Who are your favourite leftist bands?

[Comrade Jacob]

The exploited are my pick.

[Hrafn]

Bands, or artists overall? If only bands, then uh, don't really have any.

[Venas Abiertas]

RATM, of course, but also the MC-5, and Calle 13, SKA-P, and Manu Chao in Spanish.

[Os Cangaceiros]

bWor6qsJ-AI

Say what you want about PFLP, that shit is catchy as fuck.

[zoot_allures]

Since I don't generally pay much attention to the political views of the musicians I listen to, I'm not sure. Some leftist musicians I like (edit: just realized you actually said "bands". Oh well. I'll leave this here anyway.):

Charlie Haden - See in particular his Liberation Music Orchestra for some socialist-inspired avant-garde jazz. This track supposedly got him arrested by the Portuguese police and questioned by the FBI after he played it while on tour with Ornette Coleman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKmkluAq6tA

Dalek
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrKi8mPR494

Keith Rowe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwZJmQ2OBSk

Cornelius Cardew - In his early years he was a wonderful experimental composer. Unfortunately he came to reject experimental music as being against the interests of the people and starting writing crap.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEDs7EGvh9c

Area
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4-eXTrjXbU

John Cage - My favourite artist in general, and an anarchist. In his later life he composed a number of pieces known as the "Number Pieces", which have no conductor, involve a great deal of improvisation, and were sometimes written for very large groups (100+) of musicians. He saw the performances of these pieces as "microcosms" of an anarchist society.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n39qp5BHL-U

[juljd]

Mainly The Clash, Billy Bragg, The Jam and last but far from least The Smiths (Smiths were not as obviously leftist, but they were working class lads against Thatcherism and the monarchy and played several dates on the Red Wedge tour in the 80's).

[Per Levy]

Jarost Marksa, actually good black metal, i just wish they would put out some new material.

Awz4XE7S49E

other than that heaven shall burn maybe? nightwatchman is also not to bad.

[CommieMaybe]

Some of my favorite Leftist bands are Irish Republican. Bands such as The Wolfe Tones, Eire Og and The Davitts feature heavily on my iTunes playlist.

[tachosomoza]

Groups: Banda Basotti, Angelic Upstarts, Chumbawumba, Commandantes, RATM, The Proletariat, The Weavers.
Individuals: Billy Bragg, Paul Robeson, Pete Seeger.

[DasFapital]

Crass, the Coup, anything involving Stza

[motion denied]

Wattie was 'friends' with fascists and nazis though.

I don't know how to post pictures, but I'm sure people have seen him with his mate Ian Stuart.

[Mass Grave Aesthetics]

Area- International POPular group, Rudimentary Peni, Discharge, Panopticon... off the top of my head.

[tachosomoza]

Oh, silly me. I forgot Dick Gaughan.

[TheMaroon]

The Flobots

[GiantMonkeyMan]

Oh, silly me. I forgot Dick Gaughan.
I like Gaughan as well, he's good. I'll just add the Dead Kennedys as well. And some of Sabbath's early stuff like War Pigs is awesome.

[Ceallach_the_Witch]

Robert Wyatt

[DoCt SPARTAN]

RATM, SOAD, Public enemy, THe flobots..........these are groups/band, there is a lot more rappers, solo artists I could name.

[Zealot]

Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy, Paris, Immortal Technique, All Shall Perish

[Zealot]

Also, not sure if leftist but some of their lyrics definitely seem leftist: Meshuggah. i.e., the most kickass band in the cosmos.

[Jimmie Higgins]

The Coup and the Clash are probably the most enjoyable bands with explicitly Left-wing songs imo.

I've read arguments (specifically about Hip Hop) regarding "political" music and how it becomes kind of a cage for the politics. Generally people talk about political music as being a cage for the artist - Bob Dylan sort of chaffed at the idea of being pidgenholed as the troubador of protest movements, for example - but in this argument, "political music" segregates "politics" from the rest of life. Hip Hop is a great example because when the music started becoming more political in lyrics, aside from maybe Public Enemy, people would mix up their thematic material and you'd have people singing about politics on one track but telling street-tales or humerous stories on other tracks. NWA was sexist, had lots of cartoonish crime stories, but also had their ganster personas put the cops on trial and things like that. Nivana had songs about angst and self-loathing, but also delt with sexism. 60s rock, early 70s soul, early punk, early 90s punk and hip hop all seem to have had a more wholistic thing where the music was already seen as slightly rebellious and taling about things left out of the mainstream and of course what's often left out of the mainstream are daily struggles of real life which are definately political in subtext.

