SARAH K. PEDINOTTI, the Brooklyn experimental popster who guises as LIP TALK, and who we last saw see-sawing twixt sin and virtue on the psychedelic synthpop of “More”, has dropped another single flirting with the concepts of the vices, the thrumming dayglo silk of “Bargain Day”, coming at pop askew with a little ESG and Tom Tom Club flowing through its veins.
This time she takes a gentle sonic brush to the ceaseless craving for self-satisfaction in objects, the bane and the terrible beauty of late-stage consumerism: I buy, therefore I am.
Sarah says of the single and its accompanying video: “It depicts a world in which ‘living on the outside’ is unachievable and the fantasy of counterculture life is instantly subverted, and woven back into the matrix.
“’Bargain Day’ is about the façade of equity and the ways in which inequality, exploitation and illusion are built into the core of American capitalism. When every day is bargain day, the bargains become vampires, sucking our attention, feeding off our longings with promises of happiness.
“It’s a satirical song. And I love Josh Karpeh (of Cautious Clay)’s sax solo.”
The inspiration for the song came from a photograph by Tim Davis, which serves as the single art. He also directed the video. Tim says the song came as “an unexpected resurrection of a thing that meant something, really meant something in the past, but that’s suddenly dancing a new jig.
“I made that picture at a strip mall in Missouri somewhere 15 years ago as part of a project called ‘My Life in Politics’, which was published by Aperture in 2006.
“The contradictions in the signage (Vote for Guerra was taken up next to Every Day is Bargain Day) jumped out at me, and they are justifiably echoed in the song’s layers and polyrhythms. I can’t think of a greater honor than to have a photograph generate a song, especially this one.”
“Bargain Day” follows previous standalone single “More,” which were both made as part of her ongoing song-a-day writing experiment, ‘These Are Photographs,’ in which Sarah meditates on an image and writes and records a new track in a single day.
That project is ongoing: people can submit imagery for consideration via DM on Instagram or by emailing Sarah at Liptalkliptalk@gmail.com
LIP TALK’s “Bargain Day” is out now via digital streaming platforms and at her Bandcamp page.
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