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Only obliquely political, actually, but my favorite CD of the year so far. It's a kind of Chicano opera about how the city fathers of Los Angeles conspired to bulldoze an old, vibrant barrio through an urban renewal scam. Ultimately Dodger Stadium was built on the site.
This is the first record Cooder's done under his own name since his work on the Buena Vista Social Club project and its many offshoots. Here he's again working with Latin musicians, this time from the American west. New music by Cooder and his colleagues describe the machinations whereby they demonized Chavez Ravine's inhabitants and condemned their homes, as well as character studies of some of the principals: the urban planner who was called up before HUAC as a suspected commie as soon as he ceased to be useful, the poor schmuck driving the bulldozer while the families throw bricks at him, the kid who grows up to be a parking attendant at the stadium where his house used to be. There's also some remakes of contemporary songs, to help set the scene.
My favorite recent explicitly political music is a singer/songwriter duo called the Prince Myshkins. They released a CD last year called Total Myshkin Awareness, mostly satire-- there's a song about John Ashcroft hiding the naked breast of the statue of justice, where the chorus is stripper music; there's a song about soldiers surrendering to protestors at the School of the Americas; there's one about the songs Clear Channel forbade its stations to play after 9/11; etc. There's also one song that's completely serious, with the solemnity of a hymn, called "Ministry of Oil," about how our forces in Iraq actually behave. You probably won't find them in stores, but they have a web page.
Hope this helps.
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