November/December 2008 Issue

Music Review: Make the Road by Walking

Menahan Street Band’s tangy instrumentals make this the perfect after-midnight record.

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Menahan Street Band caught a break last year when Jay-Z sampled its debut single. Anyone else with soul will dig these tasty sounds, too: The leisurely horns and tangy guitar of the Brooklyn band’s instrumentals never break a sweat but generate plenty of heat, evoking sultry ’70s R&B without resorting to imitation. Elegant tracks like “Montego Sunset” and “Going the Distance” can pass for superior background music yet also reward closer listening, making this the perfect after-midnight record. Featuring players from the Sharon Jones (and Amy Winehouse) backers the Dap-Kings.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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