Ariel Belont is back with a vengeance here. I’ve been witnessing the process of these songs, from being riffs ideas and small structures, to this final mix. This first half (it’s an album, divided into 2 eps) is not only explosive, it’s amazingly produced and mixed by Nahuel Martorelli, who also plays drums on every track. All I can say is some albums are made by Rock fans for Rock fans, people who are into it because they could truly identify with their heroes back when the world was a better place, and now they can give some of what they learned back to the world. So this is case of “Season 4 – Vol 1” by Mr Belont. As soon as you hit play you bump onto “El Toro” and you are immediately hooked. A very fuzzy riff, perhaps evoking The Black Crowes’ Lions era, mixed with Ariel’s interpretation of how a new John Corabi song could sound, then a Power Pop chorus softens the environment ala Jani Lane. “Only More Day” is the second track, Johnny Cash’s Spirit is all over this tune, autobiographical in a really accurate way, dude confesses his desire of going back “just one more day” so that he can enjoy some of the freedom that the digital era and “Idiocracy” took away from us. I believe a lot of us feel like this, specially when he describes himself a “lonely boy seeking shelter from the rain”, this narrative can relate to us all. Back then, and I believe I’m not only speaking for myself here, we used to look up to creative musicians. Most of those heroes are gone now, so are those “better days” that he refers to so crystal clear. “Hit and Run” sounds like a crossover between L.A. Guns’ “Hollywood Vampires” days and Led Zeppelin, the main riff could have been written by one of the many Classic Rock acts from the 1970s. “Fake” starts with the main riff and Ariel singing through some sort of megaphone effect, only to explode a few seconds later changing his vocal range and making the start of the song sound like a true revelation. This sounds like a mix of The Knack’s My Sharona with Cheap Trick or even Foghat’s “Slow Ride”, powerful and energetic. This first half of the album closes with “Drama Queen”, and boy I can say this one is a personal favourite. Ariel sent me several mixes of this song over the last few months. The arpeggios at the beginning have a classic Def Leppard vibe like “Bringing On The Heartbreak”, the way the vocals are mixed is not only colourful, but it blends brilliantly with the atmosphere of drums and the breaks. This song could have easily been a hit back when the world was not filled with retarded people staring at phones. Can’t wait for Vol 2 to be out. Trust this dude, he knows. /Juan Pablo Mazzola.
“It’s just a matter of time before only the extremely docile, pro-authoritarian bootlickers are allowed to live.”
(-John Dissed)
“I’m just a Black Dude raising 2 men living in a poor neighborhood that only winds up with one Party that wants to pretend that race doesn’t matter at all, and the other that doesn’t care about my community that uses race for everything just to get votes. I don’t vote for them.” (-Black In The Empire)
“Tucker is right. Our empire was more than just genocide. There was slavery, plundering, occupation and much more.” (-Richard Medhurst)
“The dark power of royalty. In 1971, the Chagos Islanders were expelled by the British to make way for a US base. This was made possible by a meeting of the Queen’s Privy Councillors (advisers) and approved in person by the Queen. Using the same power, Blair invaded Iraq in 2003.” (-John Pilger)
George William Bush acknowledged under oath — as part of a deposition in a lawsuit brought by a nonprofit group seeking records on Bush’s past — that he was the junior officer on a three- to four-man watch shift at CIA headquarters between September 1963 and February 1964, which was on duty when Kennedy was shot. “I do not recognize the contents of the memorandum as information furnished to me orally or otherwise during the time I was at the CIA,” he said. “In fact, during my time at the CIA, I did not receive any oral communications from any government agency of any nature whatsoever. I did not receive any information relating to the Kennedy assassination during my time at the CIA from the FBI. Based on the above, it is my conclusion that I am not the Mr. George Bush of the Central Intelligence Agency referred to in the memorandum.” . . .
