Let The Beat Build #29: April 2015

JW: If I remember Thesis April (and I do), your capacity to write long missives and deep thoughts will be lower than normal. So let’s mix it up. It’s gonna go like this: For track #1 I will pull a quotation from somewhere, and then pick a track that pairs with it. For track #2, I’ll begin picking your quotes, and you’ll pick a song to attach to that quotation. Then you drop a quotation on #3 for me. And so on.

“...the state's Health Department has placed so many restrictions on medical marijuana that many of its potential patients won't be able to get their hands on it. For those who do qualify, another odd restriction dictates that the medical marijuana can't be smoked.”

2. “Duppy Conqueror” - Bob Marley with Lee Perry

“"We believe the intent of this attack is to convince us to remove a specific class of content,"

KW: They tried to kill Marley for trying to raise political awareness among the broader population. But when they shot him he kept going, saying that the people who make the world a horrible place don’t take a day off.

3. “32 Ghosts IV” - Nine Inch Nails

KW: “‘Hammer this fact home . . . leaking is tantamount to aiding the enemies of the United States’”

JW: When the first news of Edward Snowden came out, and I pieced together what his last week, month, year might have looked like, it felt like an alt-Bourne fanfic. I pictured it as a movie, and started making a soundtrack for that movie. I had brief delusions of writing a story that used media and journalism to pin map points (which I was already guessing at before they were revealed), map points to inspire a soundtrack, and a soundtrack to inspire the script. This was before he left Hong Kong, before the Bolivian President’s plane was rerouted, before a month in Sheremetyevo, before Citizen Four, before John Oliver. Why don’t I finish things?!

4. “Jealousy” - Liz Phair

JW: “Say goodbye to bulky oxygen tanks and selfie-unfriendly face masks when you dive – one day soon.”

5. “Midnight Creeper” - Eagles of Death Metal

KW: “this is the first time Carlisle remembers anyone proposing to cut off water to a federal agency”

JW: When I think of the pictures of Bluffdale, I think of the high desert. When I think of the high desert, I think of Josh Homme. In the movie in my mind, Utah is the ATF and the NSA is the Branch Davidians. I think Eagles of Death Metal would show up to play live at that event.

6. “Get MuNNY” - Erykah Badu

JW: “This effectively means that PayPal, the largest online payment system, has given a tacit blessing for white supremacists to use their services as an unofficial banking system.”

7. “So What’Cha Want” - Beastie Boys

KW: “Hillary Clinton has stolen our innovative WikiLeaks twitter logo design”

8. “Derek” - Animal Collective

JW: “Crayons are pretty magical and versatile technologies.”

9. “Misty Mountain Hop” - Led Zeppelin

KW: “‘The real question is: What kind of world do we want?’”

10. “Sister Ray” - The Velvet Underground

JW: "This little thing is going to be special. If I gave you more money, could I have it faster?" KW: Led Zeppelin was a theme park, soundstages full of underage women and realistic facades of down south juke joints. White Light White Heat was like a magic wristband that let you into the drugged out Lower East Side drug dens and brothels, sometimes both at once. Something like that.