Halldór is the managing editor of Shouts - Music from the Rooftops!, an investigative journalist, audio engineer, and animal rights activist. Currently based in Cuernavaca, Mexico.
This year’s early contender for banger of the summer started in an unlikely place, the idyllic rural community of Lisdoonvarna on the edge of the Burren, West Ireland. The viral hit, The Spark was a collaboration between a crew of pre-teens in Lisdoonvarna and Kabin Studio in Cork City — aka “the real capital of Ireland” — two hours south.
While this collaboration has been widely reported as the track goes viral, what many people don’t know is that it started in an asylum seekers’ home.
Kabin Studio went to Lisdoonvarna with their Rhyme Island initiative, which seeks to make rap an accessible tool for expression, personal development and wellbeing. The Spark was made for the annual Cruinniú na nÓg (Youth Gathering) with local kids, many of whom live in the village’s Direct Provision centre.
Direct Provision is shorthand for the system that provides accommodation, food, money and medical services for people waiting for international protection applications and asylum claims to be assessed.
I spoke to Kabin Studio Director, Garry McCarthy, who explained: “The asylum process can be really isolating, so the Rhyme Island initiative gives young people a way to connect and create.
“The Kabin has worked with young international protection seekers over the last decade now, to the point where we have had youth from Direct Provision develop into mature artists themselves and work as youth mentors at the Kabin.”
As a member of the Kabin’s Advisory Board and global hip hop researcher, I’ve seen how McCarthy (aka GMC Beats) has expertly connected and promoted hip hop arts expression around the world.
Olympio served as MC for a collaboration between The Kabin and the Cork Migrant Centre (CMC) in 2021, producing another youth-led arts production titled, UBUNTU: Local is Global. Hip hop music, art and dance brought Northside youth together with migrant youth from Direct Provision Centres across County Cork to create a beautiful afternoon of energy and expression that has spawned countless artistic connections.
Indeed, Cork’s youth hip hop scene boasts a range of successes, from the women’s empowerment of Misneach (Irish for “courage”) and the proudly local swag of MC Tiny and Jamie the King to the Anti-Racist Youth Led Summit, now in its second year, and the recent launch of Sauti Studios — a new Cork Migrant Centre initiative.
But despite these amazing celebrations of youth creativity and diversity, some people still badly miss the point.
In the recent EU elections, the Irish Taoiseach (prime minister), Simon Harris, used the track to promote his centre-right party, Fine Gael, in the EU elections without credit. The video was quickly taken down and apologies issued, but the incident set off a feeding frenzy for far-right internet trolls and their bots, who used Harris’s bad look as a ruse to attack the government’s immigration policy.
Responding to Fine Gael’s offending Tweet McCarthy suggested to me that lost in the middle of this political hullabaloo were the kids.
“On one side was the Taoiseach and his political party using the track for their own purposes without contacting us, and on the other were these bigots trying to spin the Irish success story of “The Spark” for their own intolerant purposes.“
Ironically, the far-right trolls completely missed the fact that many of the young people in the video were those very same immigrants they were demonising. But as the kids say themselves:
“Think you can stop what we do? I doubt it!”
This multicultural crew’s got the energy. And they’re telling the world all about it.
The veteran protest musician takes a break from concept albums with his latest release – although all the songs are united in protest.
Mat Ward. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Since releasing his debut album, Slow Car Crash – a jungle album about financial markets- in 2017, Australian-based musician Mat Ward has been anything but lazy. He has released seven topical protest albums in that time, covering themes such as surveillance, the media, and the climate crisis. He also produced the G.O.D. EP by his friend and collaborator, Aboriginal rapper Provocalz. On July 26, Ward is set to release his new album, Take The Rad Pill.
When I asked Ward about what set the new album apart from his previous releases, he told me that one of the main differences is that this is his first album that doesn’t revolve around a specific theme. However, although Take The Rad Pill is not a concept album, all the songs on it are bound together by one thing – protest.
Protest music is something that is dear and close to Ward, not only through his music, but as a journalist. For the last decade or so, he’s been publishing a monthly column for an Australian media outlet, Green Left, in which he shares contemporary protest music while covering political news from around the world. He has also published a book about Aboriginal rappers that was called a “must-read” by Britain’s I Am Hip-Hop magazine.
