Alice Smith, Sam Dew, And TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek Share Protest Song, “Shell Shock”
The three-way effort, “Shell Shock,” provides a classic-feeling soundtrack for trying times.
Last night, a Staten Island grand jury decided not to indict Daniel Pantaleo, the NYPD officer who killed Eric Garner. The music community reacted online, and thousands of mournful, frustrated protesters took to the streets in various demonstrations across the country. In the wake of the unjust verdict, vocalist Alice Smith, Chicago songwriter Sam Dew, and TV On The Radio's Dave Sitek released a soulful, classic-sounding protest song called "Shell Shock."
The lyric video for the collaboration, which features a relevant-as-ever photograph from the Civil Rights Movement, is debuting above; it's not the first protest song we've turned to in these emotionally-tolling past few weeks, and we hope it won't be the last. "Music is a way to document history that prevents it from being rewritten without anyone noticing," Dave Sitek, who co-wrote "Shell Shock" with Dew, told FADER over email. Smith added: "Many thanks to Dave and Sam for asking me to be involved in something real. I'm grateful that I got a chance to sing a song that feels like a statement of the truth."
Lead Image: Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images