“We are the right band for this dystopia,” said Robbie Pfeffer, frontman of art-punk outfit Playboy Manbaby, between bites of his world-famous $1.50 Costco hot dog at an outdoor food court before his band’s show at Cafe Colonial in Sacramento. If you understand where Playboy Manbaby comes from, then you know truer words have never been spoken. As a product of the sun-soaked city of Phoenix, Playboy Manbaby has been staring down a fascistic government with goofy grins on their faces since forming up in 2012.
Playboy Manbaby is from the land of Joe Arpaio and Jan Brewer, Russell Pearce and Barry Goldwater, so demagoguery is nothing new to them. The concepts that translate so well through their music, which speak to the rise of American fascism, weren’t born in the last decade of its ascension to national prominence, but through the uniquely Sonoran lens of people who grew up in the bubbling political volcano that is Arizona. For context, Arizona was the last state to recognize Martin Luther King Day. While the scope of Playboy Manbaby’s ire has grown as they stare down American culture at large, the goofy grins have only gotten wider…