Just slowly chip away at rights, no one will notice. Patriot Act, Citizens United, NDAA. Little by little. It's how Germany did it.
I'll just leave this here.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
White House announces the president will not veto the defense bill that will allow the military to detain citizens indefinitely
Source.
Just slowly chip away at rights, no one will notice. Patriot Act, Citizens United, NDAA. Little by little. It's how Germany did it.
I'll just leave this here.
Just slowly chip away at rights, no one will notice. Patriot Act, Citizens United, NDAA. Little by little. It's how Germany did it.
I'll just leave this here.
I am seriously considering throwing in my support for Ron Paul
GOD DAMN IT
HELP ME
FUCK
So what did it? What pushed me over the edge? It was this.
This provision in the NDAA has been pushed to my #1 issue. While the few liberals who are actually aware of it are anxiously waiting to see what Obama does, Paul goes on the radio and denounces it in the strongest language one could hope for. What do the other candidates have to say about it? Nothing. No one else has even mentioned it. And Obama's silence speaks louder than all of them. Throw me a fucking bone here guys. If only one candidate agrees with me on the only damn issues I care about, what else am I supposed to do?
I have a confession to make. I'm a libertarian. No, not that kind of libertarian. I'm a leftist libertarian.
That lower right quadrant is what most of us think of when someone says "libertarian." They're the anti-authoritarian capitalists like Ron Paul. Authoritarian left is home for the communists and Stalinists. Authoritarian right is home for religious extremists, fascists, and America's "two" major parties. The lower left is where anarchists and socialists reside. I'm pretty sure I'm in there somewhere. If you are anywhere south of that horizontal line, I am going to respect you. Simple. I respect the fuck out of anarchists. My love for freedom is a whimper, when it's held up next to theirs. And as much as we like to laugh at Ron Paul, it's important to remember that he loves freedom too. We simply disagree on the means to achieve it. (I personally don't think capitalism is compatible with freedom at all, but that's a whole other post).
I haven't caught very many Republican debates, but during the few I've watched, I always caught myself with a big fucking grin on my face whenever Ron Paul was allowed to speak. He's an idiot in many ways, and his supporters are fucking unbearable, but his feet are on planet earth. He's the one logically consistent person in a room full of fools and hypocrites.
And Dennis Kucinich seriously considered him as a running mate. Bet you didn't know they're actually really good friends.
Ron Paul is a lot of things, but he doesn't wrap flags around maimed and murdered children, and call it patriotism. At least he speaks out against fascist legislation like the Patriot Act and the NDAA. You can't say the same things about any other major candidate in the United States, especially Barack Obama. But don't worry about me. I'm not turning into one of his zombies. At best, Ron Paul is only a step in the right direction. If Dennis Kucinich or Bernie Sanders were running, I would support them over Paul in a heartbeat. I'm simply swallowing my pride and taking what I can get. I'm meeting the other side halfway. And I'm only open to meeting anti-authoritarians halfway. I'm not going to do the same with Obama or traditional Republicans, because I don't compromise with child murderers and fascists.
I'm sure as hell going to root for him, but I honestly don't know if I could vote for Ron Paul. Luckily, reality will prevent me from ever having to face that conundrum. The GOP is never going to pick him. It doesn't matter how much of a majority he might get in the primaries. Ron Paul would refuse to be the GOP's water cooler, and that's just unacceptable.
No, I'm still going to vote for a leftist third party. I was thinking either Green or Socialist, but then I heard about Rocky Anderson this morning. The former mayor of Salt Lake City just launched a presidential campaign running on the new "Justice Party" ticket. Amy Goodman interviewed him this morning. He's opposes war. He stands for things like environmental sanity, economic justice, and war criminals going to jail. You know, the things I thought the Democratic Party stood for when I voted for them. Maybe not as "radical" as some of the things I've been warming up to in recent months, but the guy has some amount of experience governing. I'd like to see what he can do, and I'm going to be following him.
HELP ME
FUCK
So what did it? What pushed me over the edge? It was this.
Ron Paul furious over indefinite detention act
With the approval from the Oval Office the only thing keeping a terrifying law that will allow for the indefinite detention and torture of Americans from passing, presidential hopeful Ron Paul has finally unleashed on the legislation.
