The Who: Trapdoor Social (Los Angeles, CA)
The What: As Trapdoor Social, Merritt Graves, Skylar Funk, Louie Gonzalez, Patrick Griffen and Ben Ebert are that alternative rock band driven as much by social activism as by the art of making music: do you know any other band who tours the county in a solar trailer putting on solar-powered, clean energy concerts? Us, either. In addition, they were the brains behind last year’s 100% solar-powered music and art festival: the Sunstock Solar Festival.
From the band’s eponymous 2016 album, their latest single, “Winning As Truth,” is true-to-form Trapdoor with its elevated chorus, rigorous groove and a video that looks like a history lesson in the making but, like the thoughtful band that they are, there’s also an underpinning social commentary:
“Our newest single takes aim at the idea that successfully gaming the system makes someone ‘right’.” Graves explained. “It might make them clever, but it doesn’t make their ideas any more credible or their words any more true.
The video was inspired by a Kurt Vonnegut novel in which there’s a money tree. ‘It had twenty dollar bills for leaves. Its flowers were government bonds. Its fruit were diamonds. It attracted human beings who killed each other around the roots and made very good fertilizer.’ The video tells the story of the tree, highlighting the great length gone to both protect and harvest it, and ultimately drawing an eerie comparison to our modern economic system.”
The Where: Where can you find out more about Trapdoor Social? In all of the usual suspect-places like their official website, Facebook page and at @TrapdoorSocial on Twitter.