With Desaparecidos’ new track ‘MariKKKopa’, Conor Oberst turns all angry and political! Of course, the song is directed at Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, AZ, and all this anti immigration awful business going on right now, and it is truly aggressive with a punk sound, plain good screaming with repeated sonic assaults and disturbing lyrics – as Conor speaks as from the point of view of anti-undocumented-immigrants guy, even having some white supremacist state of mind, but you could have guessed with KKK in the title:
‘Its time we had some justice for the white race on this earth’
‘We’re gonna round them up!/Hiding in the semi-trailers/Knock Knock Knock/Beat it in their heads/We keep our word and Maricopa pure’
And these bloodthirsty and plain racist lyrics go on for almost 3 minutes, but I am not surprised as Conor had already expressed his opinion about the subject and even opened with his Mystic Valley for Rage Against the Machine, during a concert to raise money against the Arizona anti-immigration propositions, two years ago, here in Los Angeles. The Huffington Post premiered the song on August 1, and also got an interview with Conor, who explained he reformed Desaparecidos in the summer of 2010 to play the Concert For Equality in Omaha, an event to raise money to fight a similar law, and since that time they got together again, wrote new material and decided to book more shows. He explains how important the cause is for him, declaring:
‘I'll never understand how destroying families through deportation benefits our society. How we treat the undocumented says a great deal about us as a people and whether or not we'll continue to fulfill the fundamental American promise of equality and opportunity for all. Considering our history, I can think of nothing more American than an immigrant.'
He also says he wanted ‘to convey, through the music, the unbelievable level of vitriol and hatred that comes from some supporters of these anti-immigrant laws’, and, listening to the song, I think he was successful at it — he is even sampling Joe Arpaio declaring it was an honor to be compared to KKK! I just have to say that his fragile voice sometimes fails at impersonating the xenophobic and racist character he wants to incarnate.
But in the interview, Conor goes on with more political talk! I think it is Neil Young who said the young generation was not witting engaged songs anymore when he released ‘Living with War’, well he had never met Conor Oberst! The single will be available for purchase August 2, accompanied by another song called 'Backsell'.