One of my jobs is as editor of a music blog based in Austin. We've covered South by Southwest for the last couple of years, and this year, my final day there was the longest and busiest of the entire week. Two events dominate it absolutely. First was the premiere of an unbelievably powerful documentary, "Body of War," the story of Tomas Young, who was struck with a bullet almost immediately after beginning his first tour of duty in Iraq, came home paralyzed from the chest down, and became an anti-war activist.
The second was the showcase concert that followed, featuring artists from the soundtrack including Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, the Nightwatchman), Ben Harper, and Billy Bragg. The recording features original material by Eddie Vedder as well as contributions from dozens of other alternative artists. But right now I'm just grateful the music got me there, because I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
Inspired by the film and concert, in the last couple of months I've built a playlist of some of my favorite political music, and recently found videos for many of the songs... and I thought I'd share this video playlist with you here.
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