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Originally Posted by swa(y)
the first two times i saw sonic youth (the very last US show of the nurse tour...ATL ga) and then the first show they played when returing back to the US...voodoo fest in NO....they clearly were trying to get people to vote, as well as "indirectly" speaking out against bush.
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nurse tour in glasgow we got Kool Thing as the last encore and when it came to the monologue in the middle Kim asked us what we were going to do about George Bush. you know, we were all thinking, "not a damn lot from Scotland, last time we checked we didn't have a vote in the US". then she went on a short improvised-type dig at bush in an extension of said monolgue. so, i've seen the Youth do it. and didn't they organise and perform at a benefit concert in their early career for some anarchist terrorists?
i don't like it out of the context of the 'art' a la Bono. preaching to 50,000 kids in Argentina about the 'troubles back home' - talk about abusing your power. and a couple pussy-footing songs about the whole Northern Ireland issue doesn't really qualify you to spout about it non-stop. in fact, those couple songs don't even take a political stance of any sort, just airbrush over the whole thing with stupid sweeping generalisations. but hey, who are to agrue with him? maybe he really is god!!
but something like gang of four i really like - if you don't agree with their politics you can't listen to their music. you couldn't accuse them of using their art as a soapbox because, well.... it already is, that's the point.
i know people would disagree on the Bono thing, but if the best they can come up with is Sunday, Bloody Sunday
although in all fairness, i don't think anyone goes to a Sonic Youth gig expecting any less - the shock is that they don't do it more often because their politics are ingrained in their art, allbeit in a very abstract and non-partisan way.