Tag Archives: musicians

Earth Day “This Land is Your Land” Sing Out in San Francisco

Posted on by
Reply

This past Earth Day, West Coast musicians including Occupella, Hali Hammer, Country Joe McDonald, the Freedom Song Network, and many others joined to sing Woody Guthrie’s classic “This Land is Your Land.” This song is also featured prominently in the repertoire of The Occuponics and The Guitarmy.

Hali Hammer is also working on editing a video that will capture the nationwide performance of this song on that day. The Occuponics took part in that outdoor event and successfully played even while being buffeted by a Major Northeaster, and we’ll post video of this performance (the Occupy/Ocupemos Sunset Park Sing Out for Earth Day) soon.

GUITARMY In The “Freedom Cage,” May 5th, 2012

Posted on by
Reply

Braced by its success on May Day, Occupy Guitarmy made its way to Federal Hall this past Saturday to jam on the steps of the building where the Bill of Rights is housed, guarded by General George Washington. One-half of these steps has been designated by federal authorities as a “First Amendment Area,” and this small space, ringed by barricades, has been dubbed “the Freedom Cage” by demonstrators.

Here, the GUITARMY jams on a chant-oriented song loosely based on the Pointer Sisters’ 1972 hit, “I’ll Take You There.” The Guitarmy version simplifies the song to a C-F chord progression, accompanied by whatever lyrics are on protesters’ minds at the moment.

NOTE: THIS IS A FIELD VIDEO RECORDING AND WAS UPLOADED WITHOUT EDITING. The music begins about 25 minutes in.

The really cool part is when that gang of high-schoolers comes through and cheers. That truly made everyone’s day.



Video streaming by Ustream

A Shout-Out For Occupella, the Bay Area’s Social Justice Band

Posted on by
Reply

Occupella formed in late 2011 to add musical support to the Occupy Wall Street movement in the greater Bay Area. The Occuponics salute them and include this video showing the band in action. We fully agree with co-founder Bonnie Lockhart’s comment that the purpose of a musical group in a social movement context “isn’t going to be performing, it’s going to be about getting people to sing.”

More on Occupella at The Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/09/occupella-san-francisco_n_1413626.html

Tax Dodgers With Danny Schecter – The News Dissector, on PRN (Progressive Radio Network)

Posted on by
Reply

The Tax Dodgers – a satirical baseball team that The Occuponics often accompany when they stroll and sing the “Tax Dodger Song,” were on the radio recently with Danny Schecter, the News Dissector. Here they are on the radio: this show was broadcast on PRN (the Progressive Radio Network) on April 27, 2012.

Link to page on PRN:
http://prn.fm/2012/04/27/news-dissector-042712/

GUITARMY on Danny Schecter (The News Dissector) PRN Radio Show

Posted on by
Reply

The Occuponics’ Stephen C. Baldwin had the pleasure of being with the GUITARMY today on veteran progressive media critic Danny Schecter’s weekly radio show on PRN (the Progressive Radio Network).

Long before Occupy Wall Street appeared, Danny was pointing out how the corporatization of media was endangering democracy in the U.S.A. You can listen to the show below. Also included is a video shot by Robert K. Chin on the big GUITARMY March on May First, 2012.

INTRODUCING THE OWS “GUITARMY”

A companion article on Guitarmy was published on Truthdig:
http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/introducing_the_ows_guitarmy_video_20120503/

Occuponics, at Federal Hall, Play “Wall Street, Your Kingdom Must Come Down”

Posted on by
Reply


The Occuponics perform “Wall Street Your Kingdom Must Come Down,” a song based on an old gospel song that was taught to the group by Painless Parker, AKA Noam Berg, back in November of 2011.

This song is regularly performed by The Occuponics because it is so aligned with the charter of the band to be “inclusive and participatory.” The song allows people listening to it to sing along with each verse and also to interactively contribute lines to it. It’s also easy to teach to other instrumentalists, because if follows a very simple Dm to A7 to Gm chord progression.

This recording of the song, captured by videographer CocoAndBrownie, includes lyrics calling out Monsanto, Fox News, Rupert Murdoch, as well as unspecified “plutocrats.” The guitarist vocalist is Stephen Carl Baldwin, accompanied by Carlos Mandelbaum on tenor saxophone.

 

Happy Birthday, Pete Seeger!

Posted on by
Reply

Pete Seeger celebrates his 93rd birthday today, and his musical legacy continues to ripple through the headlines, from Norway, where tens of thousands gathered to defiantly sing one of his children’s song to rebut the evils of hate and intolerance, to New York City, where hundreds of guitarists marched and sang some of the traditional folk songs he celebrated through his historic musical career.

The Occuponics had the honor of marching with Pete when he marched from 92nd Street to Columbus Circle back in October 2011 to express his support of Occupy Wall Street. We learned a lot about what it takes to keep the music happening on a long march, actively appliy these lessons to our work with Guitarmy, a project loosely affiliated with the OWS Music Group.

Thanks to the wonderful friend and folksinger Steve Suffet for turning us onto this great video taken of Pete Seeger in Melburne, Australia, back in 1963. As Steve points out, this video captures Pete doing what he does best: getting a lot of people to sing great solidarity-building songs together.

Tax Dodgers on Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now”

Posted on by
Reply

The Occuponics’ Paul Stein was on hand this past Tuesday to provide musical accompaniment for The Tax Dodgers as they strolled around town in support of the May Day protests in New York City. At Union Square, the Dodgers were approached by Amy Goodman, of Democracy Now, and had a chance to be interviewed and perform their original song, “Take Me Out to the Tax Game.” This is the complete (slightly edited) interview of the Tax Dodgers (and of The Occuponics briefly at the end) with a transcript. Part of this interview and the complete “Take Me Out to the Tax Game” found here was a segment of the national broadcast of Democracy Now on May 2, 2012.

Also, you can find the complete May 2nd Democracy Now news broadcast on Democracy Now’s servers, along with a transcript:
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/5/2/may_day_legacy_of_labor_immigrant