Free Records, Poser!

I have created a new blog for uploading music:

http://frp93.blogspot.com/

The first upload is Kultur Terror, Live in Studio december 1998.

First of May

Today is May the first, an historic day with emotional content - for those who know that is. The day has been thoroughly appropriated by state socialists, to the point where it only gives rise to dull disgust and half assed protests on my behalf.

This day was never their day, but like all other symbolic aspects related to socialism the statists abused it, and took it over. Even to the point where their governments, totalitarian and democratic alike, elevate the first of May to a national holiday. What? This international day of anti-authoritarian protest has become a symbol of nationalism, celebrated with national flags? Indeed.

In may 1886 several striking workers had gathered in haymarket square in Chicago, to protest against appalling conditions imposed on them by the capitalists. It was a part of a proposed general strike, that gathered perhaps as many as 500,000 supporters in cities all over the United States. 40,000 of these were on strike in Chicago. Naturally the capitalists and their mercenaries feared for their money and system - as well as their lives. They were met with strike breaking, pinkerton men and armed police. As a small group of strikers attacked a group of strike breakers police fired indiscriminately at the crowd. (Sounds familiar?) Six strikers were killed.

They day after, workers met at Haymarket Sq., some of them armed. Police came and started "dispersing" the crowd. That is attacking people. A bomb was thrown at the police, and they opened fire again, and kept shooting for five minutes. Police reports in the Chicago Tribune even state they fired so wildly around them that several police officers were wounded by friendly fire. There are reports that some strikers fired back, but it has been establised that most police were injured by their own. As for the bomb, to this date noone knows who threw the bomb, and there is even speculation that a pinkerton man was responsible. Hardly likely, but I wouldn't be shocked. That kind of stuff still happens. I believe a worker threw the bomb, with ample reason, considering the incident from the day before. Even though I do not support or condone such violence I would be hard pressed to condemn it, given the situation.

The results were clear: more than fifty dead workers as well as several injured on both sides. After the entire affair eight anarchists were trialled, and four were executed. One killed himself in jail.

That is why we commemorate may day. Not because of Marx, not because of Gramsci, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Gro Harlem Brundtland or Tony Blair. Not for communism, social democracy or democratic socialism, but because of anarchism. Real socialism is about freedom and protest against authorities, not lying, cheating and oppression in the holy names of Marx and Engels. Granted, the day was inaugurated by the Second International, but the people they chose to commemorate were anarchists. Communists have never been above using whatever means they have at their disposal to further their own cause. The victims of their anti-anarchist terror under Trotski's Red Army, or in the spanish civil war can testify that they didn't stop at symbols either.

Casualties of War

Pirate Bay has lost the first round of trials in Sweden, in what is appearantly, and expectedly, a sham of a trial. IFPI has demonstrated that bullshit walks and money talks yet once again. By getting the results they quite simply purchased from corrupt, eager to please, politically controlled courts, they have shown us exactly what "democracy" and "rule of law" means.

In short: might makes right, and screw the common man.

Anyhow, this impotent ruling has no practical bearing on anything. Even if the appeals should uphold the ruling (and there will, presumably, be quite a few rounds of appeals), file sharing cannot be stopped by shutting down a single service. Worst Case scenario: it forces file sharing underground, and the four heroes behind Pirate Bay are sacrificed on the altar of corporate appeasement - casualties of war. To IFPI it's a pyrrhic victory, if that even. It's a demonstration of how much the capitalists are powerless before freedom of information, despite having the purchasing power to bribe Sweden's judicial ring leaders into submission. This powerlessness is even something they have themselves unwittingly unleashed and sponsored. Irony is a sweet fruit when it's doled out so poetically.

This entire farce has reminded me of how the internet was back in the olden days. Comercial content was shunned and using the internet to promote your products could result in mailbombing. It was a place for freedom, games, nonsense and underground groups, not just porn and online poker/shopping. People created content because they wanted to, not to spread your cookies and make money. While the internet has been largely appropriated by comercial interests since then, it's still a super highway for free thought. Thank you IFPI for reminding us just how much we have acheived, and fuck you very much. The internet isn't for you capitalists, conniving, parasitic thieves that you are, it's for us. Your filthy money can't change that.

Anyway, enough of this ranting, I have some inspiration I wish to share: I wish to point your eyes towards the Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace. 15 years ago, when the internet was still largely free from capitalists, a former acid rocker wrote this little piece of political clear sightedness, and it's still worth a read. If we can bring down the record companies and Hollywood, we can bring down the whole fucking house. Not over night, but it might still happen.

Information wants to be free, and as long as it's unfree so are we.

Support!

While I realize that their motivations are as varied as the number of participants itself, I would still like to state my support for the demonstrations in London today.

Keep the authorities on their toes! Keep it going!

More D.I.Y.

I also found this, by the same author:

http://www.diynow.org/

It's a book about how to make and publish music on your own.
Not fucking hard these days, grab a mic and a computer and put it on myspace under "experimental"... But anyways, learning from experienced people is always a bonus. ;)

D.I.Y. or Die

Thought I'd post this excellent documentary on D.I.Y. culture here. This is what counterculture is about: the freedom, will and opportunity to create your own culture, rather then the predigested commercial nonsense we are continually spoon fed. The documentary contains interviews with several legendary underground culture-providers from the NYC area. The film is in eight parts and was uploaded by the filmmaker himself. :)

Electronic Behavior Control System

It's time to celebrate some revolutionary heroes again. This time, EBN, Emergency Broadcast Network.

EBN was formed around 1991, and gained notoriety soon after by "remixing the gulf war" while the war was still developing. In a way even precipitating Baudrillard's focus on the Gulf War as an entertainment phenomena rather than a real war. Who doesn't remember George Bush mouthing the classic line "we will, we will rock you"?

The gulf war was only a starting point and EBN consciously used media and military technology in their counter cultural assault on consensual reality. Their onslaught hit a nerve in the general public, and soon after the comercialist populists in U2 hired them to help create the stage show for the Zooropa tour and other visuals.

Not only were they radical though, they were also radically talented. In a style reminiscent of Public Enemy mixed with Negativland they constructed landscapes of political soundbites, military jargon, media snippets and funky beats. Their album Telecommunications Breakdown (1995) is an instant classic, and your collection should not be without. Download it (or buy it) and listen to it a few times. That's the least you could do.

I'm going to leave you with a link to my favorite track, by way of youtube,
Electronic Behavior Control System, a track that expertly shows off their method. You gotta love the way they mix Clinton, Bush and Perot into a single unit.(long intro)