By Aaron Levy (CIVL Station Manager) – Email
Print Edition: January 30, 2013
Station manager Aaron Levy sometimes wishes he were a “real” journalist. In honour of ex-CTV/CBC journalist/freeform media analyst Kai Nagata’s visit to UFV this week, here are some songs from musicians who’ve made a difference.
Beastie Boys – “Fight for Your Right”
They didn’t only fight for their right to party; Mike Diamond, Adam Horowitz, and the late Adam Yauch also fought for the Tibetan people’s right to religious freedoms, and specifically, liberation of the Tibetan monks who have been suppressed for decades by Chinese nationalists with their recurring Tibetan Freedom Concert.
Sleater-Kinney – “Modern Girl”
Former CIVL music director Becky Makepeace turned me on to this one a couple years back. Band-leader Carrie Brownstein, also responsible for Portlandia’s hilarity alongside SNL’s Fred Armison, muses “Hunger makes me a Modern Girl/TV connects me to the world.” It’s from their typically heavier ‘05 album The Woods.
Wale – “The Kramer”
Taking volunteers through CIVL’s Programming Policies, I use this song as an example of how sometimes we play explicit content in order to get an important point across about the nature of the world around us. Here, using Michael Richards’ racism as a jumping point to address the “N” word.
Refused – “Rather Be Dead”
From singer Dennis Lyxzen, the father of Swedish veganism (no such restaurants existed before his syndicate in the ‘90s). Reuniting last summer, before this song in Vancouver, Dennis said “I wrote these words when I was young and angry, and looking back on them now; they’re truer now than ever.”
