The newest volume of Ball of Wax Audio Quarterly – to be released Friday, October 17th at Conor Byrne – is a collection of new and original songs about protest, with folks protesting everything from privatization of water rights to union-busting to Mars Hill Church. The first track comes across the country from Shiv Hurrah, whom we haven’t heard from since back in 2010.
“Chicken Sip” is a delightfully bouncy chunk of indie pop that masks a heartfelt, poetic diatribe against the economic landscape in present-day America. Backed by acoustic guitar, bass, and shuffling snare drum, David Bechle sings “Scales are falling down like arrows from your eyes / and every time the closing bell is rung an angel cries / it’s like a silent song, a story left untold / the city sold the Brooklyn Bridge to pave the streets with gold . . . whatever happened to the chicken in each and every pot?” As economic disparity grows ever wider, I think a lot of people are asking the same question.