HEADLINES

THE REFUSERS CAPTURE THE FIRE AND FURY OF DEFIANT ROCK N ROLL WITH AN URGENT CALL TO ‘DISOBEY

October 03, 2019
The Refuser’s incendiary album, fueled by the insanity of the Trump era, social injustice, congressional corruption and the gap between the haves and have nots – is an epic call to refuse to accept the messed up way things are, fight back and yes, Disobey.

The Refusers drive their manifesto with some kick-ass rock and roll that commands our attention. The band of top flight musicians includes Michael Belkin (guitars/songs/lead vocals), keyboardists Eric Robert who has performed with Keb’ Mo’, Joe Doria (who contributes a powerhouse B-3 organ solo on “Eruption”), drummer Brendan Hill from Blues Traveler and bassist/vocalist Steve Newton.

Belkin’s lyrics are tight, on point, blistering and incisive rages against the machine that controls us. On the incendiary opening track “Playing With Fire,” he points out the oxymorons that define the US: “Freedom is slavery/Ignorance is strength/War is Peace/Big Brother’s Calling/Nation of sheep/Playing with Fire.” The soulful rock/funk jam “Eruption” lays out what’s hopefully coming: “Gonna Be an eruption/Too much corruption/headed for disruption.” Then on the scorching blues/rock title track, he gives an order which he seriously hopes protesters of all stripes will be singing and chanting as they continue to beg for wrongs to be righted and those who dominate to go down: “Disobey! What’d I say? Disobey! Don’t fade away/Disobey! How dare they? They’ve got you caged/Take off the chains.”

Belkin and The Refusers rail against Big Pharma’s opioid massacres (‘Why Do They Lie?”), the fact that we’re “Government Slaves,” economic inequities between the fat cats and the poor falling further behind (“Free The Captives”) and of course, our pathetic addiction to the “Fake News” corporately run media organizations feed us. There is respite and hope, however in “Emancipation” and especially the rollicking “My Baby Loves Rock and Roll,” which playfully knocks rap while asserting the enduring power of rock and roll.

The Refusers ask a serious question in their melodic rock anthem ‘Who is the World For?’ The chorus lyric is “Who is the world for, the 1% or the 99 below?” The band filmed the upcoming video of their song Who is The World For at the Jungle homeless camp in Seattle, in front of the new Amazon dome and in a private jet at Boeing Field in Seattle. The gap between the have and the have-nots hasn’t been this wide since the Gilded Age in the late 1800s when corruption, conspicuous consumption and monopolists like Rockefeller were mocked by journalists like Mark Twain.

The band mocks the current gilded era feted by social media barons and the US central bank Wizard of Oz with their classic parody song ‘Bubble People.’ The band has a new Bubble People video coming in which social media stars, CNBC anchors and politicians float up in bubbles which pop spectacularly. Of course that’s exactly how the current era should eventually end, like the roaring 20’s climaxed in the 1929 crash and depression.

Belkin, the band’s founder, songwriter, producer, lead singer and guitarist, muses, “An album called Disobey by a group called The Refusers – you can’t get any more defiant than that, and that is exactly what rock and roll is supposed to be. We embody that classic spirit of defiance that defines rock in any era!”

Disobey has already been receiving enthusiastic praise from the media.  Michael Saulman from "Cashbox" proclaimed, “The Refusers are one of the best indie rock bands plying their trade today....'Disobey' is a call to arms, but it’s an immensely artful collection as well....this new album will further solidify the band’s position as one of the most individualistic rock acts working today”  and Indie Music Review's Laura Dodero raved, "There’s enough of a mix in styles on the album to make ‘Disobey’ one of the finest rock albums you’ll hear."

The Refusers have performed at The Bottle Rock Festival in Napa opening for the Black Keys and Kings of Leon and at Seattle venues such as The Crocodile and Seattle Center.
Though the band was featured in recently released Lifoti's September 2019 issue 09, you can check it from below link's for your country:

No comments

Subscribe to: Post Comments ( Atom )