The Rebel Beat podast 013 – Native North America

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We’re very excited to bring you this week’s podcast of The Rebel Beat, which offers a special feature on the amazing “Native North America (Vol. 1)” which came out on Light in the Attic records last November. Light in the Attic has put out some amazing reissues over the years, but this one is a powerful reflection on older Native folk tunes which speak to issues of decolonization, spirituality, love, and rock n’ roll.

From the Light in the Attic website;

Largely unheard, criminally undocumented, but at their core, utterly revolutionary, the recordings of the diverse North American Aboriginal community will finally take their rightful place in our collective history in the form of NativeNorth America (Vol. 1): Aboriginal Folk, Rock, and Country 1966–1985. An anthology of music that was once near-extinct and off-the-grid is now available for all to hear, in what is, without a doubt, Light In The Attic’s most ambitious and historically significant project in the label’s 12-year journey.

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Mail-order deals to help raise funds for those arrested in the Baltimore uprising.

Great initiative to support the #BaltimoreUprising from Profane Existence!

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MAYDAY WEEKEND SPECIALS FOR A NATION ON FIRE

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This has been an explosive week in the United States to say the least. We have seen massive protest in Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Ferguson, Denver, San Diego and beyond. Due to these actions many comrades have faced the inside of jail cells. I can say from personal experience that a political arrest is a difficult situation and often a nightmare. I can not understate the importance of free legal aid. That is why we are donating 50% of the sales of PE TITLES ONLY to the legal defense of those arrested in this weeks uprising. This MAYDAY special will not just last Friday but for the entire weekend as well. Friday – Saturday – Sunday.  And because we had trouble getting this email out yesterday we are extending this for Monday as well. If you have been holding out now is…

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The Rebel Beat podcast 012 – Mayday jams w/ Submedia

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Oooohhh shit! It’s that time of year again! The trees are budding, birds are chirping, the people are rising, and Mayday is upon us. Every year, May 1st is celebrated in most parts of the world as International Workers’ Day. It’s a day to celebrate not only labour struggles, but all fights against oppression and ecocide. In many cities, there are Mayday protests and celebrations of all kinds, so wherever you are, find your nearest one, get out there in the streets, and STRIKE!

This week on the podcast, we welcome back our regular collaborator, co-conspirator, and friend, Frank of Submedia! As usual, Frank comes loaded with a wicked “fuck work” themed playlist of Mayday tunes, plus we hear an interview he did recently with Fannie and Brice from the Printemps 2015 committee in Montreal. This committee has been behind many of the amazing student strikes and actions in Quebec over the last few weeks, and they’re also gearing up for some pretty major Mayday stuff. Check ’em out! Continue reading

The Rebel Beat podcast 011 – Blackbird Raum

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Boom! Welcome back to another weekly podcast of The Rebel Beat. As riots flare again against racist police in Baltimore, we continue to draw inspiration from peoples’ movements on this show, and provide a soundtrack to the smash-back.

Our very special guest on the show this week was Caspian from the amazing anarchist folk-punk band Blackbird Raum. Hailing from Santa Cruz, CA, Blackbird Raum’s music exhibits hints of UK peace punk, traditional Irish rounds, and American bluegrass. Their lyrics are at times dark, focusing on ecological devastation and the gloom of capitalism, and at times uplifting, celebrating resistance to the death machine. Continue reading

The Rebel Beat podcast 010 – Springtime in Quebec

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Things were heating up in the streets of Quebec this spring with another mass movement against austerity and capitalism. Tens of thousands of students staged a strike to try to stop the provincial government’s cuts to education, but also to wider programs such as healthcare and daycare. This movement has been coined the Printemps 2015 movement (“Springtime 2015”), a reference to the massive Printemps Érable student strike of 2012 (for a great primer on that, check out the awesome documentary Street Politics 101 by our friends at Submedia.TV).

So to strike musically while the iron is hot, here is our special on Quebec resistance music! Our special guest in the first hour of the show is Caytee Lush, who wrote the anti-folk opera “What the fuck am I doing here?” about anarchists in the 2012 student strike. Caytee played a few of the songs from the opera live for us, and holy fuck did we ever get nostalgic about that student strike! Continue reading

The Rebel Beat Podcast 009 – Linton Kwesi Johnson, Dub Poetry, and Black Resistance

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Boom! Welcome back to another weekly podcast of The Rebel Beat, your regular dose of revolutionary music across different genres, and class war on the dance floor.

This week on the show, our special guest is the legendary British-Jamaican dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson. Johnson hails from Clarendon, Jamaica, but immigrated to the UK in the early 60’s. From there, he got deeply involved in the Jamaican and Black diasporic reggae scenes, as well as political organizing at a time of fervent racial oppression in England. LKJ pioneered the genre of dub poetry, or dub lyricism, which combines Jamaican patois spoken word with deep reggae and dub grooves. His music amplifies the voices of Black youth who were clashing with police in the streets, and demanding dignified lives. Continue reading

Interview with Dub Poet Linton Kwesi Johnson coming up this week on The Rebel Beat

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This week on the show, we’ll be bringing you an interview with the legendary British-Jamaican dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson. LKJ has been inspiring the masses for decades with his deep poetry and music on radical racial and social justice issues. His dub lyricism focuses mostly on the Black experience in the UK, but also on global issues.

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The Rebel Beat podcast 008 – M-1 Take 2 (One Half of Dead Prez on Revolutionary Culture)

Photo: uniquephotographyanddesign.com

Photo: uniquephotographyanddesign.com

 

 

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Boom! We’re back with another weekly podcast of The Rebel Beat from your people-powered station, CKUT in Montreal!

This week on the show, we are very happy to bring you an interview with M-1 of the legendary hip hop group Dead Prez. This is essentially Take 2 of our conversation, because as some of you may know, we were supposed to interview M-1 in Montreal back in January, when he was scheduled to perform for the Fro Foundation’s Black History Month series. But then, the racist colonial border guards refused his entry into Canada. And that was that. Although, M-1 still addressed the crowd in Montreal via skype, and we aired that address on Podcast #001 of The Rebel Beat. Continue reading