“Ken Starr should be remembered for having been Epstein’s defense attorney and for being a huge limited hangout investigator of Clinton era corruption. He may have “uncovered” the affair w Lewinsky, but he buried most of their worst crimes.” (-Whitney Webb)
Which is probably another obligatory illuminati reference which is seemingly required in exchange for any pop star presence in the controlled media, all their secret society eye-conography was all over our poor Prince, but I am always dazzled by how prolific Billy & Steve remain and their output is usually pretty above and beyond the songwriting of not just the greasy kid model manikins but also, most of the old timers in their sixty something age group. I love Billy n Steve, and in my family, we pretty much celebrate their discography every day. It is rare that a day slips by without me blasting something by Billy Idol or Generation X. Yeah I know the controlled media and entire muzak industry are monopolized and weaponized by shady forces, but a song by Billy & Steve can still inspire you to wanna rage against the evil machine. The way that pop stars and mainstream journalists are manipulated and tightly owned by the deep state or ruling class or whatever you wanna call it, that’s kinda how it is for us serfs who own no land, we end up having to slave for rich people who pretend to be our charitable, benevolent patrons, but are really trying to just keep us on the plantation as their on call indentured servants. It is madness. Somedays it feels like leaving this disintegrating old trailer amidst so many mentally ill old people who steal our cats and shit before winter hits might be a fool’s errand cause we could go from outta the frying pan and into the fire. Nowhere to run and nowhere to hide in Gropey Joe’s “Nothing Will Change” Murkkka except for ya know the mega-hyper-inflation and escalating wars of the military industrial complex Rand Corporation profiteers. This ep will be old news by the time this column posts but the songs will still be fab. So here, my comrades-enjoy yourself!
“And current phase of the war that started in 2014 – begin on Feb 16-17 not Feb 24 when the 150K Ukrainian army begin probing all along the contact line in preparation for its’ ground attack, documented by OCSE monitors that anyone can verify if you think this is disinformation!” (-Ajamu Baraka)
“If 4000 Twitter employees have broad access to the personal and geolocation data of users, as Twitter’s ex-head of security – a former US intel agent – says, they’re presumably able to read your DMs and leak them as well.” (-Max Blumenthal)
“The U.S. lost in Afghanistan. The U.S. is losing its own New Cold War with Russia and China. U.S. imperialism is a paper tiger, now more than ever.” (-Danny Haiphong)
“Wow, all of these pro Ukrainian accounts follow each other and they are all located in Langley, Va. Just a coincidence I’m sure. No doubt the trustworthy fact checkers at
Twitter are all over these bots.” (-Garland Nixon)
“Those who tell you to move to Russia when you criticize the foreign policy of the western empire are the same people pushing for internet censorship and the silencing of unauthorized media and demanding retractions from any western outlet that forgets to parrot the official line.” (-Caitlin Johnstone)
MODERN MUSIC FOR OLD NEW WAVERS AND ELDERLY GOTHS LIKE ME
“In 2017, I attended a trans liberation rally held by the Cuban National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX). Thousands poured into the streets of Havana to celebrate the social gains of the revolution. Not one person protested for social conservatism or conservative patriotism.” (-Danny Haiphong)
This song always makes me think of my first true love. I used to bicycle mile and miles and miles out to her house on my ridiculous, gray house-painted girl’s bike, only to have other boys from the neighborhood coming to her door to see her the whole time I was reading Smiths and Depeche Mode lyrics with her on the couch. Her mom and awful, grumpy, blowhard stepfather naturally hated me on sight. Her older sister, Beth the college music older new wave girl liked me, though. Prior to my finally becoming so traumatized by sports team beatings at the roller rink and juvenile authority scapegoat shit and finally taking the midnight Grayhound outta town, it was all very sweet and innocent between me and that girl. Pretty In Pink, Some Kindof Wonderful, times Dawson’s Creek and the Joshua Tree.
“You are repressed But you’re remarkably dressed Is it real?
And you’re always busy Really busy Busy, busy Oh, hairdresser on fire All around Sloane Square And you’re just so busy Busy, busy Busy scissors Oh, hairdresser on fire All of the day.
