Last July [sic: September], Jared Paul was among the protesters at the Republican National Convention outside Minneapolis, and, like a lot of folks down there, ended up face-down on the ground with a member of a riot squad clamping his hands behind his back. Hauled off to jail, he was slapped with a count of felony riot, which was then trimmed down to a misdemeanor charge with advice from a public defender to cop the plea, take a fall and avoid the hassle of a fair trial. The hassle. The hassle!

He took on the hassle -- and the expense, much of which Strange Famous helped raise -- and fought the law. And he won. Justice prevailed over hassle. The American court system proves itself. Or something like that.

Paul wasn't about to go down quietly. Joining with Alan Hague, he set his story to a Rage Against The Machine meld of punk fury, metallic guitar licks and lyrics half spat, half sung. Prayers for Atheists, from protest and arrest with shrieking guitars and a sound that easily slots in next to Rage and Flobots ("Psalm to St. Paul"), imprisonment with a decidedly hip-hop flavored, mostly a cappella track ("Lots Wife") and eventual vindication and triumph ("Wrong Horse"). Led by career activist Paul's ability to go beyond rabble-rousing to prodding the issues Prayers for Atheists is a heck of a promising start for an indie hip-hop/punk hybrid outfit.

More than a self-congratulatory tale of Paul's ordeal, a cautionary tale of authority gone haywire or the righteous triumph of the just over the oppressor, Prayers for Atheists indirectly raises some much stickier and troubling questions. Mostly, they revolve around the dangers when free speech and authority collide, and the potentially insurmountable expense and life-twisting hassles an out-of-state trial brings. Justice is supposed to be blind, and in the Paul's case it prevailed, but what about the dozens of other protesters who buckled under economic and real-life pressures? What about all the instances when First Amendment rights to a peaceful protest were trampled asunder by riot-squad boots when nobody was there to fight back? This is their story too, and Prayers for Atheists single-handedly pays tribute to all the fallen soldiers of the truth. Paul might have won his battle, but the fact that he had to fight it -- and so many in his situation simply couldn't afford to -- is nasty side of American justice that peeks out between the cracks everywhere on this EP.

Related Links

Jared Paul site on Strange Famous Records

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