Here's a look back at November's political news and the best new music that related听to it. You can also listen to听.
1. DR SURE'S UNUSUAL PRACTICE - REMEMBER THE FUTURE? VOL 2 & 1听
On November 5, environmental activist Greta Thunberg slammed the COP26 climate summit of world leaders in Glasgow. Addressing a crowd of 30,000, she said: "The people in power can continue to live in their bubble, filled with fantasies like eternal growth on a finite planet and technological solutions that will suddenly appear." On the same day, Melbourne political punks Dr Sure's Unusual Practice released their new album, which opens with the song "Infinite Growth". "Chasing infinite growth on a balance sheet, but ," they sing. "Chasing infinite growth in dirty energy, but there鈥檚 no infinite growth if it鈥檚 clean and free." Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison then refused to join other COP26 countries signing up to reduce methane emissions, declaring "can-do capitalism, not don鈥檛-do governments" would save the planet.
2. THE SOCIAL SURGEONS - WHERE THE BLOODY HELL ARE YA?听
Taking Morrison to task were Dr Sure's Unusual Practice's fellow Melbourne punks, The Social Surgeons, with their new album, Where The Bloody Hell Are Ya? Named after Tourism Australia's widely-ridiculed advertising slogan when Morrison was its managing director, the album was released on November 24, National Tourism Day. It has plenty of laughs, but also some serious truths. On "Talk & Walk", singer Juan Ofmany addresses Australia's Prime Minister directly with the repeated refrain: "You're talking shit!" On "Future Generations' Right Of Reply" he blasts current leaders with the words: "We're dead. ." And on "Frontier Wars", he slams the colonists' pillaging of Aboriginal land听with the words: "Massacres were common as settlers stole the land. A Lutruwita blood bath, frontier wars!". 听 听
3. BIRDZ - LEGACY听
Also skewering the land stealers were Butchulla rapper Birdz - with his new album, released on November 19 - and his Yuin label mate Nooky, with his LP released a week later. On "Aussie Aussie" Birdz raps: "We just want to get our fuckin' land back." Talking about the song, he said: "There鈥檚 something powerful about the juxtaposition of the light-hearted music and lyrics that address - Blak deaths in custody, , institutionalised racism." . Birdz's album spans the centuries, from , all the way to Cook's lasting legacy in "Know Your Truth". That song, said Birdz, explores "how Australia鈥檚 violent past continues to haunt our present with over-incarceration rates and child removal". 听
4. KOBIE DEE - GRATITUDE OVER PITY听
On November 3, little was said about white Australia stealing Aboriginal children when a missing four-year-old white girl was found in the home of an Indigenous man. The fact also received little coverage. Such dispossession results in social dysfunction. As Aboriginal activist Cathy Eatock once put it: "Violence in Aboriginal communities is an expression of the violence inflicted on recent generations, from invasion, dispossession and the continuing oppression and marginalisation experienced by Aboriginal people." Addressing such issues is the new EP from Birdz and Nooky's label mate, . On the song "About A Girl", he hits back at domestic violence with the words, "what her friends don鈥檛 know is what this girl won鈥檛 show, all the bruises on her body from her boyfriend, yo".
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5. JESSE JETT - THE COMING OF SPRING听
One white Australian who has been subject to the kind of government abuse normally reserved for Aboriginal people is WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. On November 20, as Assange languished in London's Belmarsh prison under the threat of US extradition, US musician Jesse Jett released his new spoken word album, which praises the publisher. On "Conviction: Winter In Belmarsh" he seethes: "All that we can hope is that we can catch uncle Joe in a fleeting lucid moment of his flickering senile fascist mission. That maybe we could trick him into thinking Julian is just some sweet blonde middle school Christian and she got mixed up with a few bad apples, slapped with some charges and thrown into prison. Joe would set him free without a moment's hesitation under one condition: That before she goes back to school and he goes back to business."
6. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND - THE LEGENDARY 1979 NO NUKES CONCERTS
On November 19, Bruce Springsteen, who played at Joe Biden's inauguration, released his new live album and film, The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts. Before these concerts, which marked Springsteen's first foray into political activism, , since he feared seeing himself perform would make him lose his ability to do it. Instead, the film showed the world what a dynamic performer he was. , which would not appear on the album of the same name for another year. The song contains the lyric: "Is a dream a lie if it don't come true, or is it something worse?" Springsteen has always said his music represents the gap between the "American Dream" and reality. That reality is hammered home by , who .
7. NO GOOD - PUNK GONG听
On November 9, Greenland said "no nukes" as it passed a law reinstating the country's ban on the prospecting, exploration and exploitation of uranium, which had been lifted in 2013. The act was expected to stop a uranium mining project at Kvanefjeld, owned by Australian mining company Greenland Minerals. Two days later in Malaysia, which has also been subjected to Australian uranium mining, punks No Good released their new album. , which is more rural and poor than much of the country. On their debut EP, they hit out at the 鈥減reaching for politics鈥 of the 鈥渟emutar-wearing red beards鈥 who 鈥済o back and forth clutching the Qur鈥檃n鈥. And with the new record, they continue to broach taboo topics such as religious hypocrisy and Malaysians鈥 distorted relationship with their royalty. 听
8. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL PLATOON - THE GUARDIAN ANGEL PLATOON听
On November 14, Australia's meddling in other nations was in the spotlight again, as families spoke out before . Four days earlier, Canadian musician Dennis MacKenzie released his new album, which documents . On "Letter 2" he says: "My boss tells me that P.T.S.D is not real, so if anyone admits to having it then they are fakers and just trying to get time off so they are shamed and kicked out of the military." And on "Letter 3" he laments: "I鈥檝e now lost more friends to suicide than I lost during the Afghanistan war, but no one talks about that." A week later, various artists released to benefit the Afghans themselves. It is they, of course, who are the most traumatised people from the war. 听
9. X-ENNIALS - SENSELESS AMERICAN TRAGEDY听
Days earlier, , which takes aim at Donald Trump, who made a deal with The Taliban to pull out of Afghanistan. The album is broadly themed around America's mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic. But on "Orange Man, Strange World", Davis takes on the voice of Trump as he sings: "I'll tear down the system you got because I wanna. I'll destroy this whole fucking world because I'm gonna. I'll bring back the hate and the pain cause I oughta. I'll lie and I'll lie and I'll lie and I'll lie because I'm gonna. Cause I'm an orange man in a strange world." On the same day, pop star pianist , days before a Trump-backed candidate was elected as Virginia's governor. The victory came after intellectual ."
10. THE BRKN RECORD - THE ARCHITECTURE OF OPPRESSION, PT.1 听
On November 25, after the teenager was acquitted of murdering two white men and injuring another during protests over a white police officer shooting a Black man last year. Rittenhouse had visited Trump's Mar-A-Lago estate and posed for a photo with the former president. After Rittenhouse was found not guilty, political rock group 鈥. On November 12, , who formed after the New York police killed Caribbean immigrant Akai Gurley, released their new LP. That came a week after the release of , which the musician calls "a singular and urgent chronicle of the black British experience". The record features his fellow activists slamming police brutality.
This column is taking a break and will return at the end of January.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mat Ward has been writing for听麻豆传媒听since 2009. He also wrote听听and听makes听political music. This month,听. You can download it free for a limited time.
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