Hard Left - Economy

 

  It's turning out to be a great week for newly released videos. Following on from yesterday's belter (Modern Tribes - Pam Beesly), today I'm featuring one by another band who featured highly in my end of 2015 list (and who will no doubt feature again this year).

  Hard Left are the left leaning hard mod heroes from Oakland, California who've yet to release a bad record. This time around they effortlessly keep their winning streak going with a new 4 track ep, on Future Perfect Records, titled Economy. They have a happy knack of sounding rough and ready but also being catchy as hell. The 2 tracks on the A side feature their usual singer, Mike Schulman (I love how his raspy vocals threaten to give way at times but just about hang on in there. No bells & whistles production tricks for this lot, it's pleasingly messy and all the better for it) whilst in a departure from the norm, the B sides feature London poet Tim Wells. Intelligent, heart felt and endearingly ragged around the edges, you can snap it up here : https://hardleft.bandcamp.com/album/economy.

  The title track is probably the only song you'll hear this year that quotes from German writer Georg Buchner (the founder of the Society For Human Rights), this is Economy.......

The Movement - Smashing Up The World

  I don't think it's unfair to say that the world is in a bit of a bloody mess at the moment. America, Britain, Russia and several other countries seem to think the best way of bringing peace to the middle east is by bombing the shit out of Syria. I've no idea what the best course of action is but to me, there must be a better way? Today's song, is about this subject.

  The Movement are a band that straddle various genres; mod, power pop, punk, but I think all you need to know is that they keep putting out catchy as hell songs that should appeal to anyone who reads this blog.

  Formed in 2002 and from Copenhagen, Denmark, they feature Lukas Sherfey (vocal/guitar), Sebastian Page (bass) and Philip Ingemann (drums). They wear suits, name Karl Marx, Rosa Luxenburg, The Jam, The Who and The Clash as influences and they play energetic, political music that aims to encourage young people to question what's going on around them.

  2003 saw them release the Hardmod Internationalist ep and their debut album, Move!  The follow up, Revolutionary Sympathies followed a couple of years later before they went their seperate ways for a few years. After returning with a revamped line up, they released 2011's Still Living The Dream ep and 2012's Fools Like You album. Most recently, Mad Butcher Records put out the Outrage! ep and it's that release that features today's song.

   Sounding to my grizzled old ears a little like Louis Armstrong fronting The Mighty Mighty Bosstones!  this is the rather awesome Smashing Up The World....