Sickness by Street Eaters

In 2014 our bestie Booz made us a perfect mixtape when we were in peak touring insanity mode and were almost never home; with a big chunk of our time being spent playing endlessly across Europe. The most perfect track on this (perfect) mixtape was the 2003 song “Sickness” by influential Swedish Europunk/Riot Grrrl ragers BURNING KITCHEN, a classic rallying cry against the toxic gender-based nonsense that we all have to deal with.

While Megan already long had a bunch of solid early/mid-90s BK singles in her collection (thanks to some crucial trades with Worlds of Ursula K LeGuin director Arwen Curry), it was a revelation to us to hear a punk band produce some of the rawest, fiercest, best music of their lives not in their demos or early 7”s but a solid decade after their first release. Punk/HC loves it when bands burn bright then flare violently out, then emerge periodically to retread their influential first album on the nostalgia circuit. However, there are a few “punk” bands out there that consistently operate a few inches under the hype radar, sharpening those knives and lighting more-incendiary pyres with every recording because that is what they do.

We recorded a cover of Sickness back in 2015 with Stan Wright up in Portland, in the Buzz or Howl studio where we recorded our full-length “Blood::Muscles::Bones” a year before. This was before Joan joined the band, when we were still a 2-piece. Other than one limited-release cassette tape that we pressed 50 of and sold on one short tour, this cover is gonna be new to all of you

Tracklist

1.	Sickness	2:32

Lyrics

Pleasing, teasing... or controlled but rough
We play out our roles all according to the master plan
Never gave a second thought that maybe they were planted
Everything you thought was inborn is socially constructed
Like father, like son
Like mother, like daughter
Like sister, like brother
We pass the sickness on
Tabloid propaganda promoting stereotypes
'ten steps to better sex' - f*** off! I couldn't be bothered
But sex sells and men pay so here we go again
The power structure kept in balance with gender acting roles
Like father, like son
Like mother, like daughter
Like sister, like brother
We pass the sickness on
f*** you for smearing my sexuality with filth
For letting me inherit your fear, shame and guilt
I am just a naked boy with an erection
and with my heart I despite male tradition
f*** you for smearing my sexuality with filth
For letting me inherit your fear, shame and guilt
I am a girl and I happen to be naked
but that doesn't mean I want to have sex
---original by BURNING KITCHEN, 2003

Credits

released October 3, 2024
Megan March - Drums, vocals
John No - Bass, vocals

Recorded and mixed by Stan Wright, 2015

License