Today, ladies and gentleman, Yahoo! Music has provided me with this soapbox to entertain and  inform. We the people need our entertainment, our 24-hour news, our fat and our sugar. We the people knew before time began that no politician, no sleazy slogans or chants of  "change!" or "revolucion!" could alter what we the people knew to be true: Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

If you caught Thursday's debate between Hillary and Obama, you know (and by extension, we the people know) that no amount of smooth talking, pussyfooting or backslapping can change the fact that these two dance around facts like a cat circling a mouse. They'll say anything to get nominated, and it doesn't matter if you think Obama is the second coming or Hillary is the smartest skirt in D.C., when they walk into the White House (and one of them surely will) all bets are off. Same as it ever was. Let's get real: the U.S. is headed for third world status. We don't make anything that the world wants (Rambo Vol. 36 anyone?), the global population seems to hate us and the dollar is so worthless we'll soon need that Bush-inspired (and Corporate created) North American Union to save us from ourselves. And there is no record label better equipped to entertain us in that new state of Mexicali/U.S./Canuck affairs than Nacional Records.

I have often paraded Nacional's wares on the Yahoo! Music stage. From The Pinker Tones to Nortec Collective, Nacional is exposing Mexico's innovators to a global audience. Whether tinkering with electronics or bashing a punk rock brain aneurysm, the Nacional roster represents a revolution in sound, culture and style.

Argentine rasta-punk band Todos Tus Muertos's first greatest hits package arrives on the Internet and elsewhere February 19. This finger-in-your-face collection of punked out anthems (some including future star Manu Chao) influenced a whole generation of musicians on both sides of multiple international borders, including such U.S. bands as Foo Fighters and Rage Against the Machine.

Todos Tus Muertos (loosely translated "All Your Dead") was created in the mid '80s by vocalists Pablo "Dronkit Master" Molina and Fidel Nadal, guitarist Horacio "Gamexane" Villafañe, bassist Félix Gutiérrez and drummer Pablo Potenzoni. Named in honor of the thousands executed, maimed and murdered by former Argentine dictator Jorge Rafael Videla, Todos Tus Muertos soon became one of the country's leading voices of popular dissent. The band's mixture of punk and  ragga rhythms catapulted themes of social awareness and political confrontation.

"Andate"'s fervent mishmash of humorous freak boy guitar, loping ska beat and circus-inspired vocals upend the band's typically socially conscious message, but it's still an excellent introduction to Todos Tus Muertos' ultra subversive sounds.

Todos Tus Muertos
"Andate" (mp3)
from "Greatest Hits"
(Nacional Records)

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Ten years after: Silencio=Muerte: Red Hot + Latin Redux: While we're getting all hot and bothered with Nacional, let's go one step further. Silencio=Muerte: Red Hot + Latin Redux was Nacional's AIDS benefit release, available again 10 years after its original release. Silencio=Muerte: Red Hot + Latin Redux includes a killer cast of Café Tacuba & David Bryne, Cibo Matto, Thievery Corporation, Kinky, Plastilina Mosh and Todos Tus Muertos & Los Autenticos Decadentes. Check out the following MP3s from Los Fabulosos Cadillacs & Fishbone (back from the dead no doubt!), Geggy Tah & King Chango and Brazilian Girls & Kevin Johansen.

Los Fabulosos Cadillacs & Fishbone
"What's New Pussycat?" (mp3)
from "Silencio= Muerte: Red Hot + Latin Redux"
(Nacional Records)

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Geggy Tah & King Chango
"Whoever You Are" (mp3)
from "Silencio= Muerte: Red Hot + Latin Redux"
(Nacional Records)

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Brazilian Girls & Kevin Johansen
"Crosseyed and Painless" (mp3)
from "Silencio= Muerte: Red Hot + Latin Redux"
(Nacional Records)

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