Music

Rapper-Poet Akala: ‘Slavery Was Foundation Of European Capitalism’

August 15, 2015 Dan Glazebrook, www.rt.com Educate! culture, Music, Revolution

By Dan Glazebrook - Hip-hop, and the entertainment industry in general, is known more for encouraging artists to become one-dimensional caricatures of themselves than for nurturing a culture of political engagement, revolutionary love and serious historical research. But then Akala is not your typical entertainer. Kingslee James Daley, whose stage name is Akala, is a genuine polymath. Since the start of his music career in 2003, the English rapper, poet and writer has remained fiercely independent, releasing material solely through his own label and refusing to kowtow to the mainstream. A MOBO award-winning rapper, Akala is also a campaigning journalist, lecturer and founder of a company that teaches Shakespeare to schoolchildren.

Patti Smith’s Summer Of Rebellion

July 7, 2015 John Nichols, www.billmoyers.com Educate! Europe, Music, Protest, Wikileaks

By John Nichols in Bill Moyers - Patti Smith has electrified Europe over the past several weeks with a series of concerts that have been as politically bold as they have been musically rich. Touring to mark the 40th anniversary of her first album, Horses, the American rocker’s performances are anything but a nostalgia trip. At 68, Smith remains a vital and provocative artist with a radical message for the 21st century: “We are all being f—ed by corporations, by the military! We are free people, and we want the world and we want it now!” This is protest music. But it is protest with a fierce edge that seamlessly weaves a new politics into a rich legacy of rock-and-roll rebellion. Smith is not preaching to the converted, nor is she mouthing talking points.

UK Police Scan More Than 100,000 Faces At Music Festival

June 17, 2015 Joe Zadeh, www.noisey.vice.com Educate! Music, Privacy, Surveillance

By Joe Zadeh in Vice - This weekend’s Download Festival will be subjected to strategic facial recognition technology by Leicestershire Police, making those 100,000 plus attendees the first music fans to ever be monitored to this extent at a UK music festival, according to UK police news and information website Police Oracle. Globally, it’s not the first time festival attendees have been heavily surveilled at a music festival, usually without their prior knowledge. After the Boston Marathon bombing of April 2013, the subsequent Boston Calling festival was subject to heavy but discreet forms of facial recognition surveillance (as covered here by Noisey US).

Interview: Firebrand Records To ‘Fight On The Cultural Front’

June 8, 2015 Michael Fox and Ryan Harvey, www.telesurtv.net Create! Art, Creative Resistance, Freedom of Expression, Music

By Michael Fox and Ryan Harvey in TeleSur - Artist and activist Ryan Harvey, co-founder of Firebrand Records with Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, gave teleSUR en exclusive interview about the new distribution label. Harvey, who is also a teleSUR blogger, explains that over the next year Firebrand hopes to build the roster and help artists achieve more recognition through both promotion of their releases, tours, and other projects, and through cross-pollination from the collective nature of the label: "Firebrand is a new project because of it's scope: we are both international and multi-genre, but more importantly, we are offering a mechanism whereby artists don't have to worry about political or social censorship surrounding revolutionary ideas about human rights, for instance, to hope to get real professional promotion and distribution."

The Ballad Of The Stolen Fiddle

June 5, 2015 John Kelly, www.washingtonpost.com Resist! Arts, Climate Change, Environmental Justice, Music

By John Kelly in The Washington Post - Don’t call the musical instrument that was stolen last week from Jimmy Betts’s car a “violin.” It’s a fiddle. “Fiddles are meant to be out and about in the world,” Jimmy said. “Fiddles are meant to get down and dirty, creating music. Violins, generally, are meant to be kept in an orchestra pit.” John Kelly writes "John Kelly's Washington," a daily look at Washington's less-famous side. Born in Washington, John started at The Post in 1989 as deputy editor in the Weekend section. And Jimmy’s fiddle most definitely got around. Jimmy’s a community activist and climate-change protester, and he carried his fiddle with him on a 3,300-mile walk from California to Washington. It accompanied him as he trudged through the Mojave Desert. It was strapped to his back as he dodged thunderstorms in Colorado.

Killer Of Chilean Folk Singer Victor Jara To Face US Justice

May 14, 2015 Alfonso Serrano, www.america.aljazeera.com Resist! Art, Criminal Justice, Law, Music

More than four decades after Chilean folk singer Victor Jara was tortured and executed in Santiago’s Chile Stadium, in the wake of the military coup that brought dictator Augusto Pinochet to power in 1973, an army lieutenant accused of killing the musician will face a civil lawsuit in the United States. A U.S. district court in Florida agreed this week to hear the case against Pedro Barrientos Nuñez, the former lieutenant now residing in south Florida, who is alleged to have assassinated Jara, the poet and songwriter who became an iconic symbol of the struggle against Pinochet’s regime and one of Latin America’s most prominent protest singers. The U.S.-based Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA), which filed the lawsuit on behalf of Jara’s wife and daughters, reacted with mixed emotions after the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida agreed to hear the case.

