Massive Attack — considered by some to be the most political band in Britain — recently wrapped up their second string of North American tour dates this year. The last time they performed on Turtle Island was back in 2006, and they didn’t disappoint in their return, impressing and enthralling long-time fans and newcomers alike (including our esteemed colleague Ezra Winton).
Sound
Massive beats take on bank bailouts
Monday Music Pick: Massive Attack's Splitting The Atom
Ain’t no party in apartheid
Invincible's lyrics connect the dots between social movements
Calling the Detroit-based emcee and activist Invincible a driven young woman would be about as accurate as calling the CEO of BP a moderately wealthy businessman.
In a medium founded in lyrical cutting contests the underground icon has set her sights on becoming “the best rapper, period / not just the best with breasts and a period.” What separates Invincible from her peers (besides the fact that she’s likely the sharpest freestyle battle rapper the D. has seen since pre-peroxide Eminem) is that she’s also a community organizer with a list of projects so long and diverse it would leave the average independent artist dizzy.
12 songs blast war and religious rhetoric
Monday Music Pick: False Positive
False Positive, the latest project from Justin Mikulka, is the songwriter’s response to current wars being waged across the world and the religious rhetoric that is used to justify them. The self-titled debut album was released on November 16, and offers, in the words of one reviewer, a “compelling mix of folk and fuzz.”
Rap, coffee and Kenyan education
Monday Music Pick: Shad
In his song Brother, Canadian hip hop artist Shad raps about how black youths are conditioned to have a narrow conception of what being black means, and what society expects of them:
Piano communicates the intent of the soul
Monday Music Pick: Piano for Open Skies by Stefan Christoff
Today we kick off a new weekly feature, our Monday Music Pick, in which we’ll bring you our favourite albums and tracks from artists whose politics influence their craft. Our first pick is an exclusive MP3 download by Stefan Christoff, a Montreal-based journalist, activist, musician and regular Art Threat contributor, who will tell you about his music in his own words. Enjoy.
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These piano sounds inspired by the open sky were performed at Casa del Popolo in Montreal during the monthly Wired on Words & Music concert this past September. In composing music for piano two types of images drive my fingers on the keys: sunny open skies, as seen over the beautiful indigenous lands of occupied British Colombia, and views of the endless blue of the sea, as seen while sitting on the waterfront in Beirut, Lebanon.
Beating the pro-Israel melody
John Greyson's pop music subversive "brain worms"
In commemoration of recent BDS against Israel (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) actions, events and conferences throughout the world, including Montreal where John Greyson spoke, we bring you this great little ditty by Greyson and friends. In his talk, Greyson (an activist, professor, writer and filmmaker) spoke of the incessant “brain worms” that crawl around our consciousness and repeat pop hooks and rhythms we’ve heard in music, for better or worse.
On the more toxic side is the tune-appropriation by the eleven Israeli journalists who ripped the “We are the World” song and sang, posing as the flotilla members murdered only the day before, “We Con the World.” The racist music video went viral and before you knew it, many of us were walking around with “We Con the World” echoing in our heads (including yours truly). Greyson argues that the progressive politicos need to start engineering more of these brain worms, and the above video, “Vuvuzela” is a provocation to do just that. From Elton to Bjork to Diana Krall – they cover the match in a play-by-play of artists who support the BDS campaign and those who do not. More of Greyson and friends’ works can be found on his Vimeo channel.
Is resistance the secret of joy?
Activist marching bands and the sounds of protest
This weekend marks the 5th annual Honk festival in Somerville, MA, a celebration and gathering of activist street bands from across North America. These are the musicians who protest with instruments, costumes and rowdy improvised dance beats – the marching bands who put festivity into political resistance and a little bit of order into boisterous crowds. It is an often overlooked and yet vital aspect of protest gatherings around the world.
