Every movement is defined by its music, especially in a country that attaches a certain festive enthusiasm to everything. Before things turned violent, the Thai protest seemed to be defined not by lungfuls of rage, but song and dance. When the yellow shirts came to harangue the reds last month -- before M79 grenades silenced them -- the two sides seemed competitive in their displays of exultation. Like the future would be decided by whomever was most excited about it.
I was working on a write-up about the red shirts' music before everything changed last week. I had given up on the music scene in Bangkok, which is either boop-boop Thai pop or beep-beep eurotrash electronica. Then I went to Isaan and became enamored of the rough and tumble folk rock, a little punk and a little ska, coming from the rice-basket provinces.
Here's three tracks from the UDD playlist:
"I Love Red Shirts" Second song Third song