Another big difference with the new album is how Ward is exploring new genres. He told me he was listening to a lot of Rancid while making the album “which resulted in a lot of catchy punk songs.”
“I also had Happy Mondays on repeat, so that resulted in several songs that are like house music with indie vocals. One of these is about a notorious political staffer and tobacco lobbyist called Bruce Lehrmann. He has been making headlines in Australia for years for all the wrong reasons. It’s called ‘Bruce Is Snorting A Line’ and has been getting played on the radio, with the result that people have been ‘shazamming’ it – identifying the song with their phones.”
I asked Ward about his extra curricular activity, i.e. his activism outside of his music or his passion for hiking, and he told me that he can regularly be found on the streets, using his voice in protest:
“You can see me doing that in the video for one of the lead singles off the album, ‘Your Vote’s A Joke’, which has also been getting radio play. The idea behind this song is: If you live in a democracy, you’re lucky, right? But then why do so many people in democracies hate politics and politicians? I’d say a big reason is that they’re allowed to break their promises as soon as they’re elected.
“[The song is] mainly inspired by an interview I did with an author about accountable democracy years ago: He said: ‘The commonly held notion of democracy is not the accountable version originally defined by the ancient Greeks – democratia comes from demos “the people” and kratia “power or rule”. Instead, it is more like the version defined by Harvard political scientist and sometime government adviser Samuel Huntington. His widely cited definition of democracy is profoundly unambitious. He defines it as a system whose most powerful decision-makers are chosen through fair, honest and periodic elections… Huntington’s democracy is nothing like what we could enjoy with truly accountable governance, something we deny ourselves by accepting his democracy-lite version.”
In terms of hiking, as with his music, there is no lack of productivity there for Ward. He is about to finish a 250 km long hike from Sydney to Newcastle which he describes as having been “incredible”. Prior to that, Ward walked 110 km from Barrenjoey lighthouse to Bondi beach during which time he came up with the lead song of the new album, “I Wanna Be Like Violet CoCo”. Ward explained to me how he uses an app that reduces webpages to text only so he can read heavy loads of news offline while out and about and without all the distractions the internet has to offer. For that reason, he’d read news about Violet CoCo, a rather famous activist in Australia, but he didn’t know what she looked like.
“Violet CoCo was so inspiring to me because, like many protesters, I had been going to rallies for years, trudging the same tired streets, with seemingly little to show for it. This person was approaching protest in a whole new, innovative, creative way, that grabbed attention in ways less imaginative activists like me could only hope for. I wanted the song to capture the same emotion as one that had intrigued me in my childhood, The Jam’s cover of The Kinks’ ‘David Watts’. That song and its main lyric, ‘wish I could be like David Watts, conduct my life like David Watts’, left a big impression on me because it was such an unusual admission. Amid so many songs of braggadocio that boast of the writer’s greatness, here was a frank insight into a state most people feel but never share – the desire to be more like someone else.
“When I got home from that day’s walk and began Googling Violet CoCo to flesh out my verses, I gazed in wonder at the screen. I was shocked to find that she was nothing like the person I had imagined. She was young, photogenic, charismatic. The soft edges of her quiet, sweet personality contrasted with her jagged, wonky, lopsided rock star haircut. I hadn’t even realised she was the protester who had set fire to a pram outside parliament in Canberra. That iconic image had seared itself into my mind for eternity the moment I saw it.
“I was inspired and fascinated by one particular video of her outside court. Prodded by her interviewer, she admitted that, far from being hard as nails, she was ‘actually a very fearful person’.
“This is our problem. We’re all too stupid to be scared. Violet CoCo is one of the few people with the fear we should all have. That’s why I wrote this song.”
We’re thrilled to be able to offer a platform for the premiere of Ward’s new album, Take The Rad Pill, which can be streamed exclusively below.
