Where's the voice of dissent?

Then they changed it for the US, to "Toy Guns" blah etc.

I think Ted Leo is the best political songwriter right now. and he is really good

Who are the 80s underground bands you're thinking of Michael? If you're talking about hardcore, there are still hundreds of dissenting little fuckers, although maybe not as many as 20 years ago in terms of percentage.

Crappy understated acoustic guitars a la "Red Wedge" on the other hand....

With all due respect, what was he expecting?

And the hundred or so people who hear it will be deeply moved!

Don't be an idiot.

Its a shame.

GYBE had those tapes of ppl 'speaking out', the music wasn't exactly great but at least you had a good idea where they were coming from.

Okay, this might not be true in all cases, I admit. I should have written "*I* dismiss Panthers because they suck, and because their lyrics (inasmuch as I remember them at all, or inasmuch as I could make them out in the first place) are completely generic slogans, not because of their politics." Some people very MIGHT hate their poltics. (Actually, I don't think their record made very clear at all what their politics even ARE. The album I heard came off like a parody of a generic bumpersticker-protest act. I've since been told that the "parody" part wasn't intentional. But I don't really care about their intentions. Either way, they weren't saying anything.)

= Some people very well MIGHT hate their politics. (duh)

I'm not only disenchanted with the art of political dissent in music these days, I'm disenchanted with the lack of depth such that it's superfluous in the end. Not saying people have to namecheck "George W. Bush" specifically in order to be up to date, but given the difference in the world today than 20 years ago, you'd figure there would be a different approach in musical protest.

Ugh, Xiu Xiu... I'll allow them their uniqueness, but... ugh.

Well traffic is kind of bad/ they're widening easy street/ to fit more suvs/ they're planting baby trees to grow to shady peaks/ a little shelter from the sun/ for the upper tax bracket/ here on the cul-de-sac/ we are not giving back until the community repents/ cause we can't afford to be generous/ there are closing costs and a narrow margin/ so go earn your degree and we'll take you out to lunch/ you can work for us but you have eat em all up

one more mouth full and we will be happy then.

out west they are moving dirt to make a greater omaha/ another franchise sold so there are even more restaurants per capita/ and they all have got a drive-thru/ I mean who's got time to dine/ although the floors are clean/ and the color scheme it compliments me every time/ so no one starves in this cattle town/ the semis pass making squealing sounds/ and its all u can eat and they will never get enough/ they'll be feeding us they'll be feeding on us

one more mouthful and they will be happy then

all those golden fields/ lovely empty space/ they're building drug stores now until none remains/ I have been driving for 100 blocks/ saw 50 kum and Go's 60 parking lots.

One more mouthful and I'm sure they will be happy then, just one more just one more one more...

What, did Rik the People's Poet join the band? (Don't answer that.)

When will we all, awake up out this dream
Come here and smell the Folgers, the soldiers are human beings
Man actin as if he was the supreme bein
Clockin the souls of men out like he was G-O-D and
W-A-Rrah, there'll be no tomorrow but sorrow
and horror will follow the hollow hearts battle for dollars
Politicians, modern day magicians
Physicians of death, more health care for poor health
Who makin us ill, they makin us kill
That's makin me spill my guts (chill Big, lay in the cut)
For what? I refuse to sit in the backseat and get handled
Like I do nuttin all day but sit around watch the Cartoon Channel
I rap about, the Presidential election and the scandal
that followed, and we all watched the nation, as it swallowed
and chalked it up, basically America you got FUCKED
The media shucked and jived now we stuck - damn!

Operation Anaconda - ask yourself
was it full of bleeps and blunders, did they ever find Osama?
And why in the fuck did Daniel Pearl have to pay the price
for his life and his wife plead twice?
See Al-Amin got life and Fred got dead, Hampton
To dampen the dream of all the Panthers
They got they answer for ransom
As we read together, as we dream together
Count your blessings whenever you feel that things won't be no better
But it got to, you gave me this microphone so I must rock you
Your brainwaves, airwaves, energized and SHOCKED you
Y'all got me, well I got y'all, long as I know y'all listenin
I'ma always bring food for thought to the table in the kitchen
Now eat nigga!

