Anyone who’s ever lived in New York City knows the bizarre and ultimately irrational hold it can have on you. It’s expensive, noisy, dirty, exhausting, debilitating, draining—apartments are tiny, and rarely have outdoor space. It’s muggy as hell in the summer and can smell pretty rancid. There are more rats than people—and there are a lot of people. Gentrification has been eating its soul from the inside out for way too long now. The current mayor is an absolute embarrassment and thoroughly unfit for office and is only making the city less safe.
And yet it still draws you in. In fact, once it’s sunk its teeth into you, you almost start to enjoy that pain. Because the truth is, despite all the shit that comes with living there, it’s almost impossible to let go because there’s absolutely nowhere else in the world quite like it. That’s what “Goodbye to All That,” the second single from MakeWar’s second full-length for Fat Wreck Chords, A Paradoxical Theory of Change, is all about: being caught between wanting something you know doesn’t make any sense to want, but not being able to imagine life without it. Earnest and insistent, it sees the trio tussle with the simultaneous joy and anguish of living in New York.
“I met New York City accidentally while running the marathon in 2006,” shares vocalist/guitarist Jose Prieto, who describes his residence within the city as one of the longest relationships in his life. “Two years later, I was living and breathing New York. It was the best place I’d ever lived. There was always something to do. Rent was cheap. Beers were a dollar at The Levee. I never missed a Two for Tuesdays at Matchless. Roberta’s had the best pizza in the world, and 6 a.m. chimichangas at Grand Morelos were a delicacy. Matching tattoos were a typical Sunday morning, always accompanied by breakfast beers in the yard. But slowly, friends started moving away, and I finally started to grow old.
“Suddenly, I began to notice all the flaws New York City had,” he continues. “There was a new $100 toll every time I left my apartment. The trash and rats in the streets became more visible and more haunting. Driving around for an hour to find parking became obnoxious. When did $10 lattes become the norm? I wrote this song because I loved New York City too much. So much that I once wrote an anthem about it called ‘Ode,’ and now I’m writing my farewell letter to the city I could probably never leave. It’s one of those toxic relationships. But until I find the next place, and I honestly don’t know if I ever will, I’d like to keep calling New York City my home. Love it or hate it, it’s still the best city in the world.”
“Goodbye to All That” captures that intense contradiction, that love-hate relationship, perfectly. As does the video, which is debuting below. Seriously, though, fuck Eric Adams.
You can pre-order A Paradoxical Theory of Change ahead of its June 28 release here, and find the band’s upcoming tour dates kicking off that same day in Europe here.
