Ten Songs for Your Next Protest

1. Black Flag, "Police Story"

Greg Ginn is apparently a terrible person, and if this song is based on true incidents, I fear that the police may have been right to club him. But guys like Ginn are why we separate the art from the artist, and an example of how great artists can confront the horrors of reality.



2. Body Count, "Body Count"

Not as blunt or as infamous as "Cop Killer," but also less excessive. Ice-T's messages about police brutality seem to get more important every day, though I'm not sure he would have kept the song's anti-gun control stance had he foreseen the NRA's role in getting his music banned.



3. The Clash, "Police on My Back"

The Clash's third-most-famous cover of a song about fighting law enforcement got stranded in the middle of Sandinista!, but no one who ever made it to side four ever forgot how it turned the original's garage-rock riff into an urgent siren, diffusing all claims that the band had gone soft. And yes, it was written by Eddy Grant, who was only a few years away from "Electric Avenue."



4. Dead Kennedys, "Police Truck"

Chris Rock recently told Rolling Stone, "Comedy rots. Trading Places is a perfect movie, just unbelievably good. But there are other comedies, not nearly as old as Trading Places, that just have references and things in them that aren't funny five years later. And rap's got a lot of that." He could have added the Dead Kennedys to that comparison. Jello Biafra's Anita Bryant jokes might not be funny anymore, but this one of the Dead Kennedy's unfortunately timeless messages.



5. Fugazi, "Great Cop"

Anyone who's heard the Ice Cream-Eating Motherfucker story knows that the guys in Fugazi are more like cops than outlaws. With that in mind, they must have known that nothing could shut down a punk kid like the couplet "I look for wires when I'm talking to you/You'd make a great cop."

6. Le Tigre, "Bang! Bang!"

A Brooklyn dance-punk tirade against NYPD tactics is practically a given in 2014, but the terrifyingly infectious "Bang! Bang!" arrived in 2001 on the heels of the Amadou Diallo shooting. Guess where Kathleen Hanna stops counting.



7. Living Colour, "41 Shots (American Skin)"

Bruce Springsteen has written better songs about policemen (most of them on Nebraska), but none as direct as this 2000 ballad, also inspired by Diallo, which sparked a boycott of Springsteen's music from New York's biggest police union before the song was even officially released. My favorite version is Living Colour's, only performed live but an emotional peak of their transcendent shows.



8. Mudhoney, "Hate the Police"

Originally by the Dicks, though I like Mudhoney's more fleshed-out, hi-fi version (and if you didn't think anything could be less fleshed-out or hi-fi than Mudhoney, listen). Somewhat like the Rolling Stones updating Robert Johnson's songs, Mudhoney gave "Hate the Police" a more robust reading that was still dishonorably scuzzy.



9. Operation Ivy, "Officer"

Of course the world's biggest Clash fans would have a song about the police on their first 7", but lest you think these guys were living in punk's past, "Officer" offered alternatives to hardcore nihilism and punk anarchy--"Tough guy asshole do what you can/Whatever you destroy we'll create it again."



10. Rage Against the Machine, "Killing in the Name"

The immortal riff. This song is so great that we loved Rage Against the Machine for imitating it 40 more times. Morello's Drop D progressions will outlive all of us, and while no one with a high school education would call Zack de la Rocha poetic, his message here is just as relevant 20 years later.

Rachel Maddow's Angry Punk Songs to Get You Through the Midterms

"Youth Decay" to counter low voter turnout? "Books About UFOs" against the "I'm not a scientist" party? Rachel Maddow's punditry would be invaluable even if she listened to garbage music, but I'm happy to confirm that her taste is as impeccable as her politics.

Our Bands Could Be Your Life

Jenny has never read Our Band Could Be Your Life.



Our Bands Could Be Your Life

1. Black Flag, "Nervous Breakdown"
2. Black Flag, "Rise Above"
3. Black Flag, "Gimme Gimme Gimme"
4. Minutemen, "History Lesson - Part II"
5. Minutemen, "This Ain't No Picnic"
6. Mission of Burma, "That's When I Reach for My Revolver"
7. Mission of Burma, "Academy Fight Song"
8. Minor Threat, "Straight Edge"
9. Minor Threat, "Minor Threat"
10. Hüsker Dü, "Don't Want to Know if You are Lonely"
11. The Replacements, "Can't Hardly Wait" (Tim Version)
12. Sonic Youth, "Teen Age Riot"
13. Sonic Youth, "100%"
14. Sonic Youth, "Kool Thing"
15. Butthole Surfers, "Human Cannonball"
16. Big Black, "Kerosene"
17. Dinosaur Jr., "Freak Scene"
18. Dinosaur Jr., "Start Choppin'"
19. Dinosaur Jr., "Feel the Pain"
20. Fugazi, "Merchandise"
21. Fugazi, "Repeater"
22. Mudhoney, "Touch Me I'm Sick"
23. Mudhoney, "You Got it (Keep it out of My Face)"
24. Beat Happening, "Indian Summer"

