Ted Leo's Rapid Response Protest

Politically active singer/songwriter Ted Leo was so upset by the events that took place at the Republican National Convention in Minnesota's twin cities early this month that he and his band The Pharmacists have released a new charity EP titled Rapid Response as a protest.

The EP is available to download through Touch And Go Records' website and will cost you from four bucks to $20 U.S., depending on how much you'd like to pay. Rapid Response will be available from other online retailers within the next few weeks. All the proceeds will go to Democracy Now!, whose Amy Goodman was arrested at the RNC, and the Minneapolis chapter of Food Not Bombs.

"The surveillance, pre-emptive detention, arrest, and beating of journalists, protestors, and watchdogs by the St. Paul police department, the Ramsey County sheriff's department, and the FBI was so egregious that it couldn't be allowed to pass without comment," Leo says in the EP's liner notes.

"But real people were hurt in St. Paul, and real people have bills to pay, and real people need funding to continue their good works. We (the band and I) were all feeling these events as deeply as we could from our 1200 mile remove."

Leo and The Pharmacists went into the studio and quickly wrote and recorded a new song called "Paranoia: Never Enough" and recorded another track called "Mourning In America" that they'd already been working on. They also cut covers of Cock Sparrer's "I Got Your Number" and Amebix's "Nobody's Driving." Leo says the quality isn't the greatest since the band recorded the EP as quickly as possible, but putting it out immediately was the point.

Leo says "Mourning In America" is "about race as a campaign issue. If it makes it onto our next LP, it will no longer be campaign season, but the frustrating irony is that in a few years time, it'll probably be 'timely' again."

Leo has released five albums since 1998, including four with The Pharmacists. Their latest offering is last year's Living With The Living.