Protest Music Redux
Months ago Jason Zengerle wrote that there was no good political music nowadays. I responded that there's plenty, it's just that Conor Oberst is no good. Last night, I went to see Stars at the Black Cat which reminded me to add two more tunes to the list -- "He Lied About Death" ("I hope your drunken daughters are gay! / you are the shadow of fear! / you scare the love out of here / like an ape in a cage / small white man in a rage") and "Celebration Guns" ("so tomorrow there will be another number / for the one who had a name / a desert wind and a perverse desire to win / history buried in shame").
It occurs to me, however, that while Canadian indie rockers have been having a field day with American politics for the past five years, it may be time for them to give it a rest. With Stephen Harper now in power north of the border, a little less smugness is in order from our new Montreal-based overlords. No doubt a song about Harper's planned cuts in the GST doesn't have "hit" written all over it, but you've got to get your own house in order before you start complaining about other people's politicians.
Well, yeah, except that Harper would be a moderate Democrat (and on health care a wild-eyed radical Democrat) here, so even leaving aside the fact that his party controls significantly less than 50% of the sates the smugness remains pretty justified...
February 25, 2006 12:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
On the Toronto-music-scene note, I also liked the (typically, but endearingly, semi-coherent) bit of political protest that Broken social scene put on their last album, the song called "windsurfing nation". I'm pretty sure the windsurfing bit is a reference to the infamous kerry kerfluffle from the election year, and the lyrics are all vaguely about rebelling against something. Ah, rock n roll.
And on the note of self-referential vague protest music, there's nothing better than "Fight this generation" by pavement, a song (if memory serves) about a guy who gets up on stage to perform a song about rebelling against something, but he kind of gets bored and walks off the stage in the middle, but the song keeps going. Neat!
February 25, 2006 1:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
J. McCutchen "JmacSF"
San Francisco. CA
Fundamental question - how can Matt opine on protest music? He's too young. Has nothing to compare...
Money and Corruption Kinks Preservation Act 1 (1973)
February 25, 2006 1:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, I want to disagree here only in so far as I don't want to leave aside the fact that Harper has way under 50% support in Canada. Canadian smugness is still looking pretty appropriate to me.
Of course, that's neither here nor there with respect to the really important thing here--namely, that the Toronto and Montreal indie scenes are way over-hyped and have been for a while. Does anyone really think Metric's going to be listened to in five years?
February 25, 2006 2:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let's remember that George Bush was initially elected with less than 50% of the vote too, and both his electoral victories have come well-stained with hints of skullduggery and outright fraud. had the anomalies of '04 occurred in some third world country we would definitely be suspect foul play at the polls.
February 25, 2006 5:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Napablogger
Bom Bom Bom by the Living Things is great, straight ahead rock, Iraq war protest music. Check it out, I love it and listen to it all the time.
February 26, 2006 1:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
With a name like Lemieux surely you know they're called provinces, not states...
That aside, I know Matt's a Canadophile so he's probably only half-serious with this 'get your own house in order before you criticize us' crap, but I would just ask how many Middle Eastern countries he thinks Steven Harper will invade during his term in office.
It's been my experience since moving to the U.S. from Canada that even the most liberal Americans resent having their country criticized by foreigners, and all I can say is: Get over it. The world-wide ripple effect of bad American policy -- whether military, monetary, trade or what have you -- is truly massive. We don't get to vote for or against your leaders, but we're still liable to get ourselves annihilated or impoverished because of the stupid shit they pull. At the very least I think that entitles us to sing a few protest songs, however much Matt disapproves of Steven frickin' Harper.
February 26, 2006 6:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
So all that talk about Harper being a stealth conservative whacko was just talk and scarmongering by both Canadian blog commenters and the Liberals?
February 26, 2006 9:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ryan--I meant "seats." ;)
February 26, 2006 4:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
When I'm listening to the Stars, I'm not necessarily mining the songs for political allusions -- although there are a lot. "Windsurfing nation", I'm fairly certain, is not about Kerry; but sure, why not, it may be about 'rebelling against something" -- whatever that means? 'Live it Out' is a fraud of an LP -- I am worse for having bought it. Emily Haines in the context of Broken Social Scene is palatable. The Emily Haines of Metric is Ego Incarnate. Groups like Stars, BSS and Metric got governments grants to put out their latest albums, so theirs isn't the type of 'fulminating against power' one would expect from the regular indie-rock/pop outfits.
February 27, 2006 8:16 AM | Reply | Permalink