Best concerts in Phoenix in January 2026, from Duran Duran to Twice<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n‘This is an album that talks about a lot of bad, scary things’<\/h2>\n
As “a person who detests violence,” Pfeffer was drawn to \u201cViolence\u201d as a title for this album, he says, because \u201cit’s just this thing that’s pretty universally recognized as a bad, scary thing. And this is an album that talks about a lot of bad, scary things.\u201d<\/p>\n
He understands that there are people who may not appreciate his take on these bad, scary times.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I didn’t pick the game,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at the ascent of all these horrifying ghouls, they all understood the same thing. The Andrew Tate business model is to piss off as many people as you can. So there’s something to be learned there. That is the model of the internet. It’s either you\u2019re incredibly traditionally attractive, or you make people angry. Is that wildly toxic? And a horrifying thing? Yes. But if they’re using it, so should we.\u201d<\/p>\n\nThe album art was also chosen to reflect the essence of an album designed to reflect (and critique) these uncomfortable times \u2014 a jarring photo of two topless women in masks that look like a demented Mickey Mouse with a naked man standing behind them, his body painted red and a Mickey Mouse mask strategically placed to cover certain details.<\/p>\n
The image was inspired by \u201cThe Holy Mountain,\u201d a surrealistic art film from the early \u201870s by Alejandro Jodorowsky.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole movie is very jarring, but it has a strange opening scene, and that image has kind of stuck in my mind for more than a decade,\u201d Pfeffer says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s based on a mix of that and a scene in \u2018The Shining\u2019 where there’s a guy in a bear mask. Both of those scenes really struck me as, \u2018What the (expletive) does that mean?\u2019 and \u2018That’s really uncomfortable.\u2019\u201d I think that’s a great starting point for the album. You should be asking, \u2018What is that? Why is that? Why are you doing that? What does it mean?\u2019 I want you to have more questions.\u201d<\/p>\n\nPlayboy Manbaby set out to be loud, funny and ugly<\/h2>\n
Even the band name was meant to leave you wondering \u201cWhat the (expletive) does that mean?,\u201d Pfeffer says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s a one-off line from a cartoon. And the thing that I feel needs to be contextually understood is that there weren’t really fun bands and there weren’t really intense bands at the time that we started.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was in 2012. And as Pfeffer recalls, \u201cIt was very much, like, peak Mumford & Sons. Everyone was in a folk band with a kind of Urban Outfitters aesthetic, trying to be as quiet and as pretty as could be. And I’ve never been any of that. So I was just like, \u2018I want to reject all of that.\u2019 And I would argue that if we’ve done anything, we have definitely rejected all of that. We wanted to be loud and we wanted to be funny and we wanted to be ugly. And that’s Playboy Manbaby.\u201d<\/p>\n
It certainly made them stand out on the scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you show up to a party with nine other bands all headed by attractive men in these kind of perfect Coachella outfits, and you’re us,\u201d Pfeffer says, with a laugh, \u201ceverybody’s gonna be like, \u2018OK, they’re doing something different.\u2019 And that’s what we wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\nIt was, as he says, \u201can incredibly bad time to start a weird art rock band,\u201d which only added to the added to appeal for Pfeffer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re DEVO,\u201d he says. \u201cWe’re trying to build our own world that is both colorful and fun, but also, like, pretty directly dystopian. That\u2019s DEVO. DEVO is literally de-evolution. And I’ve always been a DEVO fan. There’s bands that are pretty apocalyptic, but they’re very serious about it. A lot of metal bands are incredibly dark, but they’re very serious about it. And then there’s bands that are fun and colorful, but they’re not talking about really dark stuff. To do both, you kind of have to be DEVO.\u201d<\/p>\n
They\u2019re also a punk band \u201cfor sure,\u201d Pfeffer says. \u201cBut in the way that DEVO is a punk band, with a lower-case P. Like, I would feel utterly ridiculous in a battle jacket or any of the aesthetic qualities of punk. And we’ve never once had a song that really has the proper drum beat or guitar tone of punk for the last 20 years or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robbie Pfeffer hopes ‘Violence’ will ‘break through all the noise’<\/h2>\n
It\u2019s Pfeffer\u2019s hope that \u201cViolence\u201d can cut through the noise and help listeners resist the temptation to respond to all the ugliness that\u2019s going on right now with apathy.<\/p>\n\n\u201cThe whole deafening chorus of everything is intended to make you feel like there’s nothing you can do about it,\u201d Pfeffer says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf for even 10 seconds a day you can feel like there’s someone else who sees what’s happening and you can realize how much actual community and hope that there is for the future, that this isn’t normal and just because it’s the reality now doesn’t mean it’s gonna be the reality forever, where it’s like \u2018You’re not insane. You’re not alone. This is messed up. This is wrong. Just because they repeat the same thing over and over again doesn’t make it true,\u2019 to break through all that noise for just one second? That’s what I’m going for.\u201d<\/p>\n\nAnd there are reasons to be hopeful, Pfeffer says, if you study American history.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time you had the start of modern American conservatism, you also had the strongest middle class, the highest tax rate on the wealthy, the strengthening of unions, the development of public education, the Civil Rights Act,\u201d Pfeffer says.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo there’s always gonna be people pushing against the idea that the powerful should have everything. There’s always gonna be both. They\u2019re never gonna stop. And neither are we. So just acknowledging that it’s a broader struggle and an endless struggle is important. Because it’s not about making the Kennedy Center not have the name Trump on it. That doesn’t matter at all. It’s about making sure we can continue to exist after this generation. It\u2019s putting things forward where you can have a world that doesn’t eat itself.\u201d<\/p>\n\nGet the latest music news with our\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>weekly newsletter<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nEd has covered pop music for The Republic since 2007, reviewing festivals and concerts, interviewing legends, covering the local scene and more. He did the same in Pittsburgh for more than a decade. Follow him on X and Instagram @edmasley and on Facebook as Ed Masley. Email him at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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