The Flames of Discontent: Home
"Will there be singing in the dark times? Yes, there will be singing---about the dark times" -Bertolt Brecht
"If I can't dance, it's not my revolution" - Emma Goldman
"The artist must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery. I have made my choice; I had no alternative" - Paul Robeson
"You'll get pie in the sky when you die---THAT'S A LIE!" - Joe Hill
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Welcome to the website of THE FLAMES OF DISCONTENT. Not only can you access info/music of and about the Flames here, but this site also serves as a home-base for the annual DISSIDENT FOLK & ARTS FESTIVAL and offers a very wide array of ACTIVIST LINKS ranging from Resources for Progressive Musicians/Listeners to an ever-growing list of Cultural Workers/Organizations and other links including Labor and more.
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...Led by Labor organizer/musician John Pietaro's voice and electric banjo and Laurie Towers lead electric bass guitar, and augmented by various others, The Flames of Discontent play music that reinvigorates the protest song. New and daring arrangements of Woody Guthrie, Phil Ochs, Joe Hill, The Almanac Singers, Brecht & Weill/Brecht & Eisler, radical proletarian music, Spanish Civil War songs and Cold War hits (!), plus original topical music, spoken word pieces and free improvisations. The Flames' specialty is in reconstructing classic songs of protest, peace, labor and social change into works that infuse rockabilly, post-punk and neo-Beat poetry into the folk/protest sound. Armed with our Alternative Protest music, we hope to rekindle radicalism at a time when its needed most...
The Flames second album, "Revenge of the Atom Spies" was released in March 2007. It offers commentary on current struggles for justice by way of Red Scare metaphor. Liner notes were written by celebrated historian/author Paul Buhle. It has been aired nationally, including on radio stations WDST-FM (Radio Woodstock) and WBAI-FM (NYC) among many others; two of its selections are included on Neil Young's webpage of protest songs, 'LIVING WITH WAR TODAY', achieving first-column status.
The Flames' first album, "I Dreamed I Heard Joe Hill Last Night...A Century of IWW Songs" was released in 2005 in honor of the centenary of the Industrial Workers of the World. It toured the world as part of Paul Buhle's 'Traveling Wobbly Show', an art exhibit and educational presentation on IWW history.
The Flames have performed at the Dissident Folk & Arts Festival (Beacon NY), the Woodstock Fringe Festival, the Rosendale Street Festival, Writer's Guild of America strike rally (Bardovan Theatre, Poughkeepsie NY), "The Rally To Take Back Congress" in honor of John Hall (Poughkeepsie NY), Paul Buhle's "The 100th Anniversary of the Wobblies" (CUNY Grad Center NYC), the New Paltz Peace Rally, the West Point Peace Rally, the RWDSU convention (Orlando Fla), the Sick-of-Bush Festival (New Paltz NY), May Day concerts (NYC, Beacon, Kingston, New Paltz NY), Labor Day commemorations (Poughkeepsie and Woodstock NY), Bluestone Festival (Kingston NY), tributes to Phil Ochs, Woody Guthrie, Sis Cunningham and others, various labor rallies and numerous other progressive events, in addition to performance spaces throughout New York State and beyond. They also performed live on the air for a national Pacifica Radio broadcast from the Clearwater Festival 2007.
WE ARE ALWAYS INTERESTED IN PERFORMING FOR PROGRESSIVE RALLIES AND OTHER EVENTS--CONTACT US IF YOU ARE ORGANIZING ONE.
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"This is no time for complacency---this is time for The Flames of Discontent!" - Greg Gattine, WDST-FM ('Radio Woodstock')
"An eclectic mix of melancholy, irony, humor and rebellion...to tie the blunders of the past to the blundering idiots in power today...Simply beautiful" - THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER (IWW newspaper)
"Riffs sharp enough to cut the U.S. deficit" - WHISPERIN & HOLLERIN (UK)
"The Flames sound like they are rehearsing after hours in the union hall, and Pietaro means every word he sings" - ROLL Magazine
"The Flames of Discontent are the rare socially relevant group that not only speaks truth to power, but does so without ignoring melody, craft or humor" - ALMANAC WEEKLY
"Hudson Valley heroes The Flames of Discontent singlehandedly bring back protest songs" - DAILY FREEMAN newspaper
"The Flames of Discontent lead us to the colors of the future---in the hopes that they will be Red" - PAUL BUHLE, historian/author
"Anchored by the the transfixing, melodic basslines of Laurie Towers, Pietaro's rallying cries are heightened by the hearfelt passion of making kick-ass music for the masses...noble and timely" - CHRONOGRAM Magazine
"The one-two punch of music and social protest" - POUGHKEEPSIE JOURNAL newspaper
"Don't miss these folks. They truly put the spirit of radical labor into music and art"-ALMANAC WEEKLY
"Joe Hill's spirit lives" - 1199 SEIU NEWS