Being a parent in this day and age means constantly being aware of the internet’s ability to direct your impressionable children towards hateful ideologies and your own powerlessness against its ever-present influence. I’ve heard more than my share of stories of others whose children started spouting white nationalist talking points weeks into following the wrong gaming channels. It’s no small comfort to know my 17-year-old son Caden was never led down such a path. Still, I’d be lying if I said his hyperfixation on prolific Australian rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard didn’t have its downsides.
It all started when I kept hearing him talk about something called “Nonagon Infinity,” and frantically googled it, fearing it was some kind of Christofascist apocalypse death cult, only to find out it was some tripped-out rock album that you can play on an endless loop. I couldn’t even get through one full listen, so I don’t want to know what kind of federally illegal substances one would have to partake in to want to hear it multiple times in succession.
Admittedly, Caden had been withdrawn for so long, and I always encouraged him to find a positive community to help him get out of his shell. So, maybe this is partially on me. But while I know it could be worse, I also know that his going on about microtonality and dressing up like something called “Han-Tyumi” wasn’t what I had in mind. For the love of god, it wasn’t even close to Halloween when he started doing that. And it’s definitely affecting his academic performance. The 29 he got on his first ACT attempt speaks for itself.
I thought that this would be a phase that he would just grow out of after a few weeks, but then I saw his sketch of their logo under the header “Future tat”. Do I need to tell him about my Spacehog tattoo I got lasered off just two years later? At this point, I’m glad he’s not registered to vote because he’d probably just write in “Stu MacKenzie” for every election.
At the very least, I wish he’d admit that “The Silver Cord” sucks and that these guys have no business making electropop.