From artist’s Bandcamp “John Wayne slaughtered our Indian brothersBurned their villages and raped their mothersNow he has given them a white man’s lord‘Live by this, or die by my sword!’” These are lyrics from “John Wayne Was A Nazi” a scathing tune by hardcore pioneers MDC. The single was originally released a year after Wayne’s death in 1980 when they […]
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From the artist’s Bandcamp. Divide and Dissolve is an Australian-based instrumental doom metal duo featuring saxophonist and guitarist Takiaya Reed and percussionist Sylvie Nehill. For the female duo, the act of simply inhabiting a prominently white male genre space is political. Reed is descended from “indigenous people of the so-called United States”. The duo also collectively stated: “Our music is […]
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From the artist’s Bandcamp No-No Boy is a multimedia project formed by Julian Saporiti & Erin Aoyama while pursuing their doctorates at Brown University. The project employs music as an educational tool to teach historical lessons about the Asian American experience. It is a topic that they both shared a personal connection to. Saporiti’s family were refugees during the Vietnam […]
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Armed with his weapon of choice, a guitar that bore the sticker, “This Machine Kills Fascists”, Woody Guthrie was a pivotal contributor to the canon of protest tunes. During his lifetime, he composed nearly 3,000 lyrics, many of which remained unpublished. This has allowed a new generation of musicians to set these unused lyrics to music and create anthems that […]
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From the artist’s Bandcamp Dawn Ray’s is a UK anarchist black metal band that effectively incorporates the folk traditions of rebel songs. On their latest album To Know The Light, the trio conveys a rousing anti-fascist message. It balances the bleakness that black metal is known for with a sense of optimism. They have released a video for the album […]
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Founded in 1911, The Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children was a juvenile correctional facility in the Mount Meigs community near Montgomery, Alabama. The juvenile facility was notorious for the abuse inflicted on Black youth. As late as the 1960s, inmates were forced to pick cotton from early morning to late evening, with physical and sexual abuse commonplace. “This was […]
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Born Evan Pang, Aysanabee is a Canadian Indigenous multi-instrumentalist, producer, and singer-songwriter. He is Oji-Cree and began creating music under his mother’s maiden name in order to reclaim his family name. Aysanabee’s mother gave him the last name Pang because she felt that a non-Indigenous name would make it easier to find employment. His 2022 debut album, Watin was named […]
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Back in 1992, Ice-T’s heavy metal project Body Count released their self-titled debut album, which included one of the most controversial protest songs of all-time, “Cop Killer”. The lyrics express the frustration that many in the Black community were feeling. The original album version reference then Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates, and Rodney King who was brutalized by the […]
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On January 18, legendary singer-songwriter and founding member of the Byrds and Crosby Stills Nash and Young sadly passed away at 81. He was known for his candor and willingness to speak out on political issues. He has contributed to several timeless tunes, including a number with socially conscious themes. For example, protest songs that he composed included the Byrds’ […]
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Black Belt Eagle Scout is the alias of Katherine Paul, an indigenous multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter. Her third studio album, The Land, the Water, the Sky will be released on February 10. Concerning the album, she stated in a press statement, “I created The Land, the Water, the Sky to record and reflect upon my journey back to my homelands and the challenges and the […]
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