TRUE ROCKER DC

We have a name now! True Rocker! http://truerockerdc.tumblr.com

We're considering having more contributors so that this can be a more lively and diverse blog. Submit record reviews, show reviews, thought pieces, fake horoscopes, comix, fan art, etc! 

Also, please submit your music, your zines, whatever else for us to review! 

SEND ALL SUBMISSIONS TO : [email protected]

"While the song for this video is about a mean slumlord that owns a lot of apartments and a liquor store in Providence, the video itself is about our critique, experience, and disrespect for the police. The police are an institution that have roots in slave surveillance and still uses many of the same tactics and language today. Even with amazing community organizing done to bite away at stop and frisk policies and racial profiling; the rights of the police are the rights of terror and racism, and Downtown Boys would like to make clear our abhorrence and disapproval. It’s not just some bad ones in the bunch. That’s a line that they feed us. There are more people incarcerated or on parole/probation today than there were enslaved in the United States during the trans Atlantic slave trade. If that’s not fuel enough to start a punk band, stomp in a march, sign a petition, or join in political education, we don’t know what is! -V. Ruiz, lead vox, on why smashing the police state is more than just the fun portrayed in the new video for SLUMLORD SAL

I still stand by my sentiments last summer when I said DOWNTOWN BOYS was the most inspiring and relevant current band in the United States. I’m so excited to now be holding a copy of the long-awaited-totally-explosive-debut 7” OUT NOW on SISTER POLYGON RECORDS! DOWNTOWN BOYS single-handedly puts the rest of the punk scene to shame and raises the bar for what a band should be politically in this day’n’age. But they aren’t preaching. They are speaking from their own experiences. Each song on this record is a call for action. It’s about saying NO to masculinity, speaking out against slumlords, running from sadness, and working in restaurants. Musically, J. DeFrancesco’s guitar brings us some of the same urgency and bounciness as SUBURBAN LAWNS (…listen to a song besides Janitor, ok?) while V. Ruiz’s vox lay down more depth and emotion than Poli Styrene of X-RAY SPEX while fused with the ferocity of THE BAGS. If the cover wasn’t already enough to make you wonder, if you didn’t already know of the force that makes this the most powerful/empowering sax punk party you EVER heard, do not hesitate. Their music is an experience that has changed me for good - I have NEVER seen a band pack more fire than this - a fire to rise on, relate to, and keep going. (listen online) (buy here)