“Institutionalized” (2015) by Body Count

All suburban white boy skateboarders from the 1980s remember the infamous Suicidal Tendencies’ song “Institutionalized,” the one about the teenager who just wanted a Pepsi, but whose parents just wouldn’t listen and wanted to stick him in a mental institution. Well, Ice-T and his band Body Count have brought the song up to date to 2015 adulthood. And damn, if this update doesn’t resonate. This may not be safe for work, but nothing has made me laugh harder in the last several days.  Except … apologies to Ice-T and his anger issues in this video, I would choose having sex with the wife featured in this video than playing X Box.

“Natural’s Not In It” – Gang of Four

Video

Abrasive punk-funk (English Marxist variety) from the late 1970s. Sounds a lot like the early Cure, only with heavier bass and drums. I’m not sure if one band copied the other or if both bands were riding the same musical wavelength (their debuts came out around the same time). From the Gang of Four’s classic album “Entertainment!”

“Natural’s Not In It” made an appearance on the soundtrack for Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette” in 2006. However, its most notorious recent appearance was on a Microsoft Xbox Kinect commercial. A lot of people harrumphed over an extremely left-wing and anti-Capitalist Gang of Four song being used to sell a product. The band allegedly defended themselves by saying they were making a statement, acknowledging their own complicity in the Capitalist machine … or something like that.  Whatever.  I believe a band has a right to do whatever it wants to with its music.  However, when you choose to make strong statements, you have to acknowledge you’re going to get some grief if you do something that seems to be perpendicular to what you originally proclaimed.