Bay Area post punk band RED WOOD have teamed up with Don’t Look Down Records and us here on IDIOTEQ to give you a taste of what’s to come from the new record Wildfire, the band’s third EP and first physical release, recorded live at the Atomic Garden in November of 2015 by the incomparable Jack Shirley. These recordings present 4 droning blasts of psychedelic-tinged post punk mayhem. Guitars collide into each other with righteous fury to match the righteous subject matter of the abstract social poetry in the lyrics, screaming in the eye of the sonic hurricane, a delirious maelstrom that is the closest equivalent to their intense live shows that the band has yet to record.
The songs are about the age old struggle of shining a light on the hypocrisy of societal norms, politics, and similar power structures. Staying Silent demands the listener to confront their own inner prejudices if they wish to truly become an ally with POC that are brutally gunned down by police in this country every single day.
The band’s Anthony Diedrich Boyd commented:
Staying Silent is a desperate cry for understanding and reason against the cognitive dissonance of race and police instigated violence that most white Americans carry in their hearts and minds. It is a song that demands white Americans to look inside themselves and question their own morals and what they really stand for, to look at their own biases and prejudices that they have been conditioned with since birth, and to rid themselves of the apathy and complacency that comes from saying nothing and doing nothing about the racist power structures of American police departments. Education and courage shall make you a part of the solution, not a part of the problem.
More info on the rest of the tracks from the record:
Positive Vibes laments the way that modern media and technology make us complacent with a fake kind of positivity that only masquerades the sadness that we often feel and must learn how to deal with.
Monuments is an abstract parable of tearing down the metaphorical walls and barriers that block out the sun and keep us from conditions to evolve as a species.
The album closer, California Sunshine, is a cautionary tale of the end game to the biggest drought in the Golden State’s recorded history.
