Tom Morello & others Join Occupy Guitarmy

As many of you radicals know, this May first is International Workers Day, (also known as May Day), and the Occupy Movement is calling on people to participate in a General Strike (No work, no school, no business as usual). Over in New York, specific plans have been made for large protest marches that will include a "Guitarmy."

A call has been made for a 1000 musicians to enlist and other blogs have reported that The Nightwatchman, (AKA Tom Morello), will be leading this guitarmy to Union Square where he will be performing at 4 p.m. alongside artists like Immortal Technique, Ben Harper, Das Racist, and others. Morello has showed the Occupy Movement a lot of support; he's played some sets at a few of the Occupy encampments around the country, including in L.A., and even did a dance party for Occupy at SXSW earlier this year.

Here is what Pitchfork Media has said about the march route:

Morello will also lead a "Guitarmy" of 1,000 guitarists, string players, and singers that will march from New York's Bryant Park, through midtown Manhattan, down to Union Square, culminating in a performance at 4 p.m. An open rehearsal for the performance will begin at 12 p.m. in Bryant Park, to practice Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land", Sergio Ortega's "El Pueblo Unido", Willie Nile's "One Guitar", the Nightwatchman's "World Wide Rebel Song", and the traditional protest song "We Shall Not Be Moved".

The song list seems pretty tame and lame to me, but this is still a pretty cool idea!

Miley Cyrus' new radical video

Look, I know what most people are thinking already. I know many people's first instinct is to not care that Hannah Montana is on the side of Occupy Wall Street protesters. But, I actually think this is a pretty big deal.

I mean, this is definitely not the best sounding pop-song ever, and the lyrics are very simple, but the video to this song, ("Liberty Walk"), is fuck'n great!

First of all, the video starts with these words: "This is dedicated to the thousands of people who are standing up for what they believe in..." How can you be against that?

Secondly, the video is nothing but footage from recent protests from all over the world, of people standing up to their governments, corporate greed, and even capitalism. Most of the footage is actually of the Occupy protests around the U.S. (like New York, Oakland, Davis and other cities).

Obviously, Miley's image has been very well crafted by Disney to make them millions, so it's astonishing to me that she's been allowed to make a pro-protest song, and even more that the video contains footage that exposes police brutality. If anything, this video is worth tripping out on. (The last final seconds are very nice).

Original source: Dangerous Minds

Tom Morello at OccupyLA

The LA Weekly's West Coast Sound blog had a good piece today about Tom Morello's recent visit to Occupy LA this past weekend. He was there performing as The Nightwatchman on Saturday as part of a music festival to celebrate the one-week occupation of City Hall.

The author of the post mostly gets into the role of music in protest -- specifically in this Occupy movement that started in Wall Street (NYC) and has spread to hundreds of towns in cities and towns across the nation. (The Nightwatchman is also set to perform at OccupyWallStreet tomorrow).

Morello had some great lines in the interview, like: "I think that music's combination of harmony, rhyme, truth and groove speaks to the reptilian brain of human, in a way that's different from the written or spoken word...Check the historical record -- you don't win unless you've got an excellent soundtrack."

There were many other musicians at the festival, but Morello was probably the most popular. (In fact there has been a lot of cool bands playing at OccupyLA since day one and I hope to blog more about these bands next week).

Here are links to a few official videos from the Occupy LA media team: The Nightwatchman performing Maximum Firepower and Worldwide Rebel Song.

By the way, Morello has been pretty busy lately. He had a new Nightwatchman album recently released, and today was the official release of the first issue of a comic book he is writing, (which I hope to review soon)!

Props to Manu Chao for FREE concert!

“For the past year, we’ve carried the people of Arizona in our hearts as we witnessed them suffer under such ignorant laws. We’ll be proud to perform with the community to show that love can conquer hate.” -Manu Chao (from press release on his website).

Not surprising at all that a stand-up dude like Manu Chao would do a free show for the immigrant people of Arizona and those that support immigrant rights. You can tell from his music--the lyrics and music videos--that he has a real love and respect for the people. For people all across the world, actually, as he's known to sing in various languages: French, Spanish, English, Portuguese, Italian, Arabic and a few others.

He knows about immigration all too well because, although, he was born in France, his parents are from Spain--said to have fled the country because of the Franco dictatorship. One of his most popular songs, "Clandestino," is about migration as a way of survival. Below, some of the lyrics, followed by some loose translation:

Solo voy con mi pena
Sola va mi condena
Correr es mi destino
Para burlar la ley
Perdido en el corazón
De la grande Babylon
Me dicen el clandestino
Por no llevar papel

****

I come only with my shame
There comes only my conviction
Running is my fate
In order to deceive the law
Lost in the heart
Of the great Babylon
They call me the Clandestine
'cause I don't carry any [identity] papers

The show is being coordinated by Alto Arizona!, (who are also covering the expenses), and although I don't agree with their tactics--because they're way into "urging President Obama" instead of just taking the streets and making just demands--I do think this will bring thousands of people together and people should donate if they can to make sure this concert happens!

Mixtape for London

If you don't know about what's going on in London you need to get from under that rock you've been living in. In light of that, I thought I would throw some songs together as a sort of soundtrack for the last couple of days over there. Some of them are very meaningful; and others just for fun. (Each link below is for a YouTube video).

The Clash - Know Your Rights

"This is a public service announcement...with guitar!" I love the way this song starts. It's also very appropriate, as the current rebellion in London got started because the police killed a young man named Matt Duggan. The video is also great: it's mostly coverage of various protests and cops being assholes.

The Business - Panic
"Panic in the streets of London..." This is a great Smith's cover!

Rancid - I wanna Riot
Too bad I couldn't find a good video for this. The lyrics aren't great or anything, but the music is awesome.

GBH - White Riot
Had to include this Clash cover from these English street punk legends! This was the best sound quality I could find, as they usually close-out their shows with this song and I don't think it's actually on any of their albums. Lyrics are great tho: "All the power's in the hands/ Of people rich enought to buy it./ While we walk the street/ too chicken to even try it."

Dare to Defy - Shoplifters of the World Unite
Just for fun, really.

Rage Against the Machine - Fuck the Police
Zach and company's cover of this NWA rap classic. They make it sound even angrier than the original!

Sex Pistols - Anarchy in the UK
Honestly, what kind of compilation would this be if I didn't include this song? (Also, nice video with lots of old footage of the band and the youth from that generation).

Muse - Uprising
Not usually my type of music, but I was reminded that this was a great song and video. Plus, these guys are also English. Check out the chorus: "They will not force us/ They will stop degrading us/ They will not control us/ We will be victorious."

Outernational - Fighting Song
This is an awesome song that I wish all the youth in London (and all over the world) would listen to. The video has no images, but it has all the lyrics. "I've got my dreams/ when I sleep./ And I've got these dreams/ that really could be."

The (International) Noise Conspiracy - Smash It Up
"I wanna smash it up/ for all the workers/who spent hours into nothing." This is one of my favorite bands ever and this is the official video from Epitaph Records. Very catchy.

Black Lips - Bad Kids
Lyrics are OK, but the sing-along video is better, as it shows a lot of street-fighting with cops footage.

Nouvelle Vague - Guns of Brixton
A french band I like doing a Clash cover to bring it back around where we started, and just a good way to end this. "When they kick out your front door/ How you gonna come?"