The new single by the Oklahoma City band LESS LOVE is uncomfortable and it is sad. It is a reminder that racial equality is still not in our grasp. However, LESS LOVE’s mission is not to make you cry. With their new single Snow White Trash (Trump’s Americans) the band is inviting you to get angry. Get angry and take action.
In 1954 Oklahoma troubadour Woody Guthrie wrote the song “Old Man Trump” about his then landlord Fred Trump: the father to the 45th U.S. President Donald Trump. In that song, Guthrie wrote, “Old Man Trump knows just how much racial hate he stirred up in the blood-pot of human hearts…” It is a bleak reminder of how little things have changed in sixty-six years.
While the tradition of Trumps fostering racial division continues so does the tradition of Oklahomans protesting the process. Unlike Guthrie’s one voice one guitar approach LESS LOVE’s single Snow White Trash (Trump’s Americans) is an orchestra of angry noise rock and racial slurs. The words are full of hate. Despite that people don’t seem to mind.
“The only complaints I have received have been from Trump supporters angry that I called them white trash,” says LESS LOVE’s singer Sky Mac. “Not a single one has complained that I called them racists. Trump is powerless without his supporters. If you support him you support racism. You are trash, though maybe not all white.”
The song is currently receiving Top 40 airplay in countries south of the Texas border including Mexico, Venezuela, Columbia, and Panama. A surprising accomplishment considering the music is loud distorted droning noises accompanied by fuzz heavy guitar riffs. The style was Top 40 in 1991 maybe but not exactly what you would expect to hear sandwiched between Harry Styles and The Weeknd.
The lyrics disturbingly convey the anger of the song. There is no tippy-toeing around this. LESS LOVE is singing that the cause of the problem is clear. They blame Trump’s supporters.
Sky explains, “in 2012 Princeton University proved that the U.S. is an Oligarchy, not a democracy. Americans want to believe they live in a democracy. Based on that fallacy, they want to believe if a person is elected President then he must deserve it. The continuation of that inaccurate train of thought is the belief that if he says Mexicans are going to rape and kill you then he is basing that on statistical facts. Trump is a moron elected by morons. Now, with the president leading the way, those morons think it is finally safe to say how they really feel about their minority neighbors. The uncomfortable truth Trump has shown us is that while he will eventually be gone, we now clearly see which of our friends and family are nothing more than uneducated bullies.”
It is impossible to ignore the message but this song is so much more than the protest. Snow White Trash (Trump’s Americans) is a welcome return to the days of riff-oriented guitar rock. Nothing fancy, no showing off, Snow White Trash focuses on just the hooks. With Sky Mac playing the main riff underneath the lead guitar work of Chavez Solis this song is a desperately needed break from the keyboard style of modern rock and the exhaustingly hollow fruitlessness of metal music. I can’t recommend the explicit version of the song in good conscience but I do highly recommend that you listen to the radio edit. It will shake your mind free.
Oklahoma proudly acknowledges that it is “The home of Woody Guthrie” while also being a devoutly a Red State. Clearly, they are willing to hitch their wagons to any cause they think can benefit them with little to no true devotion. Woody would not approve. I think it is safe to assume he would, at least, be very proud of his fellow Okies in the band LESS LOVE.
OFFICIAL LINKS:
https://twitter.com/lesslovemusic
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