So but people are going to hear from a whole lineup of bands, today...?
September 3, 2014 6:12 PM Subscribe
Boots Riley, (previously,) explain’s his band’s communist philosophy to a happy local Fox News host. Fox station reacts.
I met Boots along with Tom Morello and Breckin Meyer (yep) in 2006 at a tiny little coffee shop in West Asheville, North Carolina. Tom was touring with The Nightwatchman and supporting social justice stuff like the Living Wage people and I assume Boots and Breckin were in on the same stuff. He was nice. That is all.
posted by lazaruslong at 6:34 PM on September 3, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by lazaruslong at 6:34 PM on September 3, 2014 [2 favorites]
That anchor totally reminded me of Nancy Walls in the "Wake Up and Smile" SNL sketch.
posted by entropicamericana at 6:37 PM on September 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by entropicamericana at 6:37 PM on September 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
Can you tell how angry she is in the interview? I think I can, but it so subtle: a pause, a shift in intonation.
But the thing is that, with no board of censors, no political training, a TV anchorperson knows when the interviewee has made political statements she can not put on the air. And, not only does she censor him, but she is personally angry that he has transgressed these unspoken yet rigid boundaries on what can be said.
posted by ennui.bz at 6:45 PM on September 3, 2014 [20 favorites]
But the thing is that, with no board of censors, no political training, a TV anchorperson knows when the interviewee has made political statements she can not put on the air. And, not only does she censor him, but she is personally angry that he has transgressed these unspoken yet rigid boundaries on what can be said.
posted by ennui.bz at 6:45 PM on September 3, 2014 [20 favorites]
I really love it when people calmly explain that they're communists. It makes me so goddamn happy.
posted by furnace.heart at 6:46 PM on September 3, 2014 [30 favorites]
posted by furnace.heart at 6:46 PM on September 3, 2014 [30 favorites]
Extraneous apostrophe, blah... my second graders are rubbing off on me.
posted by Huck500 at 6:52 PM on September 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Huck500 at 6:52 PM on September 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
That was a rant? Something tells me that the producer rarely hats anything outside of the Fox echo chamber.
posted by arcticseal at 6:57 PM on September 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by arcticseal at 6:57 PM on September 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
From the last link: Fox 8 was not the time or opportunity for Boots to go on his political rant. With his statements he not only hurt our station's credibility, but also the festival's.
Following up on ennui.bz, what's further interesting in the station's response is that it appears to be a complete misattribution of emotion. The host/producers were presumably angered, but Boots's words and affect are completely, totally, serenely calm.
Calling it a "political rant" implicates an over-righteous emotional state. But this reflects not what Boots did, but instead something the host/producers felt internally. Yet simultaneously it serves the purpose of a tone argument to discredit Boots (as well as his promoter, etc.).
It suggests there is literally no method by which a black man from Oakland could announce to them that he is a communist and remain credible--not as a political figure but as a "reasonable"* person. This, sadly, probably says something about US political life.
*All feminist concerns about the production of "reason" granted--I'm thinking of it including such discourses, not apart from them. :-)
posted by migrantology at 6:58 PM on September 3, 2014 [23 favorites]
Following up on ennui.bz, what's further interesting in the station's response is that it appears to be a complete misattribution of emotion. The host/producers were presumably angered, but Boots's words and affect are completely, totally, serenely calm.
Calling it a "political rant" implicates an over-righteous emotional state. But this reflects not what Boots did, but instead something the host/producers felt internally. Yet simultaneously it serves the purpose of a tone argument to discredit Boots (as well as his promoter, etc.).
It suggests there is literally no method by which a black man from Oakland could announce to them that he is a communist and remain credible--not as a political figure but as a "reasonable"* person. This, sadly, probably says something about US political life.
*All feminist concerns about the production of "reason" granted--I'm thinking of it including such discourses, not apart from them. :-)
posted by migrantology at 6:58 PM on September 3, 2014 [23 favorites]
I love this interview so much, I do.
