RISE AGAINST has released the official music video for another track from its upcoming album “Nowhere Generation”. The Brian Roettinger-directed clip for “Talking To Ourselves” can be seen below.
“Nowhere Generation”, RISE AGAINST’s first new studio effort in four years, is due on June 4 via Loma Vista Recordings. On the upcoming release, the outspoken band points a finger at big business and politics for stacking the social and economical deck against Millennials’, Gen Y’s and Gen Z’s pursuit of The American Dream. Musically, the album is blazing, aggressive punk rock; lyrically, the eleven songs were inspired in part by input from band members’ young children and RISE AGAINST’s community of fans.
Said frontman Tim McIlrath: “Today there is the promise of the American Dream, and then there is the reality of the American Dream. America’s ‘historical norm’ that the next generation will be better off than the one that came before has been diminished by an era of mass social, economic, and political instability and a sell-out of the Middle Class. The brass ring that was promised by hard work and dedication no longer exists for everyone. When the privileged climb the ladder of success and then burn it from the top, disruption becomes the only answer.”
For the “Nowhere Generation” project, the band worked with the Grammy-nominated creative director Brian Roettinger (Jay-Z, FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE, NO AGE) to craft an impressive and truly inspired capsule of album offerings. Those include:
* CD in a soft pack jacket with a multi-page lyric booklet
* 12-inch, limited edition vinyl picture disc (exclusive to the band’s webstore)
* Deluxe album edition with a distinctive spinning wheel gatefold jacket with die-cut front cover; a 12-page album art booklet insert, and a bonus 7″ featuring two “Nowhere Session” versions of album standouts “Nowhere Generation” + “Broken Dreams, Inc.”; special vinyl color variants for retail worldwide as well as the band’s webstore.
* Standard vinyl format that includes a single sleeve, dorado paper-wrapped jacket, with lyric insert featuring metallic ink; multiple special vinyl color variants for select retailers as well as the band’s webstore.
* Exclusive versions of the album, on vinyl and CD available at Target. A jacket with exclusive interchangeable inserts and special colored vinyl for the LP and a bonus “Nowhere Session” song on the CD.
RISE AGAINST — McIlrath, Joe Principe (bass), Brandon Barnes (drums) and Zach Blair (lead guitar) — recorded “Nowhere Generation” at The Blasting Room in Fort Collins, Colorado, under the tutelage of Jason Livermore, Andrew Berlin, Chris Beeble and longtime producer/engineer Bill Stevenson (BLACK FLAG, THE DESCENDENTS). Stevenson has worked with the band on nearly all of their acclaimed releases since their sophomore effort, 2003’s “Revolutions Per Minute”, and is often described as RISE AGAINST’s fifth member. “Bill is our not-so-secret weapon,” Principe explained. “He really has helped shape the band; he gets what we want to do and will go with us when we think outside the box. He’s the perfect producer for the style of music we play because he has an insane pop sensibility and the hardcore side to him as well.”
In addition to the communal call to arms embedded in “Nowhere Generation”‘s dynamic title track, there’s the fast and furious anti-establishment manifesto “Broken Dreams, Inc.”, the moody ballad “Forfeit”, “Sudden Urge”, a true nod to the band’s rock’n’roll side with an overall punk-vibe, the simplicity of “The Numbers” with a melody that will stick in your head, and the surprise pop candor in “Talking To Ourselves”, a standout song about wanting to be heard and wondering if anyone is listening. “It describes a lot of what RISE AGAINST does,” says McIlrath, “to speak and scream when we feel there are things that are happening that aren’t being addressed.”
“When I was growing up,” said Principe, “I listened to bands like 7 SECONDS, BAD BRAINS, MINOR THREAT and BAD RELIGION. All of those bands’ music had a sense of hope with the world, a truly positive global view of what life can be. From the beginning, we’ve wanted RISE AGAINST to have that same positivity, to have our music be an inspiration for people to bring about change in their own lives, they just have to put forth the effort and speak up.”
Last month, RISE AGAINST announced the “Nowhere Generation Tour”, 17 live-and-in-person concerts taking place coast to coast, primarily in open-air amphitheaters.
Produced by Live Nation, the tour kicks off on Friday, June 30 in New York at Rooftop at Pier 17, making stops in Atlanta, Dallas, Philadelphia, Southern California, and more, before wrapping on Tuesday, August 24 in Salt Lake City at The Complex Outdoor.
Photo credit: Wyatt Troll
