Local band Self-Checkout Renaissance goes on national tour

BY NYX CROOKS @voiceofnyx1

Louisiana punk group SelfCheckout Renaissance has been busy lately. It just finished its national tour where it went across the east coast on its “Neo-liberalism and the Damage Done Tour.”

It released a new single called “The Medical Gaze” while also working on a new album that will release March 3.

So, what is Self-Checkout Renaissance?

“Self-Checkout Renaissance is a band or rather a political party,” according to the group. “The name was originally a jab at the rise of automated shopping and everyone’s misplaced moral panic about machines replacing human workers. It sort of morphed into this idea that we’re heralding the rise of automation, in a sardonic way of course.”

In the local live music scene, the band is a legend of Baton Rouge and has regularly played in almost every venue around for years.

The latest single continues with a political theme. The song is a reference to the concept of the medical gaze that was first coined by the philosopher Michel Foucault.

“It refers to the idea that doctors and the medical industrial complex possess a power over your bodily autonomy and will use it to oppress people, more specifically marginalized peoples,” the group explained.

“Exploitation of marginalized bodies by the medical industrial complex is something that not too many bands are really discussing, so we felt the need to write about it.”

The song itself is a danceable bass driven punk beat with shouted, Foucalt-inspired vocals delivered over.

For the tour, the band was able to utilize a network across the nation of DIY networks through similar bands and venues across the country that follow the ideology of DIY music.

“We booked our tour purely by ourselves. The infrastructure is there for anyone to use. Don’t be afraid to do everything yourself,” the band said. “Drop out and start a band, or go to a school that actually cares about you and the women that attend it.”