In about a week, New York based punk rock outfit Bad Mary will be releasing a brand new song, “It’s All Trash.” However, the band has just released the video for the track, so we’re going to be taking a bit of a look at both the song, and as well as the video. I personally love it when songs can have both a well-defined intent, story, and or meaning behind it, but can simultaneously be open for interpretation for the listener.
“It’s All Trash,” in my opinion is one of those songs that fits that description perfectly. For example, when it comes to things like consumerism. Say you’re browsing the cereal aisle and you see all these flashy bright and colorful boxes that immediately grabs your attention. You pick up one of the boxes and you see that it has zero nutritional value, and ingredients that are so absurd that when you read them out loud you’ll notice your furniture begins levitating. And just like the endless sea of boxes in that aisle, it’s all trash.
There’s many concepts and examples of this sort of meaning and philosophy, with metaphors dating back as far as the 16th century. One of the most well-known from back then, would eventually evolve into probably one of the most notorious idioms of today; ‘lipstick on a pig.’
But my personal favorite, and I can’t remember who said it, is “we’re all a bunch of fools, pretending to be professionals.” So this is one of those songs that’s easy to relate to, and has a clear defined meaning but, is also open to interpretation.
Musically, I absolutely love what Bad Mary has done with this track. Something you might notice right off the bat from the opening, is it has a bit of a Michael Jackson “Beat It,” influence,” fused with a touch of glam rock. This glam influence was prominent on the first line of the second verse, when Amanda just does that vocal key change which makes me think of Justin Hawkins with his singing style. It’s just chefs kiss perfection add a nice little nod to the genre.
Because after all, glam rock is all trash, and I don’t mean that in a negative way either. You have these over the top elaborate outfits with the thick makeup and big hair, and the trashy rock and roll lifestyle, but with some seriously infectious music.
Just like glam rock, trashy isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes you should embrace the trash. It’s wonderful to be flipping through the TV and come across something deep, meaningful, and thought provoking such as Lincoln, which showcases Daniel Day-Lewis at his best. But sometimes, either ironically or unironically, you just want to see Stephen Baldwins best work. Bio-dome.
The video represents this perfectly. One of my hobbies has always been urban exploration photography, and the setting for this video was done at an abandoned psychiatric center, so that’s something that immediately grabbed my attention.
Guitarist David Henderson mentioned that they had a guide for it, which is a good thing because exploring those places can be quite dangerous, and I know many creatives that have gotten injured. But it’s just Amanda exploring and dancing around and singing throughout the video, occasionally stumbling upon various band members spray painted as graffiti upon the walls. This was a neat and impressive effect.
Before they became animated, I had to do a bit of a double take as it did look like they were just painted on the walls. The video was very creatively shot, well edited, and I loved the concept. Plus it was very fitting with the song, with how Amanda was doing her make up, wearing this rad tutu, but dancing in an old, and destroyed building.
Bad Mary just seems to constantly provide an endless stream of entertaining content. They’re an incredible band, and it looks like they just have so much fun with everything they do. And now that the holiday season is upon us, I mean, it was just Halloween after all, so we must get started now, they’re soon going to be releasing an EP, “A Very Bad Christmas”. And on top of that, for early 2023, we’re going to have yet another EP from them with all new material, “Trash and Glamour.”
You can check out the song when it’s released on the 8th at the following link.
