Hear Pussy Riot, Dave Sitek Condemn Corruption on ‘Bad Apples’
Pussy Riot take aim at abuses of power in “Bad Apples,” a ferociously minimal electronic track released Thursday.
The band worked on “Bad Apples” with TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek, who helped concoct an electro punk-rap track that could have come out in 1986. Programmed drums clatter and smash next to distorted electric guitar, as the group sing thinly veiled threats addressed to “killer cops” and others who are “drunk on power”: “Bad apples are good for something – when they’re six feet underground.”
Pussy Riot released their song along with a statement that serves as a call to action. “Hope you are not going to like our new track, since it’s dedicated to really disgusting things,” the band wrote. “Hope you will turn it off, go out and act.”
They also subtly rebuked artists who prefer to write songs “circling around romantic feelings and Friday parties,” ticking off a series of topics they believe should appear more frequently in pop music like climate change, gun control and sexism. “We’re forced to experience [state violence] and think about [it] every day,” the group added. “That’s why almost all our our tracks are about bad apples.”
Pussy Riot are on tour in the U.S. throughout March.