Commando
photo by Devlin Shand

COMMANDO releasing debut LP on Kill Rock Stars; hear "Ready To Die" ft. Lynnee Breedlove

COMMANDO are releasing their self-titled debut album this Friday (3/4) via Kill Rock Stars. The collective of queer performers, which includes Andy Meyerson and Travis Andrews (The Living Earth Show), Van Jackson-Weaver, Lynnee Breedlove (Tribe 8, Homobiles), Juba Kalamka (Deep Dickollective co-founder/producer), Drew Arriola Sands (Trap Girl, TransgressFest founder), Krylon Superstar (Double Duchess), and Honey Mahogany (RuPaul’s Drag Race), rotate vocal duties throughout the album’s five suites, and Andy says, “This album has become something far greater than any of us could have imagined, and we’re so honored to have the support of Kill Rock Stars, the label that has spent three decades foregrounding the power of gender and sexuality, in bringing the album to the world. The initial idea has blossomed into the album we wished existed when we were kids, and we want the next generation to see this band as the badass superheroes we always wanted in our lives.”

Ahead of the album’s release, we have the premiere of one of its tracks, “Ready to Die,” which you can hear below. It’s a fiery, urgent punk track with Lynnee Breedlove and Drew Arriola Sands on vocals, and Drew says, “‘Ready To Die’ was written as an anthem for destruction and rage but would be exorcized through rewrites and jam sessions and ultimately became more of a cry for help put to music. It’s about a brave and beautiful woman living dangerously on the edge, sometimes surrendering to struggles of everyday life. Every step requires another drink or hit. She’s hurting but explores different ways of coping which are not all healthy and not all safe. Although the song is called ‘Ready To Die’ our protagonist isn’t. By the end of the song she realizes that there is so much life yet to be lived. She wins for now.”

Lynnee says, “I lived with Friday (Stephanie Sargent) in SF in the 80s; we threatened to start a band, then she moved to Seattle, leaving me with her lavender Tony Hawk t shirt— I shot coke, did a fish dance, got sober, and started Tribe8. A year later we got a show with 7 Year Bitch. I went up to the bass player, she turned around -it was Friday. This was better than we dreamed: 2 bands. But she was dead of a heroin mishap a year later. Cut to 25 years later, that Tony Hawk shirt had become a shred, just the logo, a patch. Drew was struggling with substances. Fentanyl was in everything, and Friday was her hero. Trap Girl was in SF for a show, Drew was sleeping at my gf’s house and all these books about how to get your mind right came flying off the shelf in the middle of the night onto Drew and woke her up. We decided it was a sign. I wanted to put in a word from Friday, patron saint of girls skating on the edge, about self respect and how punk rock saves, for Drew and anyone to always have handy.”

Commando - Commando

COMMANDO TRACKLIST
1. Hotel Essex
2. The Theme From Jigaboo Devil
3. Meatswinga (Morello Muh Mello)
4. Comin For Ya
5. Girl With A Gun
6. Breasticles
7. Ready To Die
8. What It Feels Like for a TGirl
9. Nepachutie
10. Shit Spaghetti
11. The Shock Of Gary Fisher
12. George Michael
13. Prince
14. Mykki Blanco

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