Jon Ewing
Playlists
Trial and Error – One Flew West
7 November 2017
The irresistibly catchy Trial and Error proves that just because you hate injustice, it doesn’t mean you have to stop moshing. Frank Turner crashes headlong into Sum 41 in a bubbly 2 minutes 50 seconds of pogo polemic by Colorado four-piece One Flew West.
Meat is Murder – The Smiths
31 October 2017
Opening to the prolonged sound of cattle howling and the machinery of death grinding and whirring, Meat is Murder pulled no punches. This is a difficult song for me because I love The Smiths but I also eat meat, so this song is asking me to consider a grisly reality that, frankly, I would sooner ignore. From my point of view, musing the cultural significance of music, that’s very interesting. From the point of view of the cattle, it’s a different story.
Fuck Armageddon… This Is Hell – Bad Religion
24 October 2017
It’s hard to sum up a band with such an impressive canon as Bad Religion frontman Greg Graffin urges you to always be on the lookout for the true agenda concealed behind the establishment’s strict rules because, as he wrote when he was just a teenager: “they hide behind their lies that they’re helping everyone”.
Speak My Mind – Rue Snider
17 October 2017
Speak My Mind is the protest song equivalent to one of those internet “unboxing” videos, except that instead of a first look at the new iPhone, it’s an unexpurgated reaction to the news that your fellow citizens have elected a leader who not only fails to represent your values but is in fact a very real threat to your way of life and the people you care about.
Two Tribes – Frankie Goes To Hollywood
10 October 2017
Experience the uncomfortable feeling that you’re celebrating the worst excesses of the Eighties, offset by the vague idea that war is basically bad
War on the Workers – Adam East, Kris Deelane
3 October 2017
The opportunity to do a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay is a basic right in a modern democracy and yet successive governments around the world fail their electorate by allowing corporations to make it impossible for workers to earn a living. Moreover, as pressure from the boardroom forces cutbacks on equipment maintenance and training, workers can be putting their lives at risk on the shop floor. And that’s one of the inspirations for War on the Workers.
Tunnel Vision – Kate Tempest
25 September 2017
I think I forgot to breathe for nearly three-and-a-half minutes while I was watching Kate Tempest performing at the Mercury Music Prize awards ceremony last week. With all due respect to Sampha, who eventually carried off the prize money, no other words carried such weight and no other performer wielded such a magnetic influence over the crowd as this 31 year-old poet-turned-rapper from Brockley in London.
Don’t Give Up the Ship – So Pretty
19 September 2017
So Pretty are a DIY feminist punk rock band from Chicago who not only make a fabulous raucous noise but are also community activists in their own right, creating their own arts space for women and trans individuals.
Which Side Are You On? – B. Dolan
12 September 2017
Rhode Island rapper B. Dolan calls out the hip-hop haters in this song that samples a folk song written for striking American miners in the 1930s.
I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free – Nina Simone
5 September 2017
Like a lot of young British movie fans of my age, the deceptively cheerful piano melody of this song first came to my attention in the 1970s as the theme music to the BBC’s long-running Film Review series (Film 1972, Film 1973 etc etc…) and it was nearly twenty years before I learned that this jolly jazz-gospel piano tune was in fact one of the key cultural touchstones of the American Civil Rights movement.
Silver Lining – Stiff Little Fingers
29 August 2017
The music of SLF was a great influence on me as a teenager. Coming from a small, rural town in the East of England, I couldn’t relate directly to a bunch of Belfast boys who had grown up during The Troubles. But I had no difficulty understanding what it was like to be surrounded by generations of adults who thought they knew best about my future, despite making a mess of the world and their own lives.
Now – Potent Whisper + Maria-Christina & The 7 Pedals
21 August 2017
From the very start of Now you’ll be able to hear the simmering anger and imagine the sneering curl of London rapper Potent Whisper’s lip as he taunts the establishment. But what you might be surprised to learn is that the backing music isn’t the usual layer upon layer of samples. It’s not even a whole band, although you’d be forgiven for thinking it is. In fact, all of the music on Now is performed on… a harp.