The Brooklyn art-punk band’s new single is packaged in a piece of inspiringly sickening cinema—directed by bassist Devin Gant—that offers horror, humor and a call for interrogating that which we consume

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The new video from Skeeter de Milo is not for the faint of heart… nor stomach.

“What do we consume?

Where does it come from?

Is it good for us?

Is this food?”

These are the questions the Brooklyn art-punk band offers, and explores, with their new music video—an intense and sickening slice of cinema for their new single “Is This Food?”

(I’ll give you a few moments to… digest.)

Now, to follow the band’s questions above with some more questions… specifically about what, exactly, it is we’re not questioning:

How much (or little) are we thinking about what we consume? How much shit to we open our mouth (eyes, ears) to accept, allowing it to be shoveled in without a second thought?

This is the concept the band explores in the “performance-art horror spiral” featuring the force-feeding of vocalist Cam Toy. Conceived and directed by bassist Devin Gant, the short film serves as a stomach-turning reality check and an examination of the concepts, constructs and content we’re served—as well as the active role we play in the ritual.

The ceremony, if we want to call it that, takes place in a gallery, for an audience—perhaps a nod to the fact that we’re not just consumers, but participants, and performers, as well. Accessories via political passivity, cultural complicity and the swallowing of whatever we’re served. Brainwashed (or braindead) but still ready and willing.

Then again, maybe it’s not about Stockholm Syndrome but more of a metaphor for surveillance: While we binge, big brother looks on, and laughs.

All the while, there’s a reference to the sweet and slippery danger of distraction: an oblivious security guard in headphones writhes to a rhythm nearby, epitomizing the ease of escape—how simple it is to tune out and turn away from the horror.

From a human perspective, our current state is no surprise. I’m no scientist, but you don’t have to be Darwin to recognize that human evolution can’t keep pace with today’s technology or to-dos or tragedies or news. It’s an ongoing onslaught of infinite information, and our brains can’t cope with being constantly bombarded. Our hearts are crushed under heavy headlines while our souls are being slowly suffocated as we scroll.

But… but.  

There is some hope, the band proposes (and I believe). And maybe we find it in our shared human ity.

“What if the things we feel isolate us from others are actually the things that unite us?” the band asks. “Maybe we’re all feeling the same alienating dread, the weight of the world bubbling up with each mundane task, each inane decision.”

A call for community! A call for action!

Then, they suggest, “Maybe you just need a snack.”

Above all, a call for pretzels. (Could be a universal existential crisis; perhaps we’re just hangry!)

Whatever it is, the video serves as startling, and incredibly executed, inspiration to raise your hand, raise some questions and raise some hell.

At (spoiler alert!) the conclusion of the video, Toy is—in every sense of the words—fed up. And now, ready to fight back. Beyond a plot twist, this serves as a reminder of our own agency. And a note to the powers at be that the (dinner) tables can, and will, turn. 

“Is This Food?” is the follow up to 2024’s Bread and the first track off the band’s EP How to Cook a Mirror, set for release early next year.

Besides this broader cultural commentary, the band recently released their response to a specific societal phenomenon with brat but it’s skeeter de milo so it’s weird—a video album of charli xcx covers suited to a slightly different set of Bushwick babes.

You can catch Skeeter de Milo live at Wonderville on January 13th. I humbly suggest you come hungry. 

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Follow the band at @skeeterdemilo, buy music on Bandcamp and add the songs to your Spotify playlists!

Feature image provided by the band.