According to the official website for the Real Democracy Arts & Music Festival, Boston-based indie rock revolutionaries State Radio will join San Francisco-based indie hip-hop revolutionaries The Coup on stage for a free show in Denver as part of Tent State University’s counter-convention outside the 2008 Democratic National Convention next month.
Boots Riley, The Coup’s dynamic frontman, played with State Radio on Tom Morello’s Justice Tour this past spring. Other artists in talks with Tent State that have shared the stage with State Radio include Michael Franti (of Spearhead) and Tom Morello (of Rage Against The Machine and solo-acoustic as The Nightwatchman). Zach De La Rocha is also said to be in discussions, which further fuels speculation started by Morello on the Justice Tour that Rage Against The Machine would play both the Democratic & Republican National Conventions this summer.
Singer/songwriter Howie Day will play Plymouth State University’s Hanaway Theatre at Silver Cultural Arts Center in Plymouth, NH as part of the school’s Homecoming & Family Celebration on Saturday, October 4, 2008 at 8:00pm. Day has been noticably absent from the New England music scene, playing only a handful of shows in the area since his career took off in 2003 thanks to a major label, multi-hit album Stop All The World Now. He was then arrested in 2004, again in 2005, and fans have heard little from him since.
The performance, which appears to be a return to his solo acoustic roots, will be Day’s second in Plymouth. He was an opening act for The Pharcyde at then-Plymouth State College’s annual outdoor Spring Fling on May 5, 2001. There were rumors (and even flyers) that Day would play Hanaway Theatre for Spring Fling 2005, but it turned out to be an April Fool’s joke.
Despite being headquartered in Somerville, MA, Farm Aid will make its New England debut when the annual comes to the Comcast Center (formerly the Tweeter Center and Great Woods before that) in Mansfield, MA on September 20, 2008.
In 1985, music maverick Willie Nelson gathered together a number of his musician friends and farming activists for a benefit concert to publicize the plight of the family farm.
The event raised over $7 million and Nelson contacted (now-executive director Carolyn) Mugar, a local philanthropist and social activist who lived in Cambridge, to help distribute the money. Originally planned as a onetime event, the concert was so successful that it spawned the Somerville-based organization. Farm Aid currently has 12 employees and the concert has occurred annually for the past 22 years.
As ryan.m.cross alerted Red Letter Tribe, video of State Radio’s 9/28/06 set at the Paradiso-Upstairs in Amsterdam is now streaming at Fabchannel. At the time, U.S. fans outside the Pacific Northwest were salivating to hear the new song Unfortunates, written about the West Memphis Three (see video below), which had previously been played only once - at WOW Hall in Eugene, OR - earlier that summer.
01. Black Cab Motorcade
02. The Waitress
03. Unfortunates
04. Man in the Hall
05. Guantanamo
06. Revolutionaries
07. Right Me Up
08. Camilo
09. The Diner Song
10. Time Served
11. Mr. Larkin
12. Rushian (encore)
13. State Inspector (second encore)
Yesterday in Colorado Springs, U.S. Senator Barack Obama repeated his call for the expansion of National Service and his call for Americans to join him in service to the country in an effort to address our most pressing needs both at home and abroad. More than a speech or a single program, Obama said that service would be “a central cause of my presidency.”
The speech was covered heavily by the print news media, including Obama’s hometown Chicago Tribune.
Before a boisterous University of Colorado crowd, Obama said the quiet following Friday’s Independence Day celebrations would be a good time to consider how to contribute “to our most pressing national challenges,” whether in the military, overseas or just next door.
“I hope that you take a moment to think about what you can do to shape a country we love, shape its future,” Obama said. “Loving your country shouldn’t just mean watching fireworks on the Fourth of July.”
“We were ready to step into the strong current of history and to answer a new call for our country. But the call never came,” he said.
“Instead of a call to service, we were asked to shop. … Instead of leadership that called us to come together, we got patriotism defined as the property of one party and used as a political wedge … we ended up going into a war that should have never been authorized and should have never been waged.”
Obama also pressed the need to “ease the burden on our troops, while meeting the challenges of the 21st century” — a plan he hopes will increase ground forces by 65,000 soldiers and 27,000 Marines.
… but they are repackaged as a plan for “Universal Voluntary Citizen Service” and include expanding AmeriCorps to 250,000 slots and doubling the size of the Peace Corps. The plan includes expanding initiatives to motivate disadvantaged young people to veer towards service jobs.
One new proposal is the creation of a Clean Energy Corps that would promote energy independence by helping to clean up polluted lands and plant trees.
Another noticable addition was Obama’s plan to overhaul the website for Bush’s USA Freedom Corps initiative and updating it to unleash the potential of social networking demostrated by his own campaign website.
“We’ll expand USA Freedom Corps to create an online network where Americans can browse opportunities to volunteer. You’ll be able to search by category, time commitment, and skill sets; you’ll be able to rate service opportunities, build service networks, and create your own service pages to track your hours and activities. This will empower more Americans to craft their own service agenda, and make their own change from the bottom up.”
“To marshal their talents in building a new energy economy, I will launch an initiative to give our veterans the training they need to succeed in the Green Jobs of the future. It’s time to end our energy dependence at home so our national security isn’t held hostage to oil and gas from abroad.”
McCain has yet to announce his National Service plan this campaign season, though he co-sponsored the Call to Service Act of 2003, which would have expanded AmeriCorps from 70,000 to 250,000 members.
