Next year will mark the 30-year anniversary of the founding of 2 Tone Records, the label that fueled a ska revival in the UK, satirized Margaret Thatcher’s policies, pushed for the release of Nelson Mandela, and brought Walt Jabsco to the world. 2 Tone showed the world that you could fight racism, oppose injustice and violence — and have a damn good time doing it. If you’ve never heard of the label, it’s time for you to crank up the volume:

The Special A.K.A. — Gangsters
Madness — The Prince
The Selecter — On My Radio
The Specials (featuring Rico Rodriguez) — A Message to You Rudy
The Beat — Tears of a Clown
Elvis Costello & The Attractions — I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down
The Bodysnatchers — Let’s Do Rock Steady
Bad Manners — Lip Up Fatty
The Specials — Ghost Town
Rhoda Dakar & The Special A.K.A. — The Boiler
The Special A.K.A. — Nelson Mandela

Of late, it seems that the political right has been dipping a toe into musical waters. And while their attempts to find careers after the end of their sojourn in the halls of power can only be commended, it must be remarked that their harmonic chorus tends to evoke memories of other times:

So, Monsieur Sarkozy has done well in choosing as his partner a chansonnière that prefers to focus on selling cars, rather than the passé support for the downtrodden of an earlier generation of songwriters:

Georges Brassens — Chanson Pour l’Auvergnat
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy — Bang Bang (Nancy Sinatra)

And one must certainly feel confident that foreign policy in the USA is safely in the hands of distinguished piano players, rather than being guided by presidents who feel no shame in associating with dames of dubious morality:

Marilyn Monroe — Happy Birthday Mr. President
Condoleezza Rice — Piano Quintet (Antonin Dvorak)

It’s also good to see that Silvio manages to find solace in song, in the face of the ongoing brutal satire of heartless comedians:

Roberto Benigni — L’Italia & Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi — Pigalle (Georges Ulmer)

One thing is certain — the religious right feels a duty to take back the terrain of the stirring patriotic song from pinko sympathizers:

Woody Guthrie — This Land Is Your Land
John Ashcroft — Let the Eagle Soar

Time to wrap this playlist up — let’s hear what the musicians have to say:

Frank Zappa — Plastic People
Denis Leary — Asshole

Ninety years ago, Russian physicist Léon Theremin began his work on the instrument that would lay the groundwork for all of electronic music today: the theremin. While the instrument caught the attention of the world in its day — Lenin himself was an avid fan and player — it largely faded out of sight after the Forties, not least because of the extraordinary demands it placed upon performers. However, in the Fifties, an enterprising young man made a living by selling build-your-own theremin kits, and then went on to bigger and better things. The young man’s name: Robert Moog. And the rest, as they say, is history…

Today, the theremin is mostly remembered as the source of other-worldly sounds in horror and sci-fi films. However, in the hands of a skilled performer the instrument has a distinctive sound unlike any other, evoking the human voice and string instruments at once. Here are a few of the best (or strangest) examples:

Carolina Eyck — La Torre de la Alhambra (Frank Müller-Brys)
Randy George — Super Mario Brothers (Kōji Kondō)
Thomas Grillo — The Swan (Camille Saint-Saëns)
Samuel Hoffman — You Were Meant for Me (Nacio Herb Brown)
Lydia Kavina - Clair de Lune (Claude Debussy)
Pamelia Kurstin — Lush Life (Billy Strayhorn)
Clara Rockmore — The Swan (Camille Saint-Saëns)
Rob Schwimmer — Scene d’Amour (Bernard Herrmann)
Masami Takeuchi — The Swan (Camille Saint-Saëns)
Theremin Orchestra of the 21st Century — Good Vibrations (Brian Wilson)

Every now and then, events come together in ways that cannot be ignored. Last week’s conjunction of an uproar over Kafka’s preferred forms of adult entertainment, the government designation of Page Three material as an essential component of the Canadian Volksgeist, and Ernest Borgnine’s candid revelation of the whereabouts of the Fountain of Youth all pretty much spelled out in advance what had to be the theme of this playlist:

Elvis Costello — Pump It Up
The Divinyls — I Touch Myself
Green Day — Longview
Billy Idol — Dancing With Myself
Cindy Lauper — She Bop
Madonna — Like A Virgin
Pink — Fingers
Donna Summer — Love to Love You Baby
The Vapors — Turning Japanese
The Who — Pictures of Lily

OK — we’ve all heard the jokes about Goths and Emos — black droopy hair, black clothes, black eyeliner, perpetual angst, and a general obsession with death, dying, and all things dead. Trouble is, there are people who take the stereotype a wee bit too seriously: some politicians in Russia are gearing up to outlaw all things Goth/Emo. It seems that they’ve decided to honor Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s memory by heeding his dyspeptic critiques of the West, while conveniently forgetting his commentary on life in the Soviet era… At any rate, here’s a playlist to give everyone a chance to go beyond the stereotype — the Goths and Emos just might have something interesting to say:

Emo Time:
Sunny Day Real Estate — Song About an Angel
Weezer — Why Bother
Braid — The New Nathan Detroits
Jimmy Eat World — Rockstar
Dashboard Confessional — Screaming Infidelities

For the Goths:
Bauhaus — Bela Lugosi’s Dead
The Sisters of Mercy — Marian
Fields of the Nephilim — For Her Light
Mephisto Walz — Mephisto Waltz
Cocteau Twins — Summerhead