If you've never experienced the 2 1/2 minute catchy, scathing punch of "Your Parents' Cocaine" (NSFW, wonky puppets, video shows lyrics) - well, here you are! (previously)
You can listen to a stream of their last album here. It's good stuff.
posted by flex at 6:59 PM on September 3, 2014 [8 favorites]
If you've never experienced the 2 1/2 minute catchy, scathing punch of "Your Parents' Cocaine" (NSFW, wonky puppets, video shows lyrics) - well, here you are! (previously)
You can listen to a stream of their last album here. It's good stuff.
posted by flex at 6:59 PM on September 3, 2014 [8 favorites]
It's a little bit disingenuous to say Fox 8 in Cleveland is Fox News, when it's really a Fox Television affiliate station in Ohio that's owned by Tribune and not News Corp.
It's the station that broadcasts American Dad and syndicated episodes of Big Bang Theory, not Fox & Friends. (Not to say that the set dressing and the graphics don't bring Fox News to mind, but that's not what the clip shows.)
posted by emelenjr at 7:02 PM on September 3, 2014 [5 favorites]
It's the station that broadcasts American Dad and syndicated episodes of Big Bang Theory, not Fox & Friends. (Not to say that the set dressing and the graphics don't bring Fox News to mind, but that's not what the clip shows.)
posted by emelenjr at 7:02 PM on September 3, 2014 [5 favorites]
Pity me, for this is my local news station.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 7:14 PM on September 3, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by bitter-girl.com at 7:14 PM on September 3, 2014 [4 favorites]
For those who haven't looked, the rant is three calmly spoken sentences long and runs about 25 seconds. This roughly a twentieth as much airtime as the second lead from Final Destinaton V will get on Kimmel on any given night to expostulate on how wonderful it was to work with Jason or five seconds shorter than the goddamn Kia commercial you see five times an hour. We are pitching our standards for rant pretty low these days.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:20 PM on September 3, 2014 [23 favorites]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:20 PM on September 3, 2014 [23 favorites]
People say Chomsky is nuts because he says wacky things like "Of course the American media self-censor...".
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 7:45 PM on September 3, 2014 [14 favorites]
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 7:45 PM on September 3, 2014 [14 favorites]
I've seen The Coup live a couple of times and they were great. This interview is so wonderful.
posted by pseudodionysus at 7:45 PM on September 3, 2014
posted by pseudodionysus at 7:45 PM on September 3, 2014
Never heard of these guys but The Guillotine is pretty bad-ass.
posted by daHIFI at 7:57 PM on September 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by daHIFI at 7:57 PM on September 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
I love The Coup, and I saw this a bit ago and I'm surprised it didn't hit the blue yet.
Following the link to Parent's Cocaine brought me to the video for Me and Jesus the Pimp. I didn't know there was a video - cool, cuz the guy playing Jesus in that video wrote/stars in A Huey P. Newton Story. He does a fairly decent impression, though he seems to speak too fast.
I just loved the calm, matter of fact way Boots explains things, and is like "oh you know, just overthrow the corrupt system" like it's NBD.
posted by symbioid at 8:56 PM on September 3, 2014
Following the link to Parent's Cocaine brought me to the video for Me and Jesus the Pimp. I didn't know there was a video - cool, cuz the guy playing Jesus in that video wrote/stars in A Huey P. Newton Story. He does a fairly decent impression, though he seems to speak too fast.
I just loved the calm, matter of fact way Boots explains things, and is like "oh you know, just overthrow the corrupt system" like it's NBD.
posted by symbioid at 8:56 PM on September 3, 2014
The classic Coup track Pork and Beef is 13 years old*, but could have been written in Ferguson about two weeks ago.
You gotta understand that we still not free, indeed.
* and had the misfortune to be on an album with an original cover showing them blowing up a pair of square skyscrapers, released ahead of the mid-September 2001 album release date.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 9:47 PM on September 3, 2014
You gotta understand that we still not free, indeed.
