HOT: Pussy Galore
The members of all-female Russian Punk Rock band Pussy Riot were found guilty and sentenced to two years in jail for their guerilla-style anti-Putin musical protest inside a church in February. The charge was the same one I was found guilty of for gluing crayons to a table in third grade: “hooliganism.” As word spread across the world about the feminist rockers’ “punk prayer” and resultant arrest, the original message against Vladimir Putin’s re-election was amplified and became more about freedom of artistic expression. Politicians and superstar musicians showed their support and the word “pussy” was uncomfortably uttered thousands of times on U.S. news outlets. Even President Obama said he objected to the harsh sentence; sadly, he didn’t say the group’s name.
WARM: Music vs. GOP Ticket
So many conservative politicians are getting busted for using (mostly liberal) artists’ music for campaigning, the Democrats should make a compilation album of the songs as a fundraiser. Silversun Pickups’ “Panic Switch” is the latest addition. Mitt Romney used the tune at a campaign stop and the Pickups said they almost didn’t do anything because of the irony (the song isn’t exactly a “join together, we can do this”-type banger), but lawyers ultimately sent Romney a cease and desist notice. Meanwhile, Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello was dressing down the Romney’s VP pick in an op-ed for Rolling Stone, inspired by Paul Ryan’s admission that he was a Rage fan. The guitarist called Ryan “the embodiment of the machine our music has been raging against.”
COLD: Megadummy Returns
In the other, much smaller camp of musicians who support the GOP (or at least hate the Dems), Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine ventured into delusional, Glenn Beck-ian territory by insisting the recent mass shootings in Colorado and at a Wisconsin Sikh temple were orchestrated by the President. While performing with Megadeth in Singapore, Mustaine told the audience that Obama “is trying to pass a gun ban, so he’s staging all of these murders.”
