Philly rockers Low Cut Connie describe an America where people "disappear" in their first new song of the year.
The band's protest ballad "Livin in the USA" is a clear reaction to the second Trump administration, though the president is never mentioned. Frontman Adam Weiner alludes to ongoing mass deportations through lyrics about parents "screamin' at midnight, don't you take my child away" and praying that "children have a chance to stay." He also sings about yes men insulating an unnamed figure who makes people vanish.
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"You can pay some people to tell you what you want to hear," the track continues. "Get a good lawyer, gonna make 'em all disappear."
Weiner said the mournful song was inspired by his experiences touring the United States over the past six months.
"I’ve been traveling across this country for many years, and I've never seen so many people terrified of the future," he said in a release. "People are looking at each other sideways, not knowing who is good, who is bad, and who might jump out of the shadows. It reminds me of the feeling of being a child on Halloween — the seasons are changing, it's getting darker, and you don't know who is lurking. I wanted to capture these feelings of sadness and disorientation in 'Livin in the USA.'"
The band's withdrawal from a planned Kennedy Center concert also informed the single. Low Cut Connie made headlines earlier this year for canceling a show in response to President Donald Trump's takeover of the Washington, D.C., performing arts center. In February, Trump fired multiple board members for the Kennedy Center and installed his own appointees. They later elected him chairman. Several entertainers, including Low Cut Connie, cut ties with the venue in protest.
"Arts institutions are one area that should be immune from our corrosive political culture," Weiner wrote in a statement shared Feb. 13. "I sincerely wish the Kennedy Center to return to a non-partisan community-building model of arts programming. Until that occurs, I won't perform there."
Check out the lyric video for "Livin in the USA" below:
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