Music

difrent: Stephan’s new album, is out now! Buy digital copies on iTunes here and physical copies via paypal link below. difrent: is the multi-genre pop album that’s making history, with songs that helped build the nascent Egyptian Revolution and Occupy movements, and it’s liner notes “A Song United for A Global Spring” that called for a international movement for a more equitable society 1 week before Occupy began.

Slash and Burn – includes the pop anthem to equality “Break The Bread,” the rock rap single “Taking Aim (at the next world),” Stephan’s ode to his Virginia mountain childhood in “Shenandoah” and burning bluegrass fiddle jam “Billy In The Lowground,” alter-mondialiste dance-ready samba/hip-hop mashup “In The Air.” The spare ode to Korean rice farmer hero “Lee Kyung Hae,” chilling sonnet on the environment  “Bitter Happiness,” the love song “Unspeakable Love,” and the satirical “You Ain’t A Cowboy,’ which broke ground as “the first ever mp3 release for a p.a.c.” with True Majority in the spring of 2004. (Billboard)  Buy HERE on iTunes Buy HERE on eMusic Buy HERE on Amazon

New World Worder – solo album with 12 tracks including the agit-rap singles New World Worder and Business, which was released to help launch protestrecords.com in 2003.  All live recordings from the studio and home. A haunting live recording of “The Darling Son,” at The State Theater in Kalamazoo, MI, with audible roars surging from the crowd. Others include the all-american naturalist “Oak Tree,” “All We Need Is Love,” “Proclaiming Jubilee,” “Song of Healing,” autobiographical “Universal Hobo,” and a virtuosic solo old-time fiddle breakdown on “Sally Goodin’.” Buy HERE on iTunes Buy HERE on eMusic Buy HERE on Amazon

THE BELL ENHANCED EP –  “The antiwar anthem for our generation”(GNN) and “the first major song against the War in Iraq.”(NY Times) Released online on the one year anniversary of Sept. 11, 2002, The Bell was the first clarion antiwar statement to break the media silence in the U.S., and became the first viral protest mp3 and video release ever. With Stephan, Dean Ween, Pete Seeger, and Mary Harris of Spearhead, and versions by Tara Nevins, Pete Seeger, and DJ Spooky’s mosh-hop “Paranoia Network Remix.” Kurt St. Thomas’ video features Super 8 footage of 9/11, Stephan’s live at the Washington Monument before 200,000+, and protests worldwide. Also “All We Need Is Love,” “Merchants of Lies,” and “The False Knight on the Road.” Buy HERE on iTunes Buy HERE on eMusic Buy HERE on Amazon

PROCLAIMING JUBILEE – To be released at last, SOON! This is the multipop album made by Stephan and produced by Grammy Winning producer John Alagia (John Mayer, Jason Mraz, Maroon 5, Dave Matthews). Made in 2000-2001 as a global call to unity and equality on the new Millennium, the album met with resistance at major labels where Stephan was repeatedly told “these are hit songs but kids don’t want lyrics about global unity.” Dance-pop Proclaiming jubilee, rock rap “In The Dust” and “Merchants of Lies,” the album is like a cross between Sgt Peppers and Prince for its border-bashing style jumps, set in the year 2K. With Sharief Hobley (John Legend, OK Player) and Mary Harris (Macy Gray, Spearhead, Kelis), Andrew Weiss (Ween, Rollins Band, B’hole Surfers), Todd White (Antibalas, Macy Gray).

A16 STEPHAN AND THE APOCALYPTIC JUBILEE BAND – 2 songs released for the Seattle sequel A16 demonstrations in Washington, DC., 2000. Includes Merchants of Lies (the John Alagia version) and a home recording of “Proclaiming Jubilee.” With artwork by Eric Drooker, all 1000 copies of this were hand printed and assembled to raise funds for the Independent Media Center at A16. Nearly half of them were confiscated in a police raid and the rest are collectible, less than 50 remain. Please write info at stephansaid.com to request a copy.

Now’s The Time – Stephan’s debut album on Rounder Records came out in June of 1999. A solo album that is plain speaking but converges hip-hop lyrical styles “Now’s The Time,” R&B “Hopelessly and Endlessly in Love” and “It’s Just Gonna Take Everyone” with folk-pop “All Together Now” and traditional Americana. Now’s the Time was intended as a rallying call across political divisions leading up to the Seattle Demonstrations of Nov-Dec later that year that Stephan was helping to organize. Incudes also a virtuosic claw-hammer banjo version of “Railroad Boy,” and madrigal-esque “Peace On Earth.” Buy HERE on iTunes

The Plain EP – 5 songs recorded in Stephan’s apartment in the squat on 7th St. in New York’s Lower East Side in 1997, around the time that Stephan’s single “The Ballad of Abner Louima” with Patti Smith burst out on the Howard Stern show, college radio, and the New York Times’ ran its first full feature on Stephan. The anti-logo all white cover was a statement against commercialization of culture, which the fresh from migrant working Stephan believed had trivialized the power of music. These are early home demos of songs that appear on later albums, “All Together Now,” “Bring It On,” “Sally Goodin’,” “Movin’ Down The Line” and a raucous version of “It Rose From The Dead,” with chorus.

For any questions regarding releases or recordings, lyrics, and the like,  just send us an email with your request to music@stephansaid.com