Communist/socialist rock bands?

[AtarashiiSekai]

Hey comrades!

Do any of you know of any good rock bands today that lean highly to the left? Rock is one of my favorite types of music and to have some that lean highly to the left would be swell!

Thanks!

[#FF0000]

Glad to see another person out there keeping the word "swell" alive.

But yeah there's plenty. Probably my favorite explicitly communist rock bands would be The (International) Noise Conspiracy, which was started up by Dennis Lyxzen of Refused (another explicitly communist and extremely influential hardcore band).

Folks might find T(I)NCs lyrics maybe sorta cheesy but idk I think there is something hella endearing about songs like "Communist Moon" hahaha

Their best albums: The First Conspiracy, A New Morning Changing Weather, and Armed Love

Refused is excellent too. They had, I think, three albums. This Just Might Be... The Truth is the first and can be skipped. Songs to Fan The Flames of Discontent is good, and more straight up hardcore than their classic The Shape Of Punk To Come.

Songs to Fan The Flames... is worth looking into, but The Shape of Punk To Come is essential. Even if you don't like hardcore it's worth looking into.

But yeah it'd be helpful if you talked about some of the other bands you already like! I can think of a lot of bands that play a lot of different kinds of rock, you know?

[Geiseric]

La Plebe por Vida! They have a cover of bella ciao which made me orgasm the first time I heard it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnRKgTftLhs

Folk Music is nearly always left wing. Look up Phil Ochs if you're into that, he's awesome.

[Charles Marxley]

Propagandhi is probably responsible for me being on this messageboard today. They have some well written lyrics. Good thrashy poppunk stuff.

[AtarashiiSekai]

I listen to stuff like Capdown (for "capitalism downfall"), Anti-Flag (who come from a libertarian socialist platform), and Rise Against (whose lyrics are not necessarily communist, but still relevant IMO) :)

[GerrardWinstanley]

I love the Detroit hard rock band MC5, who I believe had an enthusiasm for Maoism and the Black Panthers, as was common of the counterculture of the time. Think of the Stooges with none of the ironic detatchment and lyrics with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. (all adds to the charm)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WBjuKH1ZqI (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WBjuKH1ZqI)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IEcYuUz0wQ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IEcYuUz0wQ)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QgzYGFVPi4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QgzYGFVPi4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qVKdxOO9l0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qVKdxOO9l0)

[Futility Personified]

The Clash, Rancid, Anti-Flag, Streetlight Manifesto, Cobra Skulls, Dead Kennedys, Dropkick Murphys, The Filaments, Gogol Bordello, Inner Terrestrials, The JB Conspiracy, Dirty Revolution, The King Blues, Leftover Crack, The Levellers, Moral Dilemma, NOFX, Pennywise, The Pogues, Propagandhi, Rage Against The Machine, Random Hand, Refused, Rentokill, The Ruts, Sex Pistols by association I guess, The Smiths, Sonic Boom Six, Tyrannosaurus Alan, The Skints, hmm. Bit of a splurge there, but hopefully something there is to your taste!

[Sasha]

If your looking for "rock" rockbands New Model Army is one of the few that comes to mind.

[Revoltorb]

The Clash, Rancid, Anti-Flag, Streetlight Manifesto, Cobra Skulls, Dead Kennedys, Dropkick Murphys, The Filaments, Gogol Bordello, Inner Terrestrials, The JB Conspiracy, Dirty Revolution, The King Blues, Leftover Crack, The Levellers, Moral Dilemma, NOFX, Pennywise, The Pogues, Propagandhi, Rage Against The Machine, Random Hand, Refused, Rentokill, The Ruts, Sex Pistols by association I guess, The Smiths, Sonic Boom Six, Tyrannosaurus Alan, The Skints, hmm. Bit of a splurge there, but hopefully something there is to your taste!

I actually just found out about Leftover Crack (and Choking Victim, actually) the other day. Great stuff. Also, thanks for introducing me to the Skints and Inner Terrestrials (and I think you posted about Imperial Leisure in a different thread?).

As for suggestions to the OP: early Against Me!, Street Sweeper Social Club, and Tom Morello's solo albums (goes by the moniker The Nightwatchman). The rest of the ones in my library have been mentioned already.

[Futility Personified]

I actually just found out about Leftover Crack (and Choking Victim, actually) the other day. Great stuff. Also, thanks for introducing me to the Skints and Inner Terrestrials (and I think you posted about Imperial Leisure in a different thread?).

No problem mate, feels good to know that good music spreads :)

[AtarashiiSekai]

Thank you for recommending all the bands comrade! I will be sure to have a listen to them. These are leftist bands?

[ВАЛТЕР]

Workers' United Front, they have some stuff on Youtube. They're pretty good.

