Despite the crippling economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, musicians have continued to release songs, and record stores have continued to sell records. Detroit-raised rock guitarist, songwriter and vocalist, Mike Skill, who co-founded The Romantics over 40 years ago, still maintains a successful music career today. The celebrated rocker will release his new single, “’67 RiOT” as a limited edition 7” vinyl record on Record Store Day, Saturday, August 29, 2020. The vinyl will be available exclusively on Skill’s website at MikeSkill.com.

Skill invited fellow Detroit musician and legendary MC5 guitarist, Wayne Kramer, to perform the guitar solo on “‘67 RiOT”. Skill grew up listening to MC5 on vinyl records and has been a long-time fan of Kramer, who has been recognized by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the top 100 guitarists of all time. Skill felt it was natural to release “‘67 Riot” featuring Kramer on a 7” vinyl to honor the Detroit band he idolized.  He also had the record label art created in the same look and feel as past MC5 albums by Gary Grimshaw, the same artist who designed the MC5 label.

The song recalls the riots in Detroit during the summer of 1967. The riots took place as a series of confrontations over five days, a memory that stayed with Skill and compelled him to write a song about it 50 years later. He says, “I wrote the song from a sense of frustration that the city never came to the people after the riots to really address what happened; to look each other in the eye and say, ‘How can we repair this? How can we move forward?’ The wounds are still open today.”

On the B-side of “‘67 RiOT” will be “My Bad Pretty”, a song Skill released last June. Both songs were written and recorded by Skill and produced with Grammy Award-winning producer Chuck Alkazian (Soundgarden, Eminem) at Pearl Sound Studios in Detroit and Carver Studios in Oregon.

Mike Skill’s new single “’67 RiOT” is available now on Spotify, Apple Music and all other digital music platforms. Be sure to look for the single on  limited edition 7” vinyl, out on August 29, 2020, Record Store Day on MikeSkill.com.