“The physical nature of vinyl has always had a transportive effect on me. Maybe it’s the extra steps in the listening process—flipping a few switches, unsheathing the record, lifting the needle—that seem to always place vinyl records in a specific time and place in my mind, but the effect is unmatched by any other listening format.”
That’s the The Soft White Sixties’ Aaron Eisenberg from the band’s First Date with us last Fall. And true to the stated inclinations, the band’s current single “Brick By Brick” boasts a sharp looking 7″ vinyl pressing with an English version on the A-side and a Spanish version on its flip. And we have 2 copies to flip to 2 of you.
Says the band of the track, “The very topic of the song is Trump’s proposed wall between the two countries.” Not wanting to be overtly political, but demanding of themselves a certain amount of honesty and transparency, frontman Octavio Genera, a first generation Mexican-American, wrote what was on his mind: “If you build a wall / we’re going to tear it down / brick by brick.”
“We were making this record at the time that Trump had won the election and was going to be sworn into office, so naturally that environment crept onto this record,” Genera reflects. “It was hard not to take some offense to someone claiming that a wall and the people on the other side of that wall were the cause of so many problems. The song is my version of my grandparents coming here to better themselves and their children, and I’m thankful they did. I am here, and I am who I am because of it.”
Enter to win a copy of The Soft White Sixties’ “Brick By Brick” 7″ by citing in the comments below your favorite protest song—and feel free to be overtly political. We’ll choose 2 upstanding citizens with a North American mailing address for a copy of the 7″ each a week from today, Friday, January 26, 2018. Winners will be notified directly via email.