Jazz As A Force For Peace & Freedom

May 4, 2015 A. D. McKenzie, www.ipsnews.net Create! Art, Baltimore, Justice, Music

Against the backdrop of civil unrest in Baltimore, Maryland, the fourth annual International Jazz Day was celebrated with events around the world and appeals for peace, unity and dialogue. “Each of us is equal. All of us inhabit this place we call home,” said American jazz legend Herbie Hancock. “We must move mountains to find solutions to our incredible challenges.” “Each of us is equal. All of us inhabit this place we call home. We must move mountains to find solutions to our incredible challenges" – American jazz legend Herbie Hancock. Although the organisers of the event held on Apr. 30 did not refer directly to the protests that have followed the funeral of Baltimore resident Freddie Gray, an African-American who died in police custody, Hancock told IPS in an exclusive interview that musicians were conscious of this and other cases.

When Bolivia Tried To Murder A US Folk Legend

April 15, 2015 Ryan Harvey, www.telesurtv.net Educate! Latin America, Media, Music, Uruguay

His name was Victor Jara, and not only did he have the popularity of Presley and the political passion of Che, he also had the topical-folk style of Phil himself. But Víctor was part of something much more powerful than the Greenwich Village folk scene — Nueva Cancion. Rising alongside and within the social movements of Latin America, Nueva Cancion was political, personal, revolutionary, and exciting. Realizing their similarities, Víctor invited Phil to perform alongside him that evening for a group of students and workers in the copper mines a few hours drive from the city. Phil had come to Chile to find hope. At the time, the region was bursting with it. In Chile, Salvador Allende had become the first democratically elected socialist president in the world, and had begun restructuring the country’s economy to benefit the poor and dispossessed.

This Man Faces Life In Prison For Rapping

February 5, 2015 David Loy, www.aclu.org Educate! Free Speech, Law, Music, Racial Justice

I've heard free speech isn't free, and Brandon Duncan, who raps as Tiny Doo, has learned that the hard way. Until recently, Mr. Duncan spent eight months in jail on "gang conspiracy" charges arising from several shootings in San Diego from May 2013 to February 2014. Prosecutors admit he wasn't at the scene of the crimes, and they have no evidence linking him to the shootings. Mr. Duncan, who has no criminal record, also says he had no knowledge of the crimes. But the district attorney charged him all the same because he raps about shootings. That's not only absurd; it's a blatant violation of the First Amendment.

Nebraskans Raise Their Voices in Fight Against Keystone XL Pipeline

September 30, 2014 Mitch Smith, www.nytimes.com Resist! Energy, Environment, Human Rights, Indigenous Rights, Keystone XL, Music

From the edge of a rye field teeming with grasshoppers, Willie Nelson and Neil Young sang on Saturday in opposition to the proposed Keystone XL project, warning through lyrics that a “company wants to build a tar sand pipeline where it don’t belong.” The site of the concert — a patch of farmland where 26 acres of corn were harvested early to create a makeshift parking lot — was as unlikely as the coalition of Nebraskans who have united against Keystone XL and made this state the legal and emotional center of the pipeline opposition. “I’ve told them, ‘You’ll have to haul me out from in front of that bulldozer, because I’m going to protect this farm,’ ” said Art Tanderup, who with his wife, Helen, hosted the concert. Their land in the rolling hills of northeast Nebraska would be directly along the pipeline route.

How Copyright Law Is Hurting Culture

September 30, 2014 Mike Masnick, www.techdirt.com Educate! Copyright, Human Rights, Media, Music

As you may have heard, there's a new movie opening today about a transformative year in Jimi Hendrix's life, called Jimi: All Is By My Side. The story sounds pretty interesting, but there's one big element that's missing: Jimi Hendrix's original music. As we noted two years ago, the Jimi Hendrix Estate denied any and all attempts to license his music unless they could have some control over the production (which the producers felt was out of order), meaning that the movie is, in fact, lacking any original Hendrix music. Instead, the only thing you'll see Hendrix performing if you watch the movie, is cover songs of other bands, which the movie's producers were able to license. I'm just going to repeat what I said two years ago, because it still applies: This is, in many ways, ridiculous.

