Mother Culture is ‘calling out’ and this is one of those bands where you’re not going want to ignore that call. Mother Culture is a Kansas City band implanted from Omaha that boasts melodic group vocals over syncopated beats and catchy guitar riffs. Lyrically, they sing songs reflective about societal consciousness. They recently released the Sold Your Voice EP with two b-sides for free download here. 
Sold Your Voice begins with the titular track in a whirling guitar riff that becomes the backbone for the album. This riff creeps back in not just again in this song, but on the EP; for example, fast forward and listen just before the five minute mark on “Even Artichokes Have Hearts” and you’ll catch the band driving the musical phrase back into your brain. “Sold Your Voice” continues building bigger and bigger off that riff with speeding synth lines, big drums and back and forth vocals from Jessi Lu Rud and Justin Hayes as they repeat, “They’re calling out.”
So what exactly is Mother Culture talking about when they repeat “they’re calling out?” It all comes down to the other thing Mother Culture drives into listener’s brain aside from that guitar riff: a message of societal and cultural awareness. Mother Culture can almost be brutal in some of their lyrics about how mechanic society and how robotic people have become such as in “Paper Dolls (with Plastic Parts)” or the when they sing lines like “Pray and pray and pray, but your hearts retreating and growing cold from the self-defeating lies that keep you bleeding from the soul,” in “Even Artichokes Have Hearts.”
They’re beautifully heart-breaking songs at times, but don’t think they’re a dark, despairing and depressed band even when singing of lost mental battles such as in the piano-driven song “There’s an Empire in My Head.” Listen to their EP or catch them live, and you’ll see: their positiveness is as contagious as Jessi’s dance moves.
The whole EP, the band is simply staying true to their name, like a mother culture works to have a great impact on other cultures and its people, Mother Culture the band is working to change society, too. At least, they had an impact on me…
Track Listing:
1. Sold Your Voice
2. Paper Dolls (With Plastic Parts)
3. Even Artichokes Have Hearts
4. There’s an Empire in My Head
//Additional B-Sides//
5. Cancer for Commerce
6. Hanging on Like Lemmings
Be sure to check out our interview with Mother Culture here.