Also The Eat has a song called "Communist Radio" which I love.


nvGMusGtotY

[Domela Nieuwenhuis]

The Clash, Rancid, Anti-Flag, Streetlight Manifesto, Cobra Skulls, Dead Kennedys, Dropkick Murphys, The Filaments, Gogol Bordello, Inner Terrestrials, The JB Conspiracy, Dirty Revolution, The King Blues, Leftover Crack, The Levellers, Moral Dilemma, NOFX, Pennywise, The Pogues, Propagandhi, Rage Against The Machine, Random Hand, Refused, Rentokill, The Ruts, Sex Pistols by association I guess, The Smiths, Sonic Boom Six, Tyrannosaurus Alan, The Skints, hmm. Bit of a splurge there, but hopefully something there is to your taste!

Wow...i need to check those out! There goes the night...

[Futility Personified]

Thank you for recommending all the bands comrade! I will be sure to have a listen to them. These are leftist bands?

Glad to see a fellow Capdown fan!

These are bands with leftist lyrics. Their viewpoints do vary, The Clash were socialist although Joe Strummer later endorsed anarchism without actually using the word, Tyrannosaurus Alan are probably the vaguest, iirc they have songs advocating rebellion, non conformist themes and anti-big brother state stuff, but the crowd they hail from is that sort of skanarchist crusty type scene.

A bit more ska would be Big D and the Kids Table, although i've fallen a bit out of favour with them because they are quite cheesy and the lead singer endorses that sort of "i'm a democrat" which kinda makes me wish he wouldn't attempt to make political points.

Billy Bragg is a very good shout, although he's more sorta folky one man with a guitar style.

I remember reading in the Guardian that the bloke from Muse was a "left leaning libertarian", whether that means he doesn't have the cobbles to say he's an anarchist or he's just not politically developed I don't know, but I dare say you might want to add Muse.

Don't know how into punk you are, but it's the music that got me into leftist politics when I was in my early teens so there's a plethora of stuff out there. Crass are brilliant.

Reggae is great for leftist sentiment, a lot of people like Jimmy Cliff say the right things, Bob Marley too getting all angry at babylon, but I don't know any explicit sounding reggae due to the rasta influence, they don't like babylon (western society) but are apolitical due to their beliefs. I'm just rambling now. I really need sleep. Hope you enjoy it anyway, good stuff indeed.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Rancid - Punk Rock
King Blues - Punk/Ska Rock (dis-banded)
Crazy Arm - Punk Rock with some folk-ish (not volkisch!) elements
NOFX - Punk Rock, emphasis on the Punk side, kinda like Green Day on steroids

The others are alright, but let's be honest people like The Clash are more the kind of leftists that are 'do as I say', not 'do as I do'. In fact i'd probably include Rancid in this category after their homophobia incidents, but their music rocks :thumbup1:

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Oh also let's not forget Woody Guthrie, definitely a leftist though i'm not sure in the the 'communist' sense, but his songs are fucking awesome. Tom Morello, the lead singer of Rage Against the Machine, also does some solo stuff which rocks.

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

The (Internatonal) Noise Conspiracy

[zoot_allures]

If you're cool with prog rock/jazz fusion stuff, Area are absolutely wonderful -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_(band)

[DoCt SPARTAN]

rage against the machine, System of a down, anti-flag, dead Kennedy s .

Should check out the under lined ones there great!

[The Red Comet]

Commandantes.

[Mauve Osprey]

Rage against the system is the best commie rock I can think of.

[Tenka]

La Plebe por Vida! They have a cover of bella ciao which made me orgasm the first time I heard it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnRKgTftLhs

Folk Music is nearly always left wing. Look up Phil Ochs if you're into that, he's awesome.

Don't neo-nazis love folk music? When they're not listening to terrible punx, metal and possibly Wagner I mean.

As for Left-Wing (not necessarily Communist) Rock, I only listen to-- McCarthy:
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&
Manic Street Preachers (obviously quite inspired by the former):
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EDIT: Also listen to various such Swedish bands, but nobody cares about those, and I certainly can't well promote them for their lyrics when I have to look up translations thereof.

[Mauve Osprey]

Don't neo-nazis love folk music? It depends, things like woody Guthrie and the weavers are left-wing, it's mostly Nordic folk that nazis like

[Skyhilist]

This is somewhat unrelated, but there's a band out there called Mayhem. At one point in time (back when they were good) the band members included 2 people named Euronymous, and Varg Vikernes. The former was a communist and the later ended up being a right wing extremist. The communist (Euronymous) got murdered by the right wing extremist (Varg); typical I suppose.

But as far as good leftist rock/punk, I think everyone else has already mentioned my favorites (as you can probably tell by my NOFX profile picture).

[Yuppie Grinder]

Non-punk stuff: The Stone Roses (they don't have political lyrics tho), Stereolab, MC5, Can
Punk: Assuck, Black Kronstadt, Iskra, Alpinist, Napalm Death, Capitalist Casualties, Born Against, Nation of Ulysses, The Proletariat, and most importantly The Dicks
Basically most good hardcore bands past a certain year are anarchists or marxist, although the later far out numbers the former.
Thou are a good communist metal band.

