{"id":1101,"date":"2010-12-15T22:15:48","date_gmt":"2010-12-16T03:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bourdaghs.com\/blog\/?p=1101"},"modified":"2010-12-15T22:22:00","modified_gmt":"2010-12-16T03:22:00","slug":"music-sans-guitar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bourdaghs.com\/blog\/?p=1101","title":{"rendered":"Music Sans Guitar"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m feeling gorged in contemporary music that eschews the guitar. There is, for starters, the brilliant British charity holiday single by “Cage Against the Machine<\/a>,” an all-star assemblage of performers gathered in one studio to record an epic cover version of John Cage’s 4’33”<\/em> (you know, the one that is 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence). It’s all designed to derail the evil Simon Cowell’s vice-grip on the annual competition to top the UK pop charts at Yuletide. It’s been quite successful, and now the inevitable remix versions are available, too. The Guardian <\/em>has the story here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Then there is “Kiss Kiss Kiss,” a great new track by Chicago hiphop diva Kid Sister. Scheduled for official release early next year, the song’s been leaked and is available all over the Internet now — including here<\/a>. Not a guitar in sight: voices, percussion (most of it seemingly synthetic), and a few electronic effects are all you need to produce a very catchy piece of music.<\/p>\n

Finally, there are the Agitators, a new band that is emerging as one of the musical voices of the ongoing British student rebellion. They’ve released a couple of singles and have appeared live at several campus protests. The Guardian <\/em>has a nice feature<\/a> on the band, which boasts a strict “no guitars” policy. Three voices and drums, and that’s it. “A new kind of music, nothing more than banging, stamping, clapping and voices,” they declare, “something anyone could do anywhere ? on a march, at a protest, on the barricades.”<\/p>\n

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\nI pick up my guitar and play,
\nJust like yesterday,
\nThen I get on my knees and pray,
\nWe won’t get fooled again.<\/del><\/p>\n

We’re tired of doin’ nothing,
\nLet’s start marching <\/p>\n