Reason to Rebel finds a reason to challenge

Although it is advertised as a Reason to Rebel record release, Saturday’s Casbah show will not have any new vinyl pressings for sale. “We were going to release a split seven-inch with [L.A.’s] Mothers Anger,” says lead singer Reason to Rebel Luke Chandler. “But we couldn’t find any place to press it in less than three months.”

The North County quartet was releasing the seven-inch as a tease for their full-length, This Gun Is Human, to be released in September. That 11-song album, produced by Alex Pappas of Finch, is their sixth album.

Saturday’s show is a turning point for the hard-rockin, reggae-tinged band. “We’ve had the same lineup for ten years,” says Chandler, who launched RtR with guitarist Evan Jones and bassist Sam Hartjen. Chandler says their flexible day-jobs (tax prep, vape entrepreneur, music teacher) have allowed them to go on tour every year.

“We’ve played almost every state,” opening for Cypress Hill, Living Colour, Jimmy Eat World, and Sublime with Rome.

This will be the last RtR show with cofounder/drummer Daniel Zivkovich, who was offered a management job with Smart and Final. “They asked him not to go out on tour anymore.” Losing Zivkovich to a corporation is ironic since RtR has lyrics to songs such as “Guantanamo,” “Ballad of Black Elk,” and “Monsanto,” that challenge GMOs, war, injustice, and greed in corporate America.

“When we started [in Bush-era 2005], we had just gone to war and the political climate was ripe for writing music as a form of protest. People get brainwashed with advertising.” I note that although System of a Down lead singer Serj Tankian recently was in the news about the Armenian genocide centennial, we haven’t heard much lately from his band or fellow social agitators Rage Against the Machine. “What we do may not be what most hipsters are listening to at the moment,” Chandler tells the Reader. “But what’s popular now doesn’t concern us. We are confident our music will have an impact.”

Chandler suspects next year will be an opportunity for RtR to hit the road in support of legalizing pot. “We spent seven weeks on the Legalize the Nation tour last time it was on the ballot. It will be on the ballot again in California and other parts of the country.”