Exclusive Premiere: Blackbird Raum, ‘Cadillac Desert’

Described as “seminal anarchy folk-punk” rockers, Santa Cruz’s Blackbird Raum started out in the world of black metal, but quickly transitioned to the acoustic world -- all the while maintaining their ferocious instrumentation. Today (June 19), Diffuser is thrilled to team up with them to debut their new music video for “Cadillac Desert” -- check it out above.

The animated visuals elevate the band’s post-apocalyptic environmental activism to a whole new level; deep, meaningful lyrics coupled with acoustic punk rock, complemented by eerie animation creates a musical experience few outfits could replicate.

“‘Cadillac Desert’ is our very depressed response to the California drought,” the band tells us. “At this point most people in the U.S. are tired of hearing news stories about droughts in California, but this one is different. We can tell since the spring that we use to fill up jugs of water to bring to our house is actually dry, so now we often have to buy water from a store. For us, the connections are clear and it’s something that’s being done to the place we live, not just some random happenstance of nature.”

As far as the song goes, they explain, “We were at practice and realized that everything on our new record was insanely fast, so we tried to think of something ominous and this immediately popped out. We called it ‘The March of the Uruk-Hai’ until the lyrics were done.”

"Cadillac Desert" is the fifth track on Blackbird Raum's latest full-length effort, Destroying -- you can pick up the record here and here. Make sure to stay current with everything happening in the band's world -- and grab their full tour itinerary -- at their official website.