The protest song is officially back. After the past week and a half of widespread police violence, a whole lot of musicians are putting anger and frustration into song. The Menzingers, the Scranton-bred and Philadelphia-based melodic punk band, tend to write personal songs with big choruses; they’ve never exactly been political firebrands. But on the new single that they’ve released today, the Menzingers directly tell Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell to rot in hell.
The Menzingers’ new single “America Pt. 2″ is the sequel to “America (You’re Freaking Me Out),” the pissed-off and heartbroken song that the band included on their 2019 album Hello Exile. The new song is an acoustic march, more folk than punk, and its lyrics are all about the events of recent days: “Well, George Floyd was murdered by a cop/ The whole world saw the video and watched/ Now justice is long overdue/ Grab your pitchforks, we’re heading to Pennsylvania Avenue.” Greg Barnett even mentions Trump gassing protesters so that he could have that photo op in front of the church, something that happened only four days ago.
“America Pt. 2″ is out now at Bandcamp, and all the proceeds are going directly to Campaign Zero and Act Blue’s Community Bail Funds. Listen to it below.
