Tuesday, August 08, 2006

War & Peace


"If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children." - Mahatma Gandhi

Hello Dear Friends! Yes, it's time for your weekly dose of Contrast Podcast, and this week's theme is "War and Peace." As ever, it's produced an outstanding crop of tunes, but, somewhat worringly, it seems to be almost all War and no Peace. Sign 'o' the times, or are all of our contributors bloodthirsty belligerents? Here's the wartrack, which you can either download via this direct link or subscribe to using the RSS feed http://feeds.feedburner.com/ContrastPodcast:

(00:32) Time Zone - World Destruction
FiL from Pogoagogo

(07:18) P J Harvey - Bows and Arrows
Joe from Stage Hymns

(11:15) Motivés - Bella Ciao
SAS Radio

(14:00) The Faint - Paranoiattack
Bethanne from CTASLS

(18:50) Serge Reggiani - le dormeur du val (translation)
ZB from So the wind won’t blow it all away

(20:22) Manfred Mann - With god on our side
Dan from Burning Down the House

(25:44) Robert Wyatt - Shipbuilding
Jamie from The Run Out Groove

(29:33) Skeleton Key - Roost in Peace
Bob from Gimme Tinnitus

(32:46) John Vanderslice - Trance Manual
Richard from Invisible Limb

(37:36) Blue Öyster Cult - Veteran of the Psychic Wars
Rob from The Great Leap Forward

(42:41) Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Our Only Weapon
Charles from Heartache with hard work

(45:46) Live - 10,000 Years
Jamie from squirrelfood.net

(51:07) Orangutang - Leo Tolstoy
Tom from Other People’s Toys

(55:52) Michael McDermott - Hellfire in the Holyland
Natalie from Mini-Obs

(59:55) The Clash - Tommy Gun
Merz from Mars needs guitars

(01:03:48) James McMurtry - We can’t make it here anymore
Chris from Culturebully

In an attempt to bring a bit of balance, let me present the runner-up track that almost made it as my contribution. It's a lovely ditty that cleverly subverts imagery of war and fuses it with a paen to romance and tenderness.

Erm, or maybe it's just an unreconstructed piece of sexist, dirty-ass, 1970s sleaze...

You decide.

Kiss - Love Gun (buy here)