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Good political musicians...

Goodness Gracious Meme

11:36 / 10.09.02

Prompted by acquring a copy of Bronski Beat'sAge of Consent album, which got me to thinking what a fantastic proposition BB were and how Jimi Somerville seemed to regard the sparkling pop tunes as a means to getting into the media to bang on about homosexuality and inspire.

Can think of quite a few terrible interventions into politics by muso types but gis some examples where yoy think music/pop and politics work... Thinking of alot of dub and hip hop here also...

12:04 / 10.09.02

I wrote an as-yet-unpublished article for the 'zine about Bruce Cockburn, who blended liberation theology and old-fashioned humanist rage into a series of brilliant pop diatribes back in the Reagan/Thatcher eighties.

Short form: in a time when FGTH's "Two Tribes" and Genesis' "Land of Confusion" were being passed off as political commentary, Cockburn was doing his research, travelling to the hot-spots, and writing like an engaged journalist.

Consistently ahead of the curve, this guy: he wrote an antiglobalization anthem ("Call It Democracy") in 1986, before there was an antiglobalization movement as such, and was penning musical dispatches from Chiapas before most lefties could find it on a map.

His recent output is more introspective and less visibly outewardly-engaged, but he's still got a good broadside in him.

Want to read the article?
Pester Sleazenation.

Regrettable Juvenilia

12:30 / 10.09.02

But of course.

The Coup - when they get it right (which is to say about half their most recent album, Party Music), they're incredible: basically like Outkast if their drugs of choice were Marx and Subcommandante Marcos... When they get it wrong they come off a little bit too Arrested Development, but pay it no mind. Some great tracks to check out in particular would be:

'Everything' - "Every cancer is a homicide / Every boss better run and hide / Every human is some kin to Black / Every Visa got a pin to crack"

'5 Million Ways To Kill A CEO' - "Tell him it's a boom in child prostitution / When he show up at the stroll give him lead restitution / Tell him it's a twenty in a vat 'o hot oil / When he jump in after it watch him boil"

'Get Up' (featuring the usually slightly naff politicos Dead Prez) - "So raise your hands in the air like you're born again / But make a fist for the struggle we was born to win"

And my personal favourite 'Ride The Fence' - "pro-union but most lost they bite / anti-muthafuckas-crossin' a strike" - as good a call to take a side and stop equivocating as I've ever heard...

Those links go to (what seem to be accurate transcriptions of) the lyrics, which are worth a look in themselves, but of course you have to hear the tunes to really appreciate them - this is what makes a good political artist/song any good, after all.

More to come!

14:25 / 10.09.02

And then there's Bob Roberts, everybody's favorite 'rebel conservative'. Songs include:

Complain
Drugs Stink
Godless Men
I Want to Live
I'm a Bleeding Heart
Retake America
Rich
She's a Beautiful Girl
This Land was Made for Me
Wall Street Rap
We Shall Not Be Moved
Times Are Changing Back

Looked for but couldn't find any lyrics. He's like the Republican Woody Guthrie.

15:53 / 10.09.02

I just don't buy the oft-stated postition that there's somehow a lack of political music, or that political music is more likely to be self-righteous or rubbish or boring..

Off the top of my record collection:

Dead Kennedys
Bikini Kill
Le Tigre
Fugazi
Dillinger Escape Plan
Sleater Kinney
Atari Teenage Riot (& various solo careers)
Bomb 20
Godspeedyoublackemperor!
Nation of Ulysses
Wire's first album

absolutely tons of hip-hop people
absolutely tons of punk bands
absolutely tons of folky songer-songwriter types

All worth gettin' down to, imho.

And that's just stuff that's overtly, unmistakably political .. you could say that just about all interesting/worthwhile music engages with social issues in some way & is by extension political .. from Peaches to Big Black to Outkast..

And, not that I've got much time for the following acts, but you won't find many student/teenage CD collections that don't feature Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine and the Manics..

I realise this isn't supposed to be a list thread, but, erm, too late! I'm about to press the button..

16:28 / 10.09.02

The Steve Earle thread.

He's country.

Nashville hates him.

03:47 / 11.09.02

the button.... the big red button....

Rage Against The Machine - I'm sorry, but in my formative years they caused me to bang an anarchist shaped hole in the wall. Loud, angry, with something to say. After a while, I got sick of the same rant, but they still rocked.

Public Enemy - Chuck D. That's all there is to it.

Radiohead - The personal is political. "Im a reasonable man, get off my case..."

Black Lung - I'm feeling oppressed and this is the music that I can hear with my stereo off. Recommended background music for the Invisibles.

DJ Spooky - Imagine the black hordes rising up to the sounds of hip-hop and jungle.

Atari Teenage Riot - I've never seen any group spout so much anti-mcdonalds propaganda in a concert before.

Midnight Oil - I'm from OZ. I don't even need to HEAR this to know this music. Its embedded in my fucking head. They capture the political climate of australia better than anyone. Sounds like home, but is angry as hell.

I like this topic.... lets list more stuff.... more music.... more....

05:16 / 11.09.02

One of the most political active musicians I can think of is Michael Franti. With his musical projects - "Spearhead" and "Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy" - his spoken word and his various other activities he's constantly trying to raise issues he cares about into public awareness.

More info here. Really worth a look.

07:48 / 11.09.02

I dunno about Michael Franti - I admire his commitment tho', I liked the Beatnigs but that "Disposable Heros" album was fucking boring, IMO. Too many issues, not enough funk - is he back on track with Spearhead? I'll check out the link.

As for other political musos, what about Billy Bragg? I don't know his music that well, but been very impressed with his opinions when I've seen him on TV and suchlike. Saw hm debating about the history of parliment - I think - and he ws amazing. Deserves bigging up as an unreconstructed socialist with a grounding in his tradition, not enough of them around these days, with all these Blairite scum slithering around. You know they're never gonna make any good music.

10:13 / 11.09.02

I'd second Bronski Beat and, subsequently, The Communards. At the time, I don't think I realised just how unique they were...

13:24 / 11.09.02

"I dunno about Michael Franti - I admire his commitment tho', I liked the Beatnigs but that "Disposable Heros" album was fucking boring, IMO. Too many issues, not enough funk - is he back on track with Spearhead? I'll check out the link."

Heros was message at the cost of medium. Spearhead is more a balance of the two. Frenti says that he wanted to create music that would make you feel something no matter what the words. His inspiration for the band is apparently classic soul/r&b stuff, filtered through his own view of hip hop. Stay Human is probably his strongest album. Though the format gets annoying (the album is a mock radio show, and while the story is interesting once or twice, you find yourself hitting the forward button at the end of songs about the third or fourth listen). And I don't think it'll be his strongest album period. There's a deffinete growth from one Spearhead album to the next. And I'd like to see it all grow a bit more.

SIDE NOTE: I have never seen a performer who appeared to be happier being on stage then Michael Frenti. He just beams during his performances.