In all geographical reality, the political existence of Israel and the United States is fairly analogous to the trajectory of Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein: both went on far too long committing crimes against humanity before they were caught, and both built illustrious careers based on power, intimidation, and lots and lots of money. So why should it come as any surprise that this kind of debauchery would slide down the slime-covered slopes of humanity? On “Libertines”, New York City quartet Foreign Body wallow in the debauchery of modern America, one built on the seediness and post-punk glory of the late ’70s and ’80s, the festering fetal pulse of today’s Idiocracy.
Like genocidal states and power-hungry sex offenders, the single is abrasive, violent, and ugly. ‘Buying prostitutes and an easy exchange of meat,’ is how the band describes the tune, a two-chord jab and cross to an already bloody kidney. ‘An ode to those who traffic in human lives at all levels and rungs of existence‘ the band continues. “Libertines” operates in the realm of Jesus Lizard and Flipper, a psychedelic overdose on wasted testosterone, a murmuration of incels and alphas. Satire at its most ugly, the work of Foreign Body wallows in making the less than genuine clutching of pearls look like we’re turning humanity inside out. Pretending the shit-stained, guts-exposed mess of living flesh this world has become is anything less than real is a disservice to us all.
But I digress, and those of us at Everything Is Noise, while collectively shaking our fists at the sky, really come in the service of rock and roll, and Foreign Body understands what it means to take the hit full force to the gut. If guitars, drums and bass were fists, the New York City band would have us all black and blue.
Their new lyric video for “Libertines”, being premiered by EIN today, is just as nasty and brutal as the song itself. The band relishes in the industrial wastelands of giants like Big Black and the Butthole Surfers, a retrospective look at a time that laid the primordial ooze for today’s bacteria ridden reflection pools. Vocalist Hugh Potter slinks his way through the sludge with the animated intensity of a young David Yow, an ever escalating plunge into sexual anguish. With straight pins, tongues, box-cutters and newspapers splattered in blood, the song puts a stranglehold on the listener, and the visuals seem to magnify the stupefying primal energy of the music.
Being released on the adventurous Philadelphia label Brutal Panda, “Libertines” will be part of the band’s new album Libertine set to launch on September 11th. If the band’s latest single is any indication, Libertine will be a collection of bruised, battered and beaten tunes that show the world for what it is: a pretty shitty place to be, but with a kick-ass soundtrack. Follow the band on Instagram and check out their Bandcamp to pre-order Libertine now.
