Revival of a band's relevant 'Requiem'

Since the fight for racial justice doesn't have a formal expiration date, protest songs born in the heat of the moment need to feel durable, too.

Coup Sauvage and the Snips - the District sextet specializing in activist disco-punk - understands the paradox. Back in the summer of 2014, when the band decided to write "Requiem for a Mountaintop" in response to the police killing of Michael Brown, the song came together in a single afternoon. "It came from the gut," says vocalist Kristina Sauvage in a recent Zoom confab with her bandmates. "Our pain, our rage, our outrage, our sadness, our grief - we wanted to translate that into something celebratory."

Six years later, the band is technically on hiatus, but as friends, the members of Coup Sauvage are still very much together, still close, still supporting each other through a trying year. Appalled by the police killing of George Floyd in May, the group decided to commission a handful of remixes of "Requiem," with proceeds going to local and national racial justice groups.

The remixers transform "Requiem" into new shapes - Juana makes it bump and buzz; Arthur Loves Plastic makes it ooze and throb - but the song's vocal refrain still provides each remix with its burning core: "Hands up, don't shoot/No more strange fruit." In each version, that harmonized couplet feels as urgent, intense and necessary as it did six years ago. "We were hurt, we were mad and we were tired" back in 2014 says co-vocalist Rain Sauvage. "And we're [still tired] right now."

How does a band convert that exhaustion into energy? "That's what the House of Sauvage does," Kristina says. "We know how to tell stories that tell how we're feeling and set it to a banging, four-on-the-floor beat." Anyone who caught the group live in recent years surely remembers those rhythms, along with the group's commitment to girl-group harmonies, sparkling outfits and lyrics that spoke truth to power before it felt commonplace on social media - which took courage, right?

"It doesn't feel scary to sing about [problems] that are systemic," says co-vocalist Crystal Sauvage. And, Kristina adds, "You can say a lot of stuff when you're wearing a sequined jumpsuit."

"Requiem for a Mountaintop Remixes" by Coup Sauvage and the Snips is available now on Bandcamp.