More about: 000000

North Carolina band Hiss Golden Messenger have released a touching yet uplifting video for the single 'I Need A Teacher'. It was filmed on 1 May this year, when a demonstration against cuts to public education by the state was taking place in frontman M.C. Taylor's home state of North Carolina.

With candid portraits of the those affected, the video filmed in Raleigh gives makes the emotional impact such cuts are having on the teachers, students and staff palpable and has a sense of resolve in that it's filming people doing their best to make positive change. And hats off to the band for drawing attention to such an important issue in the state. In North Carolina, tax cuts affecting state education are disproportionately benefitting the wealthy. The Washington Post recently described the state as having a step-by-step war on education, when referring to an ideological shift towards a private system.

The video was released in conjunction with an album announcement: Terms of Surrender will come out on Merge Records on 20 September. And the forthcoming tour in support of the record sees the band put the money where their mouth is: One dollar from every ticket sold on the headlining tour will go to Durham Public Schools Foundation.



In addition to the superb 'I Need A Teacher' and its affecting gospel and blues-inflected Americana, there are nine other cuts on the album. It's said M.C. Taylor  brought in new friends Jenny Lewis and Aaron Dessner of The National as well as his band mates and other staples from his inner circle to help out with the album. 

Summing up the album, Taylor says in reaction to assertions from the label that it's his most introspective album that it's: "part apology, part plea, part love letter" and a record "that mirrors the searching spirit of the music.”

Not skimping on quality, the recording took place at Aaron Dessner’s Long Pond studio in upstate New York, Sound City in Los Angeles, and producer Roger Moutenot’s Haptown studio in Nashville. It's said to be his most genre-defying 
 
Those tour dates can be found here.

More about: 000000