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Capitalism is About Choice
Forget what all those bleeding hearts tell you about the evils and soullessness of rampant capitalism. What capitalism really gives you is the freedom to choose. Take this weekend’s music offerings.
Tonight you can choose to see the Inbreds play a reunion show at Santa Cruz. You probably remember listening to them while you were smoking outside the school in grade 9. If reliving some of those high school memories might be too traumatic check out Boy Reporter’s new favourite band the Republic of Safety at the El Mo. They’ll be joined by Swedish singer-songwriter Jens Lekman (seen here, ain’t he cute). You could also check out music from a land just newly liberated by capitalism, Afghanistan, as Ustad Farida Mahwash and Radio Kaboul hit the Jane Mallet Theatre.
On Saturday, the free hand of the market continues its machinations. You could check out veteran Japanese power-pop duo Shonen Knife (at Lee’s Palace), who list Sloan and the Buzzcocks as influences. If you head over to Oasis you’ll see Vancouver’s Geoff Berner singlehandedly try to bring the accordion back in vogue. If you want more proof that the system works, head up to the ROM where the Continuum Ensemble and a scrum of speakers and critics (Mark Kingwell, Russell Smith, Jan Zwicky to name a few) will be chatting about contemporary music.
The free market doesn’t even rest on Sunday. Jens Lekman will be playing a free instore at Soundscapes but the real treat will be his performance later that night at Wavelength. And if you need further proof of the benefits of the market, simply try to figure out how a talentless young woman can still charge $55 to “sing” a few treacly pop songs.