday afternoon at the MidEast Downstairs in the 2011 Boston Rules, OK fest. Not gonna bore you any longer, these videos say it all.

You Like Us, You Really Like Us!! TDIF At 6 Months

Well, well folks, it's been a little over 6 months now since we started The Drug Is Football.  We're still not quite sure what we're doing or why but people seem to like it.  So we are going to give you some stats on what's been going on here, after all we are for supporters by supporters.

In addition we are issuing a challenge to ourselves and our readers.  We are looking to hit 500 followers on both our Facebook page and Twitter page by the end of the season.  A lofty goal but we are going to try.

So first off our most popular countries outside of the US:

1. United Kingdom
2. Canada
3. Germany
4. Russia
5. Philippines(ya we thought that was crazy too)

Now for our most popular posts:

1. Steve Nicol Answers Supporters Questions
2. UPDATE 2-JOSEPH ARRESTED : Shalrie Joseph and Kevin Alston Sent Home From Camp
3. Revolution Ramp Up Advertising... 
4. New England Revolution to take on Manchester United
5. "This Is New England Not LA" in Pictures

Oh and tell your friends to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!

REVOLUTION DP THREAT LEVEL-HIGH

Good evening ladies and gentleman,

First off this is a report that should be taken seriously... This is absolutely not an April fools joke. Based on information gathered today, we feel that the Revolution may be imminently close to signing Rajko Lekic to a designate player contract.  The intelligence analysts at The Bent Musket have done an excellent job in gathering this information. Danish media reports a doubling of his current salary at Silkeborg and a transfer fee of just under $1 million.

We urge everyone to prepare for this event occurring and the potential that we may move to threat level-SEVERE.