RED HERRING: a culture of anxiety intended to distract us from the real antagonist. On their latest release, The Plant Society Band remind us to reconsider our focus.
Imagine a culture in which morality reigned supreme. Imagine a society so wrapped in these principles that it chose to submerge itself in anxiety rather than fight the apocalypse before it. Sounds oddly familiar, hey? On their latest release, The Plant Society Band deconstruct society’s hubris from within nostalgia-tinted imagery.
Rooted in necessity and change, cancel culture was born to dismantle the oppressive forces which our society was built upon. However, The Plant Society Band warn that this initial intention has been lost and the phenomenon now only distracts us from the real antagonism at play.
Placing the intricacy of RED HERRING into words seems like an impossible task. There are details and nuances as far as the eye can see, all stretching across earthy fields of lo-fi synth-pop. Yet, in its most innate form, the single is an essay for disruption, challenging our core beliefs at every turn. It is a universe of clarity with the power to ignite our very being. It is utterly formidable.
Although a term that has been thrown around in literature for years, The Plant Society Band’s connection between the infamous red herring and our modern society holds poignant accuracy. Spinning literary fallacy into reality, the music video for the single is enough to leave you slack-jawed and shaken. The collage of ’60s-bound film clips feels uncomfortable yet familiar at the same time, each capturing their respective movie as its very point of plot twist, when the red herring reveals itself.
Overlaid sound bites from commentators like Joe Rogan, Bill Burr, and more echo in dystopic tones, placing our society into a Technicolour spectrum of instability. The clip is an exposé that reminds us that all is not actually as it seems.
“Cancel culture has become a RED HERRING from the real issues in the world,” the video reads at its end. “Groupthink is the process where irrational decisions are made by a group because the members don’t want to express opinions that others may disagree with, because of fear of exclusion.”
At its core, film exists as a compact mould of society, allowing us to visualise and digest the things that are often too overwhelming to process. By doing so, the band have spun these vintage narratives, which quivered at the thought of deception, into a playbook for our modern day. They have transformed a single, misleading character into a social compass, its deception so ingrained that it is barely recognisable.
RED HERRING places the disruption of our modern-day into palatable clarity. It is intricate, hyperliterate, and utterly jaw-dropping.
You can catch The Plant Society are their virtual gig in November. Check out the video for RED HERRING below:
