Downtown Boys arenât interested in freedom unless everyoneâs invited. Since the Providence, Rhode Island, punk band formed in 2011, theyâve made it their mission to challenge capitalist entities, including the music industry. True to form, their new album, Cost of Living, fearlessly critiques complacency as well as political and economic systems that only value excess.
Downtown Boysâ music moves you, both physically and emotionally. Across 12 tracks, lead vocalist Victoria Ruiz chants powerfully over feverish riffs and snappy saxophone. Cost of Living sounds raw but clean, thanks to spotless production from Fugaziâs Guy Picciotto. Bruce Springsteenâs influence is also apparentâthe band even covered âDancing in the Darkâ on their last album, 2015âs Full Communism.
âI donât know if itâs like this anymore, but everyone [in the E Street Band] would get paid the exact same as Bruce,â Ruiz says. âWhat heâs done with his model of music is so inspiring, and a lot of his lyrics really get at that relentless, gritty desire and hope. You know itâs not about any dogmatic form of happiness or success. Itâs about something thatâs deeper than anything we probably know. Thatâs something weâve tried to bring out in both Malportado Kids [Ruizâs digital cumbia project with guitarist Joey DeFrancesco] and Downtown Boys.â
Tracks like âIâm Enough (I Want More)â and âSomos Chulas (No Somos Pendejas)â will make you feel both heard and enraged. Ruizâwhoâs both a musician and community organizerâsays the band is continually examining how best to utilize its platform to fight for collective power. Their survival within the music industry is itself a form of resistance.
âYou have this vision and this dream for future and for justice, but you simultaneously have to navigate the status quo,â she explains. âSo weâre always rememberingâeven when weâre playing spaces like [the Budweiser Made in America Festival]âthat weâre navigating reality in order to push for something bigger. Those spaces are powerful institutions, but we shouldnât let them have more power than they actually have.â
Ruiz says that rather than comparing the merits of playing DIY versus commercial venues, itâs more meaningful for her to look at the bigger picture and every personâs role within it, from audience members to the media. Because of Downtown Boysâ explicitly political lyrics, says Ruiz, âWe get asked questions that other people donât get asked, even though we all have a role and have agency. That form of emotional labor happens outwardly.â
And though it can be taxing, Ruiz says sheâs motivated by the fact that Downtown Boysâ music might reach another Chicana punk who needs it.
âDo I think that music can set us free? No. Do I think that music is a tool in a bigger movement for justice? Yes.â Hereâs hoping Downtown Boys never stop shouting.