"Triggered by the sight of a rainbow / triggered by the truth / The ugly facts buried in a text book / you can’t let your kids look / Because of what it says about you / Because it makes you uncomfortable..."
The massive politico punk / osmium heaviness of "WTFU" by Los Angeles based three piece alt rock outfit Some Gifts, and from the band's deepest social commenting fourth album "Misguided", feels even more relevant, more potently cutting after the conclusion of America's most divisive election of the century. The double fisted approach here, a battle cry for truth telling, for civil discussions and disobedience without violence, having rational minds while having battle cries, while not forgetting the wrongs that were not righted is saturated in screaming vocals, killer bottom rumbling bass and drum attacks and exquisitely dense heavy metal guitars.
"So obsessed with cancel culture, and bliss in being glib
So much time and energy wasted on being hateful & divisiveIt’s not enough to have an opinion
If you feel like your side’s not winning"
"Wake up wake up
You overslept
Got left behind
Wake up wake up
The grudge you kept
Has warped your mind"
"It’s not simply freedom of speech
When you rewrite history"
When just moments away from President Elect Donald Trump promising to dissolve the Department of Education one wonders what history will be re-written and in how many ways will history be re-written in different states.
When just moments away from President Elect Donald Trump promising to dissolve the Department of Education one wonders what history will be re-written and in how many ways will history be re-written in different states.
Singer/guitarist Vic Lazar says this about the album's lyrics: “When I write about politics and what I see, I want to be blunt, but I never want to be mean-spirited. I come at it from an everyman perspective.”
FROM LINER NOTES (bracketed):
[The artfully abrasive single, WTFU, features scrubbed-raw vocals, bass-forward riffing, and stabbing and sinewy Sonic Youth-styled guitars. “I love angular bands like Wire and Lifeguard where the guitars sound more like a car alarm,” Vic chuckles. Dylan Geurtsen from the bands Niner Niner and The Binges provides guest vocals on WTFU.]
AND:
[WTFU is a reaction to the onslaught of right wing moralists infecting mainstream culture with ignorance, and weaponizing religion to demonize the spectrum of sexual expression. The song’s opening lyrics seethe venom and insightful social commentary. Vic sings: Triggered by the sight of a rainbow, triggered by the truth/The ugly facts buried in a textbook, you can’t let your kids look/Because of what it says about you/Because it makes you uncomfortable. “I wrote the lyrics with the idea of ‘wokism’ being a good thing,” Vic says. “That not being awake to the social injustices and obvious scapegoating of marginalized peoples is akin to oversleeping and missing out on life.”]
I love the extreme passion and extreme sonics on this track. It seems to me, that in the purest sense, punk rock has a history of non-conformity, of challenging bigotry and the systemic under the thumb structures of economic inequality, authoritarianism, anti-semitism, fascism and overall police state aesthetics. I also love how the song takes the meaning of "woke" back from the right wing, from Christian Nationalists who subverted it's intentions years ago.
[The 11-track album, made with producer/engineer Ben Moore (Hot Snakes, Rocket From the Crypt, Diamanda Galas, METZ), will be issued on vinyl via tastemaking label Killer Kern Records, marking a first label release for the trio.]
I look forward to dipping into "Misguided" especially when I am down and need some fire in my belly.
-Robb Donker Curtius
+ + +
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://somegifts.bandcamp.com/track/wtfu
https://www.instagram.com/somegiftsband
https://www.facebook.com/somegifts
https://x.com/somegiftsband
Some Gifts’ fourth album, Misguided, marks a crescendo in the serrated alt-rock band’s decade-plus artistic evolution, with singer/guitarist Vic Lazar’s sharpest social commentary yet. The 11-track album, made with producer/engineer Ben Moore (Hot Snakes, Rocket From the Crypt, Diamanda Galas, METZ), will be issued on vinyl via tastemaking label Killer Kern Records, marking a first label release for the trio.
Some Gifts has favorably earned comparisons to the terse, jagged punk-inspired sensibilities of Fugazi, Hot Snakes, Drive Like Jehu, and Meat Wave. The trio has garnered press from online youth culture magazine Thought Catalog and esteemed DIY punk fanzine Razorcake. Some Gifts has also amassed spins on college radio stations including KXLU, KUCI, and KCSB.
Four albums and two EPs in, Some Gifts is excited to now be working with Bakersfield, California-based Killer Kern Records. The indie imprint is part of Bakersfield’s thriving DIY community, and, in the past, Some Gifts has been a mainstay at Killer Kern’s annual three-day music festival. Misguided was recorded in four days at Singing Serpent Studios in San Diego, California.
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