Video Of The Week: Outernational

For their latest single and video, current rock revolutionaries Outernational explore a wider gamut of musical styles, keeping their usual blend of rap-rock and mariachi sounds, as well as the ska influence that they forgt at times, but also a sailor/Irish-punk influence - particularly in the first two verses, where it's not only the tone and melodiy borrowing from the Celtic and sea worlds, but also the choice of words (storms, guillotine, gallows, dragons, and the way the word ''countries'' is pronounced), all old-world references well assimilated.

It all reinforces their ''one-world music'' position, and encapsulates the modern times better than most others who attempt it, including Manu Chao. As a matter of fact, the prevalence of rap and rock as the core of most of their songs (a clear nod to the influence of such groups as Rage Against The Machine, Public Enemy and Cypress Hill) should help make Outernational a household name in the U.S., which is perhaps why I'm perplexed that this video barely had over 1,000 views at last count. It really is a sad state of affairs for intelligent music nowadays.

R.I.P. Philip Chevron (The Pogues)

Who knew when I featured The Pogues last week it'd be ''celebrating'' the final few days of one of their members' lives?

Indeed, guitarist Philip Chevron died of cancer at the age of 56 yesterday.

Prior to joining The Pogues (first as a replacement, then as a permanent member), he'd been a founding member of punk band Radiators From Space.

Cancer takes no prisoners, but no ones survives Life, either. All you can do is do your best and try to leave a lasting impression, hopefully a good one, perhaps even bring joy and light to the world. Chevron certainly did that.

Video Of The Week: The Mahones

I had a few options this week, including some visually-poignant pieces, but decided I'd go for The Mahones' The King Of Copenhagen because I listened to their CD a lot this week, and they released the video today.

It consists entirely of fan footage from their most recent European tour, which makes for a low-budget, fan-friendly piece that also manages to capture the band's live energy. The video focuses a lot on accordionist Katie Kaboom, but that is understandable, because she is at the forefront, always energetic, intense, twisting in various positions, sexy as hell, and married to bandleader Finny McConnell.

I might have appreciated it a tad more if they'd tried a tad harder to put images of Finny singing while vocals are being sung, and band footage when they're not, to give the illusion that it could be sung in concordance with the images, but the fact that it isn't just means you have to watch it twice - once to look at the band's show (and Kaboom), and once more to listen to the song you vaguely recollect from your first go at it. Come to think of it, that's an amazing ploy to double their YouTube hits...

Video Of The Week: The Mahones

This is the second time I'll have featured The Mahones, this time with their most political video thus far.

To quote the band themselves:

In summer of 2012, The Mahones recorded their 11th album, Angels & Devils, in our hometown of Montreal. At the time, Montreal students came together to protest the proposed tuition hikes, and on March 22nd, 2012, over 300,000 students and supporters united to exercise their right to peaceful assembly.

Sadly, the Quebec government responded by passing bill 78, an emergency bill restricting freedom of assembly, protest, or picketing on or near university grounds, and anywhere in Quebec without prior police approval. It was entirely unconstitutional, and a direct violation of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees the right to peaceful assembly. It has brought shame to the province of Quebec, and it escalated the student protests from an issue affecting those seeking an education (which is a right, not a privilege), to an issue affecting Canadian society as a whole.

The Mahones stand united with the 500,000 students, supporters, and citizens who protested to end this violation of fundamental rights, and took to the streets to fight back against austerity. Never stop pushing back!

This song is for you.

The Mahones have been touring relentlessly of late, and may have missed out on the recent happenings in our fair town, so let me update you on the situation: after the provincial passed Law 78, when it looked like it was going to be overturned - it was - Montréal passed By-law P6, which essentially carries the same rules, but adds the power of police to arrest, detain and fine participants prior to actually assembling, for any group of over 3 people who would not have given the cops their itinerary 24 hours in advance; not just that, the police also have the right to refuse your itinerary altogether. Also, if you do provide one, you are considered the de facto ''event organizer'' and can/will be held responsible for any crime or illegal action committed during the rally, even if done by a complete stranger at the other end of it.

Needless to say, this will neither stand the test of time nor the judicial system, but in the meantime,  participants are fined $637 every time. The cops, when they aren't busy charging protesters for no reason and perfecting the art of police brutality, kettle all present, whether they're participating or not, even journalists, and it looks like this (and is illegal in most civilized countries, including England, which technically owns Canada):

The Montréal police's spokesperson even famously declared:

The Charter [of rights and freedoms] protects the right to freedom of expression, but there is no right to protest.

You can understand why most folks just don't know what to do as the rights they thought they had are proven time and time again to be mere illusions. As one guy who often has an opinion on most topics said:

What do we do [now]? We can’t accept our city becoming a police state. We can’t accept P-6 and provide a route for spontaneous demonstrations. But we also can’t keep getting hurt, kettled and arbitrarily arrested.

If you have any ideas, please share them. I’m kinda stumped.

And that's pretty much where we're at now.

I wanted to make a video like this myself, for my recording of the Skip James classic Hard Times Killing Floor Blues, which should be ready in a couple of weeks. The Mahones have beaten me to it, and I'm really glad they did. Their voice rings loud and they make our town proud, here and abroad. I have a feeling it may require international pressure to hand us back our freedom, because right now, probably because of Canada's great reputation in pushing for human rights in the rest of the world for the past 100 years, the international eyes watching are merely befuddled by the situation, probably unaware that an entire generation of Quebecers is suffering broken bones, loss of limbs, concussions, harassment, profiling - for merely standing up for what they believe in.

Video Of The (Past) Week: The Mahones With Dahmnait Doyle

The Mahones are a Canadian Irish punk band that is in Montréal so much - they even record here, and their shows always feature a special guest, it was the Dropkick Murphys' Scuffy Wallace the last time - that I tend to forget they're originally from Kingston, Ontario, with band leader Finny McConnell being originally from Ireland.

Their music is inspired by The Clash and The Pogues first and foremost, a mix of the original punk ethos and traditional Irish songs; most of their songs are about Ireland, missing it or living in it - and/or drinking. But mostly, as I would say if I were their biographer, ''about love''. Fade to black, cue music.

I chose this video in particular because it features Dahmnait Doyle, one of my favourite guilty pleasures. From Labrador City of all places, she rose to prominence in the mid-1990s. I'm not ashamed to say I first purchased her album and EP because of her looks, as I was soon smitten by her talent as well. If Samantha Fox was my 1980s crush, Dahmnait Doyle was my 1990s one. With Demi Moore somewhere in between.

But I digress. This is a love song, pure and simple. It's not hidden between layers of rock and booze, it just is what it is, and the video references Federico Fellini's classic, 8½.