Today marks the third consecutive day that Pussy Riot has released new music video for tracks off the forthcoming EP xxx. Yesterday it was the literal blood bath of a video for “Organs”, preceded by the provocatively propelling video for “Straight Outta Vagina“. It appears that these three tracks are the entirety of the EP, which is scheduled to drop in full on Friday, October 28th.
xxx:
01 Make America Great Again
02 Straight Outta Vagina [ft. Desi Mo and Leikeli47]
03 Organs
The video for “Make America Great Again” depicts a dystopian dictatorship that may very well become a reality in Trump’s America if he is to win the upcoming election. In this video Pussy Riot utilizes a satirical news report to address Trump’s highly racist and sexist policies, sampling several pieces from his speeches and interviews. The lyrics are strong and straightforward; the chorus of “Let other people in / Listen to your women / Stop killing black children / Make America great again”, is repeated and interrupted only by excerpts from Trump. Lead singer and central member of the ever-rotating member lineup of Pussy Riot, Nadya Tolokno, plays several roles in the video including a news reporter, a police officer, a criminal guilty of “being an outsider”, and even Trump himself provocatively defacing the oval office.
The video is filled with graphic scenes of Nadya being brutally branded with various derogatory labels including “Outsider”, “Fat Pig”, and “She Made An Abortion”. It concludes with Nadya in a body bag, shot down by officers for trying to escape torture in an abortion clinic. Despite the weight of the message contained in the song, the music still manages to be light enough that you want to dance to it. The upbeat Latin-sounding instrumental provides very little transition into the sudden heavy techno outbreak about three-and-a-half minutes into the song, which only lasts about 20 seconds before returning the catchy music repeated throughout.
Pussy Riot was initially conceived mainly as a performing art collective aimed at political protest in Russia, but began officially producing feminist punk rock music in 2011. Their bold activist efforts have gained the group international titles over the years by landing members of the group in Russian jails, leading them on prolonged hunger strikes, and evoking reactions from big names like Paul McCartney and Kathleen Henna.
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