Californian alt-rock band Eels have teamed up with Jim Carrey, the Canadian actor best known for his capricious roles in films such as The Truman Show, Dumb and Dumber, and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective to express their collective disdain for American gun culture, and frustration at a vehement reluctance in some parts of the country to implement tougher gun laws or restrictions.
Performing in a parody video featured on comedy website Funny or Die, Eels play a fictional support band called The Clutterbusters, and are costumed as Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Ghandi and John Lennon, all notable victims of gun assassinations.
Carrey performs as both late actor and former National Rifle Association (NRA) President Charlton Heston, as well as fictional frontman of The Clutterbusters, Lonesome Earl. Together, the band present their song, “Cold, Dead Hand,” a reference to a speech Heston presented at an NRA Convention in which he claimed his “freedom” and gun could only be taken from him if it were prised from his “cold, dead, hands.”Eels play a fictional support band called The Clutterbusters, and are costumed as Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Ghandi and John Lennon, all notable victims of gun assassinations.
“Cold, Dead Hand” has been made available via iTunes, technically making it the first new material from Eels since their latest album, Wonderful, Glorious, which came out in early February of this year.
The 10th album followed a trilogy of concept albums penned by frontman Mark Oliver Everett about love, lust and loss, titled Hombre Loco, End Times, and Tomorrow Morning respectively.
The trilogy was released in quick succession during 2010 and the band had remained relatively quiet until the release of this year’s album. Eels are currently on tour in American, then head to Europe at the end of this week until the end of April.
The other component of the parodic video, Jim Carrey, has been highly criticial of those who stand in opposition to proposed changes to gun laws, particularly after the school shooting at Sandy Hook on December 14th last year.
As News Ltd points out, when first announcing the songs release via his Twitter feed, Carrey simply wrote, “Some ppl hate when i talk about guns so I decided to sing about it!”
In one of many tweets promoting the music video, Carrey said, “’Cold Dead Hand’ is abt u heartless m*********s unwilling 2 bend 4 the safety of our kids. Sorry if you’re offended by the word safety!”
Not withstanding the serious political agenda being addressed, Carrey still embodies the eccentricity and boldness of former roles, ensuring Heston’s masculinity is sufficiently diminished, with one particular verse ending with, “you’re a big, big man/with a little bitty gland.”
After considerable backlash from pro-gun groups, suggesting that Carrey was free to leave the US if he didn’t like the laws currently in place, he issued a humble closing statement on his Twitter feed: “Thx 4 your input 2day…I don’t think i’ve ever felt so despised and so free at the same time.”
