David Ladon – So Inert (or Reflections on a Perpetual Campaign Cycle)
It’s funny how many political songs have been written during the recent U.S. elections cycle in praise, or sharp criticism of one candidate or another. I find it very hard to believe in punk-rockers that would put much of their fate in one political party or another. Frankly, in the U.S. or otherwise, the big players in the political world don’t care about you. But, unlike some horribly brutal places in the world, they don’t have enough power to systematically hurt you either.
David Ladon must have felt a similar level of distrust. So Inert (or Reflections on a Perpetual Campaign Cycle) is a quirky indie-rock song that features horns and humorous lyrics about the inescapable world of the Entertainment world of ugly people aka The Elections.
Mr Ladon doesn’t lean solely on the odd and eccentric musical elements here. Sure, there’s a hint of They Might Be Giants, as he will be happy to recognize. But, as a student of Ray Davies, Ladon also knows his way around a melody. Sometimes these hippies turn out to be more punk than the punks themselves!
Kent State – Radio Moscow
Kent State’s Radio Moscow is the latest in a string of punk-rock re-releases of bands and artists that deserved better as far as the public’s affection is concerned.
As someone who has spent a large chunk of his life in the proximity of the former Eastern Bloc, I’m amazed and intrigued by this song. While inhabitants of countries that found themselves in the vicinity of the USSR, later Russia, were dreaming of all-things American, those on the other side of the Atlantic weren’t very fond of their own situation.
Radio Moscow is a short, clean protest punk-rock tune. Does it make much sense? Sure, in the same way, that U.K. punks used to print shirts with Stalin and the German Fuhrer just to rile people up. Politics are a rotten business that, usually, rules over all of us. Punk rock, especially the now-classic kind performed by Kent State, is the punch to the gut that we need to be reminded of this.
