With an arsenal of blistering guitars, driving percussion and a crucial perspective, COMMANDO uses their ferocious energy and lyricism to unite crowds in the struggle to smash racism, queerphobia, transphobia, fascism and all things that close society’s minds, eyes and hearts. The band signed with Kill Rock Stars for their self-titled debut album due out March 4. The all-star collective recently shared lead single “Hotel Essex” and now they have unleashed the brand new “Mykki Blanco” single alongside a playful lyric video. Queer punk icon and lead vocalist on the track, Lynnee Breedlove (Tribe 8, Homobiles) shares: “Andy Meyerson took me to see Mykki a few years back. Power. Bathed in the pure energy of Mykki, it felt like a private subtextual conversation. I was reminded of my own expedition watching Mykki’s stance like ‘I dare you to fuck with or decide who I am,’ using their body and the mic to teach gender, race, capitalism. It reminded me of our responsibility to stand up, drop armor, respect each other, be seen when tired of invisibility, or blend in. Mykki was a snapshot that day of us in transition, or mid stride of any movement, which is constant.”

COMMANDO was created as an act of revisionist history: how would the world have been different if that specific cultural moment in the late 1990s that birthed nü metal and its then-ubiquitous musical toolbox had been used to dismantle homophobia, misogyny, racism/white supremacy and heteropatriarchy rather than reinforce them? The new collection uses tools from the last three decades of rock, metal, punk, hardcore, hip hop, and popular music, delivered in five suites with each quarterbacked by a different vocalist.

Photo Courtesy: Devlin Shand