Willie Nelson, Neil Young To Play Anti-KXL Concert

August 21, 2014 Nicholas Bergin, www.westcoastnativenews.com Create! Music, Nebraska, Pipeline

Music legends Neil Young and Willie Nelson will perform a benefit concert Saturday, Sept. 27 on a farm near Neligh that is on the route of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline and also crosses the historic Ponca Tribe Trail of Tears. It’s the first time the two have performed together in Nebraska since Sept. 19, 1987, when fans packed Memorial Stadium for Farm Aid III, the biggest concert in state history. That show, which also included performances by artists like John Mellencamp, Kris Kristofferson and John Denver, drew 29,000 people and raised about $1.6 million. Organizers hope the duo will bring a little of that magic with them to what is being called the “Harvest the Hope” concert. Proceeds from the Neligh event will go to Bold Nebraska and the Cowboy Indian Alliance to help pay for the ongoing fight against the Keystone XL pipeline, Bold Nebraska said in a news release. The daytime, outdoor concert will be in a field on a farm owned by the Tanderup family, part of a collective of Nebraska landowners refusing to sign an easement with TransCanada for the pipeline that would carry oil from the tar sands of Canada to refineries on the Gulf Coast.

Anti-Nuclear Activists Say MUSIC NOT M.A.D.NESS

August 9, 2014 Creative Resistance, www.creativeresistance.org Create! Anti-Nuclear, Arts, Creative Resistance, Music, Protest

A Washington State group of anti-nuclear activists will host a weekend event commemorating the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, culminating in a direct action at the largest operational concentration of nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal. Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, a grass roots organization based in Poulsbo, Washington will host its annual weekend event remembering the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 8th and 9th. Each year Ground Zero hosts this event to help people understand the threat of nuclear weapons and engage them in resistance to the Trident nuclear weapons system. This year’s theme is MUSIC NOT M.A.D.NESS. This year’s Hiroshima/Nagasaki remembrance celebrates the power of music to bring people together to work together for social change. The lineup includes Seattle band Chele’s Kitchen, Seattle musician Jim Page, and John Palmes from Juneau, Alaska. Music will feature prominently throughout the weekend, including during a vigil and nonviolent direct action at Bangor on Saturday.

How To Stop A Pipeline With Music

August 7, 2014 Ben West, www.huffingtonpost.ca Resist! Elections, Music, Oil, Pipeline

What role does a concert like the Salish Sea Summer Gathering hosted by the Tsleil Waututh Nation play in stopping an oil pipeline? Bringing together art, music and culture is actually really important in the work to protect our coast. First Nations and non native people working together is not only important for healing the wounds of history but also for collectively plotting a course forward. Stopping a multi-billion dollar mega-project is fundamentally a battle for the hearts and minds of the majority of people and a festival like this one can go a long way towards building a vitally important social movement and spreading awareness. We will never have as much money as Texas-based Kinder Morgan, run by billionaire (and former Enron executive) Richard Kinder, but we do have people power on our side and to succeed it must continue to grow. Cates Park, or Whey-ah-Wichen, is the perfect location to hold this Summer Gathering. To get a sense of what's at stake, you just have to look out from the park across to the Kinder Morgan terminal behind Burnaby Mountain. It's these beautiful waters, which the Tsleil-Waututh have lived on for millennia, that Kinder Morgan wants to put at risk with up to 400 giant tankers per year filled with tar sands diluted bitumen heading for export. First Nations lawsuits based on land and title rights are one of the strongest tools that are being used to stop pipeline projects. Building a greater respect and understanding within non-native communities regarding our contractual (treaty) and moral obligations to First Nations is important. Concerts like this one play a big role in helping facilitate that process. As non-native allies we have a responsibility to help spread this kind of understanding. A good way to start is inviting your friends to the Summer Gathering on Sunday.

Palestine-Related Songs

July 14, 2014 Creative Resistance, www.creativeresistance.org Educate! Arts, Creative Resistance, Music, Palestine

This article is from our associated project, CreativeResistance.org. Among the many unspeakable things that are being done with US munitions and money in the world at this moment, there is the ongoing bombardment of Gaza. Once again, Israel’s armed forces are very actively trying to destroy the few buildings left intact from the last time they bombed it. There will be more protests all over the world against Israel’s ongoing atrocities. If you’re having arguments with family, friends or coworkers on this sometimes confusing and controversial subject, why not play them a song? It’ll work better. You can download my entire set of Palestine-related songs here. If you have the right cable, you can stream the songs on your phone (Soundcloud is very mobile-friendly), plug it into the sound system at your nearest protest, and play them as people are gathering. You can send that link to people with radio shows and suggest they play one. And of course you can share them on social media or whatever else you want with them. (There is no choking hazard. They’re only virtual.)

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