The Herald of the Decline of Everything

We make our own happy unholy day

We throw our own little pitchfork parade

We hang the king with the guts of his priest

C'est la vie to the old folks

Merci Monsieur Guillotine…

- croons Art Bergmann, in the delightfully dark La Mort de L'Ancien Regime. This sardonic lounge song doesn’t so much encourage revolution, as occupy the crowd between executions.

La Mort is Art at his – its – best. It hits on multiple levels. The peppy, upbeat, straight-form-the-Armada-Room sound will put a smile on your face and a nod on your head. Evoking The Terror of post-revolution France, the lyrics subversively celebrate a very direct response to misuse of power. While mention of Pennsylvania Avenue clearly directs towards recent events in the USA, La Mort is about more than a single orange buffoon. It’s a cheery anthem for those shouting “OK, Boomer!” as they wrest power away from those long past retirement age. This is a cheerily-dark tune, a perfect arm-waver for the bloodthirsty crowd awaiting the next drop of the blade...

Art’s re-emergence this century has been marked by his increased focus on the state of our world. A life-long iconoclast, Art has become the Herald of the Decline of Everything. La Mort de L'Ancien Regime continues the mission Art began back in 2014: writing songs for the underclass. And what a revolutionary songbook he is building!

The past few months have been, well, interesting for Art Bergmann. In October, he released Cristo Fascists, the lead single for his next album. It’s a rollicking attack the Alt-Right, featuring Wayne Kramer of MC5 on lead guitar. Not only a teaser for Late Stage Empire Dementia, the song needed to be out before the US election. And not just the song, but the amazing video, which we’ll discuss momentarily.

At year end, out of the blue, Art received [finally!] recognition for his work. And not some mere industry award either, but one of the highest honours: the Order of Canada. The Order recognizes “outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation.” Although some may quibble over his dedication, iconoclasts too are dedicated and essential, in their way. They also serve who stand and point. The motto of the Order is DESIDERANTES MELIOREM PATRIAM - “They desire a better country.” Undeniably, Art does.

Mere days later, the video for Christo Fascists was unceremoniously pulled down by YouTube. It was a very strange move; the video had been up for months. YouTube, however, suddenly decided that the song was promoting hate against a specific group and was too violent and, therefore, violated ‘community standards’.

The video for Christo-Fascists is a fantastic creation by Thor Henrikson. The video features a devilishly fire-lit, prophetic Art Bergmann intercut with US news footage of last year: Trump, the Republicans, white power rallies, BLM protests, police murdering black men… clips we all saw last year. Nothing made up or twisted; reality is bad enough without inventing more. Thor created the perfect visual accompaniment to Art’s song.

Except YouTube didn’t see it that way. The way they saw it, the news was too horribly offensive, and Christo-fascists deserve protecting. Order of Canada or not, social commentary or dire warning, this video could not be given a platform.

A couple of days later, the US Capitol was attacked.

By Christo-fascists.

I don’t believe Art received any apology.

The second single dropped on March 19th. Entropy – the tendency of all systems to devolve into chaos – has a much simpler video. The song plays over a single image, which is no less powerful for being static. It’s a picture of a pile of life jackets. Refugee life jackets, from those who made it to Lesbos, courtesy of Paul McNeill. The song itself evokes the tales of those driven from their homes, forced to flee wars.

There’s another image in the song, one we don’t see in the video, and don’t need a picture to remember: Now there's a baby on the beach / We refuse to reach…

On April 9th, we got hit with a shockingly beautiful ballad about an appalling topic: Your Second Amendment, the infamous US Right to Bear Arms. Art’s vocal lament is joined in comforting counterpoint by Kate Stanton. The video by Roy Pike is stunning: a blend of beauty – colourful flowers blooming, passenger pigeons swooping, Old West vistas undiminished despite being monochrome – interspersed with vintage westerns, the Typical American Family from the early days of TV, threatening guns in the hands of white men, lightning on the horizon, and footage of the Greenwood district of Tulsa – the devastated and ruined black community. Pike’s work is the perfect accompaniment to Art’s song and it won’t fail to blow you away [pun intended].

And La Mort de L'Ancien Regime came at the beginning of this month as the final tease before the big reveal.

Late Stage Empire Dementia is slated for digital release on May 21st - Endangered Species Day. No doubt chosen, in inimitable Art Bergmann style, for its triple meaning: to raise awareness of the animals dying off because of man; to point out the disappearing voices of iconoclasts like Art; and because the album itself is about the decline of the human animal.

I was lucky enough to get a preview of the full album, and I can tell you you will not be disappointed. Late Stage Empire Dementia is a blend of styles, but these singles are well representative. You won’t want to miss this!

{Psst: You can pre-order here.}