Various Artists
Kitestringing: The Prison Literature Project Benefit

The Bay Area-based Prison Literature Project sends over 2000 books a month to prisoners all over the country; except for Tribe 8's "Prison Blues" or Sander Hicks' "White Collar Crime," most tracks on this benefit CD are thematically unrelated. But no matter: the songs come from heavy pop-punk names like American Steel, Smugglers, the Dishes, and Propagandhi. Indie pop favorites Jenny Toomey, the Aislers Set, and Young People show up, as do Rum Diary and the Weakerthans. Between the unrelated songs, most of which are available on other records, the tracks from Ward Churchill and Noam Chomsky manage to drive the point home. I only wish the organizers of this compilation had been prescient enough to include some good Martha Stewart samples.

Review by George Chen
12.12.04