Emperor X – “Wasted On The Senate Floor”
Emperor X is the project of Chad Matheny, and he’s been releasing erudite and aggressively energetic music under the name for almost two decades now. He’s got a new album, Oversleepers International, out next spring, but new single and live staple “Wasted On The Senate Floor” is being released during the tail-end of a pointedly contentious and increasingly depressing election cycle. “This song has always been about — to the extent any song I write is about anything — what it’s like to live and love in a world where hegemonic media, late capitalism, and manufactured pseudo-consent destroy democracy,” he says. “Seems like a good time to release it, doesn’t it?”
“Wasted On The Senate Floor” is an explosion of anxiety and frustration with the government translated through scratchy guitars and jubilant handclaps and horns. Matheny speaks with vigor and purpose: “We have no use for tricky marketing/ We make self-evident claims/ We say, ‘Let the products sell themselves!,'” repeating the last line for emphasis. It’s a successful excoriation of a political system that seems unable to enact any meaningful change, and it couldn’t come at a better time. Listen below.
The new Emperor X album, Oversleepers International, is out next spring via Tiny Engines.
