Bush Gave the Pentagon the Food Stamp Money

It's hard to imagine that, making music in DC, with its persistent poverty and proximity to the corridors of power, one could avoid getting all political. So the world got Fugazi and Bad Brains and whoever else you can name that I can't. But the thing about The Junkyard Band is that they made political party music. Not (political party) music, but (political) party music. While they may not have been the most famous Go-Go act to come out of DC (E.U., I think, hit it bigger with "Da Butt"), they were so very deserving of that title. Originally released together on a DefJam 12", "The Word" and "Sardines" are truly devastating sides filled with beastly fat bass keys, call-and-response kid-choruses, and banging on drums and cans and pots and pans.

I'll let you enjoy picking through the Reagan-bashing lyrics of "The Word", but suffice it to say, they make me wish people were still brave enough and angry enough to make conscious party music. Who, I ask, will step up so that we can get both our indignation and our freak on?

The Junkyard Band - The Word

According to their website, The Junkyard Band continue to work it today, having broken up and reunited several times since their formation in 1980.

I came across the briefest piece of an old video performance here (quicktime), but you're better off checking them out in the RUN DMC vehicle Tougher than Leather for a heftier dose.