“Red” - Jesse Welles
[Verse 1]
I got me a red house and a red car
Runs on big red batteries
It used to be blue 15 minutes ago
But it turned red just for me
I got me a red horse, and I ride it
I got some blue friends, they’re the best
We used to fly around the world on a big jet plane
They called the Lolita Express
[Verse 2]
I got me a red tie, and it’s 10 feet long
And it matches my red hat
I got me a red bird, and a red fish
A red dog and a red cat
And I got me a red pen, and I use it
I got a big red chainsaw too
My red friend likes that white powder
It makes his arms do weird salutes
[Chorus 1]
When the war gets here, we’re all gonna hold hands
All the Baptists and the Catholics
All the Marxists and the Fascists
When the war gets here, we’re going get on the level
Everyone looks a little bit nicer
When you finally meet the devil
I absolutely adore this artist. I guess he played on-label in a eponymously named band called ‘Welles’ for a while probably 10 years ago, but it never really took off and had a distinctly different sound. Last I checked their most popular song on yt only had ~100k views, most of them significantly less.
That makes it so much more exciting that he’s getting so much traction now without a label, and while writing songs that so obviously come from a place of earnest feeling. I saw an interview with him a couple weeks ago where he said he had gone home after touring with his old band and thought he was gonna quit music altogether, but came back to it after his dad had a heart-attack. It’s really only been a year since then, writing and playing songs on tiktok/yt until eventually getting enough attention that he put together 2 albums and started selling out shows.
I’m just so hyped for the guy - he played a few shows in my neck of the woods but they sold out so damn fast I wasn’t able to see him play. On his new album I really like ‘Rocket Man’ and ‘War is a God’, but the whole thing is honestly so good. His other album ‘Helles Welles’ has all of the more pointed topical songs like ‘Fat’ and ‘Genocide Cake’, which are also bangers.
Him being un-signed makes me happy to have bought both of his albums, I can’t recommend them enough.