Although President Barack Obama had originally insisted that he would veto the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin revealed recently that the bill in its current wording was drafted after the current administration asked for changes.
Already making its way through the House and Senate, the Act in its current wording will allow for Americans suspected of any “belligerent” act to be detained in Guantanamo Bay-style military prisons indefinitely for any alleged crimes without trial. With it now being revealed that the president put forth suggestions to draft the latest version of the legislation, Levin told the press Monday night, "I just can't imagine that the president would veto this bill.”
"I very strongly believe this should satisfy the administration and hope it will,” added Levin.
Outside of the independent media, opposition to NDAA has remained almost nonexistent, with the mainstream neglecting to discuss the colossal implications the bill would have if it is signed into law. Speaking to radio host Alex Jones on Tuesday, however, Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul finally became one of the first main figures to attack the act.
“This is a giant step – this should be the biggest news going right now – literally legalizing martial law,” said Paul. The congressman from Texas also appeared flabbergasted that the bill managed to escape discussion in any of the recent GOP debates, despite its provisions being detrimental to the US Constitution and the freedom of every man, woman and child in America.
“This is big,” continued Paul, adding “This step where they can literally arrest American citizens and put them away without trial….is arrogant and bold and dangerous.”
The bill could be on the desk of Barack Obama as early as Wednesday of this week.
Congressman Paul has been continuously critical of the Obama administration as of late, and although his fellow candidates for the GOP nomination have been equally as opt to attack the president, Paul has largely been the only one to tackle the sacrifice of civil liberties that Obama and the Republican Party frontrunners seem unconcerned with.
“Today it seems too easy that our government and our congresses are so willing to give up our liberties for our security,” Paul said during a presidential debate earlier this election season. “I have a personal belief that you never have to give up liberty for security. You can still provide security without sacrificing our Bill of Rights.”
Paul has also condemned the Patriot Act for crushing the freedoms of Americans, while top-tier candidate and former-House Speaker Newt Gingrich has insisted on finding a “balancing act between our individual liberties and security.”
This provision in the NDAA has been pushed to my #1 issue. While the few liberals who are actually aware of it are anxiously waiting to see what Obama does, Paul goes on the radio and denounces it in the strongest language one could hope for. What do the other candidates have to say about it? Nothing. No one else has even mentioned it. And Obama's silence speaks louder than all of them. Throw me a fucking bone here guys. If only one candidate agrees with me on the only damn issues I care about, what else am I supposed to do?
I have a confession to make. I'm a libertarian. No, not that kind of libertarian. I'm a leftist libertarian.
That lower right quadrant is what most of us think of when someone says "libertarian." They're the anti-authoritarian capitalists like Ron Paul. Authoritarian left is home for the communists and Stalinists. Authoritarian right is home for religious extremists, fascists, and America's "two" major parties. The lower left is where anarchists and socialists reside. I'm pretty sure I'm in there somewhere. If you are anywhere south of that horizontal line, I am going to respect you. Simple. I respect the fuck out of anarchists. My love for freedom is a whimper, when it's held up next to theirs. And as much as we like to laugh at Ron Paul, it's important to remember that he loves freedom too. We simply disagree on the means to achieve it. (I personally don't think capitalism is compatible with freedom at all, but that's a whole other post).
I haven't caught very many Republican debates, but during the few I've watched, I always caught myself with a big fucking grin on my face whenever Ron Paul was allowed to speak. He's an idiot in many ways, and his supporters are fucking unbearable, but his feet are on planet earth. He's the one logically consistent person in a room full of fools and hypocrites.
And Dennis Kucinich seriously considered him as a running mate. Bet you didn't know they're actually really good friends.
Ron Paul is a lot of things, but he doesn't wrap flags around maimed and murdered children, and call it patriotism. At least he speaks out against fascist legislation like the Patriot Act and the NDAA. You can't say the same things about any other major candidate in the United States, especially Barack Obama. But don't worry about me. I'm not turning into one of his zombies. At best, Ron Paul is only a step in the right direction. If Dennis Kucinich or Bernie Sanders were running, I would support them over Paul in a heartbeat. I'm simply swallowing my pride and taking what I can get. I'm meeting the other side halfway. And I'm only open to meeting anti-authoritarians halfway. I'm not going to do the same with Obama or traditional Republicans, because I don't compromise with child murderers and fascists.
