Local singers lend their voices to political protests
Local bands record ‘Unpresidented’ album
Dave Rudnik turns cherry tomato red in about 2 seconds. He’s screaming so hard his head looks like it’s about to burst.
“He will not destroy us/He will not destroy us/He will not destroy us,” he screams into the mic. “Resistant fight.”
The “he” Rudnik’s referring to is President Donald Trump. And Rudnik’s hardcore rock duo Lifes was one of 14 Milwaukee acts rotating through Howl Street Recordings in West Allis last weekend to record new Trump-targeting protest songs for a compilation album, tentatively titled “Unpresidented,” to benefit Planned Parenthood.
Zak Holochwost, Lifes’ drummer and Rudnik’s fellow vocalist, knows their song won’t be heard by a vast amount of people, but they had to make it anyway.
“I’m not the kind of person who feels music changes the grand scheme of things,” he said. “But I do think it plays a vital role in shaping opinions. My hope is then that people take those ideas and do something more concrete like supporting just causes, creating more music or art or choosing careers that make a difference.”
The recent swell in local political music mirrors scenes around the country and music on a national level. Even the typically frivolous Katy Perry created a call to arms with her latest catchy single, “Chained to the Rhythm,” featuring lyrics like “So comfortable/We’re living in a bubble, bubble/So comfortable/ We cannot see the trouble, trouble.”
Considering how music has traditionally offered solace during troubling times — think “Blowin’ in the Wind” or “We Shall Overcome” — the current wave of protest songs isn’t surprising.
Trump holds an average 41% approval rating for his young presidency, according to Gallup, lower than any American president polled at this point of a term. And some of Trump’s most controversial positions — including a vow to eventually repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act and a proposed elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts in his 2018 budget — directly affect artists, who are responding through their craft.
In Milwaukee, that manifested with 35 bands expressing interest to participate in the “Unpresidented” compilation, to be digitally released next month.
Last year, music scene veterans DJ Hostettler (Body Futures) and Anthony Weber (Heavy Hand) paired up with Howl Street owner and engineer Shane Hochstetler to release a local compilation album, “Unintimidated,” to protest Gov. Scott Walker. Through merchandise, album sales and benefit shows, they raised about $3,000 for Planned Parenthood and a local soup kitchen.
At 8 the morning after the 2016 presidential results were in, they exchanged emails asking each other, “What can we do? We have to do something,” Hochstetler said. The Trump-themed compilation emerged, with Hochstetler donating his studio and services.
“I wish I had a gazillion dollars, but I don’t,” Hochstetler said. “But at least I can offer this. It’s not going to change much, but hopefully, it will generate money for folks who need it.”
The bands on “Unpresidented” range from power pop groups the Mike Benign Compulsion and Paper Holland to singer-songwriters Mark Waldoch and Brett Newskifrom ska band Something to Do to raprock outfit Guerilla Ghost.
Noise rock band Detenzione wrote its first explicitly political song for “Unpresidented,” “New American Dream,” with lyrics like “Sit down and lose to the loudest voice.”
At Howl Street at least, these Milwaukee bands could be the loudest voice, and there was certainly some catharsis that came from protesting Trump through music, said Detenzione bassist Amelinda Burich. Singer Dan Agacki added that he felt uncomfortable, as an artist, being “complacent.”
“I’d much rather be on this side of history,” he said. “I don’t want to just be someone who is seen as having blinders on or is not engaged. It’s definitely not the time for that.”
To that end, Milwaukee musicians are also responding to Trump’s presidency through benefit shows.
In January, local singer-songwriter Peter Mulvey performed a 12-hour concert at Cafe Carpe in Fort Atkinson dubbed “All Hands on Deck,” raising $5,400 for six benefactors, including the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
On Inauguration Day, Linneman’s Riverwest Inn hosted “Inauguration Balls,” with a night of protest music featuring 12 area acts, benefiting Voces de la Frontera, a Milwaukee organization focusing on expanding civil rights for immigrants and lowwage workers.
Earlier this month, psychedelic Middle Eastern rock band Painted Caves and singer-songwriter Marielle Allschwang played a show at Riverwest Public House Cooperative to raise money for Syrian refugees and refugees in Milwaukee.
More events like these are likely, said Mary Joy Hickey, a member of the punk band Fox Face, which appears on “Unpresidented” with the song “Nasty Woman.”
“They are a response to the political world,” she said. “They’re a means to bring people together or fight back.”