Ben Wolfgang started the idea for the song during our very first jams. We were having a discussion about overbearing government authority and Bloomberg's 16 oz soda limit for NYC came up as the totally outrageous example yet the stark reality of where our country is headed. We discussed a working title of '17 ozs of Freedom' as in, "We got 1 more oz than allowed by your crazy law, what are you gonna do about it ?!"

Mike Eudy, our drummer, said "Lets go rock out a song with that idea as the theme." We went into our noise lab, layed down some angry rock goodness, screamed some primitive lyrics and we jammed out the basic structure for the song. Afterwards, Ben ran with the idea, wrote up the full lyrics and it became a The Thiefs tune. In the second verse, Ben clearly expresses our protest and defiance along with foreshadowing a pretty comedic predicament that awaits the citizens of NY:

And now we are on the battle lines,
All for a little lemon-lime,
We'll send a chill right up your spine,
When we pop the top and commit a crime...

Matty Bryson, Bass Player for The Thiefs, and iReporter