mayday mayday

That's May Day, two words, as in the Worker's Holiday, celebrated nearly everywhere in the world except the United States. An international labor day intended to unite the working class and rid the planet of nationalism, capitalism and imperialism.

The May Day Orchestra, named for the holiday, is a collective band formed in April of 2008 to write and play compositions in the "folk opera" style. The first of these pieces is a set of songs which revolve around Lucy Parsons, her husband Albert Parsons, and a host of other anarchists involved in the labor movement in Chicago from the 1870s through the creation of the IWW (Industrial Workers Of The World) in 1905.

The May Day Orchestra is Tim Rakel and Joey Gavin, formerly of the band Bad Folk, Matt Pace and Brien Seyle of the band The Rats & People Motion Picture Ochestra and JJ Hamon of the band Theodore. We recorded these songs in November with Kevin Buckley engineering.

Thanks to Nick Acquisto of KDHX radio's The Space Parlour, we will be playing this set of songs on the air Thursday night, January 8, 2009. 88.1 FM in St Louis, MO. You can stream the show for two weeks after it airs live on the website http://www.kdhx.org/