JD Samson + MEN are performing tonight at the Echoplex in Los Angeles and Friday at Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco. The band, formerly called MEN but recently renamed for clarity (try searching just MEN and see what you come up with!), is a Brooklyn-based art/performance collective led by JD Samson (of Le Tigre) and Michael O'Neill, with Le Tigre bandmate Johanna Fateman and artist Emily Roysdon contributing as writers, consultants, and producers. When MEN performed at Amoeba Hollywood last year, they were joined by Tami Hart on bass and guitar. For this West Coast tour, they are performing as a four-piece for the first time.

Watch their full performance from Amoeba Hollywood:

Samson, who is a leader in the LGBT community, wanted to create dance music that also spoke to her politics, beliefs, and passions. Formed in 2007, MEN released their debut full-length album, Talk About Body, on IAMSOUND Records in February 2011. This February, the band released Next, the first in a series of four EPs to be released this year that further mix dance floor beats with politics and life issues. They also recently performed at Occupy Wall Street on May Day.  

Like your rap long, ponderous, and downright hilarious? Thanks to RAP NEWS (written and created by Hugo Farrant and Giordano Nanni in a home-studio in Melbourne, Australia), there's a constant stream of socio-politically relevant musical commentary addressing the global issues of today. Oh, and they wear funny wigs.

Their latest installment (episode 10) discusses the big one: 2012!
What will happen? Will we see the poles shift or a paradigm shift? Will a rogue Sumerian planet smash into our solar system, plunging us into serfdom under the iron fist of a race of gold-hungry aliens? Or are the aliens already here? 

Bringing out the big guns -- Noam Chomsky and even an embodiment of Anonymous -- RAP NEWS crams in as many theories and arguments as possible about our impending end of days. Happy New Year!

-- Audra

Earlier this week folk-rock legends Graham Nash and David Crosby stopped by Zuccotti Park in downtown Manhattan to do an impromptu, politically charged acoustic set for the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protesters that included “Long Time Gone,” “They Want It All,” and “Teach Your Children."

Note that Stephen Stills, who was also in town for the trio's Beacon Theatre concerts this week did not join them @ OWS, but Crosby and Nash sure represented and were the latest musicians in a long list of artists to have either performed at or stopped by and visited the Occupy Wall Street encampment. Others who have shown solidarity for OWS or have visited the relatively small, privately owned Zuccotti Park in the downtown Manhattan, Wall Street/financial district that began back in September, have included Pete Seeger, Talib Kweli, and Immortal Technique (see video below). 

A week ago, while in New York, I stopped by OWS a few times to talk with several occupiers including a member of the (OWS house band) percussion based Pulse band whose daily hours of drumming were curtailed following complaints by the immediate lower Manhattan community. My questions were about music and the role it plays in the Occupy Wall Street movement and specifically what music acted as the perfect soundtrack for OWS.  Many of the folks I talked with, that included occupiers camped out every night at OWS and some protesters who stopped during the day only, are included in the video clips below. These include Kyle who took a break from volunteering at the main food kitchen to chat, telling me that he has been at Occupy Wall Street since day one. And like many of the residents who have apartments downtown, he too is sick of the drums going non-stop. "Trust me, it's annoying," he laughed, "I just zone them out of my head. I don't even pay attention to them." he said. The Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin,  "old protest songs, maybe something like Country Joe [McDonald] and Arlo Guthrie" are among the twenty something protester's musical faves along with System of A Down and Rage Against The Machine.

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Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! It’s almost time for Halloween! And you know what that means? Stressing out about costumes, making the Sophie’s Choice over which parties to attend (basically an exercise in letting your friends know who you like most) and experiencing undue suspicion of apples. (Is an apple stuck with hidden pins healthier if it’s organic? And do child-killers have a preference between Braeburns or a Cox’s Orange Pippin?)

Halloween: the scary holiday. You know what’s scary? How my body can turn two, tiny Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups into a week’s worth of adult acne.

If it sounds like I’m anti-Halloween, know that I’m not. It’s just that, unlike Walrus Day, this holiday bears with it certain responsibilities, just like all the other more pious celebrations. Granted, one usually isn’t pressured to hang out with family members on Halloween (I actually like my family, but a lot of people have to settle for loving theirs), and no-one’s expected to cook lavish feasts (unless you count opening a fun-size Snickers “cooking”), but you are expected to have a lot of fun. This presents someone like me with real challenges.