Music has always been a means of expressing unhappiness, discontent and disillusionment. Whether that discontent is bred from a soured relationship or a soured presidential administration, that music gives frustration and anger and honest emotions a tangible base from which to permeate the world around them.
Since President Bush took office I have seen more cohesive movements within rock, rap, electronic, folk and country than at any other time in my life. This period’s music will garner comparisons to the ’60s, but anyone who understands music knows how insufficient comparisons usually wind up. Before Dizzee and igloo and Wiley, it was hard to describe Mike Skinner’s Original Pirate Material, his garage infused, spoken word take on American hip hop. I still can’t compare the sound of Kevin Shields’ guitar on My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless album to any other sound I’ve ever heard. So forget comparisons, how does our political music stand up on its own and in its own time?
The unity in itself is something to admire. Countless compilations, from Fat Wreck Chords’ Rock Against Bush pop punk series to Bandit Productions independent hip hop comp Don’t Vote For Bush (which includes a voter registration application in its front cover), disparate artists are finding common ground via political agendas. They Might Be Giants put out a compilation on Barsuk Records, Future Soundtrack For America, that may be the finest of these compilations, including cuts from major players like R.E.M., Blink 182 and David Byrne as well as from groups like Clem Snide, Bright Eyes and Nada Surf. Chicago rockers OK Go, kick the album off with their rally cry anthem, “This Will Be Our Year” and the disc ends with Tom Waits’ sober narrative of a Wisconsin boy being sent off to war on “Day After Tomorrow.” Even a casual listener understands that these spins are far from non-partisan.
And the power of music cannot be underestimated. Even if Rage Against the Machine was often misguided with its support of fringe political movements and radical groups, its music made countless kids take a second look at politics and history and what’s going on around them. That’s why I’ve collected a bunch of songs, from the beautifully poignant to the humorously stupid, and made a mixtape for you.
One of the few benefits of Best Buy (ignoring the criminally insufficient selection for a second), is the cut rate prices for bulk blank compact discs. So I’ve picked up a bunch and copied you a mixCD. You can pick one up by emailing me at [email protected] or by swooping one up from the Herald office.
Anyway, one of my first observations was how relevant (or partially relevant as the case may be) Reagan-era punk has become as we approach Nov. 2. Among the best for blaring in car, workplace, dental office are Black Flag’s “Rise Above,” D.R.I.’s grindcore mayhem on “Stupid, Stupid War” and the Dead Kennedy’s “When You Get Drafted,” which stands the test of time much better than other Dead Fruit for Rotting Vegetables tracks like “Holiday in Cambodia” and “California Uber Alles.”
Stumbling back into the present breeds a much more relevant set of tracks. Camper Van Beethoven’s first new record in 15 years, New Roman Times, follows a young soldier as he is tossed into a war he doesn’t understand. After losing a foot in battle he grows disillusioned and adventures into Texas seeking the radical group of rebels known as the CVB, whose leaders are named after Santa Cruz’s best surfing spots. The young soldier encounters friendly aliens, hallucinogenic flowers, drug dealers and an evil corporation called TexSecurIntellicorp. While the album isn’t the group’s strongest it does string together a great story and delivers some solid tracks, most notably the oath the soldier takes to join up with the CVB (which consists of “I would fight for hippie chicks/ I would die for hippie chicks / We might stop and surf a bit / But we would die for hippie chicks”) and “Might Makes Right,” about disillusionment during wartime (“They want us from their villages / They want us from their towns / Who can really blame ’em / Shit blows up when we’re around”).
Other groups have also delivered strong politically themed albums this year. Epitaph Records’ resident MC Sage Francis will be dropping his latest, A Healthy Distrust, which offers up one of the hottest political rips yet on “Slow Down Gandhi.” The track lampoons activists more impressed by their own image than the cause they’re supposedly supporting, full of Francis’ usual witty wisdom (“Kill one of ours and we’ll kill one of yours with some friendly fire / That’s a funny term … like civil war”). NOFX and Bad Religion have both released politically geared punk scorchers, each reaching respective career high points with “Franco Un-American” and “Let Them Eat War.” Unfortunately NOFX opt for playing live the group’s less intelligent, and less enjoyable rebellion song, “Idiot Son of an Asshole,” which is only enjoyed by the band’s throngs of thirteen year old fans.
Jimmy Eat World’s latest release, Futures, opens with the simple-sweet line, “I always believed in futures / I hope for better in November.” And punk rock gems like Sleater-Kinney’s One Beat, with its early reactions to post-9/11 politics on tracks like “Combat Rock” (“Since when is skepticism un-American?”) and “One Beat,” and Ted Leo’s Hearts of Oak and Shake the Sheets have all done a great deal to spread the discourse and enlighten their respective scenes and communities. Even the early pop punk pioneers the Descendents dropped a show-stopping burner “‘Merican” on their latest release.
In the hip hop community, groups as diverse as Jurassic 5 to Nas to Ozi Batla are promoting awareness on their new singles and EPs.
Another important part about these new political anthems lies within the songs’ recurring use of humor. Whether it’s a half-brained NOFX song or King Missle’s heartfelt spoken word freak out, “Another Political Poem” (“I’m sorry, this is nice music and I don’t want to spoil it with another political tirade / Cuz I don’t even like political poetry because most of it sucks … But I hate this president even more now than I did before 9/11”), humor makes the truth easier to swallow. Wesley Willis-style performer David Boyle has been leaking his song, “George W. Pussy” to almost every Internet music site around. And the track, which sounds like a rambling old man dropping basic political rips over Rick James’ “Superfreak” (while copping some serious MC Hammer riffs) is only made bearable by his break down chant of “It’s Haliburton time!” Dan Bern likewise releases another Bob Dylan-meets-Elvis Costello folk “anthem” (which is all too obviously what he’s going for) with “Bush Must Be Defeated,” although its amazing how many words the man finds to rhyme with defeated over the song’s four minutes. And songs like the Congregation of Vapors’ “With Love From America” play off as the cheesiest singles this side of pretentious, We-Are-the-World-style rock star orgies.
And some of the year’s best electronic has been chock full of political awareness with hot singles from Faithless, Thievery Corporation, Ty and Freeland (with its dance floor pounder “We Want Your Soul” delivering an eerie omen of what a Patriot Act-crazy world might resemble, all over a hopping electro-blip breakbeat) breaking people’s minds open on dance floors across the world. And these groups are just a tiny smattering of what musicians have been creating.
Email me at [email protected] or stop by the office to pick up a free mix CD. And please support these artists by buying their music and going to shows.
