Although Captain Ahab minces no words in the joyful, shameless dance lunacy that is “Girls Gone Wild” (a sample lyric: “I wanna show my tits on television”), the track’s video, by Patrick Kennelly, is a textbook case of mincing and blending, going savage with visual cues and our music video expectations. Girls Gone Wild, the infomercial and product from whence this track’s inspiration came, has significantly (sadly? triumphantly?) become a widely recognized cultural staple over the past decade. What does that say about us and our society? Captain Ahab says it means we wanna dance! Look out for social memes represented, such as the iconic arrows of Dance Dance Revolution, which harnessed the freedom of bodily movement and mutated it into a mindless series of stomps; the warning played before movie trailers, which lets us know that nudity and blood have been processed and compressed into the approvable label of “R”; and then, plainly, Mardi Gras beads. And yeah, there are some boobs.
But beware the mid-track bridge, which undermines simple pop sensibility with hints of sugarcoated violence and maudlin tragedy. The result: a PCP-fueled rampage? A mind so wrecked it’s left with little more than static-distorted images of pornography and exploitation? Yes, please! Ahab has found our culture’s great white whale, to be hunted rabidly out into the dark black void of the sea… the Girls of the lost and glorious Wild…
Ahab sets off on a European tour in mid-November.
• Captain Ahab: http://www.captain-ahab.com
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