[Sir Comradical]

bWor6qsJ-AI

Say what you want about PFLP, that shit is catchy as fuck.

This is good too.

EN0qmEa4lsQ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN0qmEa4lsQ)

[Bostana]

Nirvana was open about their support for LGBT and women's rights

[juljd]

Nirvana was open about their support for LGBT and women's rights

"When I hear the term Right wing I think of Hitler and Satan and Civil war."
- Kurt Cobain

Hehe :)

[Slavic]

Not sure if left wing or just nihilistic anti-establishment, but KMFDM has always been my favorite band.

AqfuekDjXx4

[TheIrrationalist]

Amon Düül II, The Pop Group, Test Dept, SPK, This Heat and Wire are perhaps most clearly left-wing from the bands that I listen.

[DOOM]

I like dubioza kolektiv. It's a bosnian dub-punk-rap-like Sarajevo/Zenica based band.
I think their song "celebrate the riot" describes their political affiliation pretty well :D

[redblackandgay]

Just discovered The Ghostwrite (theghostwrite dot bandcamp dot com) fucking awesome anarcho-folk-punk-weirdhippymusic and I'm loving it. They just played their last show like the day before I found out about em :glare: but you can download all their stuff for free (I did)

[Panda Tse Tung]

Street sweeper social club, how could it not be mentioned?

teq0X8rXVXc

[Zukunftsmusik]

Gang of four

[LifeSexDeath]

Pearl Jam anyone? Eddie Vedder is like my idol. He wrote pro-choice on his arm during Pearl Jam's MTV Unplugged set back in the 90's.

[Czy]

Definitely Gang of Four, their message is crystal clear; they infuse technical flair, political messages and guitar rifts into an end product that is brilliant to the ears and revolution.

[Sixiang]

John Cage - My favourite artist in general, and an anarchist. In his later life he composed a number of pieces known as the "Number Pieces", which have no conductor, involve a great deal of improvisation, and were sometimes written for very large groups (100+) of musicians. He saw the performances of these pieces as "microcosms" of an anarchist society.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n39qp5BHL-U

John Cage absolutely! He's my favorite as well.


I also like Rage Against the Machine, Bambu, Blue Scholars, Dead Prez, Immortal Technique, The Coup, and The Clash.

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

RATM, Oi Polloi, Crass, Angelic Upstarts, Nausea, The MC-5.....

[human strike]

Some that deserve to be mentioned but haven't yet; Conflict, Refused, Sun Rise Above.

[Quail]

Been listening to Ramshackle Glory/Johnny Hobo and the Freight Trains a lot lately. I also like Pete Seeger, early Bob Dylan (if that counts), uh... Pretty sure there are some others but my mind has gone blank.

[Red Serpent]

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zjoydbntoA4

kAlRHuMshAw

3 of my favo Bands...Cheers!

[RedStar98]

BoySetsFire are one of my favourite bands, they have some really great lyrics, along with Rise Against and The (International) Noise Conspiracy. A lot of the music I listen to does have leftist political meanings/ideas (although I don't know their actual political standpoints, thats definitely how it comes across in many of their songs), and some of my other favourite bands include Enter Shikari. Failsafe, Billy Talent and Sick Of It All. Slaughter 2017 have some cool songs too. Listening to those bands as I was growing up was what interested me in left wing politics in the first place.

[Buttscratcher]

RATM, Kreator, Anthrax (The band isn't necessarily left-wing but Belladona is a lot I think) and Sacred Reich. Moonspell once made a parody of their song "Luna" about the moon becoming commie, so yeah.

[Rosa Partizan]

I like dubioza kolektiv. It's a bosnian dub-punk-rap-like Sarajevo/Zenica based band.
I think their song "celebrate the riot" describes their political affiliation pretty well :D

absolutely :wub:


BoySetsFire are one of my favourite bands

!!!!!!!!

I'm surprised that no one mentioned Strike Anywhere, they're one of the most political melodic hardcore bands.

[NoOneIsIllegal]

Panopticon
To What End?
Wolvhammer
Ekkaia
Yaphet Kotto
1905
Cease Upon the Capitol
Dolcim
Kreator
Sodom
The Dream is Dead
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Rage Against the Machine
Encyclopedia of American Traitors
Four Hundred Years
The Red Scare
Joshua Fit for Battle
Majority Rule
Oroku
Please Inform the Captain this is a Hijack

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

Sodom is a leftist band?

I mean, I already liked them, but I didn't know they had any left-wing material.....