Every week, the Milwaukee Music Premiere presented by The Cooperage connects the city’s artists with our listening audience. If you’re an artist with a track you’d like us to debut exclusively on Radio Milwaukee, head over to our Music Submission page to learn how.
Music has been an outlet for social consciousness pretty much since day one. Artists are always willing to call out the forces that try to crush the will of the people — something those of us in the modern era tie most tightly to the punk music that exploded out of London and New York in the 1970s.
The spirit of that scene runs throughout “True Monsters of History,” the new single from Milwaukee’s Body Futures we’re helping premiere today. While the sound doesn’t fall between the parameters of punk, the message — and, to a certain extent, DJ Hostettler’s lead vocals — has that rebellious streak that strives to shine a light on horrors, present and past.
Among the century-spanning entities being put on blast by Body Futures in the song:
- White colonialism
- The stock market
- The British East India Company
- Egyptology content creators Colleen and John Darnell
As Hostetler explained, “Basically, I was inspired to write lyrics about the British East India company once I learned that a private company was more to blame for the British invasion of India than the British government itself was. Private, profit-driven enterprise steering government policy — a terrible idea multiple centuries running.
“I also added some lyrical references to a pair of aggressively obnoxious archeologists named Colleen and John Darnell. They're experts in Egyptian archeology who visit every dig cosplaying like they live in the 1930s in an Indiana Jones movie or something — more interested in building their brands on social media like Instagram instead of respecting native culture.”
Those un-gentle words make the opening moments of “True Monsters of History” that much more surprising. A relatively serene acoustic guitar eases you in before a blast of power chords reveals the song’s true nature as Hostetler sings:
Spice and silk and genocide, too
Are sound investments
Underwriting company rule
Since 1752
It’s not enough
To own a hemisphere
It’s not enough
Hostetler and his bandmates — Dixie Jacobs (vocals, keyboard, autoharp), Christopher Maury (guitar, backing vocals) and Evan Gritzon (bass) — have put forth a lead single that sounds like a good example of what we can expect from upcoming album Do Not Befriend the Reaper. Driving rhythms. Soaring riffs. Dark-but-honest lyrics.
Listen to “True Monsters of History” using the player at the top of this page or by tuning into 88Nine throughout today (6:30 and 10:30 a.m.; 2:30, 6:30 and 9:30 p.m.). It’ll also be part of Do Not Befriend the Reaper when it comes out Nov. 22 — the same day as the band’s album-release show at X-Ray Arcade.
