Amanda Palmer is never one to shy away from current events. After the horrific flooding in southeastern Texas last year, she released “Drowning in the Sound,” the sudden and explicable eroding of woman’s access to abortion in “Voicemail to Jill,” the Me Too movement with “Mr. Weinstein Will See You Now” and now gun violence with “Everybody Knows Somebody.” The stand-alone single, which isn’t included on her new album, is a direct address towards the horrific and all-to-common mass shootings that seem to happen on more-than-daily basis in the United States and basically nowhere else.
Like many of Palmer’s more impromptu songs, this one was recorded on her ukulele. The video was also recorded in her home in Woodstock, NY, presumably on a computer. She takes the ultra-dark lyrical content and creates a poppy singalong that points out that these “slaughters” occur everywhere, in every state, and that someone knows someone affected by the killings.
Unsurprisingly and to the chagrin of the minority of Americans who see no need to change gun laws at all, Palmer left this message about the new song. “”This song was written in response to the insanity going on in our country. Gun violence and the deaths of ordinary people all over America is becoming NORMAL. IT ISN’T NORMAL. Let’s call it what it is: a public health crisis. Too many senseless deaths. Too much pointless tragedy that could be avoided with better, safer, smarter gun laws.”
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