A few months back we featured a rad house series “Bane Voice” and last week the curator, Jimmy Ikeda, dropped a new EP with his project The Michael Character. The EP Do Your Work is a punk collection that is in your face with anthems resolving around self-improvement and uncomfortable honesty. “I think a lot of songs that deal with recognizing one’s own personal shortcomings are spun in an unproductive, self-deprecating way that craves sympathy more than growth, so I tried to write songs that were more like “shit, I totally suck in all of these different ways, I’ve gotta work on this stuff,” Ikeda said.

Do Your Work was written solely by Ikeda and mixed by Benjamin Greer with help from a slew of local pals including John Muccino of River City Extension. The EP was recorded in part at the Bane Voice house to include that heart-warming home as the voices on tape are just the early birds who fatefully showed up to the show that night. Ikeda points out that everything about Do Your Work is a collaborative effort as numerous houses between Rockland and Allston were used as recording spaces and he would never have worked with Greer had they not shared a mutual friend.

Do Your Work is raw, angry, and yes, uncomfortable at times. From the get-go, Ikeda is screaming in your ears about his experiences growing up as a mixed race adolescent and referred to as “the asian friend” in casual exchanges. Ikeda bellows, ” Call your white friends, your ‘white friends’, or shut the fuck up.” Listen to Do Your Work below.