The album addresses the current social and political climate, and the band will donate proceeds from sales to Black Lives Matter Cleveland.
“We worked very hard on this record,” says singer Ryan Hardwick in a press release. “Most of these songs were written before the quarantine with studio dates booked, but when the shutdown went into effect, all of our shows and recording time were cancelled. After a month and a half of self-quarantining, we decided to record these songs ourselves to stay productive and also because we all felt so angry and anxious. I had time to really sit and write the songs the way I felt necessary after watching the news every night and feeling such a deep sorrow for the world effected by the coronavirus. Besides burning anxiety not knowing how things would play out I also felt a burning hatred toward our President for his mishandling of the situation. It truly blows my mind that people can stand behind such a narcissistic monster.”
Last Gasp began to figure out a plan to release the album, but George Floyd’s tragic death, and the subsequent protests and riots changed all that.
“The original goal was to release these songs with a label to help [distribution] and press a physical copy, but after watching the video of another senseless murder on a black man at the hands of law enforcement, plans changed,” says Hardwick. “George our drummer was at the protest and saw first hand how nightmarish the scene was. Cops macing and swinging billy clubs on innocent and peaceful protesters. It had such an effect on him, he got home and wanted to put the record out to help any way we could.”
As a result, the album is available for donation through lastgaspoh.bandcamp.com.
“We will never know the pain that the black community feels for this constant loss, but we are allies and friends, and we hope to help raise some money and spotlight inequality,” says Hardwick. “If our little nobody punk rock band can change one person’s mind or donate a few hundred dollars to righteous movements to stop hate, well, then, we’ve done our job. Viva la revolution.”
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This article appears in Jun 3-9, 2020.
More Progressive Muppets. Cool.
What a bunch of losers. This is not hardcore.
I don’t know what to cringe more about, that this band is all white or Jewish using the blm movement to get attention for their band of white and Jewish dudes, or that they think they’re hardcore with shirts from Spencer’s gifts, or that scene would never print something about a hardcore band unless it had a social justice slant, or that scene can’t figure out how to link music or videos so no one ever listens to any of the garbage they post anyways.
Wow, this guys a piece of shit. I know these guys. They’re the real deal just trying to help. Wild some fool has to be anti Semitic for no reason but that’s the internet. I don’t think any of these guys are even Jewish. lol. Glad to know there’s still trash on line to troll positivity though.
Easy to talk about someone else doing something when you are doing northing
Go make another song about sucking black dicks while they destroy your city.
Bunch dumb dopey pale kids
Their music is OK. It sucks that they have to pander to the leftists that control the media in order to get any exposure.
These dudes F for sure. Hilarious that kid is wearing the shirt from Teen Wolf. Made me laugh and the music is actually pretty good.
they are supporting what they believe in, what is wrong with that? just because they are donating to movement doesn’t automatically mean they are doing it for good publicity.