Punk and politics collide - or should that be 'clash'?

One of the best politically-charged bands of today takes on a classic from one of the best politically-charged bands of yesterday. Desaparecidos doing a live cover of The Clash's 'Spanish Bombs'. Great stuff.

Desaparecidos are back!

10 years ago, Conor Oberst and pals formed a band called Desaparecidos for one passionate, political album. They then gracefully retired into their respective projects, Oberst having said all he had to say at the time about the ridiculousness of fashion, destructive 'progress', materialism and the lie of the American dream. Oberst has always been fairly political, standing up for the rights of Mexicans in the southern states recently, and publicly supporting Obama in the last election.

Now, the band affectionately termed Desa are back, because let's face it, things haven't got much better. New track 'MariKKKopa' was inspired by the comments of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who recently said it was 'an honour' to be compared to the KKK because it 'means you're doing something'. I have to say, if anything were to inspire me to get a political band together, ridiculous comments like that in my home nation would definitely help. The song, below, is a return to form - straight back in with the angry vocals, speaking through the voice of an all-American racist.

They've also released another track, 'Backsell', which has more ambiguous lyrics but seems to be about the shallowness and cruelty of the fame industries in the US. It's a great reinvigoration - good political music is quite difficult to find at the moment; there's been no great political musical movement in a while. Indie folk mostly wants to tell us about itself, pop wants to tell us about its lovers, rap wants to tell us about its sex life, emo and post-punk want to tell us about their break-ups and kick-ass parties, and screamo... who the Hell knows what that wants to tell us? Hearing new and revived bands making a stand will always be heart-warming to anyone with a revolutionary bone in them.

Desaparecidos

If you want to know how Conor Oberst feels about politics and all sorts of other Big Questions (which let's face it, you all do...), don't look to Bright Eyes or his solo stuff, because that's mostly love and darkness, and don't look to Monsters of Folk, because that's mostly co-written. Look to Desaparecidos - ten years old now, but recently reformed for a one off show, so I understand. Even their name means 'people who have been disappeared', simply - victims of politically motivated imprisonment or murder.

Oberst is quite versatile, it seems: he's done stuff that others have called 'emo', as well as folk, soul, rock. I'd call Desaparecidos rather raucous punk. Have a video.