Reader John M. sent us one of The eXile’s fabled “lost basement tapes”: our 1998 post-crisis Christmas charity song, “Send Them Crack” by “Bandit-Aid”: a giant fuck-you from all of us in Russia to the IMF, World Bank and all the corrupt “aid” donors who fucked Russia up so completely in the 1990s. Thanks John, we were pretty sure this song disappeared into the void, along with our memories of that era. For the uninitiated, you can now listen to an eXile classic number for the whole family. We put together a celebrity-studded Russian/expat crew to sing a charity song (roster and lyrics below) that’s a kind of love letter, circa 1998, from Russians/expats to America that says, “We’re really sorry that the USA’s capital city is so fucked up–here, here’s some crack, it’s on us, don’t mention it.” And to rub it in, we had the Russians sing “Send Them Crack” in intentionally mangled English–because that was our way of returning the thanks for all the stolen aid money in the 1990s. Below, we’re reprinting the lyrics along with the original press release that includes the cast of singers.

And now, behold the eXile’s 1998 Christmas Song! What a difference a decade makes, folks: O the irony!…

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Exiled editor Mark Ames appeared on the Dylan Ratigan Show this week to talk about the 2nd anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse, the Tea Party electoral victories, and the decline of the American empire.

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As we explained in our last issue, the eXile has created this new feature, the Schopenhauer Award, to serve the spiritual needs of our readers. Concerned that some of you might be backsliding from pure Nihilism, we’ve come up with a dramatic way to remind you what the world is really like. Each week we’ll introduce you to one of your fellow denizens of Slaveship Earth — the kind of critters you might try not to think about, left to your own devices. We feel sure that after meeting the hideous chunks of venomous, parasitic protoplasm sharing this world with you, you’ll be ready to agree with our Patron Saint, Arthur Schopenhauer, that, “unless suffering is the direct and immediate object of life, then our existence must have no object whatever.” Here to remind you of that bedrock truth is our second Schopenhauer Award nominee… (more…)

Mark Ames joins Vanity Fair writer James Verini for an interview on the NPR radio show “Here & Now” with host Robin Young in Boston. They talk about the incredible 11-year history of the Moscow newspaper “The eXile” which was the subject of a recent Vanity Fair feature profile. Ames also talks about some favorite old themes: drugs, prostitutes, and how the sorry state of American journalism pushed him and former co-editor Matt Taibbi into increasingly desperate acts of journalistic extremism. (more…)

Mark Ames gets his thrombo on debating (by way of shouting) with right-wing radio host Chuck Morse and liberal radio host Patrick O’Heffernan on their AM radio show “The Fairness Doctrine.” Hear them reach for blunt, heavy objects as they debate whether or not America was ever intended to be a democracy.

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See that trophy above, the one that looks like an upside-down bottle of VOSS designer water? That’s what the Western Publishers Association, a trade group for magazine publishers operating out in the wild west, wants to hand eXile Editor Yasha Levine for “Best Web Article” at their 59th Annual Maggie Awards.

While much of Levine’s work is worthy of such honor (more…)