Sound Check: ‘La Migra!’ From Rat Park And A Quick Conversation With Jared Gaines
by Anton Kromoff
Welcome to the table,
In the interest of digging into physical media in a meaningful way, I have been distancing myself more and more from my phone and taking that time to focus on just one thing at any given moment. For many years, I have played a video game while listening to a podcast on my phone with a movie running on my laptop even as I flip through a TTRPG book between rounds or when I need to pause and not get frustrated at the swamp lobster for blasting me off my spirit yack with its death ray of hydration.
The result of that behavior: a diminishing of my attention span that has caused me some concern and a feeling that I’m not enjoying anything as fully as I should — or could — because I’m not giving anything my full attention. This led me to get back into music.
For a long time, I really stayed away from anything outside of live shows. Listening to music always made me feel like I should be doing some kind of extra task, but the introduction of a record player to my home has changed all that for me. It’s turned my listening time into a ritual. I have now conditioned myself to sit and enjoy a song, track list, or sometimes even a full discography in an almost meditative state. I just hang out, enjoy a cool glass of water (or a nice old-fashioned) and the vibes of the sonic experience.
So this leads me to talk about new tracks, albums, and bands that have come across my desk. And while I do not have a vinyl by them yet, I am pretty excited about a new track I heard today.
3,2,1, let’s jam…
Since it’s premier across various social platforms, including YouTube, I have been adding Rat Park‘s ‘La Migra!’ to my regular rotation. While it’s not on vinyl yet, it is worthy of your attention and does something really magical in a multifaceted way.
I’ve always been fascinated by songs that capture a moment. “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye, “Zombie” by The Cranberries, “Sunday Bloody Sunday” by U2, and “This is America” by Childish Gambino are just a few sonic experiences that capture an artist or groups’s interpretation of times where unrest and inequality are punctuated by violence and brutality.
I’m constantly in awe of creators who can capture these tempestuous instances with music and song. There is a strange magic that occurs when you feel exhausted by the constant doom-scrolling triggering your childhood trauma and fear. And it’s interrupted by a push notification from the ‘needle’ injecting an anxiety cocktail into your brain like a doctor pumping your IV full of something your six-year-old form does not want, but is too small to fight back against … leaving you helpless to whatever horrors come next.
Then there comes a push notification in question that saved me from the scroll. It was something akin to “You may like this,” followed by a grainy image of Jared Gaines — one of the two co-hosts from a YouTube show I’ve been watching for a bit now called The Mean Time — with a masked man (more on that later), and a link to the track ‘‘La Migra!’
As someone who rarely consumes a ton of talk media, the amount of The Mean Time I’ve worked my way through over the last two years is surprising. Often, within the show, there are moments for Gaines and his co-host, Patrick Gilchrist, to showcase their vocal talents. Both have bands and are talented artists in their own right. All of that said, I was not prepared for the absolute banger of a beach-bop wrapped in every ounce of social commentary and counter-culture chaos Gaines was about to deliver as I clicked that push-notification suggestion and the video began to play.
I’d heard a brief teaser of the track a few days prior, but with health complications, work, and the general background sound of what feels like a nation circling the drain as all our hopes and dreams are being fed into some gilded wood chipper, it had not sunk in. So as it started playing out on the screen in front of me, I found myself stopping every other bit of media blasting through my office, putting my phone down, and turning my speakers all the way up as I dragged the track back to the beginning and let it play again. And again. And again. And again.
There is something jubilantly blunt about “La Migra!” It has all the hallmarks of a top ten charting summer track, but there is an authenticity which resonates in a way that does not conjure feelings of a plastic bag or earworms speaking to the concerns of stealing one’s sunshine. What Gaines has done with this track feels casually honest. It’s upbeat and fun, but it’s also very much a political commentary on the disenfranchisement, fear, and anger felt by those feeling powerless in the current world landscape.
I had a chance to talk to Gaines about this track and gather some insight into his inspiration and what comes next.
A: Thank you again and have a rad rest of your day!
Until next time, go check out the track, go check out The Mean Time, and have a rad rest of your day as well!
