Ken Woods and the Electrick Reckoning Release S.O.S. (Same Old Sh!t)

A searing and hilarious indictment of a presidency sleep-walking towards an American Catastrophe.

“You promised us change, and this sure isn’t it….”

 

Following the critical acclaim that welcomed the first single (“Eyes Shut”) from their forthcoming album, American Catastrophe, Ken Woods and Electrick Reckoning return with the hardest-hitting tune to date, S.O.S. (Same Old Shit). 

In contrast to the epic tone of “Eyes Shut”, S.O.S. gives listeners their first real glimpse of the core Electrick Reckoning sound: funky grooves, sophisticated harmonies and screaming guitars coupled with rapidfire word play and provocative messaging.

If the overall theme of American Catastrophe is the decline and collapse of a once-great society, S.O.S. is a blunt call for accountability in the face of a decade of complacency, cynicism and passivity which left a nation vulnerable to fascist capture.

“I actually wrote the song in 2012”, says guitarist, singer and songwriter Kenneth Woods. “I was practically first in line to join team Obama when he emerged on the scene as a lone voice of sanity in the Democratic party in the dark years following 911. Obama articulated the futility of the Iraq conflict in stark contrast to the active support both Biden and Hillary Clinton gave it in the Senate. And he also spoke out about the dangers of a rapidly expanding surveillance state. He even pledged to hold telecom companies responsible for warrantless wiretapping of their customers on behalf of the NSA…. Until he didn’t.”

“You offered us HOPE, but this sure isn’t it” 

Asked if now was really time to challenge the legacy of one of America’s most beloved and admired public figures, Woods says “I’m quite sure a lot of my friends will be cross, and equally sure that President Obama will be unbothered. But when we’re talking about ‘legacy’, Donald Trump and MAGA are Obama’s legacy. Let’s face it, the Affordable Care Act was really Nancy Pelosi’s achievement following the midterm election wipeout in 2010. And as someone who believes in social democracy and wants to see humanity, and the American experiment, survive and thrive, I think we’ve got to be willing to criticise our friends and allies, and not fall into the trap of feeling tribal loyalty overrides the need for independent thinking.”

“We were crying for Justice, and what did we get?
We got the same old shit.”

Much of the song focuses on the response to the 2008 financial crisis. “Yeah,” says Woods with a certain wry bemusement, “a rock song about banking. It seemed like a great idea at the time….”

“2008 we had a great debate, about whether to vote for HOPE or for hate.
You said you’d restore the American Dream if we gave you our vote,
But just what did that mean?
I think it meant the same old shit….”

“But seriously, as I watched the events of 2008 unfold, I got really nervous really fast. As someone who has spent a lot of time researching the music and art of the 1930s, I realised the social and political danger a financial crisis like that carried with it. Anyone with a passing knowledge of 20th C. history, which would certainly include a Harvard-educated president, could foresee that, without urgent intervention, America, where wealth inequality hadn been widening, and opportunities for the middle class had been dwindling for a generation, was fertile ground for the emergence of a modern day Mussolini or HItler. And that’s exactly what we got.”

“I’ll go to my grave saying that if one executive, even just one, from Goldman Sachs, Lehman or AIG had gone to prison, Trump would never have come to power. If Obama hadn’t left the Treasury staffed  with Goldman Sachs alumni, or had he not re-appointed Ben Bernanke, who, as Chair of the  Fed has allowed the events leading to the financial crisis to unfold without  resistance, we wouldn’t have Trump. The rich got richer, the poor got poorer, the middle class just got poor. Millions lost everything, and I think they had every right to be pissed. We got the same old shit.”

[ends]

 

S.O.S. (“The Same Old Shit”) By Ken Woods and the Electrick Reckoning
Ken Woods – Guitars and vocals

Joe Hoskin – Bass

Steve Roberts – drums

Sam Woods – backing vocals

 

American Catastrophe will  be released in early 2027

 

Words and music © 2012 Kenneth Woods
Recording ©2026 Kenneth Woods
Basic tracking at Fieldgate Studios, Wales
Additional recording and mixing at Andrew Road Music Room
Produced, edited, engineered and mixed by Ken Woods and Andrew Smillie

For additional information or to request an interview contact: news@kennethwoods.net
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Critical praise for “Eyes Shut” from American Catastrophe

 

“The track invites the listener to sing along, to share a moment of reflection rather than observe one from a distance, which is a structurally generous choice for a closing song on a record about decline. There is something in that generosity that feels deliberate and important, the recognition that music about catastrophe has to offer the listener somewhere to stand rather than simply overwhelming them with the evidence. Mourning and looking forward are both named as intentions by Woods, and the song manages to hold both without collapsing the tension between them into easy resolution. It mourns with its eyes eventually open, which is what the title promises and what the track delivers.” Apricot Magazine

 

“The song is, on its surface, devastatingly simple. A repeated phrase — “We kept our eyes shut” — becomes, over the course of its running time, a chant, a confession, an indictment and, finally, something approaching a funeral oration. The lyric functions through accumulation rather than revelation, stacking verse upon verse of collective abdication: poisoned wells, corrupted schools, arrested innocents, minds methodically dismantled. It is a catalogue of civilisational sleepwalking, and Woods delivers it with the controlled grief of a man who has been watching the slow disaster unfold for decades and has finally run out of patience with his own silence.” IndieDock