TAKE THE RAD PILL
Out July 26, 2024 Genre: EDM / Punk
TRACKLISTING
1. Who Are Ya? 2. Your Vote’s A Joke 3. Stoop So Low 4. I Wanna Be Like Violet CoCo 5. Bruce Is Snorting A Line 6. Quiet Quitting 7. She’s Fighting On 8. PwC – Prison Waits for Criminals 9. Why’s It Always Us Who Get The Blame? 10. Low-Rung Thinking 11. You Gotta Be Kiddin’ (Bandcamp download-only bonus track) 12. Where Were You? (Bandcamp download-only bonus track) 13. Musk And Murdoch (Bandcamp download-only bonus track)
I’m DJ General Strike, host of the weekly protest music radio show, Protest Tunes on 91.3 KBCS FM in Seattle, WA. I broadcast 2 hours of radical protest music of all genres and eras every Wednesday at 9 PM. Every quarter, I put together a radio show and playlist of my favorite new protest songs released that season, which I call “molotov hot tracks.” This Spring, saw the release of many great protest songs, most notably songs about the recent British parliamentary election and the upcoming US presidential election, songs against Israel’s ongoing war/genocide in Gaza, and songs of LGBTIA Pride. I aired most of these songs on my show this Wednesday (July 10th 2024), which you can listen to the archive of here. I’ve organized these 40 protest songs by genre below (and alphabetically within genre). You can also listen to all 40 songs on this Spotify Playlist. I hope you all are inspired by these molotov hot tracks!
Folk
Adeem the Artist – White Mule, Black Man
Adeem the Artist, AKA Adeem Maria, a nonbinary pansexual poet, singer-songwriter, storyteller, and blue-collar artist. A seventh-generation Carolinian, they now reside in the hills of East Tennessee. They started their music career performing on cruise ships. This track about the history of racism in Knoxville, TN is off Adeem’s new album Anniversary, released May 3rd.
Apes of the State – Forensic Files feat. Local News Legend
Apes of the State is an independent Lancaster, PA based folk punk band. As a band, they are driven by DIY ethics with a goal of helping as many people as possible with their music. The members are also heavily involved in activism for people recovering from substance use disorder and promoting harm reduction. This single released May 3rd, features fellow feminist folk punk duo Local News Legend, also from central Pennsylvania.
Carsie Blanton – The Democrats
Carsie Blanton is a singer-songwriter and guitarist based in New Orleans. Blanton says she “writes anthems for a world worth saving.” About this single released May 31st, she said it’s a “f— the democratic party for sitting on its hands during a genocide” kind of a song.
Troy Cassar-Daley – Windradyne
Troy Cassar-Daley is an Aboriginal Australian country music songwriter and entertainer. His mother is from the Gumbaynggirr and Bundjalung people. Cassar-Daley has released thirteen studio albums, two live albums and five compilation albums over 30 years. Windradyne tells the tale of the Indigenous warrior and resistance leader of the Wiradjuri nation from the 1800s.
Ani DiFranco – New Bible
Grammy winning feminist folk-rock singer-songwriter, author and activist. One of the first artists to create her own label in 1990, she is called ‘the mother of the DIY movement’ and has sold over 5.5 million albums on her own Righteous Babe Records. New Bible is an anti-capitalist song, the 2nd single off her upcoming album Unprecedented Sh!t’, Ani’s 23rd release, just released July 12th.
John Moreland – The Future Is Coming Fast
Moreland is a Singer-songwriter from Tulsa, Oklahoma. This is the opening track off his new album, Visitor, which Moreland recorded at his home in Bixby, Oklahoma, in only ten days, playing nearly every instrument himself, as well as engineering and mixing the album. On “The Future Is Coming Fast”, Moreland laments the “perpetually logged-on life in a time of catastrophe.”
David Rovics – This Is Genocide
Rovics is a Portland, OR based activist singer-songwriter, and anti-Zionist Jew from New York. In order to spread the political messages in his songs Rovics has made all of his recorded music freely available as downloadable mp3 files and all his sheet music and lyrics are available for download too at davidrovics.com. This song against Israel’s war on Gaza is off Rovics new album Bearing Witness, released May 1st.
