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2CD
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IMB 6032CD
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Detroit's iconic "White Panther" introduces himself as "a beatnik, dope fiend, poet provocateur, race traitor and renegade. Living from hand to mouth and euro to euro, sleeping on the couches and extra beds of my friends. A man without a country and a post office box in New Orleans for a permanent address." Reciting his beat poetry in a sub-baritone growl, John Sinclair waxes lyrical about John Lennon, Thelonious Monk, Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs, and issues a libertarian's charter on "Ain't Nobody's Business". 13 songs produced by Youth, ranging from raucous rock 'n' roll to psychedelic jazz and abstract soundscapes. Throughout, Sinclair's voice functions as an anchor, taking on an American social landscape bursting with civil unrest and self-reinvention as Youth's modernist production swirls around him. Immortalized by John Lennon's 1972 song that bears his name, Sinclair is an iconic figure of '60s counterculture, famous for, among other things, having co-founded the White Panther Party and for managing Detroit's legendary leftist proto-punk outfit MC5.
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LP
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IMB 6033LP
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Incendiary bebop beauty from the renegade poet John Sinclair. Bohemian ex-manager of the MC5, Sinclair was central to 1960s counterculture. A year or two back, he met producer Youth and got dragged into the 21st century. The result is a hypnotic celebration of personal freedom; laid-back thoughts spoken in John Sinclair's gruff, grainy drawl, draped against blues, bebop and trip-hop. "Do It", with its lonesome sax, echoes Paddy McAloon's intimate I Trawl The Megahertz (2003): "In those days, to make poetry and art... that wasn't called for. But you did it, even though you knew you would never get paid..." "Brilliant Corners" is a wild tribute to Jack Kerouac, and "Sitarrtha" offers, "If we're lucky, music will bring us through, and we'll wake up singing." What a dude. Hand drawn cover artwork by Youth.
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CD
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IMB 6022CD
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John Sinclair, the renegade poet, scholar and cultural revolutionary, releases his new album on Iron Man Records. John has been described as an archetype of the 1960s art, music and literary synthesis, and today, is still kicking with both feet on his trajectory for cultural transformation. His new record features 10 tracks from his book of verse: Always Know: A Book of Monk. Twenty poems planted firmly in a single-shot session, and carefully trimmed down to 10 exhibits for this album. Beatnik poems, great odes and personal reflections of the be-bop jazz persuasion, all flowering together. First conceived of in Detroit City, spring 1982, and developed throughout the 1980s with streaks of fresh edits leading right up to the session itself, John navigates some of these texts for the first time in over 20 years, free-styling his energized sincerity and attention to every word, transforming the text on the page into his unique unmistakable spoken-word. The music was written and arranged by Steve Fly who mirrored John's poems in the music by initially combing the tempo of the original songs recorded by John "Dizzy" Gillespie, Charlie "Bird" Parker and Thelonious Monk. Steve The Fly is a native of Stourbridge UK, now an Amsterdam resident who plays drums, spins vinyl, writes novels and literary and cultural commentary. His other music projects have included New Flesh, Garaj Mahal, Temple Dragon Band, and of course, he is now full-time with John Sinclair. These songs are further utilized by John's poetic method, so that each title and the rhythm of his poetry can piggy-back upon the same song-title, and rhythm, of an original composition set in history, for extra rooting. Steve put down drums, turntables, cello-bass, flute, and glockenspiel, shooting to play around the vocal lead lines and diverse expressions from John. All artwork was cradled and visualized by the post-industrial imagination of CHU. CHU's work has included projects with Banksy and Jamie Hewlett, among many others, and he has been described as the "Escher of UK street art" and is a founder of Graffiti Bastards. The album is beautifully packaged in a double gatefold CD wallet with full-color artwork by CHU and a 10-page booklet. Mohawk illustrates the kind of care and attention a John Sinclair record deserves. After all, he kinda helped start this underground art explosion.
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DVD
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MVDV 4613DVD
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"John Sinclair first emerged out of his small-town Michigan background to forge a legendary course through the 1960s as a cultural activist, manager of the MC5, and chairman of the White Panther Party. An early victim of the War on Drugs who faced 20 years to life in prison for giving two joints to an undercover policewoman, Sinclair served 29 months of a 9-1/2-to-10-year sentence before his legal victory on appeal changed the law for good. The long campaign waged by Sinclair culminated in a massive John Sinclair Freedom Rally headlined by John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Stevie Wonder, Bob Seger, Phil Ochs, Allen Ginsberg and Bobby Seale that resulted in Sinclair's release from prison on December 13, 1971 -- just three days after the event." With appearances by: John Lennon & Yoko Ono, John Sinclair & This Blues Scholars, Allen Ginsberg, MC5, Up, Ed Sanders, Andre Williams, Bo Dollis, Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen, and more. Run time: approx. 86 mins. Dolby Digital; Region 0; NTSC format; 5.1 Surround Sound.
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