LOS ANGELES, CA – NOVEMBER 17, 2020 – Anti-Flag have unveiled “
A Dying Plea Vol. 2” today featuring DE’WAYNE, Marcia Richards, Jordan Montgomery and Tom Morello. The follow up to “A Dying Plea Vol. 1”, this 2-song collection of tracks is an urgent plea to people around the world to come together and fight for change.
The music video combines graphic videos and historical photos depicting our nation’s history of racial inequality and police violence combined with home performance videos for a one-of-a-kind piece of art directed and produced by Keith Ray and
INDECLINE.
In an earnest op-ed, featured exclusively with Alternative Press, Bassist Chris #2 shares “In times of social change, in the optimism of protest and the inspiration of direct action, Anti-Flag has always looked to work. To find ways to best provide commentary but to also creatively contribute to the tireless and arduous work of social justice. The pandemic has made that process increasingly more difficult and has had us seeking to find what the best use of our band is, of our platform and our art.” The full op-ed can be read at
https://www.altpress.com/features/anti-flag-a-dying-plea-op-ed-opinion/.
“Vol. 2” features a formidable list of guest artists including DE’WAYNE, who dove into the important conversations happening in our country with the release of “
National Anthem” earlier this summer. Marcia Richards of The Skints bring a global influence to the track after her 2019 politically charged release
Swimming Lessons. Pittsburgh-born rapper and founder, CEO of Driving While Black Records, Jordan Montgomery was added to this more hip-hop propelled Jordan’s third solo album
Thank You 4 Ur Purchase But We R Not For $ale was released this year. Rounding out the track is a guitar riff from the formidable Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello, who dropped a five-song EP
Comandante earlier this month.
Anti-Flag is a political punk band, which is obvious from their name alone. But over the course of 12 albums across more than 25 years together, they’ve rarely set their sights on singular individuals in songs. Unlike their punk predecessors in the 80s, who made targets of Reagan and his cronies, Anti-Flag has always opted not to date their work with current references, instead focusing on fighting ongoing oppression and dismantling deeply rooted systems of injustice. But on their most recent album, 20/20 Vision, the band is drawing a big, fat line in the sand.
“We have actively chosen to not attack Presidents directly, either with album art or songs about certain times in history, because we recognize that the issues we’re dealing with are cyclical,” says bassist Chris #2. “But this record in particular, we kind of said, well fuck that, we need to be on the record in opposition to the policies of Donald Trump and Mike Pence.”
And while the news cycle moves faster than ever before, 20/20 Vision aims to take a step back and stare down the most pressing problems of our time: kids in cages, the fentanyl crisis, rolling back EPA restrictions. It’s a record that at once feels both timely and forward thinking. 20/20 Vision is a work that Anti-Flag hopes will serve as an immediate form of communication with those who are politically engaged as well as a document of our modern times for a future generation.
As #2 puts it: “We hope that when someone trips over this record in the sand of the post apocalypse, they’ll know that there were people who once stood in opposition to all of this.”
