Do You Know How To Use A Song As A Weapon? WELL MAYBE YOU SHOULD LEARN.

OH HEY JILL SOBULE

Here is something different for your Friday. So, you guys know that singer Jill Sobule? She is super-politically active and has been writing songs and making music for like THREE DECADES NOW. If you are already cool, you know about her, because she is badass. If you are not cool yet, do you remember how back in the 1990s there was a song called "I Kissed A Girl" on the radio and the MTV channel, and then some-odd years later, there was this other lady named Katy Perry who used that same song title and everybody was like "WHOA HEY WHOA HEY"? Anyway, that was Jill Sobule, who did the original song.

(This one.)

But now she's doing a super badass new project called My Song Is My Weapon, and it's an effort to bring back the idea of the "protest song." Remember those? During Vietnam, and further back all the way to the beginnings of folk music, people were writing songs about how pissed off they were about politics, labor, the working man, and all these other things. And they're still doing that! You might not always hear about it every five minutes, because with radio dying and there being eight bazillion artists on Spotify, a lot of it might fly under your radar.

Jill Sobule wants to help change that, and she's got a PledgeMusic drive (with all kinds of goodies available!) to make it happen. Right now they are 6 hours away from the end of the pledge drive and at95%of their goal. Let's let the website describe what it's all about, and if you're into it, you Wonkers should go help Jill over the top:

My Song is My Weapon is a virtual square with a soapbox—a communal online space where people can gather to express themselves in song, art, poetry or plain old primal screams. It’s the 21st-century, Internet-savvy update of the grand American tradition of social protest.

Imagine a place where like-minded folks across the country can gather, day or night, to create art that speaks directly to social change. Imagine an interactive map, where you can see the locations where people are posting, then click to hear what they have to say. Imagine a tool that lets people instantly connect, share, and create art online, right from their own homes. That’s MySongIsMyWeapon.com: a platform for the art of social revolution.

See? You don't even have to be a famous musician to contribute. Just a pissed off liberal with some SHIT TO SAY. Check out who is involved in this project SO FAR, besides Jill: Tom Morello, Wayne Kramer, Todd Rundgren, John Cameron Mitchell, Amanda Palmer, John Doe, Margaret Cho, Garfunkel and Oates, Wendy & Lisa, Loudon Wainwright, Harry Shearer, Billy Bragg, Jane Siberry, Nada Surf, Tune-yards, Jamie Kilstein and Richard Thompson. (THOSE ARE SOME COOL FUCKIN' PEOPLE, YEAH?)

There are many "bundles" available -- you know, this is one of those things where you get swag in exchange for helping them fund the project -- but one of the basic ones is only 20 bucks, and you get a digital download and a CD of this:

See? All those names we just listed above are on there! Don't you want to buy that CD? WE DID!

In an email to yr Wonket and also on the phone (yeah that's right), Jill explained more:

Basically we are trying to develop a kind of online communal platform for artists and musicians (pro and regular Joes) to express their issues and more political or socially conscious concerns in song (poetry, protest poster, video, etc). Like a virtual Washington Square Park from the '60s.

The genesis of the idea came from posting my song “When They Say We Want Our America Back, What The Fuck Do They Mean?” The song was a “hit” on the Sanders campaign. Anyway, all of a sudden, fans and strangers started sending me their “protest songs.” And you know what? They were pretty good! Some dealt with, of course, the national election and Trump, but others concerned more local and grassroots issues - like the shitty water in one’s county.

Hey you people who love Bernie Sanders, do you know that song? Hey, Hillary supporters (THAT WOULD BE ALL OF YOU AT THIS POINT), do you know it? YOU SHOULD KNOW IT, LET'S LISTEN:

You like that song? It is on that CD we showed you! Anyway, go check it all out if you wanna help here, and if you are an artistic-type person with something to say, get the hell over to the My Song Is My Weapon page on Facebookand START PROTESTIN'.

[ My Song Is My Weapon PledgeMusic ]