Pandemic Playlists: Are We Going Out?

Special Interest

This week’s playlist is all about rage, specifically at the government, and how I’m dealing with it when I can’t dance and sweat with strangers.

I’ve been drawn to yelling lately. My sadness is boiling over into anger, and all I want, desperately, is to scream in a dark room with a bunch of sweaty strangers as a catharsis for government failure. But we can’t have that right now, so this is my mock version. 

The playlist starts with the opening track from Ho99o9’s new mixtape, Blurr. “Beneath the Earth’s Crust” begins with a news clip, and the anchor says, “When a form of music that our children like becomes linked with ghoulish images and violent theatrics, it demands our attention. Perhaps more to the point, the children need our attention. What are their common bonds? And as Stone Phillips asks, is there a message that may be too loud for us to hear?” It’s a song about trying to survive on this planet, under this government, and Ho99o9 screams through it.

The next song is “Rage” by Rico Nasty, a song that I listen to every time I’m angry. In the chorus she raps “I-I-I like bad bitches who be ragin’,” and her aggression in the song turns my rage from a frustrating noun to an empowering verb. After this is “All Tomorrow’s Carry” by Special Interest, a song about watching government failure with indifferent disconnect. They sing, “Oh well the city loves to test ya / Watch you fold under pressure / Have you questioning your basic needs,” then later ask, “But aren’t we going out tonight?” Special Interest is a New Orleans punk band, so their frustration feels especially prescient to me. I followed this with “And Breeding” by Priests. This is another go-to rage song, and I’ve been trying to put it on a playlist for years. The last lines of the song are, “Barack Obama killed something in me / Barack Obama killed something in me / And I’m gonna get him for it / I’m gonna get him for it” with the last line repeated until the song ends. 

I knew the playlist needed to calm down a bit after this chunk, so I included “I Need Help Immediately” by 100 gecs. It’s a short song, and it’s mostly just weird sound effects and an AutoTuned voice saying, “I need help immediately” in increasingly desperate tones. “living single” by JPEGMAFIA follows, and this is a sweet song that felt like a necessary break but still fit musically as a bridge. “Terrible Discovery” by Liza Anne is more singer-songwriterly, but it’s a song about being your own biggest obstacle, and it felt like there should be some grounding in the self when so much of the playlist is about external obstacles.

Next is “I’m So Tired” by jennylee, and this song feels like the lowest point of the playlist. Her voice sounds so exhausted as she sings “I’m So Tired” over and over. It feels like when you’re so depleted you can’t move your body to feed yourself or shower, all of your energy gone. To end this slower chapter, I included, “FUCK YOU HEATHER” by boyish, but by the end they scream, “Fuck you, Heather,” and the synths feel buoyant in the background. 

“BITE ME” by Kilo Kish comes next, and it shifts the tone back to anger. The beat is aggressive but fun, and on the chorus she sings, “Bite me, bite me / You can try me, try me / If you likey, likey / I don’t give a f-f-f-Ahh!” “Tired and Sick” by Otha is similar, a dance track that’s fed up. “Afterlife” by Flatbush Zombies is a pretty standard Flatbush Zombies song, by which I mean it’s easy to dance and rage to. 

The last song on the playlist is “Fancy” by Orville Peck, and I debated including it because it’s definitely the odd one out. It’s a country song, a cover of Reba McEntire’s “Fancy,” which is a cover of Bobby Gentry’s “Fancy,” but this cover is so brooding, and it sings of poverty and the sacrifices we make to get by. It takes systemic injustices and depicts them in a single character’s story. It puts a human face, and human feelings, to the ways the government fails its people and allows poverty to ravish communities and families. This is what scarcity and sacrifice looks like on an individual level. It felt like a necessary perspective and ending. 

I hope you listen to this and get angry. The government is failing us.