Indie-pop chameleon Karl Blau is back with a new single, “Taxes,” which is set to be featured on his forthcoming LP Vultures of Love. On the track, the K Records veteran waxes fairly mournfully about having to pay taxes that go toward supporting really bad things over warbling synths and a steady bass and snare drum groove. “People all around, can we get down with where all the money goes?” he asks. Amen, brother.
“I came up with ‘Taxes’ for a compilation for Palestine in January 2024,” Blau shares, “and recorded it in a very strange-to-me process of bouncing back and forth from various machines of both digital and analog medium. ‘Taxes’ is a small protest song of the over-militarization of Federal Discretionary Spending, and protesting the unending imperialism in the name of the USA. The tax of the mind is for all to share, Americans collectively feel a great weight. The weight is the struggle out of balance and disconnection with the Earth and humanity.
“For me, it’s a shame knowing some amount of what you earn will go to produce weapons. ‘People, can we make peace and love while paying our taxes?’ Boys and their toys…lots of work to do to let go of the past and move into putting our resources into care rather than harm. I’ll turn toward my neighborhood and give whatever I can, but knowing my hard-earned money is getting turned into weapons for the US War Machine and Little Proxy Buddies, it hurts my heart. Hence, the blues…”
Vultures of Love is set to arrive on October 18 via Otherly Love. Check out “Taxes” below, and pre-order the record here.
