Every Monday (even those after hurricanes/tropical storms/whatever Irene actually turned out to be), we scour the web to find five noteworthy and hopefully musically worthy records that are streaming for free this week. This week, we’re super-excited because we finally get our ears on Balam Acab’s debut album, and our first impressions are that it’s everything we’d hoped for. Yay! There’s also a new band for two-thirds of Sleater-Kinney, some leftie acoustic balladry from Tom Morello, and a stern lecture from Tom Waits. And more. It’s all after the jump.
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Academia and the music industry don’t seem like particularly compatible institutions. The former moves glacially slowly, the second feeds on an internet-stoked buzz cycle. Academics prize well-thought out hypotheses while musicians are all about, um, everything but that. But in spite of their differences, there are a whole host of musicians with higher degrees. Check out our list after the jump.
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Last week Tom Morello, formerly of Rage Against the Machine, and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails joined Pearl Jam, the Roots, R.E.M., and others in support of a new campaign pressuring US politicians to close the Guantánamo Bay. Why are so many musicians joining the movement? According to previously declassified reports, interrogators have used Metallica, Britney Spears, and even Sesame Street to torture detainees in the past. Many artists are outraged that their music may have been used without their consent, and want the practice stopped immediately.
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Given that Tim Robbins founded the Actors Gang in response to a lack of opportunities for independent writers and actors to produce socially and politically salient new work, it’s no surprise that his response to the threat of a paralyzing budget crunch was to curate an ambitious ten-week festival of theatre, dance, music, conversation, performance, and education. The WTF?! Festival brings together scores of voices as diverse as those of Tom Morello, Naomi Klein, Gore Vidal, John Doe, Sarah Silverman, anti-war Veterans, and members of Cirque du Soleil — all in the name of saving one of the country’s bravest voices for progressive art by raising not only money, but awareness.
Flavorpill’s Shana Nys Dambrot caught up with Robbins on the eve of the LA festival to talk politics, art, and record collections. Read More »
“There’s a whole secret world of digital communication that I am wholly blind to. I have enough trouble changing the batteries in my effects pedal. I had dinner with friends the other night and they were talking about Tweeting, and it was like teaching a dog to drive a car. I understand that people do it. Somehow we got along before Twittering, and we may get along after Twittering… One of the things that — I won’t say I necessarily subscribe to this — but one of the things I enjoyed about bands growing up was there was a sense of mystique about them. I didn’t know what they were eating in catering at their gig every day as they Twittered it to me. Maybe there’s something to be said about that.”
- Former Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello reveals to the LA Times’ Choire Sicha that he’s not so Internet-savvy. He also doesn’t file share due to his technical limitations. We can’t speak for Sicha, but we would have judged him. And then tweeted about it.
