Today's Song of the Day, as chosen by Kevin Cole, host of The Afternoon Show on KEXP, is "All My Fish Are Dead" by The Vega Bodegas, a 2021 self-released single.
Cardiff post-punk band The Vega Bodegas is led by Jimmy Watkins, formerly of Future Of The Left and Strange News From Another Star. They've been laying low since the 2018 release of their debut full-length A Complete History of Witchcraft, but have re-emerged to share the single "All My Fish Are Dead."
Watkins described to Birthday Cake Breakfast how today's featured track was inspired by two books:
At the time I was reading a book called Strangers by Rebecca Tamás, and it was changing the way I thought about the modern world. It was terrifying, but at the same time it had answers about how we could change things like capitalism and the destruction of the planet. It introduced me to panpsychism and I was fascinated by this idea that our surroundings influence how we think. I was also reading a book called American Cosmic by D.W Pasulka. In that book she meets people who believe their great ideas have come from aliens. I used that for the lines about “operating on a whole other level… outside on my mile high decking” and about our body parts being full of galaxies.
Together, those two books painted a picture of humans destroying the planet whilst also receiving messages of hope and innovation from outer space. That was a pretty surreal combo for me, so I went for it lyrically and described a modern world full of chaos and weird beauty. I wanted to paint a dreamlike landscape which was driven by capitalism and greed, but had a soft middle where it talks about how magical the human body can be. I have no idea if I succeeded, but for the first time in my life I can listen to a song we’ve recorded and think to myself that I’d put everything I could into the lyrics.
Read the full behind-the-scenes story of the making of today's Song of the Day here.
