On this fiercely unfiltered track from Chicago Punks, Alien Thing; ‘How To Build An Earthworm Farm’ takes the reggae/dub style of Fugazi and makes it completely their own.
Made up of Eric Pee, Vlad and Keenan Shea Benshop, Alien Thing are a Chicago based trio who are reutilising the essence of punk. Speaking about the track, the band stated: “HTBAEF is loud and impassioned. Lyrically, it’s half psycho-narration, half diss-track aimed at the prison-industrial-complex and it’s impact on U.S. youth.
HTBAEF openly discusses America’s war on drugs, stating lower rates of opiod usage is tied to anti-marijuana laws, jailing those in possession of menial amounts, abusing the 13th amendment, something that has been widely discussed over the years. Alongside this brutally real lyricism, Alien Thing slide in between slapping reggae bass and eerily isolated guitars before breaking into a ferocious eruption of shouting, bustling guitars and melodic riffs, that continue to slide between suave reggae/dub punk and gritty, garage tinged punk for the entirety of the track.
It’s a ferociously angry track, that makes no apologies about how forward and abrasive it is with its delivery of anti-prison and anti-us-justice system lyrics, something that could lead Alien Thing to becoming an important name in the fight against drug-sentencing injustice in America.
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