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 007 – Militant Rapper Lee Reed, Filipino Hip-Hop w/ DJ Neil Kastro

Lee Reed (photo: robertmichael.ca)

Lee Reed (photo: robertmichael.ca)

 

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Welcome back to our weekly podcast of The Rebel Beat – your weekly dose of music that promotes the flogging of bosses, the running out of town of racists, and class war on the dancefloor.

We have a very special podcast for you this week, because we were graced in the studio by our friend and comrade DJ Neil Kastro. Neil is a long-time anti-capitalist community organizer who hails from the uptown Filipino community in Cote-des-Neiges, Montreal, and is also the host of Sigaw Ng Bayan, a weekly Filipino radio show heard every Friday from 2-3pm on CKUT. On top of that, he’s also a super talented musician, MC, and DJ. Neil brought in a nice selection of Filipino hip-hop directly from the Philippines, as well as from the diaspora. Continue reading

Roots Rock Rebel Final Curtain Podcast (January 28, 2015)

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Roots Rock Rebel

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

10pm-12am, CKUT, 90.3 FM, Montreal!

Well folks, this is it. The last train. The final curtain. 9 amazing years of doing Roots Rock Rebel, countless interviews with ska, reggae, and punk bands from all over the world, and endless good memories. It’s time for me, your host, Aaron Maiden, to switch gears creatively a bit, so I’m launching a brand new show, The Rebel Beat, next week. But for one last time, here is Roots Rock Rebel!

I tried to pack in all of my favorite ska bands on this last podcast, with a heavy emphasis on my hometown, Montreal, which in my humble opinion, still boasts one of the best ska scenes in the world.

You’ll hear music here from many artists who have been interviewed on the show over the years, and some of my favorite memories.

For all the info on The Rebel Beat, http://www.rebelbeatradio.com.

So yeah, until next week, stay rude, and stay rebel!

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Roots Rock Rebel Podcast – January 21 2015

hub city final[audio https://archive.org/download/RootsRockRebelPodcast01212015/Roots%20Rock%20Rebel%20podcast%2001-21-2015.mp3]

This is the Roots Rock Rebel podcast for January 21, 2015 – our second last one ever! We previewed some new tunes from the Hub City Stompers album “Life After Death”, hot off the press from Stubborn Records, plus a set of Puerto Rican and Mexican ska, and some of our favorite Montreal ska bands such as The Kingpins, Danny Rebel and the KGB, and the Fundamentals. Enjoy!

Exciting Things Coming Your Way

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I’ve been busy over the last couple weeks getting ready to launch The Rebel Beat on February 4th. Huge things are coming your way! I’m really excited with how the show is taking shape.

First up, the podcast is ready to go, and you can subscribe to it via the iTunes store today by clicking here! You can also find our podcast RSS feed here to subscribe with other podcast clients. That way, when we launch in February, you can be sure to get your digital fill.

In terms of linking to us on social media, we’re on Twitter, and you can like our page on Fedbook.

For February, we’re gonna be doing a special series for Black History Month, looking at incredible movements like #BlackLivesMatter and the music that has sprung from them. We’ve already confirmed amazing guests such as former political prisoner and Black Panther Ashanti Alston, as well as DJ Andy Williams, who will be spinning records and talking about jazz and the Civil Rights Movement. Our very first guest we’re gonna have on the show on February 4 is so epic that I can’t even name them here, but SHIT IS GONNA BE OFF THE CHAIN!

We also have a monthly collaboration with Submedia, a wicked anarchist video collective, with an extensive knowledge of riotous beats and insurrection music. Tune in for our collaboration with Submedia’s Frank Lopez on February 11.

Last but not least, we’re also lining up interviews with Kevin “Sipreano” Howes on the phenomenal new compilation “Native North America vol. 1”, Simone Schmidt from Fiver (and formerly 100 Dollars), and southern Ontario’s rebel MC Lee Reed (formerly of Warsawpack).

So there you go. The Rebel Beat coming at you large starting February 4th on CKUT. This train is bound for glory!