Alyssa Moore has had it with this bullshit. “Pam Bondi is the perfect example of a hyper-feminized authoritarian: Barbie-pink business suits mixed with state power. She’s charming; the message is horrifying. State violence is being rebranded as “safety.” Military is now called “task forces.” What is the task? It’s all a bit funny, until it isn’t.”
After the latest embarrassing press conference from the Attorney General, meant to spin the Safe Memphis Task Force into something resembling a success, Moore says she and the members of On & Ohn “sat down one night and wrote, rehearsed, and tracked a punk anthem within an hour or two. I threw a shitty guitar solo over it (every punk song needs a lead line, right?). Lehman and I cut out a hundred little pictures from old magazines and spent an afternoon shooting absurd footage, dressed up like Secret Service members and Bondi herself. It’s all unhinged and messy, just like the country that inspired it.”
Naturally, the song is called “Pam Bondi (Fascist Barbie)” and the video “is a satirical collage film built out of clippings from 1950s Better Homes & Gardens magazines, overlayed VHS grit effects, and the pastel-meets-neon colorings of a Barbie authoritarian fever dream. I wanted to mash together two versions of America: the fantasy of the perfect Barbie girl and the current political language of state power. Part scrap-book, part fever dream, part PSA gone wrong, this video channels the feeling of thumbing through a magazine where every image has a darker meaning.”
If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.