(Note: Sexbruise? may or may not be the alter ego of local musicians Julie “J-Dolla Sign” Slonecki, John “Bitcoin” Pope, Stratton “DJ Desktop” Moore and Will “Blaine” Evans)
A question looms over both the Charleston music scene and our national consciousness: Why haven’t many musicians addressed the dark days of the pandemic? When will someone come along to chronicle this little-known phase of American history when we were all confined to our homes, doom-scrolling and buying things online?
Luckily, Charleston’s megastar group Sexbruise? decided to jump into the fray shortly after the pandemic began.
The popular-on-Facebook group usually sticks to funky dance tunes like “Bop It,” or slow-jam ballads about pulling up to the club in a sweet “Ford Taurus,” but they felt compelled in 2021 to dig deep into the Covid-19 era for inspiration. It started with an EP called Covid-69, featuring the electro-reggae gem “’Rona,” a plea for the virus’ cruel heart, and the more, uh, joyful cut, “We Don’t Have The Virus.”
For some groups, that would’ve been plenty. Too much, even. And to outsiders, the group (singer, guitarist and keyboard player J-Dolla Sign, drummer and vocalist Bitcoin, percussionist and snack distributor DJ Desktop and guitarist Blaine) seemed to have exhausted the subject.
But as Bitcoin told us, Sexbruise? has never shied away from a challenge, and as the dark days of the pandemic faded, the band started off the celebration with “Fauci Says It’s Ok To Party,” noting in the song that Sexbruise? is Dr. Anthony Fauci’s favorite band.
“We feel that we are ahead of our time,” Bitcoin said. “Some people have said, ‘No one will remember the pandemic in a few short years, and your songs will be laughably out of date, and no one will want to listen to them anymore, you idiots.’ But we’ll be the ones laughing when the next pandemic, or ‘pandy’ for short, rolls around and our songs bring the people together in their time of need. See how smart we are?”
Capturing the feels of a historic moment
And now, simply as an educational measure, Sexbruise? has gone into that pandemic-inspired well one more time for their new single, “Supply Chain.” An irresistible dance-rocker with a synth-guitar hook that will live in your brain forever, the song addresses the issues we all had with getting our precious merchandise during the pandemic.
“It all started when Daddy Bezos started selling all this bullshit online / It accelerated an existing trend of us making all our bullshit in China,” Bitcoin sings, aided by Autotune.
By the end of the first verse, the world is in big trouble as demand outgrows supply during the massive manufacturing freeze. Leaving us with the complex analysis that Sexbruise? unfurls in the chorus:
“Everything is all f***ed up / Because of the supply chain.”
It’s a complex economic theory, and one that the band was concerned would go over their fans’ heads.
“We were absolutely worried,” said J-Dolla Sign. “Our audience is dumb as f***.”
But the fact of the matter is that the band had experienced supply chain issues firsthand and were almost compelled to write about it.
“When the original DJ Desktop died, it took us a very long time to get a new one,” said J-Dolla Sign. “When the package finally arrived from China, it had suffered considerable damage. We opened the box and found the new DJ Desktop was also damaged. It was much smaller than the original. It also had a lot of quality issues and only knew a few words.”
Desktop emphasized this point with a series of odd beeps.
Guitarist Blaine, typically the spokesperson for the group, is more philosophical about the meaning of “Supply Chain,” expanding the concept.
“The complex rube-Goldberg machine that is the global supply chain is so delicate and operates on such slim profit margins that any small failure can have catastrophic consequences up the chain, as we have observed over the past four years,” Blaine said, adjusting his bifocals.
“Furthermore,” Blaine continued, “the absence of any meaningful oversight or enforcement all but ensures that the bottom of the global supply chain will be ripe for humanitarian and environmental exploitation. The American consumer marketplace runs on forced labor and pollution and no one cares because we are all addicted to consumption and convenience.”
How could a song about all of that not absolutely rock?
Learn more about Sexbruise? and join their following of 19,000 and counting at facebook.com/sexbruise.
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