ALREADY DEAD – “THE SPIRIT OF MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE”
A SPILL EXCLUSIVE MUSIC PREMIERE
Every city in North America has a Massachusetts Avenue.
For Already Dead, the Boston punk band that premieres new single “The Spirit of Massachusetts Avenue” today exclusively on The Spill Magazine, theirs is a 16-mile stretch of roadway that connects posh, leafy suburbs with hospitals, rehab centers, and the infamous homeless encampment known as “Mass and Cass,” a cross-section of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard in Lower Roxbury.
It’s a corridor that showcases a spectrum of New England life, and “The Spirit of Massachusetts Avenue” serves as an abrasive powderkeg of an expletive-laced single. It’s the first lethal dose of Already Dead’s forthcoming sophomore album, Something Like A War, out in July, kicking down the door on a very vocal summer ahead for the band.
Like many who travel up and down “Mass. Ave.,” as it’s known by locals, Already Dead’s vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter Dan Cummings was struck by the differences from one part of the city versus the other while the union pipefitter was working a Cambridge job in 2017.
“The song is an observation that just one road can be two separate worlds caused by social structures and allocations of resources,” Cummings says. “And it delivers a very deliberate ‘fuck you’ to those who have the power to change things in one of these worlds for the better, but choose not to.”
Seven years ago, Cummings was working on-site at the SOMA Project, located on the MIT campus near Kendall Square. Still an apprentice at the time, he would travel twice a week to night school in Boston, traveling down Mass Ave to his union hall in Dorchester. There, he witnessed how quickly worlds can change.
“It was a straight shot down Massachusetts Avenue,” Cummings admits. “That drive became part of my routine, and I became familiar with the surroundings – you can’t help but notice the major transition as you head down this one road. so I’d just see that progression from the nice MIT campus, past the Back Bay and down past all those brownstone buildings – millions and millions of dollars as I’m sure we all know. And then the blatant transition once you get past the Boston Medical Center.”
The “Mass and Cass” section of Boston has been in the headlines for the past several years, but city leaders and officials have been slow to find solutions for the problems that exist in plain sight. As Cummings rages in the track: “No answers here but I question how we can celebrate one, leave the other down and out.”
Cummings, alongside bandmates guitarist Brandon Bartlett, who chips in with his own confrontational vocals on the track; drummer Nick Cali; and new recruit bassist Brian Ferrazzani, blitz across the song’s tireless three-minute runtime with one first in the air and the other with a middle finger extended skyward.
“An answer to these problems is a complicated one and at this point is probably a generational fix – which means it ain’t happening overnight and can probably only be measured in years,” Cummings adds. “But if this needs to be our next ‘Big Dig’ then so be it, and I support it. We have to make sure those who allocate resources and funding for the city and state have their moral compasses aligned properly. Because it is their job to work for the citizens.”
“The Spirit of Massachusetts,” recorded just off Mass. Ave. at the Bridge Sound and Stage in Cambridge, furthers the Already Dead message and continues to solidify a punk-fueled legacy of speaking up for those who need to be defended. The track was engineered and mixed by Jimmy Corbett; produced by Already Dead and Jimmy Corbett; and mastered by Stephen Pettyjohn at Ethereal Mastering.
“From my own personal experience, I became interested in socio economic and political issues through bands,” Cummings concludes. “Bands and performers have a unique position of really reaching younger generations who are exploring and searching for their personal views. A powerful song can resonate a lot more than a paragraph from a textbook.”
ARTIST QUOTE
“The song is an observation that just one road can be two separate worlds caused by social structures and allocations of resources,” Cummings says. “And it delivers a very deliberate ‘fuck you’ to those who have the power to change things in one of these worlds for the better, but choose not to.”
CREDITS
Words and music by Already Dead
Performed by Already Dead
Recorded at the Bridge Sound and Stage in Cambridge, MA
Engineered and mixed by Jimmy Corbett
Produced by Already Dead and Jimmy Corbett
Mastered by Stephen Pettyjohn at Ethereal Mastering
Music video by Roberto Terrones at Berto Media
Artwork by Mark Saffie @ Saffie Design
Already Dead
[Single]
(Independent)
Release Date: May 31, 2024
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