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Whenever things get worse\u2014and really, when don’t they?\u2014some ’60s nostalgic who believes we can fix things with just three chords and an annoying new epithet for Trump invariably asks, “Where are all the protest songs?”<\/a> Well here they are, along with some unprotesty picks as well.<\/p>\n Molly Brandt, \u201cOne Helluva County\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n On this standout from her latest album, Museum of Being<\/em>, Brandt stands like Walter Benjamin\u2019s angel of history, glancing backward at the catastrophe of U.S. history, lamenting, \u201cBlood spilled since the beginning\/Ain’t no liberty left for you and me\/We the people.\u201d Yet she belts it out with hope against hope for the future regardless.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dillinger Four, \u201cDon\u2019t Happy Be Worry\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n D4 hasn\u2019t really gone anywhere, and now they’re back with their first new song in 18 years, released, appropriately enough, on April 1, sounding familiar yet fresh in that pop-punk way. The frustration the lyrics vent never specify the cause, so you can apply that sentiment to any irritant in your life, from the micropersonal to the geopolitical.<\/p>\n Secret Rivers, \u201cWorthy of the Stone\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Activist, poet, Livie,<\/a> and occasional Racket contributor<\/a> Guante joins with fellow forward-thinking St. Paul MC SEE MORE PERSPECTIVE on an Andor<\/em>-referencing cut that even borrows a backing track\u2014\u201cNiamos! (Morlana Club Mix)\u201d\u2014used by that most revolutionary Star Wars<\/em> product. Sample lyrics, dedicated to those arrested by the FBI this week: “You and me love the city; they love the atlas\/The map is perfectly tight and ordered\/They salivate over straight lines and borders.”<\/p>\n Static Panic, \u201cOne\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n These jitter-funk electro-poppers have never taken the \u201cpanic\u201d part more seriously. This is a funky anxiety attack, the Minneapolis Sound at 2x, and barely more than one-minute long. (Hence the title.) And just when you think they\u2019re gonna take it to the bridge, they head over the cliff.<\/p>\n 10 Items or Fewer, \u201cLife Sentence Fragment\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Mike Hallenbeck calls it \u201czydeco-surf-folk-bop\u201d and I couldn\u2019t dub it better myself. Are there handclaps? How could there not be? Gramscian words of wisdom: \u201cThis world will end and then the next one will begin.\u201d<\/p>\n Carsie Blanton & the Burning Hell, \u201cEverything Is Great\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Libs: \u201cWe need more protest songs!\u201d Carsie: \u201cEverybody knows that Luigi was right.\u201d Libs: \u201cNot like that!\u201d<\/p>\n Lucy Dacus, \u201cPlanting Tomatoes\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n This track\u2019s spry enough to defeat the sadgirl accusations that we true fans knew were always overstated, but listen up and Dacus is singing about\u2014ta-da!\u2014death. Which is inevitable, etc. \u201cBut before then, I’ve got some ideas,\u201d she sings.\u00a0<\/p>\n MIKE, Earl Sweatshirt, & Surf Gang, \u201cMinty\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n On POMPEII \/ UTILITY<\/em>, a 33-track album that stretches out to an epic length of one full hour, two of the lowest affect rappers in the game compete to hear who can slur the least comprehensibly. I personally prefer MIKE\u2019s half, which perks up midway for a spell, to Earl\u2019s, which tries a little bit too hard to prove he\u2019s got nothing to prove. And I\u2019ll add he couldn\u2019t pull it off without the Surf Gang production crew, which blurs the contemporary and trad into suitably disorienting ahistoricity. No this doesn\u2019t reach the two-minute mark\u2014but that\u2019s because it moves, not because MIKE loses interest.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nia Archives, \u201cBoys in Blue\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Calling out snitches, the most songful drum \u2018n\u2019 bass revivalist returns with an insistent guitar hook and a backbeat no one would mistake for jungle.\u00a0<\/p>\nLocal Picks<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Non-Local Picks<\/strong><\/h2>\n