Aaron Lee Tasjan – I Love America Better Than You
Aaron Lee Tasjan is a Nashville-based singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer, formerly of the bands Semi Precious Weapons and BP Fallon & The Bandits. About this song, Tasjan said “As a queer person living in the southern United States in 2024, I am examining my country’s complexities, contradictions and hard truths in a way that’s conversational.”
Frank Turner – The Leaders
Frank Turner is an English punk and folk singer-songwriter who began his career as the vocalist of post-hardcore band Million Dead, then embarked upon a primarily acoustic-based solo career following the band’s split in 2005. This anti-authoritarian song off Turner’s new album Undefeated, is a rewrite of an old unreleased song of his called Practical Anarchist.
Rock
Joe & The Shit boys – LEGALIZE EVERYTHING
Joe & The Shit boys are a queer vegan indie-rock band “with hardcore vibes”, from the Faroe Islands, (the archipelago between Iceland and Norway). The band formed with the intention of calling out bad behavior in their conservative local music scene, which they describe as “filled with boneless homophobes and meat-eating misogynists.” In this short song they challenge the prohibition of all recreational drugs.
Ferocious Dog – Kleptocracy
Ferocious Dog are an English folk-punk band from Warsop, Nottinghamshire, England. Their fans are affectionately referred to as ‘Hell Hounds’. This song against corrupt politicians in Britain written on the occasion of the British parliamentary elections is the title track off their new album released May 17th.
Melody Angel – Say Her Name
Melody Angel (which is her real name) is a Chicago based blues-rock guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, vocalist, arranger, and producer. She’s also a cousin of Chicago blues icon, Otis Rush. This song off her self titled 3rd album released June 7th, raises awareness for Black women victims of police brutality.
Scarlet Rebels – Divide and Conquer
Scarlet Rebels are a five-piece melodic rock band from Llanelli, South Wales, formed in 2018. They’re known for their efforts to raise money and collect donations for local food banks and charities. This protest song against Britain’s ruling Conservative Party is from their upcoming album, “Where The Colours Meet” due out August 16th.
R&B/Pop
Emma Donovan – Change is Coming
Emma Donovan is an Aboriginal Australian singer and songwriter formerly of bands the Stiff Gins and the Putbacks. She is a member of the renowned Australian musical Donovan family. She started her singing career at age seven with her uncle’s band, Australian Aboriginal country group the Donovans. This hopeful political song is off her new solo album Til My Song Is Done released April 19th.
The Secret Sisters – If the World Was a House
The Secret Sisters are a singing and songwriting duo consisting of vocalists Laura Rogers and Lydia Rogers, who are sisters from Muscle Shoals, Alabama. About this song, they said “it is wrestling with a longing for everyone to take better care of each other, and to recognize that every person you share the planet with matters just as much as you do.”
Reggae/Ska
Buju Banton – Slogan
Buju Banton is a Jamaican dancehall, ragga, and reggae singer, from Kingston, Jamaica. Buju is a nickname given to him by his mother as a child. Banton is a Jamaican word that refers to someone who is a respected storyteller, which he adopted in tribute to deejay Burro Banton, who’s style of rough vocals and forceful delivery Buju emulates. Buju released this single about the media’s political spin on May 3rd.
YG Marley – Survival
YG Marley is the son of American rapper and singer Lauryn Hill and Jamaican football player Rohan Marley, and the grandson of reggae pioneer Bob Marley. This song about black resilience, which samples and references a handful of Bob Marley tracks, made its premiere on “The Tonight Show”, May 14th, in which Lauryn Hill performed alongside YG Marley.
Black Roots – Exploited
Black Roots are a roots reggae band from Bristol, England, formed in 1979. This track about the legacy of slavery and European colonialism is off their new album Roots, released in April.
Jazz/Spoken Word
The Brkn Record – Why do they fear us (featuring Yolanda Lear)
The Brkn Record is a project led and produced by Jake Ferguson, the co-founder and bass player for the UK’s deep jazz outfit the Heliocentrics, with fellow Heliocentrics co-founder and drummer Malcolm Catto. This song about blackphobia is off The Brkn Record’s new album, The Architecture of Oppression Part 2 released May 31st.
Hip Hop
Audio Assault – STRIKE!