* and had the misfortune to be on an album with an original cover showing them blowing up a pair of square skyscrapers, released ahead of the mid-September 2001 album release date.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 9:47 PM on September 3, 2014
It suggests there is literally no method by which a black man from Oakland could announce to them that he is a communist and remain credible--not as a political figure but as a "reasonable"* person.
Could any person of any colour/ethnicity claim to be a communist in 2014 and expect to maintain more mainstream credibility than, say, a Hollow Earther? Unless one redefines “communism” to be something different than Marxist/Leninist/Maoist ideology as put into practice in the 20th century, but then one's just playing with words.
posted by acb at 2:39 AM on September 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
Could any person of any colour/ethnicity claim to be a communist in 2014 and expect to maintain more mainstream credibility than, say, a Hollow Earther? Unless one redefines “communism” to be something different than Marxist/Leninist/Maoist ideology as put into practice in the 20th century, but then one's just playing with words.
posted by acb at 2:39 AM on September 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
Is this now a thread were we share YouTube links to Coup songs? Because if so here's My Favorite Mutiny. Damn I love The Coup.
posted by Kattullus at 3:57 AM on September 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Kattullus at 3:57 AM on September 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
Unless one redefines “communism” to be something different than Marxist/Leninist/Maoist ideology as put into practice in the 20th century, but then one's just playing with words.
Are we? That'll be news to famously-neither Leninist-or-Maoist intellectual playboy, Karl Marx.
posted by jaduncan at 4:39 AM on September 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
Are we? That'll be news to famously-neither Leninist-or-Maoist intellectual playboy, Karl Marx.
posted by jaduncan at 4:39 AM on September 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
Jesus was a communist and just look what happened to him.
posted by shakespeherian at 6:03 AM on September 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by shakespeherian at 6:03 AM on September 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
and had the misfortune to be on an album with an original cover showing them blowing up a pair of square skyscrapers, released ahead of the mid-September 2001 album release date.
I'm not sure if you're trying to be coy, but those square skyscrapers aren't just generic skyscrapers, they're actually the WTC. For some reason, I thought that album came out in the late 90s.
posted by entropicamericana at 8:01 AM on September 4, 2014
I'm not sure if you're trying to be coy, but those square skyscrapers aren't just generic skyscrapers, they're actually the WTC. For some reason, I thought that album came out in the late 90s.
posted by entropicamericana at 8:01 AM on September 4, 2014
Could any person of any colour/ethnicity claim to be a communist in 2014 and expect to maintain more mainstream credibility than, say, a Hollow Earther?
If we define "mainstream" as "what the big news channels will cover without openly scoffing" then here is a short list of persons and ideas with "mainstream credibility":
-Donald Trump's presidential ambitions
-Donald Trump, the person
-Herman Cain
-Jenny McCarthy
-The President's Birth Certificate
-Is al Qaeda coming over the Mexican border?
-Rainbow parties
Judging any idea or person based on what people who are paid to look good on TV think about it is a one-way ticket to owning a lot of shake weights. If those ideas, like communism, are judged the same way by TV personalities and more "serious" thinkers like, I dunno, Tom Friedman, so much the better to identify which of those serious thinkers aren't worth paying attention to either.
posted by turntraitor at 8:03 AM on September 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
If we define "mainstream" as "what the big news channels will cover without openly scoffing" then here is a short list of persons and ideas with "mainstream credibility":
-Donald Trump's presidential ambitions
-Donald Trump, the person
-Herman Cain
-Jenny McCarthy
-The President's Birth Certificate
-Is al Qaeda coming over the Mexican border?
-Rainbow parties
Judging any idea or person based on what people who are paid to look good on TV think about it is a one-way ticket to owning a lot of shake weights. If those ideas, like communism, are judged the same way by TV personalities and more "serious" thinkers like, I dunno, Tom Friedman, so much the better to identify which of those serious thinkers aren't worth paying attention to either.
posted by turntraitor at 8:03 AM on September 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
I actually worked for The Coup's distributor when that September 2001 release dropped, and oh man did we have a busy week, calling retailers and asking them to send us back all the boxes of CDs they possibly could.
posted by ThatFuzzyBastard at 8:10 AM on September 4, 2014 [6 favorites]
posted by ThatFuzzyBastard at 8:10 AM on September 4, 2014 [6 favorites]
I'll jump on this too and say I agree w/ turntraitor.
