daft punk
You can add ska-punk legends Fishbone to the increasingly lengthy list of musicians who are not fans of Donald Trump. The veteran band released a pointed broadside against convicted felon Trump on Thursday (Oct. 31), just days before the Nov. 5 presidential election.
“Proud to have this new song out… it was actually written back in 2017, but never got on tape until now. Sad part is that it’s only gotten worse,” the band wrote on Instagram about the bubbling verbal takedown “Racist Piece of S–t” (also tagged as “RxPxOxS” to seemingly beat censors.)
“Here’s the thing, this song pulled no punches… if you are a fan of this band from the start, you know we have never been shy of speaking our truth,” they wrote on Instagram of the track whose lyric video features a cascade of news headlines about the deadly January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters.
And, indeed, the lyrics to the two-tone takedown are precise and concise. “I see you coming down the street/ With tiki torches and hate speech/ You’re not a proud boy/ You’re just a F$@k Boy/ Drinking the kool aid Of a mad orange king,” singer Angelo Moore spits in reference to the white supremacist rally Charlottesville in 2017 in which neo-Nazis spewed antisemitic and racist hates speech at an event where Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides.”
The song continues with lyrics aimed at one of the celebrity supporters of the former reality star, before getting to the pointed chorus. “Another Kid Rock/ With all the hate talk/ Murder Sickness global crisis coup d’état vanilla isis/ Ohhhh.. you’re just a racist piece of s–t,” Moore sings, adding, “The Power zombies said/ Let’s put this lie to bed/ Here’s an ignorant pillow for your empty racist head.”
“As artists, this is our platform, be it music, art or words. If you don’t agree, that’s fine,” Fishbone said in their statement. “Just don’t come in here telling us to shut up and dribble, you are talking to the wrong brothers. We speak our reality and if you are still “undecided” well, maybe this song and perspective will open you up with a straight up call out of what is at stake.”
The Los Angeles group has long made standing up to racism and fascism part of their brand, mixing uptempo party jams with conscious lyrics on their beloved 1988 second album, Truth and Soul, including on the punk blitz “Subliminal Fascism” and funk rocking “Ghetto Soundwave.”
In an email interview with Rolling Stone, founding keyboard/trombone player Christopher Dowd said he knew he had to write a song about Trump a decade ago when Trump announced his first run for the White House. “The timing of this release couldn’t be more perfect,” Dowd told the magazine. “With Election Day five days away, maybe hearing this song, if you are ‘undecided,’ will trigger your subconscious to think about who could win and what that would look like to the country and the world. One person in a leadership position can automatically make you guilty by association. So will you want to be associated and represented by a person with non-apologetic racist tendencies or a person that doesn’t?”
The post ended with an urgent plea to vote on Tuesday (Nov. 5)in the election that pollsters continue to say is a near dead-heat between Vice President Kamala Harris and twice impeached Trump.
Listen to “Racist Piece of S–t” below.
Daft Punk‘s critically acclaimed album Random Access Memories is getting a 2023 re-release in honor of the project’s 10-year anniversary, the duo announced via Twitter on Wednesday (Feb. 22).
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The new edition of Random Access Memories — which won the Grammy for album of the year in 2014 — will include 35 minutes of additional material across nine tracks, including unreleased demos and studio outtakes. Fans will have their choice of two different formats for the project: a double CD or a vinyl set with three LPs. The CD set will include a 20-page digital booklet, while the vinyl set will include a special Lose Yourself to Dance poster and 16-page booklet. For the first time ever, an Atmos mix of the original album will be made available on streaming.
Tracks on the album include the singles “Get Lucky” (Grammy winner for record of the year in 2014) and “Lose Yourself to Dance,” both featuring Pharrell Williams, as well as “Instant Crush” with Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, “Doin’ It Right” and “Give Life Back to Music.”
Released in May 2013, Random Access Memories spent a total of 54 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart, including two weeks in the No. 1 spot. Lead single “Get Lucky” spent five weeks at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The 10th-anniversary edition of Random Access Memories is available to pre-order now; the LP will begin to ship on May 12. See Daft Punk’s announcement and the album’s official track list below.
Random Access Memories 10th-anniversary track list
“Give Life Back to Music”“The Game of Love”“Giorgio by Moroder”“Within”“Instant Crush”“Lose Yourself to Dance”“Touch”“Get Lucky”“Beyond’”“Motherboard”“Fragments of Time”“Doin’ It right”“Contact”“Horizon” (Japan CD)“GLBTM”(Studio Outtakes)“Infinity Repeating” (2013 Demo)“GL” (Early Take)“Prime” (2012 Unfinished)“LYTD” (Vocoder Tests)“The Writing of Fragments of Time”“Touch” (2021 Epilogue)
The Daft Punk camp has been as quiet as an empty nightclub since the French icons officially announced their breakup in February 2021. But Tuesday (Jan. 24) offers tangentially related Daft Punk news by way of the group’s Thomas Bangalter.
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This April, the producer will release his first solo album, an orchestral project called Mythologies. The work comes with a predictably high-pedigree backstory, having been commissioned by French choreographer Angelin Preljocaj for the ballet of the same name. The show premiered in Bordeaux at the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine.
A press release on this project states that the 90-minute score “reveals a love of Baroque music and hints to traces of American minimalism, its brief phrases subjected to a process of progressive variation.” The orchestral work does not incorporate any electronic elements. See its cover art below.
The project, out April 7 via Erato/Warner Classics, began in fall 2019 when Preljocaj invited Bangalter to write the music for a new work. Preljocaj advised that this piece was intended for 10 dancers from the Opéra National de Bordeaux’s ballet company, 10 others from Preljocaj’s own company and the house’s resident orchestra.
“This invitation,” the press release continues with a wink to kismet, “arrived at the very moment that Bangalter was itching to write for a full orchestra.”
The resulting 23-scene production and its corresponding music do nothing less than “delve into the legacy shared by all of humankind by embracing the ancient and modern myths that reflect and shape us.”
“I think all artists should have freedom,” Bangalter’s father Daniel Vangarde told Billboard last November. “I helped Thomas, Guy-Man and their friends as much as I could to allow them to release without barriers. They were only 20 years old and the industry could have squeezed them — a normal contract generates interference between your work and the time it’s released… My input was to help create a good environment that allowed them to produce freely.”
Thomas Bangalter, “Mythologies”
Stephane Manel
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