The Counter Clockwise Orchestra were a 6-piece hip-hop-funk band based out of Toronto in the early 2000s. Led by political rant-master, Red Menace, CCO’s musical approach was somewhat reminiscent of Toronto’s legendary Shuffle Demons, albeit much less zany. RM’s lyrics (see below) were inspired primarily by the politics of the post-9/11 world and the resulting attack on the civil liberties of those who would challenge military and economic hegemony.
Their limited live shows weren’t exactly legendary, but this young band (Liam Barrington-Bush was about 19 at the time) certainly caught the attention of the audiences lucky enough to witness their short run. While their overall sound hadn’t yet matured, their delivery was fairly polished and had great energy. Their stage presence had an unintentional comic element – namely the height difference between Red Menace (well over 6 ft) and alto saxophonist Jimmy O’Brien (about 4 ft).
Red Menace would go on to a solo rap career, releasing his Unamerican Activities 12″ EP in 2005, moving to the UK shortly after to collaborate with artists there.
Band self-bio:
An experiment involving a young, but learned vocalist looking to clear his mind of the day’s troubles and a group of some of the most talented emerging jazz-funk musicians that the Tee Dot has to offer, resulted in the birth of the Counter Clockwise Orchestra in early 2002. Since then, six musicians playing with the twisted and confrontational political ravings of emcee, the Red Menace (Liam Barrington-Bush), have combined to form one of the most original, controversial and explosive musical ventures that Toronto and the world have yet to expose.
Emcee and front man, Red Menace represents a new generation of activism and social unrest, pulling much of his content from his involvement in the Toronto activist scene in recent years and relaying it to the people over head-nodding instrumentals. The music of the Counter Clockwise Orchestra provides the setting for a voice that needs to be heard resounding loudly over bombs and gunfire and the pop music phenomenon that has so often shielded us from these realities here at home. But he’s also got a life- and he’s not afraid to share it with the public! Besides his involvement with various social justice initiatives, the Red Menace is not too shy to speak from the heart on the issues that affect everyone: relationships, the choices we all make and life in general. When you see the Red Menace, you see a complete person, not simply the disgruntled thought patterns of a pinko fed-up with the capitalist system.
Musically, the Counter Clockwise Orchestra consists of drums (Gian Paolo Vescio), guitar (Paul Erlichman), piano (Liam Lifshen-Bansan), alto sax (Jimmy O’Brien), bass (Damon van der Linde) and percussion (John Hunter), representing a wide range of musical backgrounds, from traditional jazz, to hip hop, to rock n’ roll. These combined influences create a unique sound that pushes the envelopes of each new genre it touches on, while still holding a strong grasp of every form they draw from.
Breaking the mold of a traditional hip hop structure, CCO incorporates the forms of a jazz band into a hip hop setting, sometimes using the voice as ‘another instrument’ and other times integrating individual instrument solos in between verses and hooks. Often live-band-hip-hop leaves the musicians secondary to a vocalist, but CCO has made sure that both can hold down the stage at any given time.
Having learned their crafts from some of Toronto’s most prominent jazz artists, the band is a group of young, but highly schooled musicians, brought together with common musical aspirations and a dedication to do their thing by any means necessary. While incorporating further inspiration from such genres as Latin, reggae and blues, CCO twists them all into recognizably ‘hip hop’ instrumentals, providing more flavour than the average sampler and drum machine ever could.
The Counter Clockwise Orchestra can only be kept secret for so long before they blow the cover off the invisible barrier that has kept them under-wraps to this point. Something’s got to change, in this world and in this industry and when given a chance, the Counter Clockwise Orchestra will be the ready-and-willing catalyst of something new and revolutionary for the world to sink their teeth into!
Distant Relations
Red Menace, Counter Clockwise Orchestra
Chorus:
Distant relations are faces/ we’re takin’ for granted/
But mine been/ disgracin’ the planet/
Playin’ the hand/ that the companies push/
Bringin’ shame to my name/ Liam Barrington-Bush (x2)
What would ya do/ if ya last name was Hitler?/
Ya’d have to examine the past/ what he did to the-
Jews, black folks/ gays n’ the dissidents/
Examine the past/ in the name that ya livin’ with/
I was born/ under bad signs/
Cause the names of some dangerous cats/ is half-mine/
Name’s hyphenated/ Mom’s side’s livable/
But cause of what some other men done/ Dad’s is difficult/
This political- dissident been studyin’/
But not for half as long/ as my Dad’s been uncoverin’-
Geneology/ on the demons we be followin’/
These the people who been/ shorin’ up the foreign policy/
Honestly?/ there ain’t a taste of a choice/
Cause I can’t be livin’ honest/ less I’m raisin’ my voice/
People used to say/ ‘Are you related to the President?/
I used to say ‘I hope not’/ now I found there’s evidence/
Evidence!/ At the heart, at the least/
It hurts to believe/ got the mark of the beast/
I start in the streets/ they don’t know me, free of judgement/
Handin’ anti-war leaflets/ out to the public/
All the time searchin’/ cringe at the connections/
Redeveloped relevance/ since fixin’ the election/
Clarify my platform/ damn, I’ll need a therapist/
Quote my man D/ ‘George Bush is a terrorist!-
Each day past/ find my name on a dirty deed/
Earned their earnings by asserting greed/ not be worthy means/
Just some dirty thieves/ that’s their family business/
But from my side/ check my family’s hit list/
Dubya, Senior/ n’ Prescott, to further/
The third was his father/ n’ all three are murderers/
All 3 sold their enemies/ their weaponry/
All 3 skipped off/ exempt from the penalties/
All 3/ reached the government in intervals/
All 3 men are/ direct war criminals/
It’s pitiful/ let’s examine it though/
How they’re buildin’ up a dynasty/ commandin’ the dough/
First off George Dubya/ think he’s the saviour?/
He runs drugs, guns, cash/ with Al Queda/
Maybe not now/ but he did ‘fore he got in/
His first business partner/ a man named bin Laden/
It gets worse- why Osama is dangerous?/
It’s CIA cash/ that’d made, paid, n’ trained him/
And who then’s/ the Director of Intelligence?/
George Bush One/ writin’ checks to the terrorists/
Once he’s President/ retracting the facts/
Sellin’ weapons to Sadaam/ but while attackin’ Iraq/
As I’m trackin’ it back/ n’ I’m already stressed lots/
A tie to Nazi Germany/ appears through Prescott-
The President’s grand-dad/ saw cash as his birth right/
So he made plans/ to shake hands with the 3rd Reich/
Sold Hitler/ the parts and machinery/
That left dead members/ of my best friend’s family/
From thirty-three/ up to nineteen-forty-two/
A man with my name/ killin’ millions of Jews/
Where’s the charges/ for dealin’ with the enemy?
