ROAD TRIP MUSIC

“I can’t turn off what turns me on…” 

Find a fun road trip playlist at the end of the post, for paid subscribers only….

This is a lyric from a St. Vincent's song called Masseduction. As in ‘mass seduction’. 

It is an appropriate introduction to this discussion about struggling with the ethics of enjoying music by people who are problematic, if not outright evil. 

I just got back from a road trip and I had promised my subscribers - my patient, summering readers - that I would share some of the road trip music that my 17-year-old twins and I enjoyed on our journey to Southwestern Colorado. 

Meteor shower music! Mountain road music! I had planned an upbeat, end of summer essay. Sorry. Not sorry.

I’ve decided to turn the essay into an advice column and to turn the advice column on its ass - because I need your advice, friends.

THE PLAYLIST

My son has a rocking playlist that he wanted to share with us on the road. But, while the three of us were all singing Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the top of our lungs there was a little me pitching a massive fit in the background: “This is so all fucking wrong!”

You see all of the Red Hot Chili Peppers were practically purveyors of date rape culture in the 90s. It wasn’t something I was aware of at the time. But there are videos, admissions by way of memoir, and full songs that detail illegal acts and heinous behavior. I knew none of this until about two years ago when I went to see them live at Mile High Stadium in Denver. 

Luckily Haim, who I didn’t know about, but the rest of the world did, and Thunder Cat both opened the show and they put on thrilling rock and roll performances. 

Back to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Anthony Keidis really creeped me out at that show and with a little background information from my partner about potentially very gross relationships, I decided to dig a little deeper.

PORNSTACHE

Turns out it isn’t just a porn mustache that was giving me the heebies. No shade on porn by the way. Well, no shade on most porn. It's just some of that facial hair is a real trigger. You know what it looks like? It looks like the most famous bad mustache in history. “Not a good look” doesn’t even cover it. But despicable facial hair isn’t enough for me to get on the cancel culture bandwagon. It did turn out to be a harbinger though.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have peppered their history with statutory rape, sexual assault (allegations), and terrible songs about “dating” underage women. Even Flea, who I always held in high regard for his incredible talent and post-90s-heroine-era-reformation, has a gnarly history and so far, no regrets that I am aware of. 

So what do I say to my son, and who do I replace the Red Hot Chili Peppers with?

My kid Max, he is already so immersed in my sex-positive, eco-feminist, anti-violence political activism lifestyle. You’ve really got to feel for that kid! On the road trip, I decided to keep my mouth shut while we all sang along in favor of connection and really good fun. But I am struggling with how to couch this. Because I don’t always like cancel culture too much. It has gone too far in some cases and not far enough in others. Can you tell me how to approach this conversation with him? I am really asking for advice.

However, I am fully prepared to offer a red hot alternative:

WHEN I WAS CRUEL

I give you, Elvis Costello and The Imposters. 

Elvis Costello doesn’t need me to tout his career or talent, but since I got back from the road trip I listened to the 2002 album “When I Was Cruel”, and I’ve had my pallet cleansed! Amen! 

On this 17th album, Costello continues with the genre-bending punk rock influenced badassery that he started out with in the 70s. The song 15 Petals is a great RHCP replacement. It has smarter lyrics than anything the Chili Peppers ever wrote and goes off in various half-crazy genre directions. For example, Dave’s Faragher’s bass on this song keeps up in parallel with a very funky guitar melody, all punctuated with a Ska adjacent horn section. 

CHOPS! 

Faragher, by the by, is also a great singer and one of the founding members of the 90s band Cracker. His harmonies add a lot to the whole vibe of The Imposters.

Costello’s literary lyrics, which stand out more in 15 Petals by starting and stopping at unexpected places in the rhythm, are dark, poetic, and just flat out weird sometimes. Plus there is a short jam toward the end that screams head-banging ecstasy, and gets punctuated with with wild hollers here and there:

Take that Red Hot Chili Peppers! 

Costello has made some mistakes in his career as well. For example, he got completely shitfaced and shouted racist slurs about some of his favorite musicians one night. And boy did he feel bad about that. But before he even got a chance to feel bad about it, he got beat up by a woman. 

