Al Jourgensen’s newly reformed Ministry will release its first original music in four years later this week in the form of the pro-Occupy Wall Street single “99 Percenters,’ which will go on sale digitally on Friday and then be streamed from the industrial juggernaut’s Facebook page beginning Christmas Day.
In an interview with Revolver, Jourgensen says he’s been inspired by the anti-corporate Occupy movement, and that the song’s chorus — “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 99 percent” — was inspired by Country Joe and the Fish’s Vietnam-era protest song “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag.” He adds:
“Putting out this song is the least I could do. We wanted to fly to New York and protest and get arrested and pepper sprayed. But we can’t do it because I got a Christmas deadline on this album. But I’m with ‘em in spirit so the least I could do is give them a chant-along song. I’m going, ‘Hey man, here’s your song. All you gotta do is chant the chorus.’”
The single is the first track to be released off Ministry’s upcoming Relapse album, which is due out March 23 and will be followed, in the summer, by a very short U.S. tour and some European dates. Revolver also revealed the record’s cover art, which you can see below.
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- Video: Ministry’s ‘The Making of Relapse’ — in the studio with Al Jourgensen and Co.
- Ministry announces Relapse Tour 2012 shows in Denver, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York
- Al Jourgensen reforms Ministry for ‘Relapse’ album, 2012 concerts in U.S., Europe
- Ministry covers Amy Winehouse’s ‘Rehab’ on ‘Every Day is Halloween: The Anthology’
- Ministry preps ‘MiXXXes of the Molé,’ ‘trance metal’ remix of 2004′s ‘Houses of the Molé’
- Vintage Video: Ministry’s Al Jourgensen, Gary Numan sing early-’80s soda pop jingles