Sending them the weaponry?/ people left a memory/
But it seems that/ the laws got an editor/
War ends/ Prescott Bush is a Senator!/
So the predator’s/ elected to office/
And then two kin from him/ got to top it/
Two Prez’s/ a senator, a governor/
All named Bush/ with a world sittin’ under ‘em/
A side note/ the elections ain’t their property/
All would be in prison/ if we lived in a democracy/
So the pressure’s/ I facin’ ‘em daily/
Tryin’ to stay true/ to the name Dad gave me/
But I’m disgusted/ by all of these fuck-wits/
That snuck in the drugs/ that my cousin got stuck with/
If related/ I glad for the distance/
Ya name is my Dad’s/ ask him for forgivance/
And listen to the words/ if ya playin’ the track/
Yeh my last name’s Bush/ n’ I’m takin’ it back!
$11: Manifest Destiny 2001
Red Menace, Counter Clockwise Orchestra
Wipe- My- Ass with ya flag/ fore I put it to half-mast/
gas on the rag/ let it burn to the last laugh/
Never even held/ any national pride/
till the planes hit, ya brain switched/ the factual died/
Passion is blind- try to find a level head/
America’s a butcher/ and it’s time the devil bled/
I don’t condone/ what the terrorists did/
but I bet they did it/ hopin’ to take care of their kids/
From another generation/ of destruction- that’s serial/
oil in the middle-east/ fucked by Imperial-
Ism- That’s America’s trade/ ’cause from carrying slaves/
to the various, embarrassing ways-
In which- USA was crowned/
you can bet it wasn’t white blood/ that stained the ground/
On the road to success/ many lives was lost/
now American’s believing that the crime has stopped?/
Hell No! Did ya check ground zero?/
the body search stopped/ when they found the denero/
It’s not brought up/ but it just reinforces/
greed is the seed/ that be feedin’ the horses/
Oilin’ the mechanisms/ greasin’ the wheels/
if cash is the sword/ the police is the shield/
Ya can’t stand by/ while ya government is butchering/
lives pile up/ and the cash is their cushioning-
Hook:
Iraq, Iran/ Vietnam to Afghanistan/
Serbia, Somalia/ was also in the battle plans/
Now the whole world’s wrapped/ in a flag of hysteria/
I lost my faith/ the day I found that God blessed America-
The number of times/ that I’ve seen the planes hit/
can’t even rank/ with the times the same shit-/
Went down/ but it just got silenced/
America attacks/ but the hit’s not violence-/
Cause they got those/ synonymous words/
so ya don’t connect to/ anonymous 3rd/
Party representatives/ that’s callin’ the shots/
the planes and the Trade Center’s/ all in the plots/
Afghanistan was already/ top of the hit list/
bombs was locked/ set to stop the existence/
Of a country/ that’s poor and indebted/
Storm in the Desert/ that’s the form that’s accepted/
Did it last time/ and seared Iraq/
never hear of that/ cause they smeared the facts/
Six hundred-thousand/ kids killed by sanctions/
cut their food/ never have to roll the tanks in/
Banks-win- through the stocks & bonds/
watch the profits drop/ if they stop the bombs/
So- a long war/ is the best for recession?/
if the test/ is the death of the desperate/
The terrorists/ saw flaw that’s tangible/
in a system/ where God is Capital/
And if they wasn’t pissed then/ they’ll be vexed soon/
this a slump/ we’ll be mourning the next boom-
Now- how the hell/ when the towers fell/
did the power swell/ in the very place where the cowards dwell?/
The White House/ is the most afraid/
if they roast/ the majority would toast their graves/
Outta fear- turn to overcompensation/
plane raids/ ‘stead of covert operations/
Sober thoughts is vacant/ when the flag is flown/
cause they say it’s only terror/ when it’s here, at home/
Polls shown- Bush’s popularity grew/
with the clarity skewed/ cause they only airing aerial views/
Of the deaths and the suffering lives/
so Americans will never/ see the others that died/
But- death aside/ people liking the president/
if I grab a gun/ all I get’s life sentences/
He gets presents/ nominated for a peace prize/
for bombs he drops/ and for streets crime, in peace time/
The N double-A-C-P/ was drilling the source/
they gave Condoleeza Rice an Image Award/
The sort/ Black folks should aspire, and toil for/
if they wanna start an oil war/
And up-down/ check from Bush-to-Cheney/
lookin’ shady/ House where the crooks is stately/
While other nations terrorize/ America will capitalize/
the ‘S’ over ’11′/ is a dollar sign-