I'm sure as hell going to root for him, but I honestly don't know if I could vote for Ron Paul. Luckily, reality will prevent me from ever having to face that conundrum. The GOP is never going to pick him. It doesn't matter how much of a majority he might get in the primaries. Ron Paul would refuse to be the GOP's water cooler, and that's just unacceptable.
No, I'm still going to vote for a leftist third party. I was thinking either Green or Socialist, but then I heard about Rocky Anderson this morning. The former mayor of Salt Lake City just launched a presidential campaign running on the new "Justice Party" ticket. Amy Goodman interviewed him this morning. He's opposes war. He stands for things like environmental sanity, economic justice, and war criminals going to jail. You know, the things I thought the Democratic Party stood for when I voted for them. Maybe not as "radical" as some of the things I've been warming up to in recent months, but the guy has some amount of experience governing. I'd like to see what he can do, and I'm going to be following him.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Vatican Cardinal says Christians in the United States are 'well on the way' to being persecuted
WAAAAAAHHHH
Nevermind the fact that more Christians live in the United States than in any other country on the planet you guys. Just ignore the fact that 3 in 4 Americans are Christian. Ignore this recent study which shows that nonbelievers overwhelmingly don't give a shit if someone else believes in God. Or how that same study shows that believers distrust atheists as much as rapists. Nevermind the fact that the government of the United States disobeys its own constitution by endorsing Christianity.
I'm going to take a wild guess and assume this Cardinal has never taken an introductory sociology class. See, there's this thing called "privilege." Privilege belongs to the dominant group. As a white male, I am a member of probably the most privileged group in the country. But as an agnostic-atheist, I am also part of a separate minority. Most individuals in the dominant group are not aware of their privilege, because they have never lived their lives without it.
Everyone accepts privilege because it's practically invisible. "Chivalry" is an example of accepted privilege. It's sexist. It implies that men should be nice to women, not because they should act like normal human beings, but because women are weak and powerless and they'll hopefully give up sex. I hold doors for men too, but nobody thinks better of me for it. Nor should they.
When a persecuted group is given more rights, some amount of privilege is taken away from the majority. And when that happens, the majority group starts feeling like they're the ones being persecuted. There are a ton of examples of this throughout American history.
And it hasn't stopped. Here's some irrelevant racist feeling persecuted because the president of the United States is black.
And here's some bigot whining that it's no longer socially acceptable to beat up faggots.
Let me give an example of how privilege has negatively affected me as an atheist. According to the Bylaws of the BSA, Declaration of Religious Principle:
They don't bother explaining why atheists and agnostics can't be the "best type" of citizen. They just assume it's fact, and don't question it. That's privilege. I've never done drugs or been arrested. I've never been pulled over. Shit, I don't even drink. Not that these things have anything to do with morality, I'm just going by what I'm assuming are their standards. I'd like to hear what their "best type" of citizen is, and why I don't fit it.
I'm an Eagle, and I've worked at a boy scout camp for three years. I've had to hide my lack of belief. And I'm not even complaining about that, I would never think of bringing that shit up at my job anyway, because it's completely irrelevant. Privileged groups don't have the same opinion though. Encouraged by likeminded people around them, they have a constant need to repeat their own opinions and stroke their egos. And they're not even aware they're doing it. As a result, their beliefs were constantly pressed on me. I once had to bullshit my way through a prayer that my boss asked me to lead so I wouldn't be fired. I was expected to go to a camp-wide religious service held once every week. When these issues are brought to the attention of a believer, they're often so unaware of their own privilege that it just doesn't compute. If someone says "Under God should not be in the Pledge of Allegiance because it's illegal for the government to endorse a religion," they warp that around to "What, so I can't believe in God now?" Whenever a persecuted group asks for equal rights, the privileged group suddenly thinks they are the ones whose rights are being attacked.
YOU POOR THING.
