Revolutionary Rock In Germany

I was going to say my old friend Mike Stout is still rocking out, but that "still" does him a disservice. He's rocking harder than ever. This clip, embedded to start rectifying a recent, and uncharacteristic, dearth of music here at FotM, was recorded late last month at a big-ass festival of progressive and revolutionary German youth in the working class Ruhr Valley.

Mike has quite a following in Germany, Most years he does a stint there where he plays at big public events like this one, as well as progressive clubs, bars, demonstrations and picket lines, even on the street. His music is well enough known that, like Chuck Berry, he doesn't need to bring a band. Some locals, like this combo from Gelsenkirchen, can always be assembled for the gig.

Like it? There's more at YouTube. Or check his MySpace page here.

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Subscribe To R&RC, Dagnabbit

Pardon my French.

Now, one more time for the slow ones: You really ought to subscribe to Rock & Rap Confidential. Rock & Rap Confidential is a great online magazine, successor to the dead tree Rock & Roll Confidential which emerged in the 1980s. The latest issue just showed up in my in-box, chock full of interesting left political takes on music, a very nice annotated list of people's hiphop numbers and a bunch of thumbnail reviews of cool new (and reissued) music you'd love to own.

Because the damn thing comes out so infrequently, I recommend that you also sign up for a little email list they run. They forward articles and other goodies a couple of times a week and some are bound to intrigue you. They just pulled my coattail, for instance, to this video of Woody's "This Land Is Your Land" being sung at the immigrant-centered May Day March in Chicago this year. It's hardly a stellar version, the recording is strictly Amateur Hour and I could live without the Richie Daley cameo, but you do get to see Tom Morello, Perry Ferrall (who gets the best verse), Boots Riley and Wayne Kramer (Wayne Kramer, y'all!).



"Okay, Jimmy," I hear you whine. "Ease up. I'll subscribe. What do I do?"

Easy-peasey. Send an email to rockrap(at)aol.com and tell 'em to subscribe you to R&RC and/or the email list. Even you technophobes should be able to handle that.

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