Various Artists

Take Action! Vol. 6

(Sub City)

Record Review by Alexis Roberts

The Take Action! Tour is down to its last couple of dates for this year, but luckily with every year of the tour, also comes a compilation CD. This year, the compilation is actually a three-disc set, complete with two CDs and a DVD full of music videos as well. This is the sixth volume of the Take Action comp. and it features the bands on the tour which are (among others) The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Emery, Scary Kids Scaring Kids, A Static Lullaby, and Kaddisfly (and if all sounds a little too “Hot Topic” that’s because it is partially sponsored by them). This a tour geared towards teens and young adults in hopes to make them aware of mental illness and depression and feel like there is support out there for them if they need it.

Part of what Take Action! is all about is spreading awareness through music that the aforementioned demographic likes and understands. Maybe we aren’t all into listening to scremo anymore, but we have to keep in mind that a lot of people are still very much into that type of music, and most of them are in the high school age range. So even if you scroll through the list of bands and songs in the CD and nothing strikes you enough to make you want to buy it, there might be someone in your life who likes that kind of music and would like to have a copy. Plus they have made it a point to make sure that it is easily accessible and for sale at a reasonable price (and I would say that $7.98 is more than fair). You are getting more than your money’s worth.

Sub City Records (a branch of Hopeless Records who pride themselves on the fact that they donate a certain percentage of album sales to a charity of the band’s choice) is once again releasing the compilation and donating 5% of the proceeds from each CD to the Youth America Hotline. This is a peer-to-peer counseling hotline for teens and young adults to call during times of crisis to just if they need someone to talk to.

Take Action! isn’t just about the awareness of mental illness and suicide amongst young adults. It is a tour created to make everyone more aware of their environment in hopes that they will want to help try and make a difference in any way that they can.