Protest Song Of The Week: 'Capital' By Amyl and the Sniffers
The intersection of music and protest at the Glastonbury Music Festival sparked a frenzy last week, with Kneecap and Bob Vylan receiving the bulk of the attention. But at least a dozen artists used the platform that they had to express solidarity with Palestinians and oppose Israel’s Western-backed genocide in Gaza.
Irish singer-songwriter CMAT, Irish musician Elijah Hewson (son of U2’s Bono), Nigerian musician Seun Kuti (son of Fela Kuti), American electronic musician Marc Rebillet, British singer-songwriter Nadine Shah, British musician Jordan Stephens, Irish band Sprints, English singer Jade Thirlwall, American hardcore punk band Turnstile, British rock band Wolf Alice, London-born singer-songwriter Nilüfer Yanya all spoke out.
So did Amyl and the Sniffers, a punk rock band from Melbourne, Australia, led by vocalist Amy Taylor.
Amyl and the Sniffers was one of the few acts to also explicitly show solidarity with Kneecap and Bob Vylan after authorities announced investigations into their performances and the head of the BBC condemned the musicians.
“The British media [is] in a frenzy about Bob Vylan and Kneecap but artists all weekend at Glastonbury from pop to rock to rap to punk to DJs spoke up onstage and there were ton[s] of flags on every streamed set,” the band stated.
The band said the British media was “trying to make it look like just a couple of isolated incidents and a couple of ‘bad bands’ so it appears the public isn’t as anti-genocide as it is, and trying to make it look like Bob [Vylan] and Kneecap are one-offs, instead of that the status quo has shifted majorly and that people are concerned and desperate for our governments to listen."
“And if you don’t want politics in music don’t blame the musician[s]. [B]lame the politicians and journalists, and the political landscape in general, for not doing their job. [T]here’ll just be more and more of it until it stops,” the band concluded.
To celebrate this righteous defense of protest music, and musicians voicing their dissent, this week’s featured song comes from Amyl and the Sniffers’ 2021 album “Comfort to Me,” and it’s called “Capital.”
“Comfort to me, what does that even mean? What reason do we persevere? Existing for the sake of existing, meaning disappears,” Taylor shouts in the opening verse. By the second verse, she mentions climate disruption. “Australia is burning. But ayy, I’m not learning how to be more conscious.”
In the chorus, Taylor sings, “It’s just for capital. Am I an animal? And do I care at all? Capital, capital. I’m just an animal.”
The song is powered by a Motörhead-influenced guitar riff played by Dec Martens. Over two minutes and forty-five seconds, Taylor confronts the pull toward nihilism in an industry where it is all too easy to disown one’s humanity.
Ultimately, musicians have to speak out or they’re just for capital.
Listen to “Capital” by Amyl and the Sniffers. (Full album available on Bandcamp.)
Another very apt Protest Song of the Week, Kevin. Amy spoke out very eloquently at Glastonbury, as did many other artists, as you note, while the media and politicians tried to shift the focus solely onto Bob Vylan, after he usurped Kneecap as Public Enemy No. 1 with what, basically, was an expression of support for armed resistance to the genocide-committing Israeli army. As always, the Palestinians are meant to simply lie down and be killed without even complaining.
Bands need to start singing about ending the occupation and apartheid and settlers going home, the message of death death to the IDF. Saw that Vylan’s album has topped the charts, they need to release a new self promoted album or song.