Jenny, who reads more than nearly anyone I know and loves punk rock enough for me to wish I knew her in high school, has never read Michael Azerrad's terrific account of punk and indie in the 1980s. Now that she has a birthday coming up (and is coincidentally visiting New York City this week,) I'm getting her a copy, plus a corresponding mix tape.

Rather than make a generic Best of Our Band Could Be Your Life, I tried to sculpt something more Jenny-centric. She probably already has Zen Arcade and You're Living All Over Me, but maybe not Candy Apple Grey or Bug. I hate to boil the entire Butthole Surfers' discography down to one song, but I'm guessing she'd enjoy "Human Cannonball" more than "Sweat Loaf." For some bands, like Sonic Youth, I'm providing the standard intro tracks, but for the Replacements, whom Jenny loves as much as I do, I had to dig deep and find a rarity. I like how "Can't Hardly Wait" sounds without a horn section.

Happy birthday, Jenny. Maybe the next mix will have "The Shah Sleeps in Lee Harvey's Grave."

"You're probably going to hate this, but..."

"You're probably going to hate this, but..."

1. The Mountain Goats, "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton"
2. Fugazi, "Waiting Room"
3. Guided by Voices, "Game of Pricks"
4. Nick Drake, "Pink Moon"
5. U2, "Bad" (Live)
6. Kanye West, "All the Lights"
7. Joy Division, "Love Will Tear Us Apart"
8. TV on the Radio, "A Method"
9. Elliott Smith, "Angel in the Snow"
10. Eels, "Going to Your Funeral (Part II)"
11. Willie Nelson, "Whiskey River"
12. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, "Into My Arms"
13. The Velvet Underground, "I'll Be Your Mirror"
14. The Replacements, "Valentine"
15. A Tribe Called Quest, "Award Tour"
16. Chris Bell, "You and Your Sister"
17. Pulp, "Common People"
18. The Smiths, "Ask"
19. Sleater-Kinney, "One More Hour"
20. Jimmy Cliff, "Many Rivers to Cross"
21. The Rolling Stones, "Moonlight Mile"
22. Pearl Jam, "Drifting"

For AZG.

Fugazi, "Merchandise"

"I have a DS at home. Who here has a DS?" Hands around the table shot up.

"Who here has Call of Duty: Black Ops?" another asked. A few hands shot back up.

"Who has an iPhone? Who has an iPhone 5?" the first one asked. More hands went up.

I approached the table where my third graders were chatting. "Who doesn't define yourself by what you own?" I asked. I raised my hand. The kids looked up at me in disgust.

They think I'm crazy, but maybe one day they'll listen to Fugazi.

Metal is Going to the Dogs

Metalsucks has a great Dogs Playlist this week. Here are a few that I would've added.

1. Primus, "Too Many Puppies" 
2. Fugazi, "Bulldog Front"
3. King's X, "Dogman"
4. Butthole Surfers, "Underdog"
5. The Giraffes, "Dog Sex #1"
6. AC/DC, "Dog Eat Dog" 
7. AC/DC, "Given the Dog a Bone"
8. The Dillinger Escape Plan and Mike Patton, "When Good Dogs Do Bad Things"
9. Dead Kennedys, "Dog Bite"
10. Dead Kennedys, "The Man with the Dogs"
11. Testament, "Dog Faced Gods"
12. The Melvins, "Sky Pup"
13. The Melvins, "Dog Island" 
14. Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, "Evelyn, a Modified Dog"
15. Motörhead, "Dogs"
16. Mother Love Bone, "Stardog Champion"
17. Pearl Jam, "Pilate"
18. Head of David, "Dog Day Sunrise"
19. Jimmy Ågren, "Lester Howlin' Dog"
20. Gogol Bordello, "Dogs Were Barking"
21. Stillwater, "Fever Dog"
22. Andrew W.K., "Golden Eyed Dog"

More to come.