NO SALE: The music of war, as told by the Los Angeles Times
Today's Sunday surprise in the Los Angeles Times was a big -- as in really BIG -- feature on the pop music of war. Since it's the big Sunday newspaper, one realizes off the bat there won't be a discernible sense of humor to it. Instead, you get the point-of-view as written by someone who should be a college professor (Francis Fukuyama or Greil Marcus, whoever comes first) but with a bigger platform, one they're willing to use to club you over the head with sagacity and sincerity.
The writer is Ann Powers and one can see her brow furrowed over the lines ". . . sociologists to bloggers [are] weighing in on what constitutes effective agitprop. The argument's been brewing since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 . . . The disappointment felt by rockers who'd registered Democrat at President Bush's reelection; and their growing diquietude ... led some into retreat and others ... into politically confrontational projects ... "
Jesus wept.
Other wonderful bon mots: "folk music has always been topical," ". . . artists are weighing in everywhere," ". . . it's closer to what happened in response to the AIDS epidemic in the 1980's, a similarly long and confusing struggle," the declarative "It's arguable that hip-hop owns protest now" "but really, identifying protest music with one genre would be a mistake" and the lacerating "For many artists today the war on terror and its ripple effects are becoming the new status quo."
Actually, Dick Destiny blog has a rule of thumb to apply to "the music of war." If it's by celebrities or semi-celebrities, it's immediately noteworthy. If it's by everyone else, it's not.
So this means a script-sensing machine can be turned on the Times article, detecting the artists, by default: Bruce Springsteen, Kanye West ("George Bush hates black people"), Kanye West by way of The Legendary K.O. ("George Bush Hates Black People") the Rolling Stones ("Sweet Neo Con") , Pearl Jam ("World Wide Suicide"), Green Day ("American Idiot"), zzzzz.
And that's the essence of it. Not bad for four paragaphs.
But there's no humor to "the music of war." It's just so serious business.
Not so serious business, however, was the Angry Samoans' "Fuck the War" EP. The Samoans are a California punk rock act led by Metal Mike Saunders. And it enjoys a serious and dedicated following of young people in the state.
So just before the last election, the idea was spawned to release a record with the "single," "Election Day," on it -- an evergreen punk rock song which could be broadly applied to the American dilemma. Dick Destiny was asked to master it in time for shipping to radio and a concert at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood. Two versions of "Election Day" would be provided, one with the original lyrics intact and one with the word "f-----g" bleeped out of it so as to get past air censorship. And it had to be done fast-fast-fast.
Fair enough. Just do it. Hand it over. A couple hundred copies were made up and put in boxes for sale at the merch table of the Hollywood show. The night of the show, members of the Angry Samoans got in an unforseen fight over the credits on it. Alles kaput, there would be no sale of "Election Day."
Fast forward to the present. Now, it's OK to sell "Fuck the War" with "Election Day." But the kids who pack Samoans gigs, who make up a 10,000+ strong fan list on MySpace, many of them girls, the ones who love to hear the songs "They Saved Hitler's Cock" (rhyming couplet, "They hid it under a rock. If Hitler's cock could choose a mate, it would ask for Sharon Tate!") and "You Stupid Asshole," well -- let's just say "Fuck the War" doesn't connect for them. We are informed it can't be given away at the merchandise table. But "FTW" buttons have a future. Easy come, easy go.
Also for laughs -- of nasty tone -- was Uncle Sam & the JDAMs "Iraq 'n Roll," which was put on the web a couple years ago. It came with a libretto and caustic art, reprinted here. I was able to sell every copy I made of a very short run in local mom-and-pop stores. It continues to generate web hits because of the fortuitous nature of this Google search string.
Today's Sunday surprise in the Los Angeles Times was a big -- as in really BIG -- feature on the pop music of war. Since it's the big Sunday newspaper, one realizes off the bat there won't be a discernible sense of humor to it. Instead, you get the point-of-view as written by someone who should be a college professor (Francis Fukuyama or Greil Marcus, whoever comes first) but with a bigger platform, one they're willing to use to club you over the head with sagacity and sincerity.
The writer is Ann Powers and one can see her brow furrowed over the lines ". . . sociologists to bloggers [are] weighing in on what constitutes effective agitprop. The argument's been brewing since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 . . . The disappointment felt by rockers who'd registered Democrat at President Bush's reelection; and their growing diquietude ... led some into retreat and others ... into politically confrontational projects ... "
Jesus wept.
Other wonderful bon mots: "folk music has always been topical," ". . . artists are weighing in everywhere," ". . . it's closer to what happened in response to the AIDS epidemic in the 1980's, a similarly long and confusing struggle," the declarative "It's arguable that hip-hop owns protest now" "but really, identifying protest music with one genre would be a mistake" and the lacerating "For many artists today the war on terror and its ripple effects are becoming the new status quo."
Actually, Dick Destiny blog has a rule of thumb to apply to "the music of war." If it's by celebrities or semi-celebrities, it's immediately noteworthy. If it's by everyone else, it's not.
So this means a script-sensing machine can be turned on the Times article, detecting the artists, by default: Bruce Springsteen, Kanye West ("George Bush hates black people"), Kanye West by way of The Legendary K.O. ("George Bush Hates Black People") the Rolling Stones ("Sweet Neo Con") , Pearl Jam ("World Wide Suicide"), Green Day ("American Idiot"), zzzzz.
And that's the essence of it. Not bad for four paragaphs.
But there's no humor to "the music of war." It's just so serious business.
Not so serious business, however, was the Angry Samoans' "Fuck the War" EP. The Samoans are a California punk rock act led by Metal Mike Saunders. And it enjoys a serious and dedicated following of young people in the state.
So just before the last election, the idea was spawned to release a record with the "single," "Election Day," on it -- an evergreen punk rock song which could be broadly applied to the American dilemma. Dick Destiny was asked to master it in time for shipping to radio and a concert at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood. Two versions of "Election Day" would be provided, one with the original lyrics intact and one with the word "f-----g" bleeped out of it so as to get past air censorship. And it had to be done fast-fast-fast.
Fair enough. Just do it. Hand it over. A couple hundred copies were made up and put in boxes for sale at the merch table of the Hollywood show. The night of the show, members of the Angry Samoans got in an unforseen fight over the credits on it. Alles kaput, there would be no sale of "Election Day."
Fast forward to the present. Now, it's OK to sell "Fuck the War" with "Election Day." But the kids who pack Samoans gigs, who make up a 10,000+ strong fan list on MySpace, many of them girls, the ones who love to hear the songs "They Saved Hitler's Cock" (rhyming couplet, "They hid it under a rock. If Hitler's cock could choose a mate, it would ask for Sharon Tate!") and "You Stupid Asshole," well -- let's just say "Fuck the War" doesn't connect for them. We are informed it can't be given away at the merchandise table. But "FTW" buttons have a future. Easy come, easy go.
Also for laughs -- of nasty tone -- was Uncle Sam & the JDAMs "Iraq 'n Roll," which was put on the web a couple years ago. It came with a libretto and caustic art, reprinted here. I was able to sell every copy I made of a very short run in local mom-and-pop stores. It continues to generate web hits because of the fortuitous nature of this Google search string.
posted by George Smith at 12:48 PM
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