Occupy This Album - Various Artists

“Occupy This Album” is what every liberal political junkie should have on hand. I realize that’s a bold statement. But “Occupy This Album” truly shows, just like the Occupy Movement, that people from different walks of life, different bands, different genres, different colors, and different beliefs can come together for one purpose, to help each other out, and to show that the 99% will not back down!

Spanning four discs, and seventy-seven vastly different artists, “Occupy This Album” is the sound of a movement that will never die. And with that many songs, I’m pretty sure this album will never die, or end. Seriously, there’s over five hours of music on it. Maybe I’m dumb for trying to review an album with approximately four thousand different genres on it, but like I said before it’s not just punks that are protesting now, it’s everyone. Everyone that is tired of being pushed around by the rich and the government. There are artists from every genre, from punk to rap to jazz to bluegrass to alt rock to pop and everything in between.

Obviously with that many different styles on one disc, I didn’t like some songs, but that’s not due to the artist not having talent, it’s just because that’s not my genre of preference. Every artist on here has talent coming out of their ears. There’s not a poorly produced or ill-put together song on this album. There are so many songs that shine on this album, it’s impossible to name all the great artists.

There are HUGE, I mean, HUMONGOUS names on here. Willie Nelson. Anti-Flag. Deborah Harry. Third Eye Blind. Patti Smith. Yoko Ono. Our Lady Peace. The list goes on, and on, and on…. Seeing big name artists join indie-label bands is truly refreshing to hear. It’s again going back to that everyone is struggling and fighting this. I mean, obviously Willie Nelson isn’t hurting in the cash department, but those big names bring money, focus and help to the cause. I’ll admit it; I was much more excited about this album when I saw Anti-Flag on it, so there you go, an example.

Another reason I liked seeing big names next to smaller ones, is that it gives the chance to discover a lot of really talented artists you weren’t aware of before. Richard Barone, Matt Pless, My Pet Dragon, Build the Sun, and various others are ones that I liked in particular. Don’t write this album off for not having your favorite genre on it, (though I cannot imagine one it missed) because you probably will find an artist on here that’s from a completely different genre than you’re used to that will blow you away. True story, happened to me.

Not all of the songs on “Occupy This Album” are protest songs. There are songs for uniting (We Stand as One, Come on Come on Come On, Smile {Get Up and Sing}, Under the Bridge, others). Ones clamoring for peace and love (Love {Only Love}, Take a Stand, A Peaceful Solution, others), And, Ones shouting that rebellion is the way to go (Rebel, Worldwide Rebel song, People Have the Power, Fight the Good Fight, Revolution, others). And of course the protest ones (Nothing Recedes like Progress, This Is What America Looks Like, GREED, Which Side Are You On?, others).

All in all, a powerful album that shows up any compilation album of many artists of the last few years. A real prize, it’s not an album to be missed.


--Gorgeous Nightmare

Static People - Propaganda EP

In my teens I was kind of rebelIious.  I had a general disgust with the status quo (guess that hasn’t changed much) and was drawn to like-minded individuals and music that could give voice to my angst, such as Patti Smith.

I first saw Patti Smith in 1971 when she was reciting poetry in a small Venice Beach coffeehouse.  She railed against everything - the government, people, life.  A few years later she formed the Patti Smith Group and churned out some of the finest punk rock of the mid-70’s.  Her 1975 album “Horses,” that commences with Smith’s scream “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine,” is still one of my favorites.

Static People released its first EP (which it calls on its MySpace page “Propaganda”) this April and it recaptures the definitive punk style of the mid-70’s Patti Smith Group.  The band consists of bassist Daedalus Howell, vocalist Dmitra Smith, drummer Mundo Murguia and guitarist Pascal Faivre. Static People is produced by Jason Carmer, who has also produced such notables as The Donnas, Third Eye Blind and Run DMC. The band members hail from wine country (or should that be “whine country”), Sonoma, California.  They write all of their own material and consider their influences to be the usual punk suspects - Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Clash, The Pixies, Sex Pistols, Radiohead, Bauhaus, etc. Although they fail to attribute their sound to Patti Smith,  you just have to listen once to Dmitra Smith to know that Patti Smith is truly the progenitor of Static People’s sound. (When I heard her I immediately thought the two Smiths must be related.  I haven’t found any information that confirms or refutes my conjecture.)   Even the band’s Facebook page espouses the anti-establishment anarchic position found in Patti Smith’s poems.  It states that one of their influences is “general disgust of government.”

The EP consists of five punk rants - “Save The Worst,” a pounding damnation of the “Save the World” evangelists that have gone before the present generation; “American Robot Mother,” a stab at the homogenous and consumptive nature of American society;  “Just Sink Down,” a driving tome about allowing oneself to devolve into the depths of darkness, despair and death; “Carrier,” an odd, slow, punk waltz poem about conquest, euphoria and relationship power struggles; and “You Know It’s There,” a highly processed, echo-laden, electronic homage about trust in knowledge rather than perception.  Each track has Dmitra Smith’s voice front and center, full of the same angst and derision that propelled Patti Smith to stardom.

You can catch Static People at gigs throughout the Bay Area and occasionally playing live on 87.9 FM,  San Francisco’s Pirate Cat Radio.  A video is in the works and should be released this December. If you are disgusted with the world as it is, and are looking for a safe outlet to scream about it, this may be your band.     

- Old School