War, huh! What is it good for?

Absolutely nothin'. Many artists have recently gone to great lengths to have their opinions on the matter heard. Hit 'more" for a brief round-up...

On Friday, March 15th in London, artists such as Paul Weller, Beth Orton, Garbage, Ian McCulloch, and Evan Dando are set to take part in One Big No. This event will take place at Sheppard's Bush Empire (it's in protest of the war). Also taking place that day will be large protests in Washington, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. At press time, organizers had not announced a list of speakers for these protests, but I wouldn't be surprised if some big name artists with consciences lend strong support. John Cougar Mellencamp (or whatever his name is these days) just convinced his label to release the song "To Washington" via his website in order to get it to the public right away. I don't think he likes Dubya. Blur is also getting into the act of protest with their next single "Out of Time" as are the Beastie Boys with "In A World Gone Mad..." Madonna, who says she's "pro-peace" rather than "anti-Bush", is being called "un-American" by some for her forthcoming video for "American Life", though no one has even seen it yet. The artist going to the greatest extremes could be Youssou N'Dour of Senegal, who has cancelled his entire US tour for fear that playing in the US at this time could be interpreted as supporting US foreign policy. Word is born.