Audio Assault is a political techno-industrial rap band originally from Dallas, Texas, one of the first acts to combine hip hop, industrial rhythms and rock guitars. This single released May 21st, features hip-hop legend Kool Keith, disco-industrial artist Xiu Xiu , punk-hiphop artist Ceschi (of Codafendents), Denver rapper and author Time (of Calm), and Bay Area artist Yunoka Berry (of Angelo Moore & The Brand New Step).
Dakota Bear x NugLife – Stolen Land
Dakota Bear is a Saskatoon-born, Vancouver-based Indigenous hip-hop artist and activist. NugLife is an LA based producer, beat-maker, and DJ. This song is off Nuglife’s album Nuglife 2024 released in April, and is about the colonization and genocide of the first nations peoples of Canada.
Dobby – Language is in the Land
Dobby is a Filipino-Aboriginal Australian musician. He describes himself as a “drapper”, a contraction of rapper and drummer, although he plays other instruments too, and is also a composer. This track is off Dobby’s new album WARRANGU: River Story, about the Barwon, the Bogan and the Culgoa Rivers in New South Wales, which he says is “about fighting for these rivers, and it’s about knowing how to be proud and how to take care of our land and waterways.”
Gabriel Teodros – Fire Season Part 2
Gabriel Teodros is a musician, DJ and writer from Seattle formerly of the groups Abyssinian Creole and Copperwire. Teodros’ music often features socially conscious themes, and he was a catalyst in the surge of dynamic underground rap acts from the Pacific Northwest during the first decade of the 2000s. This followup to his 2023 anti-war song Fire Season was released May 31st.
K!MMORTAL – Stop Business As Usual PART 2 feat. Phoenix Pagliacci & Bobby Sanchez
Kimmortal is a Queer Filipina emcee and singer-songwriter based in Vancouver, BC. Their debut album Sincerity = was entirely crowd funded by her community. In this follow up to Kimmortal’s November single against Israel’s war on Gaza, Stop Business As Usual, they feature Toronto R&B/Hip-Hop artist Phoenix Pagliacci of TRPP and transgender American-Peruvian rapper Bobby Sanchez.
Mach-Hommy – POLITickle
Mach-Hommy is a rapper and record producer from Newark, New Jersey of Haitian descent. He is well-known for his reclusive nature, concealing his real name and face in all public appearances. This behavior has led him to be described as “one of hip-hop’s most elusive artists” and gained him a cult following. POLITickle is about the International Monetary Fund in Haiti and is off his new album #Richaxxhaitian released May 17th.
Rapsody – He Shot Me
Rapsody began her career at North Carolina State University, where she joined hip hop collective H2O and its spinoff group Kooley High, despite not having rapped before. She launched her solo career in 2008. This song off her new album Please Don’t Cry is about the police murder of Breona Taylor, and samples Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff”.
Rebelwise – Be Like Water (feat. Aya Iworiosa, Stic.Man, Ashel Seasunz & Quincy Davis)
Rebelwise are a conscious hip hop band from Portland, OR. They describe themselves as “Rebelwise delivers dope-medicine to uplift our people and our communities.” “REBEL speaks to the spiritual warriors standing with conviction. WISE speaks to engaging with a deeper awareness, in relationship with Creation.” This song off their new album Fully Loaded Altar, features Stic.Man, one half of the political hip-hop duo Dead Prez.
Talib Kweli & Madlib – Nat Turner (feat. Cassper Nyovest and Seun Kuti)
Talib Kweli earned recognition through his collaboration with fellow Brooklyn rapper Mos Def, when they formed the group Black Star in 1997. Madlib, is a DJ, music producer, and rapper, who has described himself as a “DJ first, producer second, and MC last.” Their new album Liberation 2 released in April is a sequel to their 2007 release Liberation. This track was inspired by abolitionist Nat Turner, an enslaved man who led a rebellion of enslaved people in 1831 in Virginia.
Macklemore – Hind’s Hall
The Seattle star rapper released this viral protest single on May 6th. The title references Columbia University Gaza encampment activists’ renaming of Hamilton Hall to “Hind’s Hall” in honor of Hind Rajab, a Palestinian child killed by Israeli forces. Tom Morello said “Hind’s Hall” is the most Rage Against The Machine song since Rage Against The Machine.” Macklemore is donating all proceeds from the track to UNRWA.
