On Friday, January 20, a new administration will be headed to the White House. Trump built his campaign on a foundation of hatred and the support of openly racist, misogynist, homophobic, and transphobic contingents, a platform that is no doubt threatening the safety of the country’s marginalized communities. That Donald Trump has built his brand and sympathy on the (perceived) proficiency of capitalism is no coincidence.
There are many ways to resist the political oppression we are facing over the next four years, and Chicano Batman are doing it the way they know how: making irresistible music with devastatingly powerful lyrics. “Freedom Is Free” is the title track of their upcoming album, and through its slick groove and soulful uplift, the band delivers a subversive message of anti-consumerism as resistance.
According to vocalist Bardo Martinez, the message of the song is layered with multiple anti-capitalist themes. “Throughout our history the state has presented the rationale (through propagandistic means and ends) that freedom is not free; that your personal freedom is contingent and dependent on the well being of the state. This logic has explicitly justified war and its atrocities in the name of freedom. This song is an antithesis to that ideological fallacy. Freedom is as free as the spirit, as nature, as the universe itself.”
2017 will be a big year for Chicano Batman as they are scheduled to return to Coachella and SXSW. Freedom Is Free drops on March 3 through ATO Records.