His singing doesn't come close to putting the lyrics over; there are probably too damn many of them anyway; it reads okay on paper if you read it REALLY REALLY REALLY slowly; lyric sheets are cheating.

Maybe Tim McGraw or somebody should cover it, though.

Wait are we talking about Bob Dylan or Conor Oberst?

Not sure what you mean by that, Anthony. 1965 was Bob's biggest Axl/Eminem/Beastie Boy/punchline year, but I'll take his 1963 or 1864 over anything 1966 or later, give or take maybe his 1975, though that's a close call.

Best Gulf War I protest song: "Civil War," Guns N Roses.

1964, I mean! (Though his 1864 still beats most years after 1975, probably.)

I just really don't see how Conor's stuff doesn't fit in with the more earnest early Dylan stuff. Especially compared with Axl, Eminem and Johnny Rotten.

early drag city to thread! (well... that pavement peel session, early silver jews/rtx refs, koretsky's band was named desert storm)

When did I compare those guys to Dylan's EARNEST stuff??? Earnestness was never what Dylan was good at anyway! Conor's welcome to it!

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/09/arts/television/09WATC.html

to be fair, some of the songs are about the how the songs are so monomaniacally about the singer's over-the-top sex paranoia.

Point being that protestcore is alive and well. I ASSUME most of it sucks, as it ALWAYS has (as most protest songs always have) (keith m sounds cranky but is not entirely wrong in regards to "empty headed emotional sloganeering") (even Public Enemy and the Coup were funny unintentionally a lot, and the cover *Entertainment!* by the Gang of Four was as a LAUGH RIOT, which is more than you can say for Rage Against the Machine or Babes in Toyland yuck), but I might be wrong.

All of which, for some reason, reminds me of a Gulf War II song everybody seems to have forgotten already:

>>Verse 2
Let your hair down to the track, yeah, kick on back
Boo! The boogie monster of rap, yeah, the man's back
With a plan to ambush this Bush administration, mush the Senate's face in, Push this generation of kids to stand and fight for the right to say Somethin' you might not like, this white hot light that I'm under, no Wonder I look so Sunburnt, oh no I won't leave no stone unturned
Oh no I won't leave, won't go nowhere, do-si-do, oh, yo, ho, hello there
Oh, yeah, don't think I won't go there, go to Beirut and do a show there
Yeah, you laugh till your muthafuckin' ass gets drafted, while you're at Band camp thinkin' the crap can't happen
Till you fuck around, get an Anthrax napkin, inside a package wrapped in saran wrap wrappin'
Open the plastic and then you stand back gaspin', fuckin' assassins hijackin' Amtraks crashin'
All this terror America demands action, next thing you know you've got Uncle Sam's ass askin'
To join the Army or what you'll do for they Navy
You just a baby, gettin' recruited at eighteen
You're on a plane now, eatin' their food and their baked beans
I'm twenty-eight, they gonna take you 'fore they take me
Crazy insane or insane crazy? When I say Hussein, you say Shady
My views ain't changed, still inhumane, wait, arraigned two days late, the date's today, hang me!<<<

This is the greatest PR/hype hook in YEARS.

Cover OF Entertainment, etc.... Esp. that cartoon story about how the Indian has become the cowboy's friend, so now he can exploit him.

While some of her album tracks may have suffered from pressure to "have a message," the "Remix Collection" displays all her new wave, glitch-hop, acid, pop-house styling, without any excess baggage.

I assume by album tracks that "have a message" they mean tracks like "Wish", in which Allien wishes for a world without cars and wars, and which happens to be one of the most memorable songs on the CD. Boy, it certainly will be a relief not to have that type of "excess baggage" on future releases.

And make sweet love to you?

sounds like HANSEN FROM HELL!