But as much as I'm whining about being expected to treat men and women differently, or about how people look at me as an atheist, I really don't have it that bad. At least I'm not constantly bombarded with advertisements telling me how worthless I am, or catcalls that make me fear for my safety. I've never been looked down on because of my race. And hey, it's incredibly easy to fake belief. All you gotta do is smile and nod. I worked with someone at camp who was fired and kicked out of the boy scouts for being gay. There was another gay dude who was fired a year or two before I joined. I've never met him, but I was told he was very loved among both the staff and the scouts (the gay dude I worked with was kind of an ass). The boy scouts are a great organization, and they gave me the best years of my childhood, but I'm am fucking ashamed to be associated with them.
And if you're curious, the reason why this policy is in place is because religious institutions provide over 60% of the funding for the BSA, mostly from the Mormon church. Literally every single person within scouting I've ever talked to about these things have told me that they consider homosexuality and atheism complete nonissues, and they want this policy changed. I've even had a 12 year old kid tell me it shouldn't matter if someone is gay. Religious institutions have enough money to bribe the BSA into discriminating against gays and atheists, and yet they are the ones claiming to be persecuted. It's just staggering.
One of the highest ranking cardinals in the Vatican has said that the United States is “well on the way” to the persecution of Christians.
Cardinal Raymond Burke, former Archbishop of St. Louis and now the head of the Vatican’s highest court, told Catholic News Agency that he could envision a time when the Catholic Church in the U.S., “even by announcing her own teaching,” is accused of “engaging in illegal activity, for instance, in its teaching on human sexuality.”
Asked if the cardinal could even see American Catholics being arrested for their faith he replied, “I can see it happening, yes.”
In his remarks to several U.S. Bishops meeting with him Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI made similarly emphatic warnings about the U.S. The pope told the bishops that “the seriousness of the challenges which the Church in America, under your leadership, is called to confront in the near future cannot be underestimated.”
He added: “The obstacles to Christian faith and practice raised by a secularized culture also affect the lives of believers.”
In the interview published today, Cardinal Burke declared that “it is a war” and “critical at this time that Christians stand up for the natural moral law.” Should they not, he warned, “secularization will in fact predominate and it will destroy us.”
[...]
Nevermind the fact that more Christians live in the United States than in any other country on the planet you guys. Just ignore the fact that 3 in 4 Americans are Christian. Ignore this recent study which shows that nonbelievers overwhelmingly don't give a shit if someone else believes in God. Or how that same study shows that believers distrust atheists as much as rapists. Nevermind the fact that the government of the United States disobeys its own constitution by endorsing Christianity.
I'm going to take a wild guess and assume this Cardinal has never taken an introductory sociology class. See, there's this thing called "privilege." Privilege belongs to the dominant group. As a white male, I am a member of probably the most privileged group in the country. But as an agnostic-atheist, I am also part of a separate minority. Most individuals in the dominant group are not aware of their privilege, because they have never lived their lives without it.
Everyone accepts privilege because it's practically invisible. "Chivalry" is an example of accepted privilege. It's sexist. It implies that men should be nice to women, not because they should act like normal human beings, but because women are weak and powerless and they'll hopefully give up sex. I hold doors for men too, but nobody thinks better of me for it. Nor should they.
When a persecuted group is given more rights, some amount of privilege is taken away from the majority. And when that happens, the majority group starts feeling like they're the ones being persecuted. There are a ton of examples of this throughout American history.
And it hasn't stopped. Here's some irrelevant racist feeling persecuted because the president of the United States is black.
And here's some bigot whining that it's no longer socially acceptable to beat up faggots.
Let me give an example of how privilege has negatively affected me as an atheist. According to the Bylaws of the BSA, Declaration of Religious Principle:
"The Boy Scouts of America maintains that no member can grow into the best kind of citizen without recognizing an obligation to God. In the first part of the Scout Oath or Promise the member declares, ‘On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law.’ The recognition of God as the ruling and leading power in the universe and the grateful acknowledgment of His favors and blessings are necessary to the best type of citizenship and are wholesome precepts in the education of the growing members."
They don't bother explaining why atheists and agnostics can't be the "best type" of citizen. They just assume it's fact, and don't question it. That's privilege. I've never done drugs or been arrested. I've never been pulled over. Shit, I don't even drink. Not that these things have anything to do with morality, I'm just going by what I'm assuming are their standards. I'd like to hear what their "best type" of citizen is, and why I don't fit it.
