I usually write an essay for these, but here in our third presidential cycle with authoritarian blood-and-soil nationalism as the official Republican platform, I increasingly find I have nothing to say. If you’re determined to hand the country over to a senile racist and his pack of venal corporatist toadies, I don’t really want to talk to you anyway. Maybe I’ll pay “tribute” to your guy by swaying awkwardly in place for the 78 minutes this mixtape will run. Or maybe I’ll just send you a postcard from the prison camp that awaits me, should you succeed.

Everybody else: Crank it up to keep the hoping machine running. Early voting has started as I post this, but even on Election Day itself we will have to wait a few days, or more likely a few weeks, before this thing is officially decided. Vote your conscience, and stay ready to act in solidarity with the vulnerable. They can’t take the American experiment away from us if we don’t let them. We defend it at the ballot box in the hope that we will not have to defend it in the streets. Plan accordingly.

Stay frosty, and God bless America.

Download the full 2024 mix (1:17:10)

Download the full 2020 mix (1:21:00). Read the 2020 essay here.

Download the full 2018 mix (1:20:20). Read the 2018 essay here.

Download the full 2016 mix (1:18:37). Read the 2016 essay here.

Download the full 2012 mix (1:20:51). Read the 2012 essay here.

intro: Gawd – T-Bone Burnett
Men Without Shame – Phantom, Rocker & Slick
We March – Prince
Battle Flag (radio version) – Lo Fidelity Allstars feat. Pigeonhed
Statement of Intent – Bis
It Can Happen – Yes
One Nation Under a Groove – Funkadelic
The Revolution Starts Now – Steve Earle
Abort – Tribe
Once Upon a Time – Simple Minds
People Make the World Go ‘Round – The Stylistics
All You Fascists Bound to Lose – Resistance Revival Chorus with Rhiannon Giddens
Tell Me Something Good – Rufus with Chaka Khan
Hoeing Weeds, Sowing Seeds – The Russian Futurists
The Card Cheat – The Clash
You Haven’t Done Nothin’ – Stevie Wonder
Rise – Public Image Limited
coda: Do I Have to Do This All Over Again? – The Monkees

 

 

Music, The Weekly Mixtape

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About the Author

Jack Feerick

Critic at Large

Jack Feerick — editor, proofreader, freelance know-it-all, and three-time Jeopardy! champion — lives with his family somewhere in upstate New York, where he plays in a rock 'n' roll band and occasionally runs his mouth on local radio. You can listen to more of his work on Soundcloud, if you like.

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