Follow The Sun Tour
Xavier Rudd
www.xavierrudd.com
Victorian surf/roots musician Xavier Rudd has long been known for his progressive politics and championing of Aboriginal and environmental issues. Green Left Weekly’s Mat Ward caught up with the multi-instrumentalist before his Australasian tour for “Follow The Sun”, the lead single off his forthcoming new album.
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Tell us about the new album.
Mat Ward
Living Black
Sundays, 4.30pm on SBS One
from March 18
“I had a terrible time at school,” Living Black presenter Karla Grant tells Green Left Weekly.
The veteran journalist, who is about to host a new series of the flagship Aboriginal affairs show she launched for SBS a decade ago, has come a long way since being taunted as a “boong” and “coon” in Adelaide playgrounds.
“It was awful,” says Grant, who is now Living Black’s executive producer as well as its host. “They were very ignorant - and I was the only Aboriginal kid at the school.”
When Aboriginal rapper Darah Morris uploaded his first music video, "Aboriginal Style", to YouTube, it became an instant hit. Then it got deleted.
"After 15,000 views on YouTube it got removed for 'inappropriate content', which I find really ridiculous," he tells Green Left Weekly.
It's a familiar story. South Australian Aboriginal rapper Caper recently had the video for his song "How Would You Like To Be Me?" banned by Facebook after a complaint, despite the song gaining high rotation on daytime radio.
Vultures’ Picnic
Greg Palast
416 pages, 2011
Penguin
www.gregpalast.com
Investigative reporter Greg Palast is back ― and this time, it’s personal.
The former United States corporate crime investigator, who exposed the 2000 and 2004 elections of George W Bush as frauds, has gone for a more intimate feel in his latest book, Vultures’ Picnic.
Politically progressive post-hardcore band Enter Shikari say they only have to look at their fans to get a sense that the world can change for the better.
“The past few years we've seen a huge increase in people that come up and thank us for singing about the things we do,” Rou Reynolds, frontman of the British band, tells Green Left Weekly.
“Usually, while standing at your merchandise table after a show you'd get 'great show, love your music’ and so on, but such a big percentage of people now also express gratitude and solidarity with our lyrical standing.
Pride Of The Underdog
Deeder Zaman
Modulor, 2011
www.deederzaman.com
When Deeder Zaman was at the height of his fame as the vocalist for British dance rock group Asian Dub Foundation (ADF), he hung up his mike to become a full-time activist.
So why did he swap such a high-profile, influential position for low-profile work with the National Civil Rights Movement, the Campaign Against Racism and Fascism, the Miscarriages Of Justice Organisation and the Children with Aids Charity?
Childhood Under Siege: How Big Business Ruthlessly Targets Children
Joel Bakan
Random House, 2011
277 pages
Parents who read Joel Bakan's new book, Childhood Under Siege, may find themselves un-liking Facebook.
In it, the law professor ― whose previous book The Corporation was made into Canada's biggest-grossing documentary ― describes the effect of the social media giant's applications on his 13-year-old daughter.
The Tall Man
Screening SBS ONE,
Feb 5, 8.30pm.
The director of a documentary about the death in custody of Aboriginal man Mulrunji Doomadgee says the family wanted him to use footage of the death, but he was blocked from accessing it.
"We tried and failed to get access to it," Tony Krawitz tells Green Left Weekly. "So I've never seen it — it screened in court, but can't be released."
Krawitz's multi-award winning film, The Tall Man, is based on the critically-acclaimed book of the same name by journalist Chloe Hooper.
Last year, software engineer LN Rajaram started Lokalex, a project aimed at “reversing globalisation” in Chennai, India. Green Left Weekly’s Mat Ward spoke to him about it.
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What’s your background?
I was born in a village in Tamil Nadu, India, in 1949, but grew up in the streets of Mumbai, the finance capital of India.
Because Green Left Weekly is taking a break for the summer, it asked staff, contributors — or just people it likes — to name the best books published this year. Here are their suggestions.
Tim Dobson, Green Left journalist and blogger at Press Box Red
A Life Too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke by Ronald Reng
Yellow Jersey Press, 2011
Next Of Kin
The Last Kinection
Elefant Traks
www.lastkinection.com
To win a signed copy of the album, see below
When Naomi Wenitong from Aboriginal hip hop group The Last Kinection is asked how challenging it is to be a woman in the male-dominated music industry, she laughs.
"I don’t mind being one of the only buns at this Oz hip hop sausage sizzle," she jokes to Green Left Weekly.
"Everyone has challenges in this industry regardless of their sex. You can either let it be your disadvantage or make it your advantage.
Arlene TextaQueen
textaqueen.com
When my wife and I were in the supermarket the other day, we got chatting to a kindly white stranger. After a few seconds, the woman asked my wife, "And how long have you been here?"
'Look At Me Now'
Sky’High
Grindin Records
Aboriginal rapper Sky’High admits she can be difficult to work with.
“I can come across a bit intimidating or ‘weird’,” she tells Green Left Weekly, laughing. “Some people can't handle that ― I’m unpredictable as fuck.”
Australian Made
King Brown
Sound Planet Records
www.reverbnation.com/kingbrown1
When far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik went on a mass killing spree in Norway on July 22, he was listening on his headphones to "Lux Aeterna", a mournful piece of music by British film soundtrack composer Clint Mansell.
A more appropriate Mansell composition might have been “Ich Bin Ein Auslander”, written by the musician when he was fronting cartoonish electronic indie rockers Pop Will Eat Itself in the 1990s.
At this year’s Deadly Awards, an annual celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture being held on September 27, all eyes will be on one of the fastest rising stars in Aboriginal music.
Yung Nooky doesn’t even have an album out yet, but the radical rookie rapper from country New South Wales has already been flown out to Los Angeles to record a track with emcee Taboo from hip hop heavyweights The Black Eyed Peas.
You can see that western Sydney Aboriginal rapper Sesk has turned his life around when he holds his head up high.
Not only does it give him an air of self-esteem - it also reveals that the large tattoo across his neck reading "GUILTY" has another word inked above it: "NOT".
"It was actually just 'GUILTY' first," he says. "I was getting a few weird looks, so I put a 'NOT' there.
"I don’t really have regrets, but if I had the chance to rewrite my life, I would. I would focus more on my schooling and would not treat my parents and family the way I did."
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