TGIF! Before diving into the weekend, just a quick reminder that jobs, rent, debts, the system that relies on these nefarious concepts—all of it is made up! You’ve probably either seen Fight Club or tried to navigate a healthcare portal, so I don’t need to explain this any further. Plus, Seattle grunge-punks Black Ends make a much more compelling point with regard to the inescapable trappings of a rotten society on their latest single, “Pretend 2 Be (Protect Me).” Continuing to define their self-described “gunk pop” sound with something that can really only be described as “gunk pop,” the track is both catchy and cathartic, playful and full of sobering truths.
“[‘Pretend 2 Be’ is] an anthem for the paranoid and the hopeless,” explains the band’s Nicolle Swims. “For the person who sees the world around them for what it is but can’t yet accept it. You notice the people around you putting on a face just to get through the day. Working—for what? Paying rent and debts—for what? What is this system we’ve made up? Why do we do these mundane things everyday when we only get so much time on this Earth? Everything seems fake. Constructed. We put on this front in order to not see the uncomfortable truths of life. Escapism and shoving feelings down is sometimes the easy way out. We pretend together. We all have to fake it every once in a while in order to get through this life undisturbed and unbothered, but at what cost?”
The track arrives ahead of the band’s debut album, Psychotic Spew, which follows a series of head-turning performances both in their local scene and abroad in the UK/Europe, including opening slots for Bikini Kill, Shannon & the Clams, Momma, SASAMI, and Pretty Girls Make Graves. Ahead of the new album’s release on October 11, check out Psychotic Spew below.
