New York City queer punk band The Dead Betties has just dropped the first single, “Whatever, Anyway” off their newly announced EP “Whitey.” The music video for “Whatever, Anyway” can be watched HERE. The EP will be coming out in full on November 21 via Rotten Princess Records.
The song and accompanying music video criticizes the Hollywood glamorization of cowboys as macho white men and is calling out that narrative to expose how that image is deeply inaccurate. Much like the pilgrims, the song calls out the theft of land, murder, and colonialism that took place under the “cowboys” of the old west. The music video shows clips of old western films interspliced with footage of ICE, the KKK, and neo-nazis.
The Dead Betties consists of lead singer and bassist Joshua Ackey, guitarist Eric Shepherd, and drummer Derek Pippin. The trio was formed at the turn of the millennium in 2000 and is based out of New York.
“We're seeing it a lot in popular culture and music, and you even see a lot of queer white artists putting on cowboy drag. I find that very offensive, because I’m from the Four Corners in New Mexico—a border town on the Navajo Reservation—and the Navajo people are incredibly beautiful, resilient, and have dealt with racism on a scale that I don't think anyone else in the country has dealt with historically. Cowboys stole land and carried out genocide, so cowboy culture is actually nostalgia-washing as well as a really dark appropriation and a bad gimmick.”
-Joshua Ackey, lead singer/bassist
Whitey EP tracklist:
1. Whatever, Anyway
2. Whitey
3. Game Over
4. Girls! Girls! Girls! (Liz Phair cover)
5. Good Victim
The Dead Betties will hold an EP release show at Union Pool in New York City with special guest Tami Hart on November 21.
Find Dead Betties on social media: SPOTIFY BANDCAMP
