Plutocracy Planet is a “super-collective” led by Alarm Magazine editor and musician Scott Morrow, and their upcoming self-titled album is loaded with impressive guests, including Braid’s Bob Nanna, American Football’s Mike Kinsella, The Get Up Kids’ Matt Pryor, Far/onelinedrawing’s Jonah Matranga, Protest the Hero’s Rody Walker, Emily Jane White, The Callous Daoboys’ Carson Pace, Spitalfield’s Mark Rose, Yakuza’s Bruce Lamont, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum members Nils Frykdahl & Carla Kihlstedt, The Dillinger Escape Plan bassist Liam Wilson, The Sound of Animals Fighting live bassist Jonathan Hischke, Secret Chiefs 3 contributors Jason Schimmel & Adam Stacey, and more. Mark Rose also produced the album.
According to a press release, “Greed, inequality, and the endless influence of money in politics serve as the project’s thematic focal points. But between a broad-minded approach and a coalition of lyrical voices, the collective’s forthcoming debut LP also touches on the cult of personality, fear-mongering media, police brutality, toxic masculinity, religious zealotry, factory farming, and the billionaire space race.”
We’re premiering the song with Bob Nanna, “This Very Severity,” an electro-post-hardcore song with a video starring Bob that very much taps into the sci-fi paranoia of it all.
“Working on the song was a bit cathartic for me, dealing with the massive amount of disturbing data we were all forced to consume from our homes in 2020,” Bob says. “I felt like it took a major toll on our collective mental health, so being able to proclaim that I see it, it’s wrong, and I’m processing it like everyone else felt like necessary relief. Not much has changed, sadly, so it’s quite evergreen.”
“It was fun to be in the video as well,” he adds, “playing a diabolical newscaster. I haven’t done many music videos, so it’s always nice to get to show your face once in a while.”
Scott says, “Bob is fantastic with wordplay, and his subject matter for the song felt like the perfect ‘proof of concept’ for the first single. I love that he emphasized the recurrent nature of conmen and political bullshit, so I figured that a good concept for the video was Bob delivering the fucked-up news of the day while riffing on the sensationalistic, corporate, echo-chamber nature of modern news media. My favorite part of making the video actually was coming up with the fake headlines.”
Check it out below. The album comes out July 12.
Tracklist
1. Prologue
2. This Very Severity (f. Bob Nanna)
3. But You Said (f. onelinedrawing)
4. A Simple Refrain (f. Matt Pryor, Mike Kinsella &
Swamburger)
5. Commence Mutation (f. Carson Pace)
6.Slaughterhouse Soliloquy (f. Swamburger & Drumcorps)
7. War? (f. Rody Walker)
8.True Crime (f. Angela Mullenhour)
9. Hours and Hours (Work Harder, Not Smarter) (f. Mark Rose)
10.Dance of the Downtrodden (f. Carla Kihlstedt, Nils Frykdahl & Jørgen Munkeby)
11. Remain Silent (f. Emily Jane White, Blueprint & Bruce Lamont)
12. Epilogue
Full List of Contributors
Bob Nanna (Braid, Hey Mercedes, Lifted Bells)
Jonah Matranga (onelinedrawing, Far, Gratitude)
Matt Pryor (The Get-Up Kids, The New Amsterdams, Radar State)
Mike Kinsella (American Football, Owen, Cap’n Jazz)
Liam Wilson (The Dillinger Escape Plan, Azusa)
Rody Walker (Protest the Hero)
Carson Pace (The Callous Daoboys)
Emily Jane White
Mark Rose (Spitalfield)
Swamburger (Solillaquists of Sound, Mugs & Pockets)
Blueprint (Soul Position, Greenhouse)
Jørgen Munkeby (Shining)
Carla Kihlstedt (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Tin Hat Trio)
Nils Frykdahl (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Faun Fables, Idiot Flesh)
Aaron Spectre (Drumcorps)
Bruce Lamont (Yakuza, Masonic Wave)
Angela Mullenhour (Sybris, Touched by Ghoul, Pink Frost)
Anton Patzner (Emily Jane White, Foxtails Brigade, Judgement Day)
Jonathan Hischke (The Sound of Animals Fighting, Hella, Anywhere)
Jason Schimmel (Secret Chiefs 3, Estradasphere, Red Fiction)
Adam Stacey (Igorrr, Secret Chiefs 3, Estradasphere)
Jason Zdora (HeWhoCorrupts)
Leyla I. Royale (Chicago Street Strings)
