Devon Kay & the Solutions continue 2021 singles series with "Frustrated People of the World, Unite!"
Devon Kay & the Solutions have been releasing one-off singles lately (“A Little Bit” and “Oh My, Oh My, We’re Far Past That Now”), and Devon has now revealed that the band will continue to roll out songs all year, and they’ll eventually all be compiled as the band’s next album. Devon says:
With 2021 kinda seeming like a dud year for shows, especially for mid-range/small bands, we thought it would be cool to release this new LP we’ve made one single at a time! Funds permitting we are gonna try and do a single a month. It’s surprisingly harder than you would think given we have to organize lots of different art assets, I have to give our PR person Kevin a headache with forgetting stuff all while we actually finish songs as they come out! So like… If you want to help you can order merch from us, donate some cash or follow us on Twitch/Instagram/Twitter Etc! It’s no easy feat for an out of work old DIY person but I think we can pull it off and I got a feeling this batch of songs is gonna blow ya minds!
We’re also thrilled to be premiering the third single in the series, “Frustrated People of the World, Unite!” “It’s stupid but sometimes you gotta write what you know,” Devon says of the song. “From the constant scorn of automated telephone services, running out of things to watch & having to think of all the bad choices I’ve made given the live music industry shutting down I’d say I’m the most frustrated I’ve ever been.” Who isn’t!?”
In addition to having extremely relatable 2021-era lyrical content, “Frustrated People of the World, Unite!” is yet another example of this band’s ability to write super catchy, genre-blurring songs that fuse indie rock, power pop, punk, ska-punk-style horns, and more. The ingredients are familiar, but the end result couldn’t be any other band. Listen for yourself below.
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The Year In Ska: Albums Not to Miss From 2020
Ska Against Racism
In 1998, Mike Park put on the Ska Against Racism tour with the goal of bringing back the anti-racist politics of ska at the height of the genre's mainstream success in America. "I felt like [ska] was becoming so manufactured as this fun wacky circus music and the original politics were gone from the 2 tone movement," Mike told us earlier this year. "The whole 2 tone idea is black and white equality. Did kids even know that?" Now, 22 years later and with the help of Bad Time Records and Ska Punk Daily, the Ska Against Racism name was revived for a new 28-song compilation featuring some of the bands from the original tour (Less Than Jake, Mustard Plug, Five Iron Frenzy, and MU330) alongside other veterans (Tim Armstrong/Jesse Michaels, The Suicide Machines, The Chinkees, Hepcat, Buck O' Nine, Left Alone, Big D and the Kids Table, etc) and a slew of newer bands who are keeping ska alive today (Kill Lincoln, We Are The Union, JER, Catbite, The Best of the Worst, Omnigone, The Skints, The Interrupters, Half Past Two, Bite Me Bambi, etc). It not only connects the established veterans with the new guard and functions as a who's who of the current ska scene, it's also a mission statement for today's ska scene and a declaration of the values that these bands stand for. "Mike [Park] wanted to bring [the politics] back for his generation, and I feel like now we need to make that statement again," Mike Sosinski from Bad Time Records/Kill Lincoln told us. "It's almost like a waypoint that people can look to in time and be like, alright, ska in this generation, this is where we're at, and it's no longer just anti-racism, it's anti-homophobia, anti-transphobia, anti-sexism, it's just acceptance of everything but hate."
The compilation will benefit The Movement for Black Lives, The NAACP Legal Defense Fund, The Alpha Institute, The Conscious Kid, and Black Girls Code in perpetuity, and the anti-racist, anti-bigotry message lies not just in the benefit aspect but also in a lot of these songs. From covers of classic anti-racist ska anthems that remain depressingly still relevant today (Kill Lincoln doing Skankin' Pickle's "David Duke Is Running For President," The Doped Up Dollies doing The Specials' "Racist Friend") to newly-written protest songs (JER's "Breaking News! Local Punk Denies Existence of Systematic Racism," The Best of the Worst's "Illusion of Choice," Omnigone's "Swallow Poison," Mustard Plug's "Unite and Fight," etc), the message of Ska Against Racism goes much deeper than just the album title. And with so many genuinely great songs that are exclusive to this comp, Ska Against Racism is just as essential as the albums by all the bands featured. Comps aren't as popular in the streaming era as they were in the CD, cassette, and vinyl eras, but Ska Against Racism is poised to become one of those scene-defining comps like Mike Park curations Misfits of Ska and Plea For Peace were two decades ago.