[Yuppie Grinder]

It depends, things like woody Guthrie and the weavers are left-wing, it's mostly Nordic folk that nazis like

The whole Neofolk and Martial Industrial genre has been marred by white supremacist ideology and use of fascist symbolism since it's beginning. It's a shame since the music is sometimes really excellent.

Workers' United Front, they have some stuff on Youtube. They're pretty good.

Also The Eat has a song called "Communist Radio" which I love.


nvGMusGtotY

holy shit someone else knows about the eat, props

[Leftsolidarity]

I actually just found out about Leftover Crack (and Choking Victim, actually) the other day. Great stuff. Also, thanks for introducing me to the Skints and Inner Terrestrials (and I think you posted about Imperial Leisure in a different thread?).

As for suggestions to the OP: early Against Me!, Street Sweeper Social Club, and Tom Morello's solo albums (goes by the moniker The Nightwatchman). The rest of the ones in my library have been mentioned already.

Make sure to check out all the other CRS7 bands like Star Fucking Hipsters, F-Minus, Morning Glory, INDK, No Commerical Value, (that's all I can think of at the moment)

Other similar bands (also Leftists) would be No Ca$h, The Infested, No Service Project, The Dumpers, Evil Empire, and more but I'm tired.

[SomeRandom]

Primal Scream.

[Synthesis-]

Are there any thrash metal bands? or speed metal?.

[Jesus Saves Gretzky Scores]

But as far as good leftist rock/punk, I think everyone else has already mentioned my favorites (as you can probably tell by my NOFX profile picture).

Great band, too bad they're democrats though.

[Jesus Saves Gretzky Scores]

Even though they were already mentioned, Propagandhi is the best political band of all. They deserve two posts.

Aus-Rotten. I didn't see anyone list them, my bad if someone did.

[RedHal]

This is somewhat unrelated, but there's a band out there called Mayhem. At one point in time (back when they were good) the band members included 2 people named Euronymous, and Varg Vikernes. The former was a communist and the later ended up being a right wing extremist. The communist (Euronymous) got murdered by the right wing extremist (Varg); typical I suppose.

But as far as good leftist rock/punk, I think everyone else has already mentioned my favorites (as you can probably tell by my NOFX profile picture).

Euronymous' communism is having a portrait of Honecker hanged on his wall lol. But Vikernes is a full blown Nazi.

[Riveraxis]

I haven't looked through the rest of the threat yet, so I dunno if this is your thing.

But for sure: whatever it takes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5ofoyGeZ6o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOYHsx3PtE0

[No_Leaders]

I'll post some bands and some songs I really like that are political bands.

Propagandhi - Refusing To Be a Man (live version)
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Propagandhi - Apparently I'm a P.C. Fascist/Nailing Descartes To The Wall
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Fifteen - Family Values
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Fifteen - War On Drugs
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No-Cash - Wilkes-Booth Style
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No-Cash - Run Your Pockets
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Pinkerton Thugs - One Day
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Pinkerton Thugs - Freedom
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The Unseen - Children of The Revolution
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The Unseen - Goodbye America
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The Broadways - 15 Minutes
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The Broadways - We'll Have a Party
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Acoustic Front of Resistance - Flying Bullets 'n' Broken Hearts
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Acoustic Front of Resistance - Feelings Aren't Always Fun To Feel
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Evan Greer - Picket Line Song
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Evan Greer - !Ya Basta!
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Wingnut Dishwashers Union - Proudhon In Manhattan
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Wingnut Dishwashers Union - Urine Speaks Louder Than Words
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Ramshackle Glory - Of Ballots and Barricades
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Ramshackle Glory - Exploration of Coercion In Everyday Life
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Class War Kids - One Last Struggle
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Subhumans - Work-Rest-Play-Die
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Subhumans - Reason For Existence
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Anti-Flag - 1915
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Hudson Falcons - Working Class War
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[Crixus]

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[Manulearning]

Turkish band - Grup Yorum
Pakistani band - Laal( Red)
Eire Og - Irish

All great bands!

[A.C.a.B 23]

Minutemen.

[Brutus]

Against me

[MP5]

Manic Street Preachers (obviously quite inspired by the former):
e9RzzQbLDuE


Another MSP fan i see :) . I really love their old stuff and even much of their new stuff as cheesy as some of it can be. Their album "The Holy Bible" is still one of my favorite albums in rock history. They definitely seem leftist if not Socialist as they are from Wales and all grew up together during the Thatcher years and the Welsh mining strike.

[redtux]

Angelic Upstarts, Newtown Neurotics , The members, Louise Distras, Vice Squad (more left Labour but getting there)

[MathAndMarx26]

My Morning Jacket - Our World
Great lyrics which might be talking about a communist world, the original is from a show called Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas

[Alexey Sobelsohn]

Refused, The International Noise Conspiracy, Desaparecidos, Enter Shikari, Banda Bassotti, Eina, Vivid Tribes of Physics, David Rovics, Against Me, Talco, Angelic Upstarts, What We Feel, Moscow Death Brigade, P.R.S.O!, Siberian Meat Grinder, The Bayonets, Mad Essence