Not since Isaac Brock first yelped “oh my goddamn!” back in ’97 has indie rock possessed as fervent of a singer with such consistent house-on-fire passion as Rob Grote of The Districts. Grote, along with the rest of the Philly-based band—Pat Cassidy, Connor Jacobus, and Braden Lawrence—have returned with “Hey Jo,” the first single off of their upcoming fourth album, You Know I’m Not Going Anywhere—due in March from Fat Possum.
The song begins with a simple two-word thesis statement: the Anthropocene. It’s not the stating of our current geological time period that carries weight, but rather the fearful way the timestamp is delivered by Grote: serving as an indictment of the weird times we seem gluttonously addicted to making worse. On the strength of a splintering and perfectly cyclical guitar loop burning up as it heads into orbit, Grote catches up with an old friend before panic sets in. As the song goes on, the central riff continues unbothered, but the narrative—unable to resist gravity—devolves into cluttered muttering; half-remembered street corner sermons proselytizing better times before the narrator fucked things up—the scale of which, be it interpersonal or epochal, seems wholly dependent on one’s ability to discern if the sky is falling or if this mess is merely a passing meteor shower.
You Know I'm Not Going Anywhere is out March 13 on Fat Possum. Watch the official audio video below.
