Today, household-name guitarist Tom Morello has announced his new collaborative project with electronic artist The Bloody Beetroots. The two musicians have made a seven-track EP titled The Catastrophists, which will be out June 18. Their first song from the EP is called “Radium Girls,” and was co-written with Savages’ Jehnny Beth, Carl Restivo, Nadya Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot, and Simone Cogo.
“Four extraordinary women (Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova, The Interrupters’ Aimee Interrupter, White Lung’s Mish Way, The Last Internationle’s Delila Paz) and the ferocious production of The Bloody Beetroots breathe life into the true story of the Radium Girls, young Illinois factory workers who were the victims of one of the most heinous crimes in U.S. industrial history,” Morello shared of the single. “I spent every summer as a kid near Ottawa, Illinois where these doomed girls used deadly radium laced paint to make glow in the dark watches. They were encouraged to lick the paintbrushes to a point to increase productivity and profit and in the end their bones literally fell apart from cancer and they were so toxic they had to be buried in lead lined coffins. The resulting court cases and publicity led to historic nationwide labor protection legislation. Every year I place flowers at the small monument to these quiet heroes and this song is dedicated to their memory.”
Check out the song below.
