Open Mike Eagle says that Americans are “all in a zombie movie” in the video to Brick Body Kids Still Daydream single “Happy Wasteland Day,” a not-so-subtle rebuke of current United States President Donald Trump. Over a melancholy, guitar-driven beat produced by Exile, Mike laments the current state of affairs in the Republic and imagines a world completely devastated by the whims of a would-be dictator obsessed with his own entertainment over the concerns of the people he governs.
The Ryan Calavano-directed, Mad Max-inspired video takes place in a blasted desert trailer park, where the residents put on staged dramas for the amusement of their “Garbage King,” who watches them through a cardboard cutout of TV screen and judges their performances harshly. The results turn out to be deadly for one player, who loses a phony duel and ends up on the receiving end of a real bullet, courtesy of the Garbage King’s hulking henchman.
In case the metaphor was lost on any potential viewers, Mike makes it a point to put any speculation to rest in the video’s Youtube caption, writing, “We’re releasing this video a year to the day of the election of the garbage king. May our national nightmare end sometime soon.”
