Category Archives: music

The Chieftains: 50 years of avoiding politics and religion

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In a career that overlapped with the worst of Ireland’s “Troubles,” the Chieftains were also uncompromising in their refusal to get drawn into Catholic-Protestant conflict. “I always kept away from politics and religion,” bandleader Paddy Moloney says. “As a result we were probably the only group of our kind to play a mixed audience in Belfast. One of the senior unionist guys was one of our biggest fans and when we did our 25 years celebration he came down and spoke. He said this and that, but that music is music.”

Metropolis, Nov 5, 2012

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Patti Smith: Don’t Call Her a Survivor

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“I was deeply concerned about the people and their morale,” Smith says by phone from Amsterdam, where she’s set to play the city’s famous Paradiso. “Lenny [guitarist Lenny Kaye] and I wanted to write a song but we didn’t want to write specifically about the disaster. Lenny was working on some chords and the words just came to me. It’s a simple song based on 16th-17th century Japanese literature. It’s a prayer to the mountain to shelter the people.”

Metropolis, Aug 17, 2012

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Drama in the Wake of Disaster

‘‘There won’t be a simple yes or no vote on nuclear power. But I want to ask, ‘From where should the discussion begin?’’’ says the director Akira Takayama.

The New York Times, December 1, 2011

Japan’s New Wave of Protest Songs

A small group of Japanese songwriters takes an unusually political stand on the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

The New York Times, June 30, 2011

Cool Japan Is Out of Breath

Is Japan losing its cool? (Japanese version)

Newsweek Japan cover story, June 13, 2012