Junior Astronomers’ 2013 album Dead Nostalgia remains in steady rotation in my life. Loud, raucous, and passionate, the band has an unmistakable yawp that marks them as the heirs apparent to Jawbreaker. Not to say they sound all that similar, but they’re awesome for many of the same reasons. Their latest cut is a song they wrote in response to the notoriously transphobic North Carolina HB2, the so-called “bathroom bill” that mandates that people must use bathrooms consistent with the sex they were assigned at birth regardless of gender identity. In short: fuck that noise. The single is released just in time for the election, with the goal of pushing people to vote to overturn the bill. The band explains:

“North Carolina has been all of our homes for most of our lives. We’ve seen it grow and seen it shrink due to poor decision making from our elected officials. When Charlotte as a city tried to move forward with laws to make all people comfortable with how they designate themselves we were met with opposition. That opposition has caused a divide, cost us credibility and money, and for what? For people to feel “safer”? We as a band believe in an all inclusive world and needed to write about this injustice. We just really want our state to be on the right side of history and as of now it isn’t, but we can all make a change by going to vote and letting our voices be heard.”

By Nathan Leigh, AFROPUNK contributor

Photo by Samantha Presta

“FPM” will appear on the band’s forthcoming 7” due out November 25th. You can pre-order it here: http://bit.ly/2f7tD1P