Since then he has also done some real work, admitting to racism in a song lyric and striking the song, written in the 70s, from his setlist forever. So, I forgave him. Did I do the right thing?

LOLITA VIBES

This big question got me thinking about Sia and all the years I’ve enjoyed her astonishing music. I loved working with some of my older vocal music students who wanted to sing Chandelier. The song is a beehive of challenges and teaching opportunities because Sia can do one thing extremely well—she can SING. 

Chandelier is also widely known as an epic karaoke cover that forces loving friends to bend their cringing faces into supportive smiles whenever the doomed performance is finally over. Her massive hit Unstoppable has remained on the charts for years too, partly due to its overuse in TikTok memes.

Sia has been absolutely reviled in my circles for her ableist film “Music”. The film was released in 2021 and featured the non-autistic actress Maddy Ziegler in the lead role as an autistic woman called Music. 

And it gets worse. There are strange interviews with Sia that give me icky-grooming-vibes which is exactly what Sia has been accused of. Ziegler was a protegee of Sia’s and was 14 years old when this film first went into production. Interviews with Sia about her protegee illustrate an extremely intimate relationship with potentially inappropriate interactions. 

Lolita vibes, if you're asking me. And, I could be wrong.

But, the film…

MUSIC 

The worst part of the film portrays an awful scene in which the autistic child Music is restrained violently during an emotional episode or “meltdown”.  Restraint during a meltdown has been lethal in some cases involving autistic individuals. Even the very young Maddy Ziegler is rumored to have raised questions about portraying autism in this way during the film's production. 

Sia apologized and blah blah blah…nothing really happened. The movie got nominated for a few Academy Awards during what I assume had to be a very slow year.

Cut to 2024. Sia has been diagnosed with autism. 

Dear friends and readers, I don’t know what to think?  Our celebrity culture is an obscene sausage machine, churning out meat for consumption until we are all craving it to the point of sickness. Is this why I get addicted to music? Like Sia? I hope not. I think I get addicted to the memories songs bring back, to the time and place. To excellent songwriting and musicianship.

Sia’s music is good. But is that an argument for listening despite her terrible choices? Does her autism diagnosis excuse cruel and offensive depictions of autistic people? 

I don’t want to quit her, I’ll be honest. I love the 2008 track Girl You Lost to Cocaine on the “Some People Have Real Problems” album. I can’t turn it off!

I can’t turn off what turns me on!

I can however offer an alternative with confidence:  I give you St. Vincent.

ANNIE CLARK TO THE RESCUE

St. Vincent is Annie Clark and her band. They released their 7th album “All Born Screaming” in 2024. Annie Clark is a great mountain of talent - intelligence and genre expansive music included. St. Vincent appeals to my Gen X sensibilities mostly due to Annie Clark’s irreverent and angry guitar playing. I can’t get enough of that. She is a stormy songwriter too, with production experimentation being an overt quality on all her albums. 

St. Vincent's shows are known to be accessible and intimate while also making audience members feel like they are in a room with a certifiable rock star. She performed on her Masseduction tour in a hot pink latex bodysuit/g-string combo and wailed on her guitar solos while stomping pedals in her matching hot pink thigh-high latex spike heels. 

Try that, Red Hot Chili Peppers

I fell in love with St. Vincent in 2011 while listening to her third record “Strange Mercy”. She displays instrumental mastery - both on voice and guitar - combined with a quirky lyrical outlook that often veers into the sublime. Check out the singing she does while also playing a biting guitar-riff, followed by a guitar solo from the ether, on the song Cruel. 

Then check out this clip from Masseduction on her 2017 album of the same name which features the lyric I quoted at the beginning of this article: “I can’t turn off what turns me on…” 

I CAN’T TURN OFF WHAT TURNS ME ON

It isn’t near as poppy as Sia, and let's agree that is a good thing. You might notice the octave jump she hits during the chorus too - I wrote about that a few weeks ago.

So, what do you think? This is your friendly reminder that there is a whole huge world of music out there. Now, you tell me what your road trip music was this summer and I will share it with my kids when we have our big talk. Wish me luck! 

This has been Camille Brightsmith with Harmony and Havoc, on Substack.

Road trip playlist below, for paid subscribers only….let me know what I should add!!!