We Are The Union's "Fresh Fruit for Rotting Punk Rock Stars" takes aim at aging, once-political punks
We Are The Union take aim at veteran punks who abandon their antiestablishment ethos with age on their Dead Kennedys-referencing new song, “Fresh Fruit for Rotting Punk Rock Stars.” Vocalist/guitarist Reed Wolcott explains:
This song is probably going to get us into some trouble. Though its original title, “Punk Rock is an Oligarchy,” was swapped at the last minute in favor of the Dead-Kennedys-Retweeting-Mitt-Romney-inspired “Fresh Fruit for Rotting Punk Rock Stars,” the meaning of the song remains the same. For a community supposedly built on antiestablishment ethos, when it comes to the endless battle with white supremacy, abolishment of the police, trans rights, and, truthfully, most of the social issues facing us all today, I look around and see too many of my teenage heroes remaining quiet and unhelpful at best. At worst, I see them standing fully on the wrong side of history. If the words that shaped our worldview as young punks in the early 2000s ever meant anything, the time is now for the people who wrote them to show up, take accountability, and get to work. But from former Sex Pistols wearing MAGA shirts to overwhelmingly white male festival lineups, one can’t help but wonder: was punk rock all just a way to sell us god damn t-shirts?
It’s a message that resonates very strongly right now, and it comes through loud and clear in this catchy, anthemic, sarcastic punk rock song. The Chris Graue-directed video stars Reed in clown face paint with people throwing fruit and vegetables at him, and to match the $100 worth of food that was wasted in the video, the band will be donating $100 to Watts Powerhouse Food, which provides “access to medical and dental, food, and education to children and families in the Grape Street neighborhood of Watts in Los Angeles.”
The song hits streaming and Bandcamp on Friday (2/5) at midnight Eastern, and since this Friday is one of Bandcamp’s monthly fundraisers, WATU will be donating 100% of Bandcamp proceeds on Friday to Mutual Aid Network Los Angeles, “a grassroots community initiative that is organizing and redistributing supplies, services, emergency cash assistance, and additional resources to the Los Angeles community.”
UPDATE (2/5): The song is on Bandcamp now. Watch the video here:
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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.