Out of System Transfer

There’s always been a New York City kind of protest music—delivered with a balled up fist and a shit-eating grin. From Dave Van Ronk and Phil Ochs playing their dark, satirical tunes to the folkies on MacDougal and Bleecker, to The Fugs and The Holy Modal Rounders laying the seeds of punk on the Lower East Side with their freaked-out jams, all the way to Leftover Crack and World Inferno/Friendship Society playing their eclectic brand of punk rock to rile up the left during the extremely tense RNC-era 2000’s NYC. Now, carrying on that banner of righteous weirdness, here comes Out of System Transfer, the city’s much-needed gonzo anti-folk punk rock radical leftist hootenanny. Their funny and fierce tunes, like “I Shot President McKinley (and I’ll do it again and again),” “Stop Bloomberg, Frisk Kelly (and all the pigs can suck eggs in hell),” and “June 1969”–a tribute to the Stonewall riots–make no concessions on their political leanings, blending the rage of Reagan-era punks like Dead Kennedys, The Dead Milkmen and Mojo Nixon with the rootsy feel and harmonies of acts like The Carter Family and Pete Seeger.

Singer/guitarist/songwriter Jesse Sternberg met multi-instrumentalists Danielle Kolker, Jon Good, and Jesse Jacobsen at Oberlin College, where they played together in various rock bands. Their DIY folk punk aesthetic is founded upon a true commitment to their politics, championing LGBTQ and worker’s rights, warning of climate change, and decrying neoliberalism and the emerging police state. This close-knit collective use intelligent songwriting and strong statements to challenge the status quo, as well as to describe the climate of the city they live in.

The group released 7-song EP zine "Same Rat, Different Hat" in early 2014, followed quickly by a music video for their public transit anthem "New Train Blues". Since then, they've been building a strong following in the Northeast and beyond with their high-energy and engaging live performances at squats, cooperative houses and storied DIY spaces, launching their first major tour in the summer of 2015 and continuing to tour the northeast, midwest, and south in 2016. Their first full-length album, Junkyard Golem, is due out 11/18. .