The dual threat of guitarist, Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, The Nightwatchman), and rapper/emcee, Boots Riley (The Coup), have returned this summer with new Street Sweeper Social Club firepower to spark revolution. This mighty duo provides songs that resonate on the battlefront of social injustice. SSSC, officially formed in 2006, debuted last year with the release of their self-titled album and have returned with a new record out titled, The Ghetto Blaster EP, set to release on August 10th. The band has played festivals such as Outside Lands and Coachella within the past year and will be busy in August playing Rock the Bells and Warped Tour dates.
What can you find off of their latest release? Powerful songs that will send corporate CEO’s and corrupt politicians running to hide behind their hardwood desks and dollar bills. Songs that will unite the masses to put the power back in the hands of the people and guitar riffs that will destroy subwoofers and lyrical wreckage that will strangle injustice. Street Sweeper Social Club has returned with fury, and it’s now your turn to take a stand. Recently, Street Sweeper Social Club rapper/emcee, Boots Riley, took the time to speak with Glide about the new album among other things.
Last summer Street Sweeper Social Club united to release its self-titled debut. This time you return with The Ghetto Blaster EP due out on August 10th. What is either similar or different about this project than the first?
The difference with this is that the first one was done overdubbed. Tom did the guitar and then he did the bass. You know, it was a real polished production style. This one we did with the band we’ve been touring with and we all gelled together more. It sounds a lot rougher too and we recorded it all at once. The band did the music together although I was doing the vocals in a different room but the band was playing altogether in this hot sweaty place and you can kind of hear that energy on it. The other thing is that I think that me and Tom’s ideas gelled a little more on The Ghetto Blaster. He gave me a flow that I was more into; you know what I’m saying? So I think that we were growing and learning each other’s ins and outs. And the funk guitar allowed me to get the more humorous side out of it that I might not normally do on the record. And there are a couple things on this record that we always kill the crowd with, especially “Paper Planes.”
Yeah, I could hear a larger and stronger live feel on these tracks. Definitely able to capture what you guys put out on stage in the emotion and overall sound on this project.
And it was cool because we probably put it together in about a month and a half of ideas from start to finish; all the recording and production. It was like, “let’s do an EP.” But yeah, it took about a month and a half from the start when we did the beginning acoustic versions of the songs.
So “Paper Planes” has definitely become an integral part to you live shows. What was it about the song that made you want to play it live and eventually record it?
It’s just a real good song and we wanted to do a harder rock version of it. I changed some of the lyrics too where I believed it would be a little more rebellious. Like in, “catch me at the border I got warrants in my name,” and “just like Jesse James when I’m sitting on trains.” I also changed it from “all I wanna do is boom, boom, boom” to “All they wanna do is boom, boom, boom.” I talk about a few other things too, just to change it up. It’s just basically something fun to perform live.
When I watched you guys perform at Outside Lands last year I remember Tom tearing through this incredible solo on “Promenade” that wasn’t on the studio version of the original recording; hearing that solo in the remixed version on The Ghetto Blaster is awesome. Was that something that you knew had to be captured in the studio?
I wanted to do it for the record just to show how right I was, because when we were making the original version I was like, “[Tom] you gotta end that with a long ass 1970s solo.” And he was like, “people don’t want to hear that.” I was like, “are you crazy, they wanna hear Tom Morello play a long ass solo!” He thought it was self indulgent and I was like you gotta give people what they wanna hear too, it’s not self indulgent. So we threw it into the show and people went crazy. On the live one there are some changes that happen during the live solo that he didn’t want to include in the studio version.
I feel that your cover of LL Cool J’s “Momma Said Knock You Out” is so aligned with Street Sweeper’s personality, goals and chemistry. Could you talk about what you especially like about that song and why you chose it for this album?
Well, shit, that’s a song that lip synched to in my living room many times. It’s a natural thing; all the energy within the lyrics. Definitely one of the best hip hop songs of all time. So I thought that’s one that we could take and transform people with.
Can you talk about your song “The New Fuck You” on the new record? I feel like it’s somewhat of a new mindset and way of thinking for today.
Yeah, what I’m saying is that everything is so much what has changed these days. Almost like, “fuck you” is not rebellious anymore. If you really want to be rebellious, you need to talk about changing the system. So the whole thing is talking about changing that.
Aside from transforming people through music, one of Street Sweeper Social Club’s goals have been feeding the poor. What has SSSC been actively doing recently to feed the poor and combat homelessness?
We’ve been actively involved in the Axis of Justice to raise money and awareness and, on tour, we’ve worked with homeless shelters and feeding the poor in soup kitchens and things like that. However, we mean in a broader sense as well. Being part of campaigns to raise minimum wages and creating jobs and in that way fighting homelessness. That’s the real way we are identifying with. There are a lot of homeless people that have jobs; minimum wage is sometimes not enough to survive on.
Overall, how much do you enjoy writing, recording, playing live shows and collaborating with Tom Morello?
It’s always and adventure, and there’s always alcohol involved. He definitely has taught me a lot and there are a lot of old rock war stories that are always interesting. He’s always like the uncle that has the outrageous stories to tell about whatever you bring up. Also, I admire him as an artist in the things he has done and the things he won’t do. There are very few people that I have shared this like mindedness within the music industry, so it’s a great thing. And we’ve also been good friends for a long time so that always makes it better. I’ve played with The Coup and gone on tour with Galactic, but usually I’m the peacock of the group, so he definitely makes me step my game up on stage. You know, I can’t have everybody looking at the guitar player. So it’s always a good experience that way. The first Street Sweeper Social Club show I was like, wait a minute, people are looking at the guitar player? I wasn’t used to that. I knew it was gonna happen, but I think we feed off each other that way too.
You guys are playing on the Rock the Bells tour in August and a couple other festivals. Can we expect more Street Sweeper Social Club dates in the near future?
Yeah, we’ve got the Warped Tour and Rock the Bells and things like that. The few club dates we’ve done have been exhilarating. So yeah, you’ll definitely be seeing us in the fall at a club near you.