Was a client, over-cautious He made you nervous And when he said “I’m gonna sue you” Oh, I really felt for you …mmm…
So can you squeeze me Into an empty page of your diary; And supernaturally change me? Change me, change
Oh, here in London “Home of the brash, outrageous and free” You are repressed But you’re remarkably dressed Is it real? And you’re always busy Really busy Busy clippers Oh, hairdresser on fire All around Sloane Square And you’re just too busy To see me Busy clippers Oh, hairdresser on fire All of the day…” (-MOZ)
Yeah I know all the sensitive college attending, Netflix watching, Trader Joe faux wokes are still mad at him for this or that, he’s sorta been cancelled, like Chappelle and Rogan and RFK Jr, and blacklisted by the shitty labels, but so what, he has a great band, an unrivalled body of work, millions of fans, and he wrote some of my favorite songs of all time. You’re just so busy, busy, busy…
“This campaign stands in solidarity with the railroad workers, nurses, UPS employees, teachers and all other workers and their families on strike or preparing to go on strike. #WhichSideAreYouOn#Union#Strike#Solidarity” (-Matt Hoh For Senate)
“Solidarity to the railroad workers who are set to go on strike this Friday because they are being denied time off to go to the doctor when they are sick. #RailroadStrike” (-Ryan Knight)
“The railroad company management is likely counting on public resentment towards the workers for supply chain issues that will arise from the strike. Let’s be sure to remind people that it’s management, not the workers that are making store shelves empty again.” (-Ezak177)
Seems so crazy, this here life, esp. in times such as these, when the twisted billionaire sociopaths with all the consolidated tech power and bioweapons and media control all seem to only love wars, famine and disease, suffering and genocide and quiet weapon mass murder, and want to see many more of us become homeless, get sick, and croak cause they’re some Evil Squid Game secret society motherfuckers. So many of our childhood friends and heroes are already dead as fuck. Prince, Bowie, Timo Kaltio, Darrel Bath-ya know? Now, the great Morris Day has announced his imminent retirement from solo records and “Last call” tour. Me, of course, I always wanted the Original 7, the real TIME to make another record, but Jesse always splits first-he plays with D’Angelo nowadays. Jam & Lewis made it big producing for Janet and stuff. Jellybean and Monte Moir sometimes still tour with Morris. It’s been said that Prince originally had Alexander O’Neal in mind to portray the character he envisioned fronting the Time, who was to be a pimpolicious gigolo based on his own father, Prince Rogers Nelson. Alexander wanted too much dough upfront so Champagne and Grand Central drummer Morris got the gig-he and Prince recorded the Time debut together and the rest is history. They found Jesse playing some roadhosue biker bar, valet/mirror man/all around entertainer, Jerome Benton is Time bassist Terry Lewis’ brother. Morris was a big influence on my whole generation ya know with the yellow limo and Stacy Adams. Even Snoop will say he was a big influence. If the “Last Call” tour comes anywhere near me, I’ll probably be in the frontrow doing the Walk, the Bird and you know-that obie-obie-oh dance. Two dudes from the downtown high school named the Cloyd brothers were like the first in my town to get the Stacy Adams, back in the day. I’m wearing a pair right now. Yase! I wish all those cats from the Time all good things always.