I'm an Eagle, and I've worked at a boy scout camp for three years. I've had to hide my lack of belief. And I'm not even complaining about that, I would never think of bringing that shit up at my job anyway, because it's completely irrelevant. Privileged groups don't have the same opinion though. Encouraged by likeminded people around them, they have a constant need to repeat their own opinions and stroke their egos. And they're not even aware they're doing it. As a result, their beliefs were constantly pressed on me. I once had to bullshit my way through a prayer that my boss asked me to lead so I wouldn't be fired. I was expected to go to a camp-wide religious service held once every week. When these issues are brought to the attention of a believer, they're often so unaware of their own privilege that it just doesn't compute. If someone says "Under God should not be in the Pledge of Allegiance because it's illegal for the government to endorse a religion," they warp that around to "What, so I can't believe in God now?" Whenever a persecuted group asks for equal rights, the privileged group suddenly thinks they are the ones whose rights are being attacked.
But as much as I'm whining about being expected to treat men and women differently, or about how people look at me as an atheist, I really don't have it that bad. At least I'm not constantly bombarded with advertisements telling me how worthless I am, or catcalls that make me fear for my safety. I've never been looked down on because of my race. And hey, it's incredibly easy to fake belief. All you gotta do is smile and nod. I worked with someone at camp who was fired and kicked out of the boy scouts for being gay. There was another gay dude who was fired a year or two before I joined. I've never met him, but I was told he was very loved among both the staff and the scouts (the gay dude I worked with was kind of an ass). The boy scouts are a great organization, and they gave me the best years of my childhood, but I'm am fucking ashamed to be associated with them.
And if you're curious, the reason why this policy is in place is because religious institutions provide over 60% of the funding for the BSA, mostly from the Mormon church. Literally every single person within scouting I've ever talked to about these things have told me that they consider homosexuality and atheism complete nonissues, and they want this policy changed. I've even had a 12 year old kid tell me it shouldn't matter if someone is gay. Religious institutions have enough money to bribe the BSA into discriminating against gays and atheists, and yet they are the ones claiming to be persecuted. It's just staggering.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
America is becoming a fascist state
It's good that people automatically tune out whenever the word "fascist" is used, because it's used so often and so without merit that it's ultimately become meaningless. But it's bad because when there is actually a legitimate comparison to be made, nobody pays attention.
Nazi Germany was not the only fascist government. Let's go back and put the politics of the 1930s into context. Fascism was a legitimate political system. There were 'moderate' fascists like Franco in Spain. Italy (which was not as extreme as Nazi Germany) would constantly urge Franco's regime in Spain to be more 'fascist' so they would not come off simply as conservative reactionaries against the socialist government they overthrew (which they were). Franco murdered and tortured political dissidents and threw them into camps, and yet he had widespread support all the way up to his death in 1975 (he remained in power after World War II because he was neutral during the war. Spain had just gotten out of a brutal civil war when WWII broke out, and they didn't have the capacity to wage another one).
I watched a six-part documentary series on the Spanish Civil War a couple months back, up on youtube (
The reason I'm going through all of this is because I want to get the point across that it is very easy for normal people to fall in love with fascism. This seems like common sense with everything we learn about fascism in history, but when it actually starts happening, the dots just never connect. World War II is often considered to be "the good war," but the United States government actually cared very little about stopping fascism, as a government. U.S. corporations supplied Franco and the fascists during the Spanish Civil War. The CIA brought in hundreds of Nazi spies after the war ended. Richard Nixon, founder of the modern Republican party, once toasted Franco, and said upon his death that he "was a loyal friend and ally of the United States." Utilizing the tactics of the Nazi Gestapo, the FBI once drugged and murdered a man in his bed because they didn't like his political opinions. I'm not typically a conspiracy theorist, but the circumstances surrounding MLK's and Malcolm's deaths are extremely suspicious. King's own family doesn't think Ray was the shooter. Seriously, read that. They took out Fred Hampton, I see no reason why they wouldn't have the capacity to do the exact same things over again.
FDR said:
"The first truth is… a democracy is not safe if people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by… any controlling private power."
Sound familiar? How 'bout now? Click to enlarge.
