Despite the multiple delays for the release of their upcoming album Reality Awaits, classic rock band the Strokes have kept audiences captivated with live collaborations and North American tour. Now, in a new post on X, the band has announced that they have released music video for their recent single “Going Shopping.” Starring Walton Goggins, the whimsical video has the actor dancing and lip-syncing to the lyrics while political title cards like “Beware unchecked power” and “Workers on strike! (but alas, the news won’t show it)” flash onscreen. These statements coincide with lyrics from the song like, “Above the law, a political puppet,” and “Solidarity can be difficult when you got cool stuff to lose.”
The video for “Going Shopping” borrows heavily from the iconic 1986 music video for Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al,” with Goggins wearing a similar sky-blue shirt in “Going Shopping” as Simon wore in 1986. The two also perform the same iconic kick line dance.
The video is believed to be taking aim at e-commerce giant Amazon and its history of unfair labor practices. As Inc. points out, one of the characters in the music video is deliveryman wearing a blue shirt resembling the color of Amazon’s delivery vests. After delivering a box to Casablancas, the man begins to go on strike, likely referencing one of the many Amazon worker strikes. Later in the video, Nikolai Fraiture, the Strokes’ bass player, can be seen beating the deliveryman with the picket sign, a nod to Amazon’s retaliation against its striking employees.
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