The Evens are gearing up to release a new album, The Odds, later this month, but earlier today, singer and guitarist Ian MacKaye was doing what he presumably does every first Tuesday after the first Monday of November: voting. I spotted him in line at Bell Multicultural High School around 11:30 a.m. chatting with equally opinionated local music mainstay Head-Roc; an hour or so later, MacKaye was warning neighbors to opt for paper ballots, not electronic voting machines—owing to there only being one of the latter.

All of which is a reminder that 1) the first song from The Odds, “King of Kings,” is a satisfying, slightly aggro tweaking of The Evens’ stripped down agitprop pop; and 2) apparently quite a few people are writing in MacKaye on their ballots today.

Um, what?