The United Nations says the U.S. is not protecting the rights of the Occupy protesters. Barack Obama does not support the Occupy movement. He made a few gentle words towards it at the start, and then he immediately backed off once his donors on Wall Street got mad at him. It seems like the only argument Obama apologists have left is "At least he's not a Republican, and at least I'm doing something." This is extremely dangerous and self-manipulative. It's the last refuge of someone who actually believes he holds some amount of power in the way our government works. You have no power. When a petition to free Bradley Manning popped up on the White House's website, the White House simply removed it. Right now, Senator Bernie Sanders is pushing for a constitutional amendment that will overturn Citizens United and establish that corporations are not people. He has a petition on his website with over 110,000 signatures right now. It's not going to happen. It will never happen.
The sooner everyone realizes that we do not live in a democracy, the sooner we can focus our attention on the real enemy: every person who holds a position of power in the government. The House of 'Representatives' voted 406-17 to keep the NDAA conference committee closed to the public. This, of course, is the act that will allow the government to lock up anyone they want on American soil, for as long as they want, by simply calling them "terrorists." Obama was threatening to veto this, but the language his administration used seems to imply that it's for the wrong reasons: that it doesn't go far enough.
"We have said that the language in this bill would jeopardize our national security by restricting flexibility in our fight against al Qaeda… Any bill that challenges or constrains the President’s critical authorities to collect intelligence, incapacitate dangerous terrorists and protect the nation would prompt his senior advisors to recommend a veto."
But he likely won't veto it at all, since he's the one who wanted the provision in there in the first place.
I've tried being tolerant of Obama supporters (among friends at least) but if he signs this, there are no longer any excuses. If this happens, and if you vote for Barack Obama anyway, you are giving him permission to take away your rights. This goes way beyond what George Bush ever did, but I suppose Obama apologists wouldn't care, because they never raised a peep when he extended illegal wiretappings and assassinated American citizens either. I think I'll end this with a fitting quote from George Orwell (who opposed strict pacifism, and who actually had the courage to fight against fascism when he carried a gun for the socialists in the Spanish Civil War)
All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts. A British Tory will defend self-determination in Europe and oppose it in India with no feeling of inconsistency. Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage — torture, the use of hostages, forced labour, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians — which does not change its moral colour when it is committed by ‘our’ side. . . . The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.
Sunday Youtube Post
This is why I think Star Trek is the greatest franchise ever made, and why I think it may have been a mistake for the new movie to replace "yay humanism!" with "yay lens flare!"
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Favorite albums of 2011, part 2
As promised from the first part from back in July, here's the rest and/or things that have been released since then. The Mars Volta pushed their new album back to next year, but that's okay because we're still left with a lot of other great stuff.
Maybeshewill - I Was Here For A Moment, Then I Was Gone
Maybeshewill has an interesting style. They're very Mogwai-ish, but often with the precise electronics and drumming of math rock, like with 65daysofstatic or Toe. This is pretty stereotypical post-rock, so if you're not into the genre you probably won't find it very interesting. Explosion in the Sky's Take Care, Take Care, Take Care is still probably my favorite post-rock CD out this year (and probably my favorite CD overall, to tell the truth) but this is still pretty great.
Arms and Sleepers - The Organ Hearts
Now this is a real gem. I just found out about these guys a couple months ago, and they've become one of my favorite new bands. This performance comes from a great website called WeArePostRock, but to be honest it's a little hard to put them in that genre. "Post-Rock" is kinda hard to pin down anyway, people usually just take instrumental music and call it "post-rock" to sound more hipster. But it usually has the same elements: somewhat minimalist, and if vocals are ever used, then they're used as just another instrument, and lyrics are irrelevant. Arms and Sleepers don't really do those things, this is more ambient and trip hop. I suppose they're all just labels anyway, ask any person on the street and I guess he wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
The Black Keys - El Camino
I actually haven't listened to this yet, but I thought I'd put it here in case anyone doesn't know about it. I'm sure it's great because it's the god damn Black Keys.
M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
M83 take their name from the Messier 83 galaxy, which is awesome, because that's one of my personal favorites too. I've read in interviews that M83 is inspired a lot by the 1980s. I hate 80s music. Unfortunately for me, they've sort of grasped onto that feeling a little more in recent years. I fell in love with their earlier songs on Dead Cities and Before the Dawn Heals Us -- the ambient stuff, the stuff that made me want to play Mass Effect and go stargazing. And some of that's still there, but Hurry Up, We're Dreaming feels very 80s pop. It's still not too bad because you can still pick up their style in it. You will love this CD if you're into this kind of music.
