Continued from last week’s post that covered the first 13 songs, here is a link to the Spotify playlist:
“Hang On To Your Ego” by Frank Black
I never knew the history of this song until I saw the video and its mention of lyricist Tony Asher. That led me down the Wikipedia rabbit hole surrounding the history of the Beach Boys song “I Know There’ll Be An Answer” off of Pet Sounds, of which this is an alternate version under the original name of the song. Reading about the Beach Boys and the litigation about songwriting credit and rights to perform is required for any campaigns with strong media corp elements. Take the Beach Boys story and add guns—instant cyberpunk classic.
“Two Million Voices” by The Angelic Upstarts
A classic anthem by these Oi! legends, “Two Million Voices” is the song of a movement. Anti-fascist and socialist by nature, the Angelic Upstarts could be the voice against the power structure of the dark future.
“Mathematics” by Mos Def
Yasin Bey (Mos Def) is just so damn good. Whether he’s rapping about police brutality, American exceptionalism, or as in “Mathematics,” the status of African Americans, he combines intelligence with flow in a way very few hip hop artists can. Mathematics is all about an economic system that is built to disenfranchise a whole people, which is about as cyberpunk as you get. Their past and present has been our dark future.
“War All The Time” by Thursday
One of the definitive post-9/11 songs about the Forever Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, “War All The Time” was surprisingly prescient—it was only recorded around the time of the initial invasion of Iraq but rings even truer more than a decade later. It speaks to the anxiety of a nation where war both the norm and out of sight.
“Bandages” by Hot Hot Heat
Another song about dysfunctional relationships. I feel like any edgerunner who tries to have a relationship will be involved in some kind of sadomasochistic power dynamic, whether they realize it or not. It’s hard to do something that puts you in harm’s way and still have the emotional commitment to a marriage. Just ask military couples. Factor in the extralegal nature of edgerunning and it’s even worse. I particularly feel this song applies to a relationship between an edgerunner and someone not in the life, but it could be either one.
“Take ‘Em All” by Cock Sparrer
Cock Sparrer’s classic is an angry, violent indictment of the music industry. In the dark future, it could almost be literal. Bands spurned by record labels might take matters into their own hands. It’s not just a punk rock classic but an adventure seed as well.
“Upgrade (A Baymar College College)” by Deltron 3030
Deltron 3030’s self-titled debut was an afrofuturist hip hop opera about Deltron Zero’s struggle against the corporations that rule the universe. It comes from a very different place than most cyberpunk interpretations, which helped me really understand that the cyberpunk future is going to be very different for people of different backgrounds. In many ways, the genre gets broken down into a corporate bad/cyberpunk good dichotomy, and this reminds me that there is far more nuance in the world.
“Hate Your Leaders” by Hollow Crown
This one should be pretty self-explanatory. Angry, metal, anti-authoritarian, basically what every cyberpunk should be. It’s also more of what I would expect Samurai to sound like, except with less screams vocals—but I’m a child of the 80s, screaming hardcore didn’t get to me until around the time I graduated high school and my vision of Johnny Silverhand had already been crystallized.
“Bleeding” by Ignite
This album came out at the point where I was starting to question my faith in the War on Terror and my place in the military. “Bleeding” is a hardcore ripper targeting the military-industrial complex. If Haliburton started wars, just imagine what Arasaka and Militech could do.
“Guerrilla Radio” by Rage Against The Machine
“More for Gore or the son of a drug lord? None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord!” is pretty much the mantra of the Rockerboy. Pirate radio still exists in the world of 2020, since the streaming net didn’t really become a thing. Rage would be on it.
“Stigmata” by Ministry
I remember Ministry ending their Lollapalooza set in 1992 with “Stigmata” and it was the end of a mind-blowing set. The wall of noise and video that crashed into me for those songs was like nothing I ever saw or heard before. From the slopes of Montage Mountain Ski Resort, I saw the churning mosh pit that looked more like a pot boiling over than a concert. That’s what cyberpunk is supposed to look like.
“Never Fade Away” by Refused (playing as Samurai)
I figured that it would be appropriate to end the playlist the way I started it, with Refused’s interpretation of Samurai for the Cyberpunk 2077 soundtrack. After I posted the first half of this playlist, someone on one of the Discords I’m active on said they couldn’t abide “Chippin’ In” because it reminded them too much of Limp Bizkit. I think if you didn’t listen to bands like Refused when they were current, the pop crap that ripped them off (Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach, etc.) definitely would define that sound. It’s a fair cop. “Never Fade Away” feels a little more like a pure Refused song, but it definitely lacks the anthemic stomp of “Chippin’ In.”
I thought I would make Media Monday a regular thing, but I’ve decided against it, at least for the rest of the calendar year. I was only posting actual content one day a week on Wednesdays, with Flashback Fridays being taken up for the foreseeable future with the product line. So Monday means more content!
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