“Repeating Russian talking points” just means criticizing US foreign policy. That’s literally always all it ever means. The argument is that because Russia criticizes the foreign policy of the US-centralized power alliance, you never should. Which is self-evidently very moronic.” (-Caitlin Johnstone)
“Let’s forget the US gov has admitted they’re lying about what’s going on in Ukraine because they say it’s justified when in an information war. Let’s forget that a US-funded committee in Ukraine has called anyone reporting the truth about the war an “information terrorist” Shouldn’t it matter to everyone – no matter where you stand – that we now have evidence the US & UK stopped a peace deal between Ukraine & Russia back in April of this year? This god awful war could’ve been over months ago if the US/UK had not kept it going. Let’s forget that Biden/Congress have sent over $50 Billion of weapons & aid to an army that is at least partially n@zis. Let’s forget that even US propaganda outlets CBS & CNN have admitted 70% of those weapons are sold on the black market & don’t get to the frontlines.Let’s forget the fact that the sanctions against Russia have backfired & are destroying the lives of average Americans. Let’s forget that documents reveal the US & NATO have been planning to plunder Ukraine for years” (-Lee Camp)
“Function of the CIA: 1. Run secret wars 2. Disseminate propaganda to influence people’s minds That’s not hyperbole. That’s from the Former Operations Director of the CIA. Think about this next time you buy the narratives that are crafted to control you.” (-Ryan Knight)
“Tucker Carlson said that the British were a kind and benign colonizer despite killing millions of people and leaving India impoverished and illiterate during its brutal occupation.” (-Danny Haiphong)
“Queen Elizabeth II owns the largest clear cut diamond in the world Known as ‘The Great Star of Africa’ the 530 carats gem was mined in South Africa back in 1905. It was stolen from South Africa. It has an estimated worth of $400 million.” (-Afrika Archives on Twitter)
“Today is Leonard Peltier’s 78th Birthday. He is serving a 47th year of prison, all of which constitutes cruel, unusual and unjust imprisonment. It is now your responsibility Potus Biden to #FreeLeonardPeltier. Unconditionally. Now” (-Gloria La Riva)
“Biden is asking for $47 billion in pandemic relief. Totally unrelated, Biden has sent about $40 billion to Ukraine. Meanwhile, Zelensky has put Ukraine up for sale on the NYSE. Get your piece before the best bits are gone!” (-Eleanor Goldfield)
ONE MORE AND I GOTTA GO…
Unreal. A worker for one of our sometime employers has the Big C, so what do ya think the for profit hospital did? Stuck a Covid patient in his room. Took a picture of a big raccoon on my front porch last night. Preparing to transition outta this rundown ole trailer in time for winter. Doing a lotta “odd jobs” lately. Relatives with worrisome health problems and an estranged loved one is AWOL/MIA. Tough times in Gropey Joe Biden’s crazy inflation, Unreality TV Land. Borrowed employer’s expensive car, supposed to go to big busy crime ridden city to see kid’s doctor later today. He needs his meds reevaluated. Filled with dread and worry. That vroom vroom beep beep beep in my ears is the sound of fuckedup fuckin’ gentrification-the bigass earth moving machines are back to flatten always more of the local wildlife habitat to clear way for big development. Somebody stole one of our cats. If you got any kind of trauma in your nervous system, it is hard to wake up to all the horrifying bullshit that surrounds us each day, especially with all the smiley faced pilled out fatso upperclass people forever nodding along with the pig-media lies and acting like, “everything is GGGRRREAT!” Like motherfuckin Tony The Motherfuckin’ Tiger! I got all these people from my long gone past who cover all my old songs and act like their trading on my material or attempting to monetize my songs is somehow supposed to be doing me some kinda flattery favor, but what they’re really doing is just gloating about having the ability to pay professional musicians to perform my songs in fancy recording studios. I used to know and collaborate with summa those people decades ago and they’ve almost all been in the position to help advance my interests as owners of recording studios and shit, but no. Never done anything to promote my cause or interest, only to kinda pillage and plunder my tunes. They all have this subtle way of diminishing me as some kinda Kari Chrome “phrase turner” or “street poet” AS IF I aint a songwriting frontman underground actionman. They all just some ruthless pay to play people trying to steal my gig, my suitcase, my face and space, ya know? It’s pretty crazy, really. So many people who detest both me and my dangerous former sideman, all fuckin’ still wanna perform our material and it makes no sense at all, cause so many of these karaoke coverband people are such yuppie gotmine capitalists, and all our songs are about poor people topics. Exile and exclusion, heartaches, abandonment, goin’ without essentials half the time, and the people’s struggles. I can get hungup on all this old bullshit and dwell for days on end, but am trying to keep my mind free and clear enough to write new songs and forget about all these old name dropping backstabbers and big city groupie wannabe VIPs. I gotta go dig around for a light jacket in the garage so I’m not profiled by the bureaucrats and administrators I gotta go fuck with outta town today-you know-ya gotta cover up your bad tattoos. Silly wabbit, tattoos are for gentrified rich hipster fakes. All I got on my frontpage right now is alot of hassles and to do lists of endless backs of the poor laboring, loved ones in medical crisis and always more insults, ripoffs and exploitation. It really gets me down as Chrissie Hynde sings on “Pack It Up!” “You guys are the pits of the world!’
