This supposedly radical indie rock band just posted a 17 page screed against “authoritarian” communism with classic digs at China, the USSR, Stalin, and Mao plus Free Tibet nonsense. The reason for this post? Dubious claims that Stalin shot avant garde and experimental musicians with them citing Shostakovich and Ligeti, two composers who were never killed by the USSR, as examples lol
Their sole source, aside from telling people to google lol, is The Rest Is Noise by Alex Ross
Disappointing to see several good musicians like this post though
“Now we all think communism should be considered. But instead have you considered (obvious falsehood about communist leader that is easily debunked by reading even a single non-anticommunist source)”
yes our movement failed and the capitalists did destroy the planet, but at least nobody told anyone else what to do
Well, except for when they did
Rockbands and CIA-posting, name a more iconic dou
The best part of The Rest is Noise is where Alex talks about how cool Hitler looks in a photo of him listening to records. This and all of the actual Nazis quoted in the book makes it a very trustworthy and unbiased source.
Don’t forget about his entire book glazing Wagner.
“Stalin’s concern for art and artists led him frequently to offer his personal assistance to artists, and to intervene where he became aware that officials were acting in reactionary or stupid ways.”
— Bill Bland, “Stalin and the Arts” (1993), p. 46 (PDF p. 45), Marxists Internet Archive: https://www.marxists.org/archive/bland/1993/x01/stalin-arts.pdf
The whole thing is a good read.
Deerhoof? On my slop comm on hexbear?
Deerhoof have a soft spot in my heart for their principled and consistent stance on Palestine and Gaza. And on cops and AI. They honestly are really great.
This is very disappointing. I guess this is what happens when anticommunist propaganda hops over the brain hurdle and into the pit and you actually believe western sources. Too bad.
Always disappointing when someone almost gets there but stops right before the finish line and retreats back into Liberalism
I have a feeling I can easily guess their position on Ukraine.
Nobody gets a gold star for being a baseline human about Palestine and Gaza. And cops and AI(?) is easily counterbalanced by this lib shit. Sounds like they’re just bandwagoners.
They pulled their music from Spotify and left Amazon in protest, and they put out an unhinged anti cop-city screed. I feel like they’re doing slightly more than most bands. But also, what is your expectation? They’re a band.
The baseline human thing is the key point from my comment. Your expectations are far too low. I don’t know why being a band makes them less moral. Are musicians stupid or something?
Baseless stories of Stalin’s derangement regarding various musicians are big in the classical music world, especially when it comes to Shostakovich. Every performance of his work has to be prefaced by an announcement that he was constantly worried about Stalin trying to kill him. In objective reality Shostakovich was a two time recipient of the Stalin award.
While I’m at it, there’s also a persistent but baseless claim that Shostakovich was secretly using folk motifs in his music that defied some non-existent Soviet mandate to suppress all forms of ethnic expression. Nevermind the creation of ethnic republics across the USSR and state efforts to protect traditional cultures from certain destruction under capitalist hegemony. Also, nevermind the absurdity of the idea that Shostakovich’s secret use of folk motifs would be missed by the censors but the masses would hear it and take heart, knowing that the destruction of the USSR and the pillaging of their country by the west is just around the corner.
some non-existent Soviet mandate to suppress all forms of ethnic expression
This claim is super weird for me, because in 1930s there was a massive effort to collect folk music (and folklore in general) all around the Soviet Union.
That was so they could better understand what they were trying to suppress.
Aw. I liked them when I was younger, but somehow I can’t say I’m surprised.
May their peripheral vision be dogged by shadowy figures in Cheka garb who vanish when they try to look directly, but reappear closer when they look away
Abstract expressionist modern art is a CIA psyop
Indie “rock”* is a CIA psyop
*Latest fad
*Latest fad 10 years ago
I saw a Sonic Youth video once. That shit was a total lie; I didn’t see any hedgehogs in that damn thing!
if i were dictator i would kill musicians whose music i don’t like. the end result would be no more bad musicYeah, they’re framing it like it’s a bad thing, but all they needed to do to not get PURGED was to just be good at music, skill issue smh.
Stalin shot Dostoevsky and Trolstoy
non-authoritarian music will be ai slop, so that would be going great.
says something about modern artists, that there is no working class music since 60s. there is music listened by working class, but not for working class.
Kkrkringe of them tbqh