Metal/Hardcore
Bear McCreary and Serj Tankian- Incinerator
Bear McCreary is an Emmy winning composer of film, television, and video game scores. This single featuring System Of A Down’s Serj Tankian on vocals is from Bear’s new double album The Singularity. About the song, Bear said “Once I heard Serj’s searing vocals, I knew immediately that Incinerator would be the first song on the album, acting like a warning that a massive, aggressive, and emotional journey lay ahead.”
CROSS DOG – Jane Roe
Cross Dog is a female fronted experimental, bass-driven hardcore punk band from Peterborough, Ontario. In this pro-choice single from their new album All Hard Feelings, the name ‘Jane Roe’ is used to “represent every single person who is forced to fight for their reproductive rights and access to abortions.”
Death Lens – Disturb The Peace
Death Lens originally formed in LA as an instrumental project, then evolved as they began using their platform to protest injustices facing their communities. This song, off their new album Cold World, is “a song written for the people, inspired by the people, and for my people – like my immigrant parents who came to the chaos of America to give us a better life and opportunity,” says vocalist Bryan Torres.
Tom Morello – Soldier In The Army Of Love
Tom Morello, is a guitarist, singer-songwriter, and political activist, best known for his tenure with Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. This new solo single, off his upcoming solo rock album, Morello calls the song “a salute to the transformative power of music”. It features a guest guitar solo by his 13-year-old son, Roman Morello.
Punk
The Anti-Queens – Crusade
The Anti-Queens are a “punked up rock n’ roll quartet of super high-powered women who give the male-dominated music industry a run for their money” from Toronto. This single off their new album, Disenchanted, explores the systemic oppression faced by marginalized groups, particularly Indigenous Peoples in Canada.
The Irrepressibles – Yo Homo
The Irrepressibles is the creative guise of British musician Jamie McDermott. The project’s name is “about breaking boundaries in music and being honest about being gay in music”. Based in London, for many years, Jamie Irrepressible currently works from Manchester. Yo Homo! is a single about gay & queer rebellion released May 24th.
Lambrini Girls – Body of Mine
Lambrini Girls are a queer feminist three-piece punk band from Brighton, UK. About this single released April 23rd, The band says, “this song is about trying to connect to your gender identity, feeling like you’re not fully yourself, and struggling to figure out how to truly become it.”
Pink Suits – Dystopian Hellscape
Pink Suits are a queer, feminist punk duo out of Margate, U.K, formed in 2017. This is the title track off their sophomore album Dystopian Hellscape, which they describe as “an astute and comprehensive reaction to existing in the mess that is Tory Britain in 2024.” The track uses contemporary news stories to “create a tapestry of struggle that builds up in a horrifying picture of contemporary life.”
Ryan Cassata & The Top Surgeons – The Truth The Life The Way
Ryan Cassata is a transgender singer-songwriter, actor, speaker, and activist based in New York. This is the opening track off Ryan’s first punk album, with new band The Top Surgeons, called “This Machine Kills Transphobia”. They describe the album as “a collection of punk songs meant to challenge systems of oppression, especially sexism and transphobia.”
The Tony Slug Experience – Puppet Smut
This track, featuring Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys is off the self-titled album, The Tony Slug Experience, an homage to Amsterdam punk pioneer Tony Slug, of bands BGK, Loveslug, The Nitwitz, and The Hydromatics. An international group of over 30 musicians contributed to what became Tony’s final record; right after all recordings were on tape, Tony died at the age of 60 after a brief battle with throat cancer.
Lady Parts – Glass Ceiling Feeling
Lady Parts is a band created for the British sitcom, We Are Lady Parts, created, written, and directed by Nida Manzoor, who alongside her siblings, also writes and supervises the music for the show. The series follows a British punk rock band named Lady Parts, which consists entirely of Muslim women. This track is off the show’s soundtrack, We Are Lady Parts (Music From The Original Series – Seasons 1 & 2) released May 31st.