“Maybe a few people having more money than the rest of society while over 30 million people live in poverty isn’t the ultimate sytem.” (-Black In The Empire)
“People defend capitalism on the grounds that it creates abundance, and in a sense they’re right: capitalism is an effective way to drive up production and consumption. The problem is there’s no wisdom guiding it, so the world is being choked with garbage while people go hungry.
Haves exploiting the labor of have-nots will indeed get the gears of industry creating lots of stuff. But now we’re creating too much stuff, so much that it’s killing our biosphere, even as vast inequalities remain and far too many go without the basic necessities in life. The “invisible hand” of the free market is worshipped as a sentient deity who always knows what’s best, but in reality it’s completely bereft of wisdom and intelligence and cannot move in harmony with the real needs of the real world. It’s a mindless force that is driving us to disaster.
This isn’t a problem you can just ignore. You can’t keep waxing on about how much stuff capitalism has been able to create while that stuff is destroying our ecosystem and making this planet uninhabitable. It’s a problem that urgently needs solving, and capitalism can’t solve it.
Capitalism offers no solution to the problems of ecocide and inequality. As long as exploitation remains profitable, exploitation will remain. As long as ecocide remains profitable, ecocide will continue. Human behavior cannot remain driven by profit.” (-Caitlin Johnstone)
Heard from a dude I was real close to a long, long time ago. We’ve grown miles and miles apart in every way, but I could hear his old self underneath all the hoopla and clamor and big city ways. We used to make songs together, most of it was of an experimental/improvisational nature back then in the early days, but we always had a million laughs. We got together again years later and still complimented each other creatively but by then he had achieved a certain level of celebrity and I was frowned upon by his celebrity entrouge so it fizzled out again before you got to hear the many good songs we wrote together. Shame.
“Gosh that Pentagon-commissioned 2019 Rand Corp paper on how to break Russia is just chock full of convenient coincidences.” (-Caitlin Johnstone)
“In 2019, the Rand Corp., the brain of US militarism, published a report with nearly six pages on how the US could stoke conflict in the Caucasus — esp. between Armenia and Azerbaijan — to help weaken Russia’s influence. Last night, Azerbaijan invaded Armenia. When does it stop?” (-Pawel Wargan)
“You can go ahead and mourn the queen all you want but don’t pretend like the longest-reigning monarch is some innocent granny and has nothing to do with all the fucked up shit Britain did all over the world.” (-Richard Medhurst)
“Cuba exports doctors while the US exports war. It’s beyond time to pressure Biden to drop this outrageous terrorist designation as well as end the criminal blockade once & for all. Stop punishing this small country for charting its own path. Let Cuba live!” (-Abby Martin)
“It’s literally impossible to be an aggressive critic of US foreign policy with a sizeable audience and not be accused of repeating Russian taking points. Literally every single high-profile person who does so gets accused of Kremlin loyalty, without a single, solitary exception.” (-Caitlin Johnstone)
“The United States will soon drop out of the Top 50 nations in terms of life expectancy. Every country above us has a public option for health insurance of a publicly funded healthcare system. Not some. Not most. Every single one.” (-John Green)
“$67 Billion to the weapons manufacturers in the guise of “Ukraine” yet Los Angeles looks like this…” (-Garland Nixon)
“While some Western countries call for peace, the Pentagon has signed a $182-million deal with an American arms manufacturer to produce advanced surface-to-air missile systems for the Ukrainian military IN LATE 2024. Guess they plan to continue this war?” (-Fiorella Isabel)
