Atlanta’s Upchuck distil all their rage and fury into a pointed, aimed, and razor-sharp critique of the world we are navigating. The political is personal.

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When your back feels forced against the wall, the fight needs a ferocity that shakes the very foundation of those piling indecency after indecency on you. But, and importantly, it needs community, it needs support, it needs hope. This is exactly where Atlanta’s Upchuck come from. Their songs are a rallying cry to come together and revolt against a system that divides us, exhausts us, leaves us with nothing to do but wrap ourselves in screens of distraction. The echo chamber feeds us, nothing changes, the world keeps on going to shit. It gets darker, we are more scared, more scarred. And all that hellhole is perfectly encapsulated in just the opening track of Upchuck’s new album.

Simply titled Tired, in that one word, it empathises with the many. Over a crunching bass, rolling and pounding drums, and a hypnotically threatening guitar riff, singer KT riles against the hopelessness that the powers that be are attempting to indoctrinate. But this is no plea for help, no woe-is-me pity party. This is a sharp critique, one to make us not just sit up, but stand up, not only for ourselves but also for those who cannot. This is exactly what great punk music should do. It is Guthrie’s “This machine kills fascists” for the current generation.

In a recent interview with Louder Than War’s Cassie Fox for her Loud Women website, KT summed the track up, saying “I’m kind of getting over yelling the same shit over and over again, preaching the same lesson, shit not changing, and watching real-time shit get worse. The way that they have things set up over here in the States is just back-to-back-to-back bullshit, to break you down, and keep you weak, keep you defeated. But, at the end of the day, I’m tired of these tactics. I’m tired of these games. I’m tired of this ongoing and forever. It seems like the troubles never end.”

It is resistance, but also a recognition of the physical and emotional effect that pushing back has. In a world where simple acts can be rebellion, when KT is joined on lead vocals by drummer Chris Salgado, spitting his rage in Spanish, the act becomes a spear through the eye of the despot burning through the United States. On Plastic, the song that, in style, aligns them closest to Amyl And The Sniffers, he pointedly takes aim at someone clearly only searching fame and riches. In response, Salgado himself feels dead inside, with only his suffering for company. Taking the political and making it personal is something the band a deft at.

However, it is on Homenaje and Un Momento that he really takes centre stage, a call to arms to his own community. On the former, a rolling riot of attack, he sings of revolt, of seeking solutions while governments fill their chests, a guttural call to wake up at the end of a rousing speech recalling a new rage against the machine. The latter, while no less driving, seeks something else –  a moment to suffer, a moment to live, a moment to think, a moment to fly. In a country where masked agents kidnap citizens from the streets, this alone, these simple acts are oppressed. Upchuck ring the bells loudly, aiming to bring communities together here to push back.

Within all the outward direction of rage, there are also moments of personal reflection, of personal grief. It hits hard on Forgotten Token. Written after the death of KT’s sister, she exposes how it feels to be a black woman in the US at times. “I just feel cuz I’m black I get stacked in a lost closet. Forgotten token. But I need to address that my mom and my aunt and my sis can’t exist.” It brings home that for many, just expressing the right to exist is an affront to those who wish to erase whole communities, entire races and countries from the map.

Among the barrage of Molotov-exploding, surging and rioting punk rock, there are a couple of moments where the band sit back on an altogether different groove. Latest single New Case rolls on a great rhythm, the band’s own description of it being a punk cousin of Quincy Jones summing it up perfectly. The lyrics also seem to deal with the dangers closer to home, of spiked drinks, of the anguish that can rise through a simple unanswered message. While musically they take off the gloves and challenge anyone to pigeonhole them, lyrically they remind us that there is often no respite. The only time we can let our guard down is when we are home, safe.

Elsewhere, Slow Down comes in with a more Stooges filtered through 1980s US underground alt-scene vibe and brings the focus around a whole 180 degrees to ask ourselves if we, personally, have done enough. It reveals the other pressure, the one from within, the inner voice asking if we have done enough. “Been productive to exhaustion. Plenty more days, so why can’t I just take a nap?” It highlights the guilt of sometimes needing to simply switch off, take stock, recharge.

When you scratch past the rage that permeates many of the songs, there is a realisation that I’m Nice Now is an album of real depth. It should, and does, speak to anyone who is tired of feeling like pawns lined up for societal sacrifice. In a world where freedoms are crossed out with each passing day, where simply showing up in support of the downtrodden and, well, massacred strikes such fear into the heart of the ruling classes that we are locked up in handcuffs, where simply existing can be treated as reason for being snatched from the streets, words like those of Upchuck’s should ring out loud.

With that, it only seems right to leave the final word to the band themselves. In Chris Salgado’s (translated) words on Homenaje:

“Time continues to pass, but it seems that nothing changes while we don’t take action. Our generation was established by people who don’t understand that not everything will continue to be the same as they thought. I sit and watch as the world around me turns to shit, and people expect me not to have an opinion. I was raised to be obedient and accept everything around me as it is, but I’m tired of settling for shit. This life we live, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but you never stay down. Get up. Wake up.”

Catch Upchuck live:
Tues 4th November – Hare & Hounds, Birmingham
Weds 5th November – Pitchfork Festival @ Village Underground, London
Thurs 6th November – Wharf Chambers, Leeds
Fri 7th November – Mutations Festival, Brighton
Sat 8th November – Simple Things Festival, Bristol
Sun 9th November – YES, Manchester

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Words by Nathan Whittle. Find his Louder Than War archive here.