CONCUSSA’s “tabula rasa” gives political anger the form of a hard rock fantasy about total destruction. Luke Lotardo wrote the first verse as a poem after ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis in January 2026. He later developed it with Caroline Jamison, building a song around the desire to wipe the slate clean when the world seems beyond repair.
The lyrics grew from that initial response into what Lotardo calls an anger-fantasy, a descent into global oblivion. The heavier arrangement marks a change for the Brooklyn duo, who previously worked with a more restrained trip-pop approach. Here, Rafe Cohan, known for his electronic project White Cliffs and his work as a rock producer, helped shape the instrumental. The result brings the band’s atmospheric sound into harder territory without leaving it behind.
The title means “blank slate,” but the song gives that idea a destructive meaning. CONCUSSA imagines starting over through the collapse of everything that exists. The accompanying VHS-style video, filmed at Brooklyn’s Lucky 13 Saloon, extends the track’s shift towards a rawer rock setting.
