Today's Show- Songs of Humor and Protest

With apologies to Kenneth Patchen

This week's show will look at songs of protest. We all know about the 60's Vietnam and civil rights protest songs-- but we'll go beyond that and look at protest songs today, which don't seem to wear their hearts as unabashedly on their sleeves.

Of course there will be some 60's stuff, too. And we can't forget the original protesters-- the Unions. So we'll look at some earlier protest stuff too.

And just so we don't get too heavy we'll sprinkle some humor in there too.

So tune in and enjoy.

The Canada Show

My last show was on March 9th (there was some schedule juggling going on) and after having a conversation with a friend about Canada being part of America-- I decided to devote half a show to Canadian music. Once I started researching, I found so much good stuff that I had plenty to fill the show and still, there was some I didn't get to.

When people think Canada and music, I think they think of Neil Young, Rush, Leonard Cohen, KD lang etc. I wanted to stay away from that and focus more on the newer more progressive stuff. There was plenty of traditional music I could have looked into also, maybe another show.

Here's the playlist- Bingo Canada Show

There really seems to be some exciting music happening up north. Some of the more well known bands like Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene and the New Pornographers have started to put Canada on the alternative rock map.

There's some really fun, hard to define stuff I found too. The Fembots, Deerhoof, Do Make Say Think and Caribou are all worth a listen. The Fembots Mucho Cuidado (it's not new, from 2000) is one of the more interesting albums I've heard this year( FemBots web site ), they call themselves post industrial folk and somehow that seems like a good fit. Check 'em out.

Kid Koala and K-OS show Canada's urban side. Kid Koala is one of my favorites the last couple of years (check out some of his YouTube videos) and Crabbuckit by K-OS will stay in your head for days.

I featured the label Secretly Canadian , though not Canadian (from Bloomington IN) I couldn't resist the name for the show and I had been wanting to feature them for awhile, anyway. They're a great label and have a sister label JagJaguwar. Jason Molina from Songs:Ohia and Magnolia Electric Company is kind of thier star performer, but, Early Day Miners, The Earlies, Catfish Haven and Damien Jurardo are a few to check out also.

And lastly, the Coverall was fun to do this week, as I tried to get a Canadian artist either being covered or covering and sometimes scored both.

Tune in next week when i'll take a cue from poet Kenneth Patchen and look at songs of Humor and Protest.

Welcome

The Bingo Show is going off into cyberspace.

For those who just stumbled upon this-- The Bingo Show is a radio show I do on WMFO Tufts University radio. It's a community station run by students and staffed by students and community members. You can listen at wmfo.org or through ITunes under Public Radio. And of course, if you are in the Boston area, you can always listen the old fashioned way by tuning your radio to 91.5 FM.

The Bingo Show has been on the air since February 2001. We are on currently every other Friday 6-8PM Eastern time. Come check us out.

The Bingo Show explores American music. What do we mean by American music? The Well, I have a pretty wide interpretation of that. But it's an interesting question, because I think it means many different things to many different people. Obviously, jazz, country, rockabilly, blues and rock and roll all qualify, as they were born and developed here. The many regionals flavors that we have come to know-- zydeco, Appalachia, Texas swing, bluegrass, delta blues have all become part of the American music lexicon.

These are the obvious guideposts. But, what of grunge, Motown, Tejano, surf, West coast rap, Southern rock and a list that seems to expand monthly. There's also styles that have come to be know by a particular city- Nashville, Detroit, New Orleans- New York City alone has been the birth of scenes as diverse as the Greenwich Village folk movement, Harlem jazz and the 70's CBGB punk scene. Composers like Gershwin, Stephen Foster, Steven Reich, John Cage and Charles Ives have also deeply impacted what we call American music. And it doesn't stop there. American music must include Canada and Central America and all the varied styles that immigrants bring with them to their new land.

So, as you can see, there's plenty to explore. Through the show and now, here on the blog, I will explore this cornucopia we call American Music. So welcome-- and please feel free to add your own definitions, so together we can come to understand this vast music scene a little better.