Riot Stance - (2010-Digital EP)
Riot Stance is a bootleg-style, lo-fi EP from The Stormalongs. Theses songs were recorded at our rehearsal studio on the evening of Toronto’s last municipal election.
The idea for this Extended Play came to us after we witnessed first-hand the G20 protests this past June. We wanted to record some of our favourite protest/socially conscious songs, by artists whose lives and work we have found to be influential or inspirational. We positioned these famous songs alongside some of our own politically-oriented material that hasn’t made the cut on either of our studio albums. The goal is to expand upon the classic tradition of the song as a vehicle for social discourse. Although we certainly do not consider ourselves to be equals of these amazing songwriters, we do believe that anyone can employ the power of song to express their social views, effect change, or simply foster dialogue. The increasing commercialization of music and our media-soaked culture have eroded what used to be an essential and undeniable truth: music can embody truth about aspects of human nature in a way that cannot be expressed in other forms of communication.
The sound of these tracks is raw and unvarnished, having been captured through a single source; it is a modern approach to the very beginnings of recorded sound, when records were made with one well-placed (and primitive) mic. Everything here was recorded in 360-degree stereo by a Zoom H2 recorder (except ‘Mr. Means’, which was recorded for our second demo way back in November 2007). This material isn’t so much under-produced as it is anti-produced; our intent was to create a cheap, immediate recording that could be made by anyone. We wanted the recording itself to be an act of rebellion, a protest against the hyper-modern constraints of the music industry. Think of it as an ‘authorized bootleg’- play it at your next rally, march, or rock riot.
Click the image above to download the righteous tunage.
Peace.
Riot Stance
A lo-fidelity EP of protest-rock by The Stormalongs
- Riot Theme (2:44)
- The Faucets Are Dripping (4:05) [Malvina Reynolds]
- A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall (8:48) [Bob Dylan]
- Where Am I (8:53)
- Revolution Blues (7:16) [Neil Young]
- Mr. Means (5:29)