Pretty Lights - Unreleased 2010 Remixes
Pretty Lights is fucking good. The Sunday Youtube Post this week is off of this album. It's all remixes, he takes from James Brown, to Kanye West, and even Pink Floyd. And it's weird, because I'm usually not all that into this music, but it's just catchy as hell and I can't stop listening. It's very Daft Punk. Pretty Lights makes his money playing shows, so he puts all of his music up on his website for free.
Immortal Technique - The Martyr
Recently I've started listening to Rage Against the Machine for the first time, so I was wondering what other sort of revolutionary music is out there. It didn't take me long to find Immortal Technique. This guy is an arrogant jackass, and somewhat of a conspiracy theorist, but he does his fucking research and his lyrics usually hit the nail on the head. The Martyr was released in support of the Occupy movement (he's personally been visiting the encampment at Wall Street a lot), and he put it up online for free.
Sun Rise Above - Every Day I Wake Up on the Wrong Side of Capitalism
I discovered Sun Rise Above through the same search. He seems a lot more grounded than Immortal Technique, which is good, because it feels like Immortal Tech's obsession with keeping with his 'hardcore' image sort of undermines his central message. Sun Rise Above's talent as a lyricist is pretty damn impressive, and it seems like only a matter of time until this guy takes off.
Maybeshewill has an interesting style. They're very Mogwai-ish, but often with the precise electronics and drumming of math rock, like with 65daysofstatic or Toe. This is pretty stereotypical post-rock, so if you're not into the genre you probably won't find it very interesting. Explosion in the Sky's Take Care, Take Care, Take Care is still probably my favorite post-rock CD out this year (and probably my favorite CD overall, to tell the truth) but this is still pretty great.
Now this is a real gem. I just found out about these guys a couple months ago, and they've become one of my favorite new bands. This performance comes from a great website called WeArePostRock, but to be honest it's a little hard to put them in that genre. "Post-Rock" is kinda hard to pin down anyway, people usually just take instrumental music and call it "post-rock" to sound more hipster. But it usually has the same elements: somewhat minimalist, and if vocals are ever used, then they're used as just another instrument, and lyrics are irrelevant. Arms and Sleepers don't really do those things, this is more ambient and trip hop. I suppose they're all just labels anyway, ask any person on the street and I guess he wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
I actually haven't listened to this yet, but I thought I'd put it here in case anyone doesn't know about it. I'm sure it's great because it's the god damn Black Keys.
M83 take their name from the Messier 83 galaxy, which is awesome, because that's one of my personal favorites too. I've read in interviews that M83 is inspired a lot by the 1980s. I hate 80s music. Unfortunately for me, they've sort of grasped onto that feeling a little more in recent years. I fell in love with their earlier songs on Dead Cities and Before the Dawn Heals Us -- the ambient stuff, the stuff that made me want to play Mass Effect and go stargazing. And some of that's still there, but Hurry Up, We're Dreaming feels very 80s pop. It's still not too bad because you can still pick up their style in it. You will love this CD if you're into this kind of music.
Pretty Lights is fucking good. The Sunday Youtube Post this week is off of this album. It's all remixes, he takes from James Brown, to Kanye West, and even Pink Floyd. And it's weird, because I'm usually not all that into this music, but it's just catchy as hell and I can't stop listening. It's very Daft Punk. Pretty Lights makes his money playing shows, so he puts all of his music up on his website for free.
Recently I've started listening to Rage Against the Machine for the first time, so I was wondering what other sort of revolutionary music is out there. It didn't take me long to find Immortal Technique. This guy is an arrogant jackass, and somewhat of a conspiracy theorist, but he does his fucking research and his lyrics usually hit the nail on the head. The Martyr was released in support of the Occupy movement (he's personally been visiting the encampment at Wall Street a lot), and he put it up online for free.
I discovered Sun Rise Above through the same search. He seems a lot more grounded than Immortal Technique, which is good, because it feels like Immortal Tech's obsession with keeping with his 'hardcore' image sort of undermines his central message. Sun Rise Above's talent as a lyricist is pretty damn impressive, and it seems like only a matter of time until this guy takes off.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
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