The ever prolific NYC ska/reggae legends The Slackers are back with their latest UV printed 12” single on Pirates Press Records, featuring two new songs, “What We Gonna Do Now?” and “Pick and Choose.”
The Slackers have a long history of speaking their minds with socio-politically conscious lyrics, dating back to their earliest recordings. Their musical influences have all served as the soundtrack to rebel movements across numerous decades and on multiple continents, and the band has never shied away from taking up just causes. “As musicians, we are storytellers and collectors of memories. We need to tell stories about freedom, liberation, and justice,” explains saxophonist Dave Hillyard. “This is a long tradition...artists like Woody Guthrie, Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, and Joe Strummer.” “There are a lot of people who have become vocally anti-democracy and pro-authoritarian over the last 10 years” states Hillyard. From MAGA to anti-vaxxers to January 6 insurrectionists, the song asks these individuals if they had “a psychotic break,” and whether or not they are ready to rejoin the human race. At the same time, the song addresses the rest of us, wondering where we go from here to reckon with these deep divisions: healing, fighting…or a bit of both?
As for “Pick and Choose,” it is a song whose message is applicable to both the personal and the political. It is about the power of words, and how sometimes they can fall short of their intent: words like “love” spoken to a partner, or words like “freedom” & “justice” in the political sphere. “We have a lot of unfinished work to do in our society,” says Hillyard. “Hopefully we can find the right words to unite and the right deeds to follow up on the promises in the words.”
Both songs are featured on a 12” single with UV printed artwork designed by the band’s longtime in-house artist, Catt Gould, who looked to photos of people voting - especially those of Civil Rights-era ballot boxes - for inspiration. The record is designed so that as it spins, you will see the motion of hands putting ballots into the box. The record also includes a sticker with a QR code that links to a number of voter resources.
With the single going up for pre-order on July 12th via the Pirates Press Records webstore, and releasing everywhere on September 6th, the timing to coincide with the 2024 US presidential election is certainly no accident. Just as the band used the immediacy of the single format to encourage voting by mail in the 2020 election with the single “Blue,” so too does this new release encourage active voting. “Democracy backed by universal citizenship as a form of government is at stake. We are at a point where we can either vote to continue it and try to work on society's problems, or we could vote to give up our power to a demagogue,” says Hillyard, while insisting that despite the struggles ahead, all is not lost. “Don’t give up on hope. Things often look grim and hopeless because we are fed propaganda that tells us this. They want us to believe that their great leader is the savior, but the saviors are really all of us, the citizens. We have the power. Use it.”
Tracklist:
1. What Are We Gonna Do Now?
2. Pick And Choose
