Hey folks, it’s my fourth time listening to this album in as many days and I’m looking for recommendations for tracks/albums like it. I’m looking for punk, energetic but also melodic, and packed with righteous anger. Bonus points if it’s in a language other than English.
Holy shit I was NOT expecting to find the Modena City Ramblers in this thread, but having grown up on them it’s such a heartwarming surprise. <3
I know some of the other names and I’ll go through the rest when I have the time. Thanks!
Lol, they were one of my Bella Ciao finds!
Welcome! Hope you find something that interests you!
One last addition I just remembered. I’ve not looked into these folks yet but they’re a Burmese punk group I found a while ago. Might be up your alley. The Rebel Riot and Cacerolazo.
https://youtu.be/Ddm5yNcuHPg
I have so much love for that Burmese Bella Ciao cover… I think I actually heard it first a while ago after the It Could Happen Here podcast series on Myanmar sent me down a bunch of rabbit holes. It has the energy and cultural context that this song actually should have, fuck all the Netflix TV show co-opted EDM remixes that people know Bella Ciao for these days. Thanks for bringing this specific memory back.
LMAO, while I totally get what you mean, I’m actually a big fan of them.
I subscribe to an idea others here have dubbed Treat Entryism, in that I think trying to engage people at an intellectual level with an idea that bucks the cultural hegemony they’re immersed in 24/7 is a losing battle. So, I find leftist /radical slop (including music 💁) that I can use to introduce brain de-wormers. Money Heist is one the best imo, especially Bella Ciao, as that lets me talk about one of my favorite historical figures, Lucio Urtubia. 
Ok to be fair the story of Lucio rocks, thanks for sharing that. I didn’t know that was the inspiration for Money Heist.
I would usually agree with you about the Treat Entryism. I’m not an ideological purist and I actually like “cultural remixes” in a general sense: pieces of media that reuse and recontextualise older cultural artifacts in a modern form. Bella Ciao though is the one cultural product I become conservative about, in my head it has too much significance to hear it taken out of context without cringing.
I very much recommend pulling the thread on Lucio , it’s fascinating stuff. My man was funding a significant chunk of leftist operations across the globe for like two decades or something.
As far as Money Heist goes, (for obvious reasons) I love heist stuff anyway, but Season 1 had a much more revolutionary edge to it that was blunted after Netflix got a hold of the show, unfortunately. The main mastermind of the heist had an anarchist bank robber father, iirc, which gives the first season a whole vibe of anti-establishment, ‘is the government even legitimate?’ type thought to it. Unrelated to the story of the show itself, Netflix has a documentary called Money Heist, The Phenomenon. Which, if you’re into Cultural Hegemony, 21Gramsci, you’ll probably find it interesting. It goes into the impact of the show across the globe, why they felt it resonated so well, and how it was literally inspiring bank robberies. IMO, every Leftist should be checking it out along with the Lucio doc.
Lol, I get ya. We all have things we want to protect.
Resetting the “days since being told to read theory” counter back to 0 once again…
Jk, I read your old thread on Lucio that you linked, was that the one you’re referring to or is there another? And if you have other resources on it beside the ones in the thread please do share!
About Money Heist, oof. I only watched the first season and a while ago too. I remember being kinda unimpressed because I felt like a lot of the plot conceits were pretty directly lifted from Inside Man, one of my favorite movies. The political content seemed pretty surface level to me back then, at least that’s what I remember, but I might have missed stuff. Definitely interested in the documentary about it’s impact though, that stuff is right up my alley as you can tell.
Well, now I need to watch Inside Man! Like I said, I’m into this sort of stuff, so it’s possible I was reading more into it than they meant, but there’s a definite drop off in revolutionary aspect in the final seasons.
spoiler
They kinda flat out disavow The Professor’s revolutionary tendency and have him declare he’s just doing it to fulfill his inner thief or something at the end.
btw, do you have any specific books to recommend on gramsci? I bought the first vol of buttigieg’s Prison Notebooks translation, and uh it was too over my head, I didn’t even know where to begin with it.
I’m afraid I don’t have much I can recommend, I had pretty much the same reaction as you with the writing I found both by and about him. Most of what I know about his philosophy is from either school or or other media that references him. I remember reading a good essay by the Wu Ming collective that talked about Gramsci, but I can’t find it right now and idk if it there was a translation. If I manage to find it I’ll let you know.
Unrelated to Gramsci, but Wu Ming wrote some great historical novels with an impressive amount of research behind them and an explicitly leftist perspective. Some good non-fiction commentary about Italian/European recent history as well. It’s not all good, they have some bad takes here and there (don’t read Clockwork Orange Duck), but I like most of their stuff. I’m reading Proletkult right now and even though I have mixed feelings about it it’s still an interesting book. Most of their best work is translated.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy: