Psychic Pebbles opens Something Holy with a noise like a human voice phasing left and right and a steel electric guitar meandering along between chords, playing a repetitive melody that trails off into our opening verse.
“Sick to my stomach/Lights Been Beset/Tectonic plates ripping/Sit down and Watch the sunset/We don’t know yet”
The soothing sound of Something Holy is quickly revealed to be nothing more than a sedative to take with the wild panic that comes from the realization that those in power are making their plans to capitulate to fascism clearer and clearer. Released on Bandcamp in the middle of a string of mass firings in many federal workplaces by current US President Donald Trump, the vocalist expresses a fear shared by many. The last verse of the opening stanza echoes a common attempt at assuaging such a fear (which, in practice, comes across more as dismissive): “Well, we don’t know what will happen next, maybe something will happen and we can be saved!”. (Or, just as likely, the verse is a reference to the denial of the DNC of a Trump victory, then of the impact of his administration.) The vocalist makes clear that the man behind the curtain has been spotted, that there is no returning to whatever patriotism had been instilled within them, and there remains only bitter disappointment for those who ostensibly oppose this bureaucratic coup d’état yet take little if any meaningful action to obstruct it and denounce all its core tenets.
Psychic Poppies’ vocalist suddenly punches our ears with the sources of their frustrations, forceful and angry with the opening word only for their voice to soften with each subsequent word:
“Flash/No Demanding/Or Supplying/Cash/In your overtime then”
The concepts of supply and demand, the main variables to consider when running a business in a capitalist economy, are invoked in a mocking critique of the economy in action. Labor is poorly
compensated, with a living wage unattainable as overtime pay is denied. The anger in the face of injustice withers into hopelessness against the systems exploiting the workers of the United States. The loss of the vocalist’s faith is reflected thus in the chorus:
“Listen to the Sound/Of Something Holy Dying/Too much smoke out there/Something Holy’s Dying”
In the United States, ever since I was born, American patriotism was seen as so essential to the social function of citizenship that any citizen who dared critique the symbol of our country was to fall under immediate suspicion. This was not to say one could not critique the political party on the opposite side of the aisle as themselves, yet the conflation of American patriotism with Islamophobia following the September 11th terrorist attacks of 2001 to the World Trade Center (or with racial segregation until it was ruled unconstitutional in 1954, though many continued/continue to consider this a core value of American patriotism, or with prejudice against Japanese-Americans during and following the Second World War, or with homophobia until the early 2010s—So on, so forth) led to the normalization of racism and prejudice under the guise of patriotism. It is masked by that claim, denying blind hatred for what it is and instead insisting those who feel empathy for others or defy arbitrary values deemed innate and immutable only by the most incurious are so far removed from their social duty as a citizen that they must be surveyed as potential terrorists (source to hyperlink:
https://www.advocate.com/politics/dhs-allows-surveillance-sexual-orientation). Those who grew up in privilege, be it straight, white, cis, male, able-bodied, neurotypical, what have you, have no reason to believe that the claim of equal opportunity on American soil is anything but the truth, with doubt only clinging as one removes each axis of potential privilege until you have turned this hypothetical believer in the “American Dream” into one who would sooner believe pigs can fly than any such nonsense.
“Running the tables/Circlin’ the bones/Wires & cables/No kings, no thrones/We’re one but all alone”
Psychic Poppies sets the scene that is not only currently unfolding in our government facilities being taken over, but has occurred many a time within a corporate setting: It’s all about the money, the “bones”, running the tables digitally to maximize shareholder and CEO profits and declare savings at the expense of the average federal worker’s livelihood. The fourth verse may very well refer to a recent declaration made by the White House’s social media account via AI Art and a quote from Donald Trump himself that he is a “king” (source to hyperlink: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/white-
house-post-trump-as-king/). The final verse again echoes the hopelessness of the average aimless American in the current moment, promised liberty and unity and given division and, should they suffer the unfortunate afflictions of not sharing every applicable demographic with the country’s president, violence and epistemic suppression.
The rhythm guitar’s steady strumming carries that swaying melody above steadily bumping drums. The lyrics make clear further complaints from Psychic Pebbles to capitulating federal representatives, asserting that their compliance keeps them from realizing a more worthwhile potential. When the chorus reprises, the vocalist is joined by a higher-pitched duet partner, highlighting poignant lyrics as the previous two stanzas repeat as a lament. All the while, the music’s melancholy lies in the dark, chromatic sound of its composition, hidden by instrumentation commonly associated with up-tempo rock or love ballads; I consider this a sonic metaphor for the lie of patriotism anyone with any sort of privilege in the United States hiding a dark underbelly of hatred and oppression beneath the universally appealing sound of entitlement by law to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The sound of that single guitar playing “one but all alone” meanders just as it had in the song’s introduction through dark and pained minor and dissonant chords into its conclusion settling like the dust after an explosion. This single likely takes the words right from many US American citizens’ mouths regarding the recent atrocities of the current Trump Administration. Though many who had been actively marginalized and discriminated against enough to know the propaganda of patriotism as a lie from a very young age are asking others what had taken them so long, there is a benefit to the privileged no longer being able to deny the pitiful state of our union: The chance something may be done to repair the damages done, perhaps dispose of a demonstrably flawed system, and perhaps even discover what social unity can truly accomplish.
Written by Alexei Lee
