More L.A. Rising Afterthoughts

Some of you might remember my blog post from earlier this month after attending L.A. Rising. Well, the latest issue of Revolution newspaper also has an article about the big concert, but focused more around building the movement for revolution and also what some of the concert-goers are thinking about these days, (which I thought was pretty cool). Here's a small sample:

"Tens of thousands of young people from different backgrounds (with lots of 20- and 30-somethings as well) came from all over California; Arizona, New Mexico and Texas; Minnesota and Wisconsin and Boston, Massachusetts; from Canada, France and beyond... to hear a unique lineup of bands at the Los Angeles Coliseum that featured Rage Against the Machine, Muse, Lauryn Hill, Rise Against, Immortal Technique and El Gran Silencio from Monterrey, Mexico.

"The July 30 concert was called L.A. Rising, and it was a phenomenal event, in many different ways. The coming together of these groups, each known and loved by their fans for their powerful, moving sounds and their unmistakably radical political content, created an extraordinary atmosphere. For a whole day and into the late night hours, thousands shared and contributed to this breath of fresh air. The performers were inspired, and so was their music. When Rage took the stage in the late evening, the 60,000 or more fans leapt to their feet and never sat down again! We're not able, in this article, to review the fantastic music heard at this concert—but we wanted to let our readers know about some other exciting and important things that went on at the event."

And later...

"The Re-Education Camp connected with a searching that's going on among many of those who'd come to the concert. A couple from Santa Fe, New Mexico said: "We drove 12 hours non-stop. We came for the music and the movement... I feel like they brought the people here who have like minds who feel the same way. There's a lot of people here... This is the most important time for this to be happening. Right now. This is the tip of the iceberg around the world. So here we are. Hopefully we'll see some political change."

Click here to read the entire article.

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?"

Some Very Late Afterthoughts on L.A. Rising

Gotta call myself out here for not bringing up, (blogging about), the LA Rising Festival when I first heard about it. It was a very important music festival and I should have given it more exposure. Maybe it was because I just wasn’t very excited about many of the performers, or maybe I was too focused on the high ticket price. But, the fact of the matter is that, Rage Against the Machine, (with the help of Goldenvoice Productions), actually set out to create a type of counter-culture music festival--the type of which that we have not seen in a very long time.

Unfortunately, I didn’t fully appreciate that until recently when I was reading Bob Avakian’s, “Birds Cannot Give Birth to Crocodiles, But Humanity Can Soar Beyond the Horizon.” In the beginning of Part 2 (Building the Movement for Revolution), the first paragraph ends like this:

“There can be, and must be, struggle—and a real, living alternative brought forward—in the realm of culture and ideology (including morals), even now, before the current system is swept aside—and as a critical part of building a movement for revolution to sweep away the current system.”

A few pages later, speaking more specifically about culture, he says:

“In short, we need, in today's circumstances, a counter-culture that contributes to and is increasingly part of building a movement for revolution—in opposition to a counter-revolutionary culture. We need a culture of radical opposition to the essence of everything that is wrong with this society and system, and the many different manifestations of that; we need an active searching for a radically better world, within which revolution and communism is a powerful and continually growing pole of attraction.”

So, this was the sixth time I’ve seen RATM live, and it wasn’t my favorite performance by them, but that’s not the point. I don’t really like the type of music that Rise Against or Muse play, but—again—that’s not the point. Those two bands have made some very powerful music videos and are coming from a different place, (politically), than most mainstream bands. The audience, also, was encouraged to visit the “Re-Education Camp” where more than 30 nonprofit organizations were invited—at zero cost—to promote their causes and raise awareness.

More evidence of this show’s powerful impact can be found in a show review that the Los Angeles Times did:

“Rage’s PLUR is more like protest, liberate, unify and revolt, and it’s a message that resonated at the Coliseum, no doubt because the band's crowd is right in the thick of things, economically speaking. Primarily comprising twenty- and thirty-something blue-collar Angelenos that as a group have been hit hard by the recession, it’s a tribe that has as its spokesmen a band that formed in Los Angeles in 1991 while the city was simmering. As with two decades prior, it’s a demographic that sees before it an uncertain future and bears with it resentment at the mansions of Beverly Hills and all that they represent.

“So when Rage Against the Machine lead singer-provocateur Zack de la Rocha stood before 60,000 people, raised his fist, barked out wicked smart, superbly flowed calls to action, pointed out the disparity between rich and poor, spit venom at the billionaires and wondered on their power, the sense of no future that has ignited unrest throughout the world in 2011 felt shockingly, palpably present.”

This was a powerful festival. I hope we have many more like it. We’re going to need them if we want to build a whole different kind of revolutionary culture.

Tom Morello Writes a Comic Book

Last weekend, at the annual San Diego Comic-Con International, (the biggest pop-culture event in the world), Rage Against the Machine guitarist, Tom Morello, announced that Dark Horse Comics will be publishing a comic-book that he is writing.

The 12-issue series, “Orchid,” (which has an October 12 release date for its first issue), is said to be about a “16-year-old street prostitute who learns that she is more than the role society has imposed upon her.” The synopsis that has been circulating on the Internet says:

“When the seas rose, genetic codes were smashed. Human settlements are now ringed by a dense wilderness from which ferocious new animal species prey on the helpless. The high ground belongs to the rich and powerful that overlook swampland shantytowns from their fortress-like cities. Iron-fisted rule ensures order and allows the wealthy to harvest the poor as slaves. This is the world of Orchid.”

What is exciting to me, as a Communist, is that Morello will definitely inject some class-consciousness into his story. In a recent article he said, “It’s like Lord of the Rings meets Battle of Algiers…I wanted to craft a story that has the same visceral impact and political clout as the music I’ve been involved in.”

Other people are also excited that Morello is also providing music for the book as well! He told Rolling Stone, "When you buy the comic book you’re going to get a free song, which is the musical score for that issue. Over the 12-issue arch of the story, there will be 12 musical pieces that make a complete musical score for it."

There is already some buzz on the net about this book: Click HERE for a look at some of the cover and interior art; Go HERE for more information on the Shepard Fairey variant cover; and check out this VIDEO where Morello talks about this project and also reveals his previously unknown comic-book geek history, including how he collected thousands of comics!