Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir Streams Full Album

The Earth Wants YOU, the humor-gospel-punk album by Reverend Billy and The Stop Shopping Choir, is officially streaming in full via Elmore Magazine's website. After releasing the dynamic video for "Fabulous Bad Weather" and playing a floor-shaking release show at Brooklyn's Market Hotel, the album from the 30+ member choir is ready for release. In addition to the stream, preorders for the album are now available on Bandcamp, and the full album will be available for purchase this Friday - Earth Day - via all digital streaming platforms.

Directed by Savitri D. and led by music director Nehemiah Luckett, this radical performance community, sometimes called "The Church of Stop Shopping," serves up its angry defense of the Earth. You can feel their arrest-risking work in the streets in this powerful gospel-tinged album. For the better part of the 21st century, they have spread their message, from Occupy Wall Street to the St. Louis offices of Monsanto (and the police station in nearby Ferguson, Missouri) to the stage at Joe's Pub at the Public Theater in New York, and out into arenas opening for Neil Young.

That a record filled with anthems of dissent manages to also sound joyous is perhaps The Earth Wants YOU's biggest charm. It succeeds not just as a document of a movement or as a kind of tool for activism, but also as a glorious, sprawling and truly inspired piece of music - fleshed out with a full band, a horn section, and a kaleidoscope of voices, including alto star Gina Figueroa who won a Grammy Award this year for co-writing best R&B song, "Really Love," with D'Angelo.

For a taste of the "punk gospel", Reverend Billy will be performing alongside The Fiery Eagles of Justice (a three-piece improv jazz band) at select readings and at the upcoming New York City show on May 10 at Joe's Pub. Preorder the "punk gospel" album via Bandcamp now, and preorder the book of the same title via City Lights Publishers. Both will be available for purchase this Friday, April 22, and make sure to catch the Reverend on tour now through May 26.

Catch Reverend Billy on The Earth Wants YOU Book Tour:
April 20 - San Francisco, CA - City Lights Bookstore
April 21 - Berkeley, CA - Moe's Books
April 22 - Oakland, CA - Laurel Books
April 23 - Point Reyes Station, CA - Point Reyes Books
April 25 - Sebastopol, CA - Many Rivers Books & Tea
April 26 -Mendocino, CA - Gallery Bookshop
April 27 - Arcata, CA - Northtown Books
April 28 - Ashland, OR - Bloomsbury Books
April 29 - Cottage Grove, OR - The Axe and Fiddle/Kalapuya Books
May 1 - Portland, OR - Powell's City of Books
May 2 - Olympia, WA - Obsidian Café
May 3 - Tacoma, WA - King's Bookstore
May 4 - Seattle, WA - Elliott Bay
May 5 - Bellingham, WA - Village Books
May 6 - Vancouver, BC - Banyen Books & Sound
May 10 - New York City, NY - Joe's Pub *
May 17 - Brooklyn, NY - Community Bookstore
May 18 - Brunswick, ME - Gulf of Maine Bookstore
May 19 - Brattleboro, VT - Everyone's Bookstore
May 20 - Manchester, VT - Northshire Bookstore
May 23 - Philadelphia, PA - Moonstone Arts Center *
May 24 - Baltimore, MD - American Visionary Art Museum *
May 25 - Washington DC - Busboys and Poets *
May 26 - Richmond, VA - Fountain Books *
* = with band (The Fiery Eagles of Justice)