Billy Bragg - City of Heroes
Writes Billy Bragg: The murder of Alex Pretti was horrifically shocking, all the more so as we are still reeling from the images of the murder of Renee Good. That these crimes can be committed in broad daylight, on camera and yet no one is held accountable only adds to the injustice.
I wrote this song yesterday as a tribute to the bravery of the people of Minneapolis who, knowing that these trigger happy ICE thugs operate with seeming impunity in their midst, are still willing to put themselves in harms way to defend their community. Their resistance is an inspiration to us all.
CITY OF HEROES
The ghost of Martin Niemöller
Haunts the halls of history
When they came for the communists
He said “It’s nothing to do with me”
When they came for the democrats
He had nothing to say
And when they came for the Jews
He just looked the other way
His silence didn’t save him
When they came for him as well
There was no one to speak out for him
Resistance had been quelled
What excuses would you tell yourself
If this ever happened to you?
Well I live in a city of heroes
I know what I would do
When they came for the immigrants
I got in their face
When they came for the refugees
I got in their face
When they came for the five-year-olds
I got in their face
When they came to my neighbourhood
I just got in their face
They use tear gas and pepper spray
Against our whistles and our phones
But in this city of heroes
We will protect our home
When they dragged people from their cars
I got in their face
When they took families from their homes
I got in their face
When they murdered our sister
I got in their face
When they murdered our brother
I still got in their face
In Dachau Martin Niemöller
Suffered for his complicity
But in this city of heroes
We learn the lessons of history
I will bear witness to terror
I will bear witness to tyranny
I will bear witness to murder
I will bear witness to fascism
Words and Music by Billy Bragg
Engineered, recorded and mixed by Jamie Parker at Echo Town Studio, Dorset
Image taken on the streets of Minneapolis on Friday 23rd January 2026 by Jim Walsh
ZEA - Komt ien oan
Made by filmmaker and cartoonist Guido van Driel, this song is taken from the new album In lichem fol beloften. Released on Makkum Records and Subroutine Records in collaboration with Explore the North and Popfabryk. Listen and order the full album here in our shop at red wig.
The words are from German-Swedish poet Nelly Sachs, who was born to a Jewish family and managed to escape the nazi regime in 1940. Her work on exile and the Holocaust got her the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1966.
Arnold de Boer translated her poem Kommt einer von ferne (published in 1946) into Frisian and made music to it. Later translated it into English, you will find that translation in the subtitles.
Filmmaker Guido van Driel made a beautiful video from old Dutch postcards he found on a flee market and added his own three dimensional cartoon style work. The wonderful visual interaction gives space and thought to words that cut deep through the reality of today and of the past.
Written and composed by Arnold de Boer
guitar, vocals - Arnold de Boer
clarinet - Xavier Charles
Cello - Harald Austbø
drums - Ineke Duivenvoorde
Lyrics are taken from "Kommt einer von ferne", a poem by Nelly Sachs
Translated into Frisian, Dutch and English by Arnold de Boer
Director - Guido van Driel
Editor - Julia Roeselers
2025
Nelly Sachs original poem in German:
Kommt einer
von ferne
mit einer Sprache
die vielleicht die Laute
verschließt
mit dem Wiehern der Stute
oder
dem Piepen
junger Schwarzamseln
oder
auch wie eine knirschende Säge
die alle Nähe zerschneidet
Kommt einer
von ferne
mit Bewegungen des Hundes
oder
vielleicht der Ratte
und es ist Winter
so kleide ihn warm
kann auch sein
er hat Feuer unter den Sohlen
(vielleicht ritt er
auf einem Meteor)
so schilt ihn nicht
falls dein Teppich durchlöchert schreit -
Ein Fremder hat immer
seine Heimat im Arm
wie eine Waise
für die er vielleicht nichts
als ein Grab sucht.
Rehash - Live at Ancienne Belgique (Full set)
Filmed and edited by Maarten Coosemans (from AB)
Recorded and mixed by Pieter Van Buyten (Studio Hemisfeer)
Rehash has two records out on Mangel (available also in our shop here at red wig)
https://mangelrecords.bandcamp.com/album/war-crimes-love-songsWar Crimes & Love Songs
Giulio Erasmus & The end of the worm at Meakusma Festival 2024
Giulio Erasmus’s music swirls into unintelligible mutterings, songs, and collapsing collages, all made with the idea of keeping things simple. His is a kind of proto-music that delves into post-punk’s past and confronts it with new ideas of abstraction, space, and effectiveness. Between alienating and concrete, making the hiss of plugged instruments a central part of it all, Erasmus uses crude field recordings, voice samples, and descriptive and contemplative lyrics to great effect. At the Meakuma Festival Giulio played with The end of the worm, as a quintet.
https://mangelrecords.bandcamp.com/album/second-attempt
https://absolutefiction.bandcamp.com/
Recorded during the Meakusma Festival at the Kühlraum, Alter Schlachthof, Eupen, 31.08.2024.
Video by Adèle Grégoire & Alice Brunnquell
Nape Neck concert sequence from Wroclav
Fragment koncertu Nape Neck zarejestrowanego w księgarni Tajne Komplety we Wrocławiu 27 maja 2024.
Nape Neck:
Claire Adams - bas, głos
Bobby Glew - gitara, głos
Kathy Gray - bębny, głos
Atol Atol Atol
Hailing from Wrocław with ties to Ukryte Zalety Systemu, Przepych and Kurws this five piece delivers angular post punk. Don't miss out!
Protest & Survive
The savage mutilation / Of the human race / Is set on course / Protest and survive! / Protest and survive! / It is up to us / To change that course / Protest and survive! / Protest and survive!
Code of Honor revisited
Morning mood: One of the best bands from the 80ies california scene, Code of honor with Johnithin Christ singing, who tragicially died too early.
Lyrics still make sense after all this time. Everything that our society breeds - fascism, racism, sexism - must end.