The Best Trump Burns (in Music) of the First 100 Days

The first 100 days of being president are kind of like the first 100 days of parenthood: Just try not to kill it. Donald Trump reached that milestone on Saturday and the news media covered it with the usual fanfare, but the bottom line is, we’re all still here. That’s the good news. The bad news… scratch that. Some bad news that pales in comparison with the really bad news is that the Our First 100 Days song project is over.
The series, co-conceived by the Secretly Group and 30 Days, 30 Songs, delivered a rare, unreleased or exclusive song every day for Trump’s first 100 days by a wide range of artists including Angel Olsen, Toro y Moi, Phosphoresecent and about 97 more. For a minimum $30 donation, fans can buy the complete set of songs, with proceeds divvied among a group of nonprofits specializing in climate change, reproduction rights, immigration, LGBTQ rights and other issues.
You’d think, with a series specifically created to foster resistance to the Trumpization of America, that the songs would all basically be entries in a burn contest. But many of the final 100 were written years ago and never released, or were B-sides to recent singles. Others are ambiguous about their target, like Drinks’ “I Am a Miserable Pig,” wherein Cate Le Bon sings, “I am a miserable pig in your road / and this is no country town.” Jackie Winters’s “I Pay My Taxes” is otherwise indecipherable, apart from the refrain ”…a statue of a statue of a statue of a statue of a man.” And somehow, Strand of Oaks’ “I Know YOU Know You’re Evil” is a six-minute instrumental song.
Still, there were plenty of clever pokes and jabs to be found in this series. Here’s a look at the five best.
5. Surfer Blood: Bacon Frying
What you see should bring you joy / but you’ve become a lazy boy
Suddenly you’re shutting down / Either way, you’ve already had your fill
But take it off the planet still / I won’t hold my breath and wait for better days
Surfer Blood builds an aggressive guitar line and stomping beat around a main character who can’t recapture his youthful glory, no matter how hard he fights or how far he chases it. This guy “had a lot of dates” back in school, but now he’s “shutting down,” and singer John Paul Pitts can’t quite square all the bluster with the flabby reality. Few people can.