Kevin Bronson on November 13th, 2018

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On “American Muscle,” his first single as Calamity the Kid, songwriter Sam Doniger took sarcastic aim at the ol’ U.S. of A., suggesting, as only a muscular rock song can, that “growing up in the rubble raised by American muscle” is no picnic.

On “Die Young,” Calamity the Kid further addresses that generational divide. He explains: “You are 26 years old. You followed the plan. You did your best in high school and you graduated from college. You’re full of dreams, ready to ‘enter the world.’ But somehow you’re living back at your mom’s house with the old band posters still on the walls of your room. Your mother’s nightly news, your unpaid college debt and your unpaid internship is not what America promised. Welcome home.”

“Die Young,” from the “Late Bloomer” EP, is a meaty rock song with a strong anti-war thread, even vaguely referencing the same class disparity that Creedence Clearwater Revival did in “Fortunate Son” almost 50 years ago (“You’re born on the wrong side of the border or maybe you’re rich / No your senator’s sons ain’t soldiers its part of the trick,” Doniger spits).

The video, directed by the artist and featuring animation by Xavier Palin, starts with Doniger passing out at a house party. He enters an animated dream world replete with all the ills of real world. “We wanted the video to convey the outrageous nature of the topics discussed in the lyrics,” he says. “To ask the question of whether the animated nightmare is really that different from the real world we’re all living in and trying to escape through an assortment of substances and distractions.”

||| Watch: The video for “Die Young”