Song: “Youth Against Fascism”

CD: Dirty

The crazy, fuzzed out noise storm of Sonic Youth, with a simplistic message against racism, sexism, and, of course, fascism.

Website: www.sonicyouth.com

Song: “Get Free!”

CD: Highly Evolved

Not really that political, but that chorus “I gotta get free!” is a pretty nice anthem.  Also, it rocks.

Website: www.thevines.com

Song: “Music and Politics”

CD: Hypocrisy Is the Greatest Luxury

Surprisingly introspective and funky track from the industrial hip-hop band fronted by Michael Franti.

Website: wikipedia

Song: “Bang! Bang!”

CD: From the Desk of Mr. Lady

Haunting punk track that embodies all the horror and fury we should all feel about racist police murder.

Website: www.letigreworld.com

Director: Avi Lewis

In 2001, the Argentinian economy utterly collapsed. The working poor lost their jobs, the middle class went bankrupt, and the super-rich fled for greener pastures. But out of this catastrophe came hope and democracy. Workers who’d been fired when their factories closed down decided to return to work, run the factories as equals, and share in the profits. The Take tells their story.

More>

By Brian Wood

The vast majority of Americans have no real concept of the meaning of war. Most of us having never seen war’s face on our own soil in their own lifetimes, and our news media gives us only the faintest glimpses of what war is like abroad.

Which is why DMZ is so important. It’s a comic book set in the very near future, in which New York City has become a war zone, a battlefield between the US government and disgruntled American militias. We Americans may not see what real wars look like, but DMZ gives an ultra-realistic portrayal of what war would look like in a setting that is oh so familiar. Gritty art, appallingly realistic story.

Buy This Book

Song: “Holiday in Cambodia”

If you like your punk dripping with sarcasm, this one’s for you.  Yes,  you can play this song in Guitar Hero.

CD: Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death

Website: www.deadkennedys.com

By Michael Pollan

Thanks to the world of big business and advertising, many aspects of our daily lives are hidden behind shiny packaging and smiling supermodels. Meanwhile, industrial forces wreak havoc on our world outside of our field of vision. How things are built, grown, transported, maintained, these things matter, and we don’t even have the most basic facts. Michael Pollan’s latest book helps peel back the curtain to tell us the story of what we’re actually eating and how it got that way, and what the consequences of these processes really are.

Buy This Book

Song: “Lady Liberty”

CD: Life Won’t Wait

Little rockabilly about American dreams shattered from these punk icons.

Website: www.rancidrancid.com