"Why don’t you wanna be like me? / Ever since we grew up / seventeen / Baby, you were such a joker / Honestly you should give up your silly art thing / And get a real job..."
The wonderful snark and art punk indie 90's leans of "R the Straights OK", by Oakland based indie gaze duo / band Pillowprince, is at once gorgeous as it is politico, at once angularly subversive as it is comely. Described perfectly by the duo as "a catchy, catty indie/alt queer anthem skewering queerphobic remarks" the track relates to the queer or non queer, to anyone or everyone who has had sometimes 'well meaning friends or family or assholes' trying to steer you, turn you into the best version of them at your emotional peril. Most of us have met these kinds of unempathetic fucks and some of us have been them too.
I am loving songwriter and guitarist Olivia Lee's (of There's Talk) vocal countenance that combines an indie rock reflection with potent pop prowess too. The mixture works well as a counterpositional sound to the punky heaviness flushed and filled out with musical mate Sea Snyder on drums. I also love all the words, smart and sardonic that tell a narrative worthy of the next Neflix or Hulu binger (if this song was fodder for a relevant episodic story).
Lyrics:
Why don’t you wanna be like me?
Ever since we grew up seventeen
Baby, you were such a joker
Honestly you should give up your silly art thing
And get a real job
Why don’t you fix your hair like me?
You could clean up really nice, pretty
Baby, you could be a smoke show
All you need is a little makeup
A dress in the summer
To find a real breadwinner like the rest of us
Holding it down
Telling daddy he’s muscular and good in bed
And make a baby or three
Why don’t you freeze your eggs, honey?
You could really start a family
Come to Maui this summer?
Make sure don’t forget to
Pack your Lululemon
So you can do pilates like the rest of us
Holding it down and
Making sure we’re fuckable
And maybe then you’ll finally get your blood diamond ring
Then our babies can be friends and
Go to the same school like
We went to the same school
When we were seventeen
Growing up is easy when you’re
rich and white like me
Don’t mind all of the poors
Just drive your Mercedes
Then we can cheat on our husbands
With each other sometimes
Can you keep a little secret
Between just you and me
LINER NOTES (bracketed):
Ever since we grew up seventeen
Baby, you were such a joker
Honestly you should give up your silly art thing
And get a real job
Why don’t you fix your hair like me?
You could clean up really nice, pretty
Baby, you could be a smoke show
All you need is a little makeup
A dress in the summer
To find a real breadwinner like the rest of us
Holding it down
Telling daddy he’s muscular and good in bed
And make a baby or three
Why don’t you freeze your eggs, honey?
You could really start a family
Come to Maui this summer?
Make sure don’t forget to
Pack your Lululemon
So you can do pilates like the rest of us
Holding it down and
Making sure we’re fuckable
And maybe then you’ll finally get your blood diamond ring
Then our babies can be friends and
Go to the same school like
We went to the same school
When we were seventeen
Growing up is easy when you’re
rich and white like me
Don’t mind all of the poors
Just drive your Mercedes
Then we can cheat on our husbands
With each other sometimes
Can you keep a little secret
Between just you and me
LINER NOTES (bracketed):
[Pillowprince returns with "R the Straights OK," a sardonic, hook-filled indie rock anthem that playfully roasts homophobia. The lyrics, which come straight from real things people have said to members of the band over the years, flip ignorance into something loud, defiant, and ridiculously catchy!]
[The music video takes the fun up yet another notch, turning up the camp, chaos, and celebration with beautiful beacons of light from the vibrant San Francisco Bay Area queer and kink community. In a time when queer and trans people are being actively targeted, Pillowprince wanted to create something that laughs in the face of it all: bold, joyful, and completely unfiltered.]
[The music video takes the fun up yet another notch, turning up the camp, chaos, and celebration with beautiful beacons of light from the vibrant San Francisco Bay Area queer and kink community. In a time when queer and trans people are being actively targeted, Pillowprince wanted to create something that laughs in the face of it all: bold, joyful, and completely unfiltered.]
[Massive and melodious, Pillowprince ebbs and flows between a dramatic intimate grandeur and irreverent indie pop on their debut EP, "pretty, baby!", coming out on Dune Altar in Spring 2025.]
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://www.youtube.com/@Pillowprinceband
https://pillowprinceband.bandcamp.com/merch/long-sleeve-shirt-sticker
https://www.instagram.com/pillowprinceband
https://www.tiktok.com/@pillowprinceband
https://www.pillowprinceband.com/
Pillowprince is an Oakland-based indie gaze band that makes rock from cracking folds of leather and glittering chain link, from nights of red-gelled stage lights and mornings after that are way too bright, from hair matted with joy and danger and most of all from bodies making places for themselves only they know.
Songwriter and guitarist Olivia Lee (of There's Talk) sings about queer joy, pain, love and subversion, punctuating raw sincerity with vibrant brooding guitar riffs. Together with Sea Snyder on drums, they create dense, propulsive shoegaze anthems.
Massive and melodious, Pillowprince ebbs and flows between a dramatic intimate grandeur and irreverent indie pop on their debut EP, pretty, baby!, coming out on Dune Altar in Spring 2025.
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