|
CounterPunch
November
9, 2002
Sleater-Kinney
Rocks
Our Protest Songs Are Here
by JOSH FRANK
Our protest songs are here! Portland Oregon based
female trio Sleater-Kinney brings us the album of the year, yearning
for answers and valiantly asking questions--their latest rock
extravaganza One Beat is riddled with more enthusiasm then the
whole Democratic Party combined.
Social change starts at the roots of
any culture, and bands like Sleater-Kinney are nurturing this
grounded effort.
"Oh look it's time to pledge allegiance,
Oh god I love my dirty Uncle Sam..." roars the vocals of
Carrie Browstein on a song titled Combat Rock, a tribute to the
Clash's 1982 album.
"I think rock musicians can provide
social and political critique that can stimulate people,"
Corin Tucker of Sleater-Kinney told me recently, "A big
inspiration for us was the Clash's album, "Combat Rock",
which was written in the ultraconservative Thatcher era."
It couldn't be more refreshing to listen
to rock songs that are more intelligent than our corporate muddled
media ever could be. With influences ranging from Public Enemy
to the Sex Pistols, Sleater-Kinney is not prone to sitting still
on controversial issues.
"I don't know why there aren't more
artists writing about the pending war or the government, but
I do see more bands getting involved in anti-war benefits,"
says Tucker. "I guess protest songs are sort of uncool these
days."
One Beat also challenges our governments
reaction to September 11th, "...the president hides while
working men rush in to give their lives.." belts Corin on
Far Away.
"I am concerned with the US using
military action on Iraq before all of the diplomatic solutions
are exhausted. I am afraid we are going to be caught in a very
violent conflict in the middle east, where everyone has nuclear
bombs and horrible weapons. We need to be diffusing this situation
instead of going in with bombs."
We must appreciate brilliance when we
see it, or in Sleater-Kinney's case, when we hear it. They're
a band you'd be proud to have your kids listen to. With millions
of albums sold, and rave reviews from Village Voice, Billboard,
and Rollingstone to name a few, don't you think its time for
your to take a listen? And as an added bonus their fantastic
independent record label Kill Rock Stars hates war too! (www.killrockstars.com)
"We'll come with our fists raised,
the good old boys are back on top again, and if we let them lead
us blindly, the past becomes the future once again."--Combat
Rock
Josh Frank
is a 24-year-old writer and activist living in Portland, Oregon.
He can be reached at: frank_joshua@hotmail.com
Yesterday's
Features
Bruce Jackson
Don't
Mourn, Bake!
Anthony Gancarski
Jeb
Bush: Left-Liberal?
William Evan
A Diplomatic
Strategy
How Carter and Castro Could Avert War on Iraq
William A. Cook
Blinded
by the Right
Pierre Tristam
Hypocrisy
at Camp Delta
Mayor Walid Hamad
Settlers
and Trash
Matt Siegfried
Questions
of War
Alexander Cockburn and
Jeffrey St. Clair
Nosedive:
the Democrats the Day After
New
Print Edition of CounterPunch Available Exclusively
to Subscribers:
- The Shafts of Death: Bush, Coal Mines, and Death
in the Tunnels;
- Speak Memory!: Carter and the Draft;
- Daniel Pipes' World: Smearing Pro-Arab Academics;
- Ashcroft's Gays: the War on Free Speech;
- Saddam's Amnesty: Could It Happen Here?
- Criminalizing Dissent: a history and preview;
- Iraq 1987: When the Going Was Good;
- Egypt in Turmoil: an Anthropologist's Account;
- Green and Grounded: Profiled at the Gate.
Remember, the CounterPunch website is
supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide
web audience is soaring , with about seven million hits a month
now. This is inspiring, but the work involved also compels us
to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make
a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe
Now!
Or Call Toll Free 1 800 840 3683
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
|
October 26
/ 27, 2002
Michael Wolff
A Place
of Tears
Ilija Trojanow
Bali Mon Amour
Ben Tripp
Crocodile Tears
Hope Shand and Silvia Ribeiro
The Great Containment:
GM Fallout from Mexico to Zambia
M. Junaid
Alam
The Wolf Who Cried Wolf:
Charging Anti-Semitism & Extending the Iron Wall
Gavin Keeney
The Fusion Thing:
Landscape + Architecture
Adam Engel
A Good Man is Hard to Misfit
Anis Shivani
Is America Becoming Fascist?
Jason Leopold
Is Thomas White Fit to Lead the Army?
Philip Farruggio
Let Them Eat (Crumb) Cake
Josh Frank
The Grassroots of Hope
Anthony Gancarski
Concerned Citizen: episode 5
Night School
M. Shahid
Alam
The Civilizing Mission
October 25, 2002
Wayne Madsen
Pappy
Bush on Wellstone:
"Who Is This Chickenshit?"
Stuart Timmons
Harry
Hay Dead at 90:
He Paved the Way for Modern Gay Activism
Vanessa Jones
Australia
Votes Green:
Historic No Vote to US War Plans
Ben Terrall
Rep.
Tom Lantos' Big Lie
Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
Behind
the Drive for War:
The Escalating Bush Military Budget
Will Youmans
Israel's and Divestment
Norman Madarasz
Lula
on the Verge
October 24,
2002
Jo Freeman
How the
Christian Coalition Boosts Israel
Ben Tripp
George
W.: Caught Between Iraq and a Hard Place
Harry Browne
Ireland's Dreary Yes to Nice
Anis Shivani
A Guide
for the Perplexed:
the Major Countries of the World as Defined by the Office of
Strategic Influence
T.W. Croft
America's
New Improved War
William Hughes
A Free
Press, But for Whom?
Alan Farago
Jeb Bush and the Environment
October 23,
2002
Daniel Wolff
Pataki,
Witt and the Indian Point Nuke
Wayne Madsen
A Saudiless
Arabia
Sam Bahour
and Paul de Rooij
Abritrary
Imprisonment
Chris White
Why I Oppose
the US War on Terror:
an ex-Marine Sergeant Speaks Out
Anthony Gancarski
Back to Bali
Adam Engel
Twilight
(of the Idols) Zone
Robert Fisk
How to Shut Up Your Critics
October 22,
2002
Jack McCarthy
A Letter
to C. Hitchens
Carol Norris
This Message
Brought to You by Breast Cancer, Inc.
Joanne Mariner
Just
Say "Not Until We're Married":
Legislating Morality and Understanding HIV/AIDS Prevention
Kathleen Christison
Excuse Me?
How Israel Justifies Killing Palestinians
Linda Heard
Iraq War
Mongering:
A Game of Chess with Lives at Stake
Roger Peacock
Marketing the War on Iraq
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By
Alexander Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
Read
Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
|