Since it’s a holiday, and therefore no one is calling me back, let’s get into it. Ever since Obama became President-Elect Obama, I’ve been thinking about who should play at the various inaugural balls around town. If it were a republican, we’d be stuck with ’80s country acts and maybe Carrie Underwood. Safe, harmless warm milk. If it were McCain, you know he’d rouse Chuck Berry for some lame rendition of “Johnny B. Goode.”

But Obama won. So what should he do? The obvious choice: Stevie Wonder. Wonder provided Obama with his campaign theme and would play well with the establishment crowd. (Let’s face it, anyone who is reading this blog probably is not going to be invited to these shindigs). It’s also a unifying choice. Even the Palintards would give Wonder his due.

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Sagely, Thrill Jockey records has made Extra Golden’s “Obama” available as a free download. As Brent Burton pointed out in his review of the D.C./Kenya band’s most recent album, Hera Ma Nono, the president-elect played a role in helping the band tour the United States. You can watch a video of the song here:

Via Coates.

The music world has responded to Obama in a big way throughout this election cycle. There was that will.i.am video (which I thought sucked). Now there’s the Obamamix. Like Obama–it tries real hard to play it down the middle (easy beat, oldies samples).

Soul Sides provides a strong breakdown and links to many other Obama-related tracks:

“Whatever you may think of Barack Obama as a potential president, it’s undeniable that his candidacy has spurred a reaction from the hip-hop community the likes that I haven’t seen in a generation. I don’t want to go off on the typical “rap these days is so apolitical, blah blah” routine but let’s be honest about this - for the last eight years, in one of the most divisive political climates we’ve seen since the Vietnam War era, the amount of political content in hip-hop has been stagnant at best, regressive at worst. You can blame that on apathy (or equally/more likely - media consolidation that’s cut off avenues of dissent in mainstream music) but whatever the case, it’s only in the last few months that I’ve really seen a major change and that’s largely because of Obama.”

At the very least, some of these mixes might ease any pre-election day jitters or thoughts of the race tightening! I recommend the DJ Premier mix. Upset the Setup spotted it first.

Via Wonkette:

Via TPM: “A Virginia Democrat sends over a new radio spot that Obama is airing in the southern part of the state — it stars homegrown bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley vouching for Obama’s values and character to the tune of some banjo pickin’ in the background.”

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