FFWD Weekly
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CD Review by Mary-Lynn McEwen VARIOUS ARTISTS Free the West Memphis 3 Koch · Steve Earle, L7 and Mark Lanegan are among the artists on this benefit album · Sweet peal of political thunder condemns the sentence of the West Memphis 3, Arkansas teens who were convicted of murder with no physical evidence, and on the grounds that they wore black clothing and listened to heavy metal Are you tired of injustice? I get fucking tired of it, and then, like most of us, I get up, go to work, feed my kid and pay my taxes. Then I’m just tired. Bless Joe Strummer, never a pretender to the political pyre, for making music that shakes your ass while it rakes your mind. And those Supersuckers saints – what they sing means something, even as it gleams like gold that will never be puked up as dumb radio fodder. Like Dylan, who took up the cause of falsely convicted black boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter on Desire 25 years ago, The Murder City Devils, John Doe, Tom Waits and Rocket from the Crypt offer up decent slices of music to help work the political splinter into your psyche. Someone might be executed because they listened to thinking people’s music like this, but, without such a musical treat, life’s not worth a three cent coin. 4/5

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