Monthly Archives: March, 2012

MAR 29, 2012 - Chaka Khan and others have released a tribute music video titled "Super Life" in honor of Trayvon Martin, and in response to the possibility that Trayvon Martin wearing a hoodie may have played a role in him being profiled by his killer. The video is also sort of a PSA campaign, with people wearing hoodies saying "I am Trayvon, I am [their name], Fear Kills, Love Heals". Chaka gets some help from friends including Angela Bassett, Eva Pigford, Eric Benet, Kelly Price, Kenny Latimore, Loretta Devine and Kimberly Elise. Chaka wears a hoodie in the video and sings:

"Another mama is cryin'
"Cause another young man has gone and died
He's not some statistic
He's an awesome destiny denied"

MAR 28, 2012 - JTMP has been blogging on the freethinker event and concert Rock Beyond Belief this Saturday, March 31, 2012 at the Fort Bragg, NC military base, and JTMP got a chance to interview one of the musicians Jeffrey Lewis that will be performing. This event is being held in response to a 2010 Billy Graham Evangelistic Association “Rock the Fort” event that was heavily evangelical in nature. The activist organizers of the event, such as Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, wear the uniform but spoke up as citizens and wanted equal access, and wanted to promote non-discrimination towards freethinking people such as agnostics, atheists, secularists, humanists and people who just want to be left alone when it comes to religion.  (photo: Sonya Kolowrat and courtesy of TheJeffreyLewisSite.com)

Jeffrey Lewis is a musician who describes himself as anti-folk, but also does animation, video, comic books, illustrations and more. Here is the interview, and check out Jeff's cool website here.

JTMP: I love your anti-folk style, very interesting. I have to confess I was not very aware of this genre. Can you describe what the anti-folk means to you?

Jeffrey Lewis: “Anybody who was playing music at the Sidewalk Cafe in New York City in the 1990s or 2000s was automatically labeled "antifolk" no matter what kind of music you played, so the term doesn't really mean anything other than that.  But it also makes sense for me, more than for some other people, because it describes a certain attitude towards writing and recording and performing that the term "singer-songwriter" would not describe.  I had never heard of antifolk before I started playing at Sidewalk in 1998, but I already would not have thought of myself as a "singer-songwriter," I was more into music as a raw expression in words and sound, NOT so much the delicate craft of piecing words and melodies together.  So I'm glad there's a term that already existed that seems to be some sort of description of that, a description of songwriting that falls outside of the normal image.  So that's what "antifolk" means to me, if it means anything.  I don't mind it, because no matter what you play there will be people who come up with a genre tag for it, you can't escape that, so at least antifolk is a more unique and mysterious tag than "indie rock" or "alt country" or "post punk" or whatever.  If people want to call me antifolk I won't fight it.”

CLICK READ MORE FOR REST OF INTERVIEW

MAR 28, 2012 - JTMP has been reporting on the freethinker gathering and concert "Rock Beyond Belief" that will take place on this Saturday, March 31 at Fort Bragg, NC. Having a non-evangelical and/or non-religious event was a hard pill to swallow for the base commanders, and was met with fierce resistance and backlash. One of the bands participating at the event Aiden received hate email from religious people saying that the band Aiken was "burning down churches for the Obama campaign video" and other ridiculous nonsense. This arose because one of their videos shows a scene of a church burning (watch below), and Fox News reporter Todd Starnes wrote an article twisting the words of the song so badly and taking them totally out of context. Aiden's intention of the scene of the burning churches represents Christians, Muslims and Jews burning their rival's churches through the centuries, and the violence and nonsense perpetrated in the name of religion. The band in no way shape or form condones or promotes violence against churches or religious people. They just don't want discrimination against freethinkers. Read a good article about it here.

MAR 27, 2012 - Activist rapper Rebel Diaz has released a new song on Occupy the Airwaves with his new song, "American Nitemare", where he asks people from the inner city "not to leave when you get that degree" and saying we need to help the inner cities who are struggling, like planting trees, creating jobs and fixing the schools. The video was directed by Mateo Zapata, produced by DJ Dez Andres, and he was helped out by Windy City of God. Check it out below.

MAR 26, 2012 - Activist rapper musician Jasiri X, whom JTMP has blogged about when posting about Occupy Wall Street, has wrote and put out a music video titled, "A Song for Trayvon" in honor of Trayvon Martin, the young man shot and killed in Florida last month. Check out the performance at the House of the Lord Church in Brooklyn, New York in a video below. To sign a petition calling for justice for Trayvon, visit MoveOn.org, and also you can text "Trayvon" to 30644. The hashtag is #SongForTrayvon.