Tunes in the Key of Green: music that hit home after the Gulf Spill

My music geek friends and I have the tradition of exchanging year-end mixes of our favorite songs---it’s a way to expose/one-up each other to the tunes that really struck a chord over the last twelve months. In doing the prep work for 2010’s mix, I was struck by the connections between my two favorite albums of the year and the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Both “Plastic Beach” by The Gorillaz and “Ya-Ka-May” by Galactic came out before the spill, so neither one is directly related to the mess. But watching things unfold from afar, the themes these albums explored felt all the more “in the moment” as I read Rocky’s harrowing Louisiana dispatches and saw the images of oiled birds being attended to on TV. And that has gotten me to think a bit more about the whole green or eco-music community that seems to be emerging. Happily, it is broadening.

Not that you are coming to Switchboard for music commentary, but Plastic Beach is darker than anything The Gorillaz have put out to this point. Sure, the music is still shockingly hook-y and includes a cavalcade of great collaborators---but the repeated themes of pollution, waste, and degradation sewn throughout the whole album were biting even before the Deep Water Horizon crapped up the Gulf and it has seemed astoundingly prescient ever since.

The Galactic connection is more geographic. Hurricane Katrina forced them to sojourn outside New Orleans, but their return refocused them on the things that make their hometown so special. It resulted in THE best “New Orleans” album since the glory days of the Neville Brothers and Dr. John. But be clear, these guys are looking forward, not back. Working with traditional lions like Allen Toussaint and Erma Thomas as well as new bounce stars like Cheeky Blakk, they are channeling a new NOLA sound. It’s a grimy, satisfying and disparate mix; a reminder of how great the town is even as it deals with the next disaster. And it’s a reminder of how important local culture can be in overcoming tough times---nobody’s had it tougher in the U.S. than that the Gulf coast in recent years.

Given all the work that NRDC has done in the Gulf this year, it’s odd that I would need reminding of these issues---but that is the power of music. It can crystallize and make concepts concrete. It can bring home events occurring thousands of miles away. And it creates associations that can keep you thinking about issues that might otherwise disappear into the busy hullabaloo of daily life. I sure hope that others have listened to these albums---not just because they are great---but, because we all need to be reminded that there is a lot of work yet to be done in the Gulf.

But, hey, disaster music wasn’t limited to bands starting with G...or hippies…or dudes with thick beards. Check out these five great songs looking closely at environmental themes…and happy listening in the New Year!

1. The Roots – “Dear God 2.0” (Air quality so foul, I gotta try to breath / Endangered species / And we runnin’ out of trees)
2. Gorillaz – “Pirate Jet” (It’s all good news now / Because we left the taps running / for a hundred years / So drink into the drink)
3. Arcade Fire – “Sprawl II” (To be honest, I wasn’t wild about this album, but it might as well the soundtrack to smart growth: Living in the sprawl / Dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains)
4. Mos Def, Lenny Kravitz and the Preservation Hall Band – “It Ain’t My Fault” (sure this is a quick, one off-remake, but Mos Def’s opening is brilliant: Oil and water don’t mix/petroleo is not a grease to blacken my fish)
5. Gorillaz - “Plastic Beach” (It’s a Casio on a plastic beach / It’s a Styrofoam deep sea landfill)

I am always looking for new tunes...so let me know what's missing from this list before I start collecting songs for 2011.

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