Listen to Lushlife cover Grizzly Bear for Rough Trade’s A Song A Day Keeps The Pain Away initiative
Philly rapper Lushlife is the latest to appear on Rough Trade Publishing’s A Song A Day Keeps The Pain Away initiative, a response to the 2017 election where daily music for the first 90 days of 2017 will rally support and raise funds for the Southern Poverty Law Center.
For the project, Lushlife presents a cover of “Foreground,” a song from Grizzly Bear’s acclaimed 2009 album Veckatimest — and though it begins with his signature flow backed by psychedelic boom-bap production, it quickly takes a melodic turn, giving us a listen to a different side of Lushlife main man Raj Haldar: the melodic vocalist.
Of the song choice, Haldar has this to day:
In the moment, I was reacting to the Trump Administration’s Muslim Ban, projecting a song about a relationship falling apart onto man and country. As the administration’s anti-immigrant policies predictably set ablaze a rash of hate crimes against Indian Americans and other minorities (a topic I recently wrote an op-ed about in the Washington Post), the track’s bookending rhymes about xenophobia and nationalism took on a heightened urgency. Ultimately though, my goal was to reinterpret Grizzly Bear’s plaintive joint with buoyant marching drums and fizzy pop synths to emote something hopeful for these bleak times.
Check it out below, and for more on A Song A Day Keeps The Pain Away – which also features Rachel Grimes, Juliana Hatfield, Delicate Steve, Kevin Devine, and more – click here.