Could any person of any colour/ethnicity claim to be a communist in 2014 and expect to maintain more mainstream credibility than, say, a Hollow Earther?
I don't see any problem with pointing out the gross injustice of modern capitalism and advocating for more "people control of the cash of corporations" and workplace democracy.
I suspect Boots is a bit more of an anarcho-syndicalist than a generic communist and I'm pretty certain he isn't a capital-C Communist.
Sadly, as turntraitor points out, you can't say anything sensible nowadays and "expect to maintain more mainstream credibility" than a climate change denier, a Dark Ages Christian Fundamentalist, or Antonin Scalia. The "Hollow Earther's" have ALL the mainstream credibility.
posted by twjordan at 9:58 AM on September 4, 2014 [3 favorites]
Could any person of any colour/ethnicity claim to be a communist in 2014 and expect to maintain more mainstream credibility than, say, a Hollow Earther?
I don't see any problem with pointing out the gross injustice of modern capitalism and advocating for more "people control of the cash of corporations" and workplace democracy.
I suspect Boots is a bit more of an anarcho-syndicalist than a generic communist and I'm pretty certain he isn't a capital-C Communist.
Sadly, as turntraitor points out, you can't say anything sensible nowadays and "expect to maintain more mainstream credibility" than a climate change denier, a Dark Ages Christian Fundamentalist, or Antonin Scalia. The "Hollow Earther's" have ALL the mainstream credibility.
posted by twjordan at 9:58 AM on September 4, 2014 [3 favorites]
I'm Boots Riley, it's a pleasure to meet you
Never let they punk ass ever defeat you
They got us on the corner wearin' pleather and see through
All y'all's gold mines, they wanna deplete you
I ain't just fin to rap on the track, I fin to clap on the back
And it's been stackin' to that
Been a hundred years before iceberg ever lean back in the 'lac
Before they told Rosa, "black in the back"
Before the CIA told Ricky Ross to put crack in the sack
And Gil-Scott tradin' rappin' for smack
This beat alone should get platinum plaques
I'd rather see a million of us ecstatic to crack
'Cause if we bappin' 'em back we automatically stack, check it out
Plus, Boots is here to laugh, love, fuck, & drink liquor. Also, to make the Revolution come quicker
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 10:00 AM on September 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
Never let they punk ass ever defeat you
They got us on the corner wearin' pleather and see through
All y'all's gold mines, they wanna deplete you
I ain't just fin to rap on the track, I fin to clap on the back
And it's been stackin' to that
Been a hundred years before iceberg ever lean back in the 'lac
Before they told Rosa, "black in the back"
Before the CIA told Ricky Ross to put crack in the sack
And Gil-Scott tradin' rappin' for smack
This beat alone should get platinum plaques
I'd rather see a million of us ecstatic to crack
'Cause if we bappin' 'em back we automatically stack, check it out
Plus, Boots is here to laugh, love, fuck, & drink liquor. Also, to make the Revolution come quicker
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 10:00 AM on September 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
I love too that it's not like the Coup keep it a secret. Like, Boots really does give an accurate description -- stuff you'd find with like, five seconds of googling. But yes, it's HIS fault that they asked him a question he gave the correct answer to.
And, of course, their complaint makes it sound like they were interviewing, like, OneDirection or something. (Not as a slam on them, just that they're pretty explicitly non-political.)
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 11:09 AM on September 4, 2014
And, of course, their complaint makes it sound like they were interviewing, like, OneDirection or something. (Not as a slam on them, just that they're pretty explicitly non-political.)
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 11:09 AM on September 4, 2014
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posted by dannyboybell at 6:26 PM on September 3, 2014