Ani DiFranco is about to air some things live. The stringently outside-the-mainstream force features center stage in a video webcast starting in under two hours, 8 PST/11 EST.

Check it out – come back and tell us what you thought.

[UPDATE: June 29, SoundLust e-mailed Sound Strike the day this article was originally published, June 24, asking for any other bands that had joined the boycott, since the site had not been updated since May 25, the day they launched. We did not receive a reply, but today the boycott group announced Nine Inch Nails many others had joined in. See post here.]

You don’t necessarily have to be a Republican or a Democrat to disagree or agree with Arizona’s recent law, SB1070 trying to deal with immigration issues. The law, passed April 30, will go into effect Aug. 1.

Since Gov. Jan Brewer signed on the dotted line, the backlash effort to boycott Arizona has been intense, considerable, and growing. From city government to professional groups to a strong contingent of vocal musicians, as well as others, the cry for boycott rang clear.

The issue and that of boycotts has hit the music world, too. Cypress Hill was one of the first, on May 10, to cancel a gig. They’d planned a 5/21 show in Tucson. Subsequently they and many others such as Sonic Youth, Linda Rondstadt, Will.I.Am, Los Lobos, and Hall & Oates (who were to play at a Diamondbacks baseball game July 2) followed suit. Cypress Hill subsequently joined with an organized protest organization, The Sound Strike, led by Rage Against The Machine’s Zack de la Rocha, which drew a lot of attention to the boycott issue nationally. However, in a possible sign that the effort might be slowing, after launching its website and announcing a roster of participating artists on May 25 with the promise of more to come soon, the site has not been updated with more names.

There are voices that, while deploring the law, call for a different approach of protest. Former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic called for more community involvement, in a piece published in the Seattle Weekly.

The Canadian punk group Fucked Up, from Toronto, also opted to play their scheduled show in Arizona. They brought political rights group No More Deaths to the Chasers venue when they played it.

Today, in the Arizona Republic newspaper, Charlie Levy, owner of concert promoters Stateside Presents, wrote an open letter to bands and artists who have opted to boycott Arizona in protest, urging them to reconsider.

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Waka Waka (This Time For Africa) – Shakira (Colombian global popstar) and Freshly Ground (African fusion band from the World Cup 2010 host country, South Africa, with a new album Radio Africa out last month). The song revamps a traditional Congolese song (English lyrics after the jump below)

The World Cup is the globe’s greatest sporting event, exceeding even the Olympics every quadrennial. Rarely are the theme songs for such events very memorable, for by trying to cater to all tastes in a song, they cater to none. The Barcelona Olympics has one of the few enduring performances, in what was really an unofficial theme song song by Montserrat Caballe and Freddie Mercury. It was never sung at the Olympics because Mercury died before it began.

Shakira sung Waka Waka at the World Cup opening ceremony and on July 11 will again sing during the Finals match. This is an official English-language video of the song:

You can even upload your own video of the dance, via the Shakira You Tube channel to raise money for global childhood education.

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DEVO, a band that quirked as much as they cranked, have been around. A long time. Lately in the news for protecting their trademark flower pot headpiece energy domes ( no, really) and lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh’s art world exploits, the band has again decided music would be the way to go to get famous. Something for Everybody released last week offers 12 new . The vinyl version will be released July 20.

Or something. This is 20 years after their last album of new music and 30 years (OK, 32 to be exact) after their seminal release, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are DEVO

A three-song EP released in April, Song Study got fans juicy again for the idea of “DEVO” and “new.” Songs, “Fresh,” “What We Do” and “Song Study” (this one not on the new CD) offer the same clinical crunch and strive for soullessness – with a touch of humor, increased primarily by those energy domes to be honest. Listen freely to “Fresh” in its entirety at ClubDevo – and some of the band’s greatest hits, too.

DEVO also continues to tour, with the latest waltz around the country continuing at Hollywood Park** in Inglewood, Calif. They’re even going to hit Arizona’s Fall Frenzy three-day concert in September (along with Blue October, Dirty Heads, Primus, Sublime, Weezer, and others).

The band – archetypes and marketeers of the societal de-volution concept, have always strained the concept of music, eliciting extreme reactions to their music, their facade and their dour approach to the herd mentality of societies.

The big question, of course, Q: Has their music evolved or regressed somehow into better? A: ______?

** A strange – of course – place to play. Hollywood Park is a racetrack and they’ll play immediately following the conclusion of the day’s racing.

“He’s not original, he’s just another rapper without a distinctive sound.”

That’s a very close paraphrase of my reaction while Asher Roth was still onstage last year at 103.9 FM’s Fall Frenzy. I wasn’t paying complete attention because nothing was compelling me to do so. I pretty much had tuned out. It was a completely different style from the rock-heavy three-day set, and something in my brain told me he was there just to appease someone or a favor to a label.

Still, Janell, who had elicited my response said she liked him and she has generally quality taste in music. It was either that, my affinity for second chances or just my general curiosity that made me want to revisit Roth’s music a few months ago.

As a whole, his music canon thus far, proves my initial reaction wrong.

Just over a year ago, Roth released his debut, “Asleep In The Bread Aisle.” He released “The Greenhouse Effect” before that, free, as part of the infamous and celebrated (and stunning) Gangsta Grillz mixtape series by DJ Drama and Don Cannon. In March this year Roth released a second, free mixtape, “Seared Foie Gras With Quince & Cranberry” (download, via here). And Vibe magazine reported back in February that a new CD is due in August.

The main thing I notice now that I didn’t notice with him onstage back in September was his lyrical adeptness. I had heard, “I Love College” before and he was playing that to an ASU-college heavy crowd at Fall Frenzy so that got the biggest reaction. And if this was all you knew about his music, your opinion wouldn’t be high either:

… That party last night was awfully crazy
I wish we taped it
I danced my ass off and had this one girl completely naked
Drink my beer and smoke my weed
but my good friends is all I need
Pass out at 3 wake up at 10
go out to eat then do it again.

(dapersgtpo You Tube video, I Love College)

The song shows absolutely no capacity for reflection (and live, it doesn’t have the same slow laconic pacing). Yet, as it turns out “I Love College” is just one aspect of the man’s music. These days, there’s Roth songs I go to, to play first thing in the morning, to start my day off with bounce. Like “Lark on My Go-Kart.”

That song belies the goof of the title to jump through a pop culture litany of a day in the life of Asher or someone like him. The rhymes? Free, quick and tight. It’s a pleasure to listen to, though no great meaning exists.

“His Dream” stuns, with a soulful Miguel mixed in with a slow “ballad rap” overlay about Roth’s father.

“His only son, is only 21 / And focus as a poet has only just begun / Pappa isn’t done, he understands what this means / His dream is my dream, my dream is his dream / I close my eyes and I can see,
(His dream) / The sacrifice he made for me (His dream) / Put it aside for his family (His dream) / Yeah, So I’m a keep it alive.”

Whenever a singer, a rapper can talk about something other then themselves, about a role in society and throw in self-awareness and self-deprecation, it offers a greater array of emotions and jump off points for potential listeners.
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