Art d’Ecco has made a name for himself over the past decade with the wigs and makeup that tend to go hand-in-hand with a dedication to the traditions of new wave and glam rock—but on his new album Scheele’s Green, all of that gets tossed out the window for a bold new chapter of the project defined by art-rock (Art-rock?) riffs and an utter disdain for four men responsible for quickly tanking the quality of our day-to-day lives. The record takes its name from a rare shade of green that quickly became a status symbol for the 18th-century elite, who draped their homes and bodies in it before certain toxins within its pigments made them all sick. Turns out this type of on-the-nose symbolism isn’t necessarily exclusive to modern life!
The first single to arrive from the record is the epic seven-and-a-half minute “The Death of Indie,” which sees d’Ecco’s anti-big-tech screeds trade the spotlight with sax solos and other instrumental flourishes to drive his all-too-important message home. “It’s the sound of fear and anxiety,” the artist shares of the track, “about AI and the disruption and uncertainty that this technology has triggered as it infiltrates just about every facet of our daily lives, including the arts. It’s a song that confronts the gaslighting we’re all collectively experiencing at the hands of these technocratic psychos and CEOs who are in it for only themselves and their stakeholders—even if it means annihilating their constituents, plundering the earth’s resources beyond repair, and destroying society writ large.”
The song’s Taxi Driver–like music video directed by Loken Charon is a perfect visual representation of the contrast between high art and the low self-awareness of certain tech ghouls dead set on gutting our culture of such necessary human expression, with the songwriter’s wardrobe of T-shirts alone representing the type of unique creative voice we stand to lose with AI’s imminent takeover: William Faulkner, Lester Bangs, Tim Robinson. Intercut with d’Ecco’s inspiring training montage are scenes of what is essentially an IRL JibJab e-card featuring certain loathsome countenances boogieing to the thought of planting data centers in all of our backyards.
“Despite our philosophical differences, acquiring our Four Horsemen CEOs (Zuck, Bozo, Dipshit, and Altright) for this video took some convincing,” d’Eccos says (unclear who’s who in that list—I think “dipshit” and “alt-right” could easily apply to any of them). “I get it, they’re rich, and they’re busy. But after weeks of negotiating, our production team was able to assuage their concerns and get them to pull up and do what they do best: dance.”
Check out the video below, and pre-order Scheele’s Green here ahead of its October 23 release via Paper Bag Records.
