Duff Review: The Prizefighters "Stop Them"

Digital single
2019

(Review by Steve Shafer)

Minneapolis, MN's Prizefighters have recently released the fantastically potent anti-racist/fascist single  "Stop Them" in advance of their new album Firewalk, which is being issued from Jump Up Records on CD and cassette tomorrow (and vinyl at a later date). This song was written in direct response to the rise in white nationalism that has been unleashed/supported by the policies and messaging of the Trump administration over the past two dark years--and, as the band puts it, is "less a protest song and more a call to action" for all good people to unite and collectively counter this bigotry and hatred.

"Stop Them" is the ideal fusion of relevant socio-political message with move-your-body music (and very much in the tradition of 2 Tone). This vintage-sounding rocksteady track is super-sing along-catchy and rightfully uncompromising in its anti-racist/fascist stance, much like The Special AKA's "Racist Friend" or Linton Kwesi Johnson's "Fite Dem Back."

Check out these lyrics (which ding both Trump and the Klan):

Now the fascists are back in town
Marching through our streets
Now their jester wears the crown
They keep popping up like weeds
We've gotta put them back in the ground
And hang out their sheets
They will never never never stop
Until we stop-a stop-a stop-a stop-a stop them

The Prizefighters have sounded the alarm. Let's hope the people hear it.

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All proceeds from the sale of The Prizefighters' "Stop Them" single are being donated to the J20 Legal Defense Fund, to help pay the legal fees of those who were arrested while exercising their freedom of speech/right to protest during the Trump Inauguration Day protests on January 20, 2017 (J20) in Washington, DC.

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