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Radkey's New Song 'Not Smart' SZA Collab for Mastercard x Grammys

By: Jan. 19, 2018
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Radkey's New Song 'Not Smart' SZA Collab for Mastercard x Grammys  Image

Comic books, boredom, rock n roll., video games, misfits, Ramons, Weezer, the middle of America, the middle of Nowhere, Nirvana, pizza, Dad's record collection, skateboards, afropunk, more pizza, a quest to end false rock.... That, in a nutshell, is Radkey. Today, the band arrive with their sleek new track, "Not Smart," premiere via Clash Magazine. A song which, "rages with unbridled fury, somewhere between Ramones bubblegum and Nirvana bite."

Today it was also announce that Radkey have been selected by MasterCard for their massive Grammy promotion, #StartSomethingPriceless, which features Radkey as an artist to watch alongside Grammy nominated best new artist, SZA. The first video for the campaign premiered on the Ellen show yesterday.

With groundbreaking moments on the horizon, the band explained to Clash the personal message of "Not Smart: "It's about what it's like to give up everything to chase your dreams for so long that you don't even realize that you're not a kid anymore. Even though you don't feel any different than you did when you first started the band. It's about waking up and accepting that you're starting to feel the pain. That you're not invincible..."

The Brothers Radke (the band name is a spin on their shared last name), comprised of 24 year-old guitarist and Danzig dead-ringer vocalist, Dee Radke, 22 year-old bassist Isaiah and 20 year-old drummer, Solomon, have honed their sound into the rare kind of power-riffing rock n' roll phenomenon that literally explodes out of the speakers from the open moments of the track.

About Radkey:

Like any great rock band, the gas in Radkey's tank has been a will to rock on their terms. As pre-teens growing up in the Nowheresville of Saint Joseph, Missouri, they enrolled in rock n roll high school as their ticket out. With their music-obsessed dad-and-former Wal-Mart employee as road manager, the brothers played their first show opening for Fishbone in 2011 and haven't looked back since. The family van thundered across the nation, chewing up tires and splatting insects on the windshield as Radkey gigged with the likes of Red Fang, Touche Amore and Against Me!.

In 2013, The Cat & Mouse and Devil Fruit EP's took Radkey from sweaty backroom punk gigs to storming the UK's Download Festival, and the US' Riotfest. The backstory of three African-American brothers raised on their dad's vinyl collection was only eclipsed by the band's live show that left audiences breathless with a messy punk rock n roll riot of their own.

By 2015, things were at critical mass for Radkey, having toured the US with Rise Against and having appeared at Coachella Enlisting Arctic Monkeys producer/mixer Ross Orton. Radkey went straight off the road into a studio, to record their debut record, Delicious Rock Noise. The result is an across-the-board detonation of several shades of rock, punk and wild abandon. And riffs, riffs, riffs.

Now, as they kick off 2018 with new music, their sound has continued to expand and mature, reflected in the sleek guitar and growing bass of their new track, "Not Smart." It's a testament to the future of music and the band is primed for the rock and roll hall of fame.



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