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\n\tTom Waits<\/a>\u2018 first new original music in 15 years is \u201cBoots on the Ground,\u201d a vividly gruesome indictment of wars both foreign and domestic that he recorded with Massive Attack<\/a> (for their first new music since 2020). He condemns soldiers pursuing people perceived as \u201cBrown, mean and young, dumb and full of cum,\u201d and he reserves special ire for the senators who deploy them. \u201cNow who the hell are these federal pricks? \u2026 air-conditioned fuckstick loafers, sittin\u2019 in a room full of army posters,\u201d he asks about midway through the song, which lopes along at a bluesy pace with Massive Attack\u2019s signature pensive atmospherics. It all leads to the haunting refrain, \u201cBoots on the ground, boots on the ground.\u201d Waits\u2019 son Casey is also featured as a vocalist on the song.<\/p>\n \n\tThe song arrived on streaming platforms Thursday, accompanied by a music video that Massive Attack created, which displays pictures by a U.S. photo artist called thefinaleye. \u201cThis montage work portrays a momentous American epoch that is yet to be named, and comes in the aftermath of the largest public protests in American history \u2014 focused on opposition to ICE raids, the militarisation of domestic forces, and state authoritarianism,\u201d says the video\u2019s description, which includes links to various U.S. organizations that aid immigrants. The song will later be released as a 12-inch, available for preorder<\/a>, with \u201cBoots on the Ground\u201d on one side and a spoken-word piece by Waits, \u201cThe Fly,\u201d on the other. Proceeds from the 12-inch will benefit the ACLU <\/a>and the Immigrant Defense Project<\/a>.<\/p>\n