Atlanta Soundtrack: New music videos from The Marias, BbyMutha and vintage protest anthem from R.E.M.

The Marias

Three years after the sensual tromp of their GRAMMY-nominated debut, Cinema, The Marias have announced their sophomore record, Submarine, out May 31 via Nice Life Recording Company/Atlantic Records.

Glossed with the featherweight vocals of Atlanta-raised Maria Zardoya, lead single “Run Your Mouth” slings funk basslines with the band’s signature blend of smoky dream-pop. “Dance while you can,” warned The Marias in an Instagram post. “The next ones might make you cry.” Ever the chromatic aficionados, the deceptively dancey amuse-bouche features an accompanying music video (directed by longtime collaborator Bethany Vargas) ostensively plucked from a ’90s Gap catalog — that is, if The Gap ever hocked shirts of crimson latex.

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BbyMutha

Perhaps if the cast of Skins had found themselves in the winding underbelly of Underground Atlanta, their raves would’ve sounded like BbyMutha’s “go!” Grounded in the regional bounce of her Southern rearing and candyflipped with the hallucinatory grime of UK garage, “go!” considers the anxieties of attachment styles with unflinchingly candid assessment. The track is the second single from the Chattanooga-born, Atlanta-based rapper’s forthcoming record, sleep paralysis, due April 19 via True Panther Records.

Inspired by the nighttime ailments that have plagued BbyMutha since childhood, as well as by a recent UK tour where she was introduced to the sounds of the UK rave scene, sleep paralysis will feature a transatlantic collaboration of beats from nine different producers, including Foisey, Bon Music Vision, Kilde and Rock Floyd. 

Watch the music video for “go!”, directed by BbyMutha and Chris Campbell, below. 

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R.E.M. 

“Especially nice on a hot day,” misspoke Top of the Pops host Simon Parkin following R.E.M.’s 1989 performance of “Orange Crush.”

Stadium-ready as its soaringly monosyllabic chorus may be, “Orange Crush” is about as nice on a hot day as Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” is nice for presidential campaign rallies. This is, of course, to say that it isn’t, and that — for all its anthemic hallmarks — “Orange Crush” has very little to do with high fructose corn syrup.

Released in 1988 as the lead single from R.E.M.’s sixth studio album, “Orange Crush” wryly deploys the use of the titular soda as a nostalgia-invoking double entendre for the tactical herbicide and defoliant, Agent Orange. Agent Orange was used to relentless effect during the Vietnam War and, from 1962 to 1971, the U.S. military sprayed nearly 19 million gallons of the neurotoxic chemical across Vietnam, decimating forests and introducing health hazards for generations to come. Frontman Michael Stipe drew inspiration for the song from the stories that his father, a Vietnam vet, shared during his upbringing.

As a protest song, the oxymoronic nature of “Orange Crush” is intentional, seizing the subtlety of propaganda for its own discordant means through contradictory lines like “we are agents of the free” and “follow me, don’t follow me.” The call-and-response format of these refrains echoes the style of military marching cadences, backed by drummer Bill Berry’s rapid, snare-forward percussion. Coalescing this ironically regimental approach, live performances of the song have often seen Stipe trading out his mic in favor of a megaphone. 

The release of “Orange Crush” marked the Athenian four-piece’s first No. 1 single on the American rock charts and served as a set list mainstay until the group’s final show in 2008. Although one of the poppiest works in R.E.M.’s sizable discography, with its cacophonous sprawl of cryptic blips couched in guitarist Peter Buck’s ringing arpeggios and bassist Michael Mills’ commanding bass, “Orange Crush” remains a masterpiece of alt-rock history, and one in a long line of protest songs from this college town band. 

Below, watch the music video for “Orange Crush,” which was directed by Matt Mahurin and secured the band its first Video Music Award for Best Post-Modern Video.

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Lindsay Thomaston is a photographer and culture writer with a background in media and politics. Her work has appeared in Paste Magazine, Rolling Stone, i-D, Dazed, Fashionista and Immersive Atlanta, among others.