L.A. Sagne – I Paint Walls
Just do a quick Google search! You won’t have to seek too long to find an assortment of famous artists, most of them from the U.S., using any and all opportunities to tell the public that being famous and rich isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Then, if you’re not convinced, just click on the life story of some of the people who thought that they could game the system and ended up perishing young because of all the wealth and fame that they’d accumulated. Truly tragic!
Still not convinced? Well, of course, you won’t be. Not fully. Everyone’s seeking their own opportunity to get so successful that they can later complain about it. And, as L.A. Sagne has very cleverly figured out, nobody’s about to come clean about their intentions.
L.A. Sagne’s “I Paint Walls” is a brilliant punk song about our objectives and all of the things that we do either to screw those up or to distract us from the disappointment of never reaching them. “I Paint Walls” is the equivalent of your friend saying, “The band isn’t working out, because everyone in the music industry is part of a big conspiracy.” Then again, I did see a couple of guys in suits trying to get their lizard tails to fit back in their trousers the other day. Forget I said anything, but remember that L.A. Sagne’s new single is fantastic.
Slow Death – Illusion of Agency
One of the most entertaining and bizarre things that you are likely to witness in our modern world is pop stars trying to blend in, to appear as if they’re just like everyone else, to let fans know that anyone, really, could’ve been in their position.
And the media landscape is tailor-made for these kinds of tall tales. Instead of talking about the favourite pony that they had growing up, they’ll tell you they were bullied in private school. Instead of complaining about the price of kerosene making private flights more expensive, they’ll learn some joke about changing tyres that their publicist taught them before the interview. And, of course, instead of telling audiences that they hope their product will stream/buy millions of times, they’ll look into the camera and murmur: “I wonder if anyone’s going to like this.”
Be suspicious of any modern songs that are too optimistic! Real, working musicians have very few reasons to smile. Bands like Slow Death follow their dreams by dragging heavy equipment around in freezing rehearsal rooms and trying to spread the word out on the internet.
And, because the world tends to get a bit miserable-looking come the winter months, at least, in most parts of this planet, “Illusion of Agency” is a fitting anthem. It’s a song about feeling powerless, about general conditions worsening, and about fighting your way through it when you’d rather just give up. It’s wonderfully bleak and, clearly, not written in an expensive-to-rent New York studio. To boot, it’s a mighty catchy alt-rock jingle.
