Tag: Les Savy Fav

Worker & Parasite Parody the Compliance Culture of Corporate Domination Under Late Capitalism in the New Wave Post-punk “The Silent Majority”

Worker & Parasite, photo courtesy the artists

Worker & Parasite uses the imagery of the corporate machine from clothing to visual design in the video for “The Silent Majority.” Its spiky guitar, eccentric anti-melodies and rhythmic accents reflect an awkward, robotic, conformist aspect of how we’re expected to be in the context of late capitalist economic arrangements where your aspirations are all but dictated to you and your horizons defined by what the corporate world has decided fits into its programme. Musically fans of stuff like Devo, The Fall, The Mathematicians and Les Savy Fav will appreciate the surreal and socially critical aspect of the song and video as well as the clear songwriting and performance chops channeled into a whole creative expression of the kinds of thoughts and feelings those of us who have been subject to the strictures of corporate culture know to well, which is to say most of us. Watch the video for “The Silent Majority” on YouTube and follow Worker & Parasite at the links provided.

Worker & Parasite on TikTok

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Worker & Parasite on Twitter

Worker & Parasite on Bandcamp

Worker & Parasite on Instagram

Carley Sunn Eviscerates Power Tripping Narcissists on “How Many Horses Do You Have?”

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Carley Sunn “How Many Horses Do You Have?” cover (cropped)

“How Many Horses Do You Have?” finds Carley Sunn dipping into a glimmering, bass and synth driven 80s-era synth pop/new wave post-punk sound, like maybe the songwriter was taking in a lot of The Sound’s middle era, Sparks and early Wall of Voodoo. Maybe Sunn was into Echoes period The Rapture too or Les Savy Fav. What gives the song an interesting dichotomy is like all of those bands there’s the bright, melodic atmospheric element paired with an emotional intensity to the vocals. The story of the song is about a power tripping hypocrite who seems to have taken all his manufactured success symbols of proof for his validity as an authority figure. “How many damsels have you saved? How many pirates have you killed?” the vocalist asks in mockery of the faux heroics and the title of the song taking that dig even further. One only imagines the exact inspiration behind the song but we’ve all been in situations where someone in our lives seems to have so much power over us for a while, always entirely too long, and they seem to get a thrill out of their ability to control us and manipulate us thinking we don’t see through them and that their power will last forever when it never does. Listen to “How Many Horses Do You Have?” on Spotify and follow Carley Sunn on Instagram.