Look, either I’ve watched too much cable news, read too much theory, or listened to too much cerebral music lately. But after listening to Suburban Drugs’ debut single “Daisies” and then their latest track “Gimme Money”, I can’t help but take away a distinct anti-capitalist message from the work of this Brooklyn three-piece.
On “Daisies”, which Suburban Drugs released last year, the classic emo sound gives the song a dirge quality, with vocalist Phillip Yancey singing in a powerfully mourning tone about losing everything. And on “Gimme Money” (which the band released last month), the tempo picks up and the band play with a bit more hardcore oomph, while Yancey croons about how financial support will allow him to never worry again, or – perhaps – to achieve some position of power.
What world is this, where monetary gain has become inseparable from mental stability? A healthy society would ensure its citizens receive an equal level of care, and can support themselves and have the basic necessities of life such as food, water, heat, and shelter, regardless of their financial status. Instead, we have generations of folks worried that they don’t have a future before their future’s even begun!
In the chorus of “Daisies”, for instance, Yancey waxes metaphorically when he sings: “I’m going crazy / Feeling like I’m losing my mind / Like I’m pushing up daisies / Long before it is my time.” If only he and his bandmates had the riches of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, David Ellison, Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, and the like! Those folks never seem to worry about any horrendous thing throughout the world, nor do they seem to care about what moral ills they cause or what consequences might befall them, because they have so much money!
Why has the world become so tuned to rewarding the rich and terrible while the rest of us must languish, no matter how hard we work or try to be good? Why has society decided that this is the way we must live, causing us to produce emotional and sarcastic works of art that confess our feelings? And why is it that when we do put these works out into the world, no one seems to want to listen?
Well, you’re going to listen to Suburban Drugs. Because perhaps you too feel like things are doomed, but if you had a little more money, you’d feel a little bit happier. And then we can all come together in a quest to lift up and support each other, with great rock music and also perhaps a scheme to siphon the wealth from the oligarchs who have messed everything up for us.
Take a listen to “Daisies” below.
Written by Will Sisskind
