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Listening to the Downtown Boys, the hyper-progressive punk rock band from Providence, R.I., is like that feeling you get after accidentally hit in the mouth while in a mosh pit. It startles you at first, but whatever pain you might be experiencing quickly subsides and is instead replaced with a feeling of being alive, a visceral sensation of being very much present. “Lips That Bite,” the aptly titled track from their upcoming album The Cost Of Living, is the sonic equivalent of what happens right after.
The song, which you can stream above, is the newest addition to the Adult Swim singles, a weekly musical series where the TV network premieres a hot new song.
“This one is all about understanding the systemic and collective origins of all the anxieties and struggles we too often see as isolated and personal, and then using all we’ve got to fight back,” the band said in a statement to Stereogum. “That can be with our lips, our teeth, our words, our bodies — at this point we have no choice but to use whatever we each have.”
Fighting the powers that be and being political are nothing new to the band. “Somos Chulas (No Somos Pendejas),” their previous single , is all about letting folks know that brown girls are here, they aren’t going anywhere, and they won’t be silenced. Victoria Ruiz, the band’s lead singer, has even written about what it’s like being a musician of color touring in the Trump era.
And speaking of touring, the band will be traveling across America pretty much nonstop (seriously, they’ll have a show pretty much every day in August and September) in support of The Cost Of Living, their first album under Sub Pop Records that comes out Aug. 11. For tour dates, go here.
