After the success of their single and video, Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, Aussie punks, Picket Palace, have been criticized for selling out to the mainstream, and since then the band has been very vocal and creative based on that notion.
Their immediately previous single, No Fun Intended, picked up a little on the idea, and the title of their 2019 six-song release, The Footy Record, can also be considered a connection to the viral track's appeal. New song, All About The Money, plays more with the idea of the band betraying their punk rock ethos for money.
"I reckon it’s fucking funny as that people were calling us 'sell outs' on social media...like, dude I’d love to sell out, rent’s fucked where I live, I’ll write you whatever song you want for a new oven," jokes frontman Seamus.
"We thought it was hilarious to imagine a version of ourselves who had been so excited about getting our stupid faces on the stupid telly that we would suddenly throw away all our integrity and sell off our creative freedom to become celebrities and make ridiculous demands about jetskis. That was what made us laugh the most when we were throwing ideas around, the idea of a band who are desperate to sell out but no one’s buying," says the band's own, Jack O’Connell.
The band also take the opportunity to comment on the assumption that only the privileged can pursue their artistic aspirations, because "the poor can't afford to work for free."
"The disdain our government shows for art and artists is disgracefully narrowminded, and the impact on our friends in the industry is only getting worse in the COVID era, so it’s important to me that we get to put this track out there as a ‘fuck you’ to the people who decided the Arts ministry mattered so little that it should be consumed by the department of fucking transport," Jack adds.
Up to par with the energetic sound of their previous accomplishments, Picket Palace's now offering suggest a band which continues building a body of work composed of wit and radicalness, and showing a kind of punk rock resolution which doesn't come with an expiration date.
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