_(General Admission)_BRETT NEWSKI EXIT STRATEGY / JAMES HALL
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BRETT NEWSKI
How do you feel when someone starts playing on their phone while
you’re talking to them? It’s a dark moment. It’s a seemingly
small, yet significant moment when we realize we’ve got work to do
as both individuals, and as a species.
BRETT NEWSKI’s fourth studio album Don’t Let the Bastards Get you
Down is a call to arms against whatever destructive forces we may find
ourselves battling, from our individual struggles with toxic
relationships, low self esteem, loneliness, and apathy to the more
global challenges facing us in 2020: The erosion of face-to-face human
connection, the breakdown of the proverbial village, the destruction
of the planet, and the myriad ways in which our social media
addictions amplify these problems. Depression and anxiety are at all
time highs, with many, if not most of us, struggling to preserve our
optimism.
So how do we regain control and stay hopeful in the face of these
challenges? Perhaps it’s less screen time. Perhaps it’s changing
the way we approach our tiny pocket TVs. Perhaps it’s discovering or
recommitting to our passions. Perhaps it’s getting our hands dirty
in pursuit of real solutions to our problems (instead of just
complaining online). Perhaps Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down can
shed some positive insight.
In Last Dance (cowritten with Grammy nominated songwriter Pat
Macdonald, ‘Future’s So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades’), Newski
lays bare the highly relatable challenge of trying to stay informed
and engaged while simultaneously staying afloat psychologically: “I
ain’t trying to build the ark, I just really wanna learn how to swim
/ Thru a sea of plastic bottles, all the refuse, the mess we are
in.” In Grow Your Garden, Newski issues a wake-up call from the
hypnotic, numbing effects of living with our eyes glued to our
screens: “If I was the dirt beneath the sneakers on your soulless
feet / I’d nudge you far from the mirage so you could see the
water”.
In Lousy T-Shirt, Newski describes the traps of social comparison in
these “tiny TV times”, in which we so often compare ourselves to
the “greatest hits” of others’ lives. (“I ain’t making any
headlines / It’s a failures parade / I drove all the way to
Hollywood and all I got’s this lousy t-shirt.”) He doubles down on
this theme in Buy Me a Soul, singing “Step out from behind these
little screens that rule our lives / I’m sick of highlights / Cause
we’re an empty shell and we’re on earth but we’re in hell / Can
anybody hear me? / Is this a permanent bad dream? Or is it too much
reality?”
What could topically threaten to amount to “too much reality” for
the listener is buoyed by Newski and collaborator Spatola’s
signature blend of largely up-tempo, guitar-driven alternative with
splashes of what they describe as “Geek Rock”, “Happy Punk”,
and “Diet Grunge”. The band has had a busy few years, playing
alongside acts like PIXIES, Courtney Barnett, Violent Femmes, Better
than Ezra and Manchester Orchestra, and will be touring extensively in
2020 in support of this latest release.
JAMES HALL
James Hall
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12/04/2020 Last update