Soul Glo | photo by John Vettese for WXPN
Soul Glo calls for action and calls out performative activism on “21”
Today, Philadelphia punk outfit Soul Glo is on the way from Novi Sad, Serbia to Vienna, Austria, in the midst of their 2019 European tour. In a couple weeks, their latest album, THE N___ IN ME IS ME, will be released on SRA Records. Tracks have been trickling out since the announcement — the harsh industrial noise / rapped vocal burner “32,” the doubletime hardcore screamer “22” — and today we’re happy to bring you another advance cut from IN ME IS ME.
“21” begins with a fog of dissonant, experimental noise that leads us into a charging cut that makes an observation that many who fancy themselves liberals aren’t comfortable making; even with the marches and protests in the wake of the 2016 presidential election, there’s a certain causality to activism, and not enough follow through when things matter. In the song, Soul Glo vocalist Pierce Jordan references Korryn Gaines, a Baltimore woman who was killed by police in 2016, and implicitly wonders where people were then:
“Feel great to finally have some grievances to take to the streets to shout!!! / But the name of who murdered Korryn Gaines still hasn’t seemed to make it out. / Each march and peaceful protest puts the hype in hypothetical. / Make dissent more tangible, put the Black back in black bloc. / The writing on the wall has never been more legible.”
Listen to “21” below, and pre-order the record here via SRA Records. Soul Glo plays Break Free Fest at The Rotunda on May 25th; more information can be found here.