“For those saying we should be magnanimous about the passing of the queen, a reminder that the queen inserted herself into the lives of Indigenous people here multiple times. She wasn’t a bystander to the effects of colonisation and colonialism, she was an architect of it. Demanding Indigenous people be respectful about the passing of someone who intentionally made our lives worse is outrageous. It’s worth considering what she *could* have done – and didn’t – to effect change.At so many times across the 20th century, she could have intervened and reset the relationship between Indigenous people and ‘the crown’, because she had more than ceremonial power to do so. She did nothing.” (-Indigenous X)
“The United States is waging a proxy war in Ukraine in large part to demolish Europe’s economy. A weak Europe artificially inflates the dollar and further cements their subservience to the New Cold War on Russia and China.” (-Danny Haiphong)
“If we lived in a democracy then we would have open political debates where the people would get to hear from multiple candidates from across the political spectrum, but instead we live in an oligarchy so the people only get to hear from the two parties who serve the ruling class.” (-Ryan Knight)
“And current phase of the war that started in 2014 – begin on Feb 16-17 not Feb 24 when the 150K Ukrainian army begin probing all along the contact line in preparation for its’ ground attack, documented by OCSE monitors that anyone can verify if you think this is disinformation!” (-Ajamu Baraka)
“If 4000 Twitter employees have broad access to the personal and geolocation data of users, as Twitter’s ex-head of security – a former US intel agent – says, they’re presumably able to read your DMs and leak them as well.” (-Max Blumenthal)
“The U.S. lost in Afghanistan. The U.S. is losing its own New Cold War with Russia and China. U.S. imperialism is a paper tiger, now more than ever.” (-Danny Haiphong)
“Wow, all of these pro Ukrainian accounts follow each other and they are all located in Langley, Va. Just a coincidence I’m sure. No doubt the trustworthy fact checkers at
Twitter are all over these bots.” (-Garland Nixon)
“Those who tell you to move to Russia when you criticize the foreign policy of the western empire are the same people pushing for internet censorship and the silencing of unauthorised media and demanding retractions from any western outlet that forgets to parrot the official line.” (-Caitlin Johnstone)
“Let’s take a step back & think about this. Let’s forget that the US & NATO helped create the war in Ukraine by breaking promises not to expand NATO. Let’s forget the US perpetrated the 2014 coup in Ukraine. Let’s forget many top US officials have admitted this is a proxy war.” (-Lee Camp)
“The Establishment voted for Biden before a ballot was counted.” (-Black In The Empire)
“Can the media please stop calling this guy an “environmentalist”? He’s a Malthusian masquerading as an environmentalist (and he’s not the only one)” (-Whitney Webb)
GO PUBLIC! Was formed by four punk rock musicians from Lyon, France who played in bands such as SIXPACK, CONDENSE, PARKINSON SQUARE or NOT SCIENTISTS. Here they deliver 12 songs with various punk influences: “2 Old To Die” reminds me a bit of SCOTT “DELUXE” DRAKE solo stuff while “All Faith Is Lost” or “Snowball” clearly lean towards 90s emo punk. These guys are no beginners and know what they’re talking about, you’ll find traces of bands like DESCENDENTS, HÜSKER DÜ or JAWBREAKER in these songs. You’ll also hear a bit of up-tempo punk rock’n’roll in “Getting Late” or in “A Rose In Her Hair” and even a touch of FUGAZI in “fm 1” or in “634269”. The vocals remind me a bit of Australian punk rock’n’roller SIMON CHAINSAW at times (“Sheishimheisher) and the band gets more surprising when slowing down the tempo and getting more poppy in “In A Park”. If you like your punk rock tight with a dash of melancholy and lots of guitar melodies then look no further! /Laurent C.
Veglam 