The Homeless Gospel Choir – This Land Is Your Landfill

As Pittsburgh, PA one man band The Homeless Gospel Choir has progressed from album to album, founding member Derek Zanetti has really started to sound like an ensemble.  His wiry, AJJ inspired persona blasts from the speakers with full bodied confidence.  And with a host of instrumental guests and a newly formed lineup, the sky’s the limit for The Homeless Gospel Choir’s compositional ambitions.  For Zanetti’s third full length, This Land Is Your Landfill, the project takes a go big or go home mentality.  But when your album’s title and lead track tackle what is arguably this generation’s most pressing crisis, there’s no room for understatement.

This Land Is Your Landfill finds Zanetti and his crew taking the bull by the horns and launching into the unapologetically ruckus punk rock tune “Global Warming.”  It’s everything you never saw The Homeless Gospel Choir becoming.  It’s big, brash, loud, well produced – even anthemic – and feels right at home as the band’s next evolution. “Donald Trump thinks global warming was made up by the Chinese,” sings Zanetti in a line that sounds every bit as absurd as the reality it’s based on.  “Ba da ba da da da daaa,” sweeps a chorus of melodic gang vocals that reach epic proportions in Zanetti’s call to environmental action amidst salvos of catchy horn blasts. The song is unapologetic in scope and message, extending a welcoming hand to listeners looking for a motive and cause.

Much like previous releases, This Land Is Your Landfill is a rallying cry for misfits and those looking for a place to call home.  “Don’t you dare compare yourself to anyone but you,” sings Zanetti on “Fed Up,” before launching into an impassioned plea for embracing one’s individuality and avoiding a life defined as a victim of online marketing.  Soon thereafter the band starts getting a little experimental with some of the indie-esque melodies and a bridge that emerges through “Social Real Estate” and into “Art Punk.” Fuzzy, electric tones radiate beneath a scrappy foundation of riffs and Zanetti’s imperfect vocals.  “Others like “Blind Faith” scale back the tempo and get all hazy and fuzzed out in classic garage punk fashion. Either way, the band remains fiercely rooted in their beliefs.

While this fuller bodied Homeless Gospel Choir really knows how to fill a room, Zanetti doesn’t relinquish his past entirely.  “You Never Know” swings back to minimalist ground with a simple accordion and casually strummed six string blanketing an otherwise desolate void.  During this simple moment the band reverts back to Zanetti’s Dandelion Snow meets Conor Oberst roots.  The band juxtaposes a sense of systemic social anxiety against the track’s quiet front porch melody, leading to proclamations like, “My heart beats harder now than it used to / there’s a panic attack wrapping at your door.”  When supplemented several tracks later with lines like “It’s all in your head” on “Lest We Forget,” the sense of internal conflict runs ripe.

Like AJJ before them, The Homeless Gospel Choir has quietly matured from a one man band with a wiry acoustic call to arms to a rich, socially conscious experience.  This Land Is Your Landfill is a call for help to anyone willing to listen – and that isn’t already drinking the Kool-Aid.  The great tragedy of our generation is that as the world goes to hell in a hand basket, people like Derek Zanetti are literally spelling out each ridiculous injustice, yet the show must go on.  This Land Is Your Landfill offers eleven finely executed tracks that capture the raw, sophisticated rebellion that is The Homeless Gospel Choir.  Now get listening.