Taken from the album Making a Door Less Open, which came out a few months ago, ‘Hollywood’ is about the perils of heading to L.A. to make it as an actor. Given that statistically there is more chance of winning the lottery than becoming a the next Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington or even Wes Bentley or Alexandra Daddario, fame can could be considered little more than a Snipe hunt. But with the potential rewards so high every year thousands of people still head there to roll the dice.
‘Hollywood’ is a superbly constructed jigsaw of dopamine hits; a louche journey that starts with fuzzed guitar that drops off a cliff to make way for a Valium-rap, whispered vocal lines, bell tings, low drones, loops, hooky chorus and a sudden end which features the hiss referenced to in the song. It’s a drunken walk through the neon landscape of Sunset Strip with your brain and legs refusing to talk to each other. Themes of paranoia, ego, blinkered small-time-in-the-big-time optimism and abuse are brilliantly captured in a set of lyrics (printed below) that appear like a cross between beat poetry and the cut-up technique favoured by the Dadaists and David Bowie. The accompanying video by Sabrina Nichols is a fine piece of work that vibrates with the unsettling nature of the song, and this is a song that is compelling to listen to even though the subject matter does make you think about having a shower after it finishes.
Review by Paul F Cook
Lyrics:
I’m sick of violence. Sick of money. Sick of drinking. Sick of drugs
Sick of fucking. Sick of staring at the ads on the bus
Hollywood makes me want to puke. Hollywood makes me want to puke
You’ve got a face that you think will last as long as the Sphinx
But the poster’s painted over in a week if it stinks
So let the people decide On a metro ride
Because everyone’s an artist but no one has the time yeah
Everywhere I go I’m oppressed by these energies
Like it yes I love it I hear music in my head
Was that a gun? Uhhh gamelan drum?
Are my earbuds on the fritz? There’s a hiss on the bus and it goes round
Hollywood makes me wanna puke
Faces form faces. Phrases come in phases
Take me to the palace. Make me think I’m famous
Okay hop inside (come see my movie)
hop inside (come see my movie)
You can’t disengage with one single aspect
Watching from the sidelines. Supervising lines
Why don’t you take what you can get, no disruptions on the set
You’re gonna wind up back home where the fear splits in two like Moses
Into Mansons and Monroeses, logic and hypnosis, good and evil
Only people, they don’t talk about the 12 year olds on pills waking up in beds of big producers, “I can make you famous I can make you something
don’t go back to Oklahoma what’s in Oklahoma?
You know this is not for public consumption
you know nothing this is nothing that’s our slogan
if you’re suffering if you’re hungry for something it’s nothing
don’t you watch the news or read the movies? You do? Me too”