Portland-based indie rock duo Quasi “released a new track titled “Last Days of the Thin Blue Line Lie” alongside a music video.” According to the Brooklyn Vega, vocalist and drummer Janet Weiss states “We wrote ‘Last Days of the Thin Blue Line Lie’ in response to the American policing crisis and the recent turmoil caused by this crisis.”

The song is about the ongoing nearly three-month long George Floyd protests. The location primarily appears to take place in Portland, Oregon however there were shots taken at the Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, California.

The video begins with crowds repeatedly chanting “Wake up MFers wake up!” The video continues showing the protests with select footage of protestors and police taking crowd control measures against certain protestors during the evening.

The once married duo Sam Coomes and Weiss take turns singing line-by-line over a distorted guitar and heartbeat-like kick drum. The song has a relatively slow tempo and the lyrics are displayed on the screen during the video. They are as follows:

Last days of the thin blue line lie / Beyond through with the killer in blue / Left hook to the fascists mind’s eye / Beyond done living under the gun / Left hook to the racist mind’s eye / Bye bye Miss American lie

Last days of the thin blue line lie / Little boy blue your time is through / Police motto set in stone / Beyond done dying under the gun / To serve the myth to protect our own / The long arm of white malice and harm / How long must you be shown / Bye bye Miss American lie

Violence reaped from violence sown / Little boy blue your time is through

At the end of the video there is a message stating “All Bandcamp proceeds from Quasi’s ‘Last Days of the Thin Blue Line Lie’ will be donated to Don’t Shoot PDX, a Black-led and community driven direct community action plan that advocates for accountability to create social change.”

According to a recent interview in the Portland State Vanguard, Don’t Shoot PDX’s president Tai Carpenter states “You can’t tell people how to protest. You can’t condemn one group for how they react to 400 years of oppression and then salute these other kids just because they’re behaving a certain way. I think that further divides the movement. You can’t co-opt liberation. We’re all angry, and whatever we decide to do is going to happen.”

According to the Willamette Week, the duo’s last release in 2017 on the Battle Hymns compilation was also protest related and featured several other musicians from the Portland, Oregon area.

Photo Credit: Owen Ela