DC punks, Priests, offered a nice surprise with the kind of an art-pop direction they took with the previously revealed, The Seduction of Kansas, the title track off their upcoming record. The very fresh, Good Time Charlie, finds the band sounding more like their old selves again, conveying a pretty weighty and dynamic post punk sound, while dealing with an also weighty, serious and politically charged concept. The new single draws inspiration from the story of Congressman Charlie Wilson which was also the theme of Mike Nichols' last film, released in 2007, starring Tom Hanks.
Frontwoman, Katie Alice Greer, describes the inspiration behind the song in a very interesting statement: "I like to think of this song a little bit like the Gilligan’s Island theme song, but for a Hollywood tale of Charlie Wilson. It’s also a little bit about 9/11 but much like Otessa Moshfegh’s My Year Of Rest And Relaxation, the character sketch is more drawn out in its absence rather than presence. I saw a documentary about the history of the United States’ relationship with the Middle East, and there was clip of an ‘80s lady who looked a little like Vanna White (who turned out to be Joanne Herring) saying how she wanted to get the Mujahadeen guns to fight the communists because she believed they worshipped the same god as her. So I got curious about how this story unfolded, but even more so, how the tale has been told in western culture. I watched the movie Charlie Wilson’s War and it was so unintentionally funny the way they told this story, like think of the movie Team America, except the filmmakers weren’t joking (at least I don’t think). And then I read in the film’s Wikipedia page: “The film’s happy ending came about because Tom Hanks ‘just can’t deal with this 9/11 thing.’” I don’t know why exactly but this got stuck in my head and made my brain feel like it was exploding. So, with Daniele and GL and Janel Leppin on bass, we made it into a song."
The Seduction of Kansas comes out April 5th, 2019 through Priests' own imprint, Sister Polygon Records.
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