Pussy Riot on tour — check out pics from Beat Kitchen ++ new Dave Sitek-produced song
Russian feminist art/punk collective Pussy Riot released new single "Bad Apples" for International Women's Day (3/9). The song was produced by Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio. Say the group:
Hey comrades. Hope you are not going to like our new track, since it's dedicated to really disgusting things. Hope you will turn it off, go out and act.
We're sort of confused about the fact that the most of songs we hear are circling around romantic feelings and friday parties, although only rare tracks are dedicated to not less important topics such as a) climate change, b) gun control, c) arrests of political activists, d) structural inequality e) sexism f) killer cops, brutality and abuse of power that state institutions commit on a daily basis g) urgent need of good-quality accessible healthcare and education.
Mediazona, our activist media agency, posts news that you'd rather not read - endless criminal cases for reposts and for participation in rallies, brutal tortures of our fellow activists in secret FSB prisons, kidnapping and beatings of gay people in Chechnya, murders of Kremlin's opponents. State violence that we're forced to experience and think about every day. That's why almost all our our tracks are about bad apples.
While the opening line of the song says "you thought that i just made this for the club / no way" it is also a not not club track. Watch the video for the song below.
International Women's Day also marked the final of three Pussy Riot events in Chicago, which was also the start of their North American tour. "Pussy Riot has never done normal concerts in usual sense of this word, and we intend to continue this tradition," say the group of the tour. "Events that we organize are political rallies, not concerts. We intend to make the audience leave the venue or the festival, and to go out and act." At that final Chicago event, at Beat Kitchen (following two nights at Subterranean), they also reiterated that they were a movement, not a band. Still, they performed singles, all of which were accompanied by equally political videos.
Openers at Beat Kitchen also mixed pop and politics: Nikki Lynette talked about depression, poverty and how the media keeps us all apart by negative reporting, while Dorian Electra spoke to trans issues and called her set "a history of sexuality." Pictures from the Beat Kitchen event are in the gallery above.
Pussy Riot will be at SXSW this week (they're one of the acts we're excited to see) and then they head West. They'll be on the East Coast in May to play Boston Calling. All tour dates are listed below.
Pussy Riot - 2018 Tour Dates
3.13 - Austin, TX @ SXSW opening show @ The Main - 7:15pm
3.14 - Austin, TX @ SXSW Lennon Bus @ Belmont - 12am
3.18 - Mexico, MEX @ Vive Latino
3.20 - Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge (sold out)
3.21 - Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge (sold out)
3.22 - Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey (sold out)
3.23 - Seattle, WA @ Vera Project (sold out)
3.24 - Boise, ID @ Treefort Music Fest
3.27 - Santa Cruz, CA @ The Atrium at The Catalyst
3.28 - San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop - 2 shows (sold out)
3.31 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo (sold out)
4.01 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo (sold out)
4.02 - Los Angeles, CA @ Echoplex
5.18/20 - Gulf Shores, AL @ Hangout Festival
5.25/27 - Boston, MA @ Boston Calling
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photos by James Richards IV
