Kim Gordon has shared a new track, ‘BYE BYE 25!’, a remake of ‘BYE BYE’ from her second solo album, ‘The Collective’, but using words banned by Donald Trump.
The new version includes words that have been banned by the Trump administration in an attempt to purge “woke” initiatives. Gordon has included words such as “advocate”, “climate change”, “female”, “Hispanic”, and “immigrants”.
Speaking about the new song, Gordon said: “(Producer and collaborator) Justin Raisen had this idea to redo ‘Bye Bye’ starting at the end of the song. When I was thinking of lyric ideas, it occurred to me to use words taken from a site that had all the words that Trump has essentially banned, meaning any grant or piece of a project or proposal for research that includes any of those words would be immediately disregarded or “cancelled.” I guess Trump does believe in cancel culture, because he is literally trying to cancel culture.”
Gordon’s ‘BYE BYE 25’ comes ahead of the “No Kings” protests against Trump, which are due to take place across the US on June 14. Proceeds from the track’s sale and its promotional merch will be donated to the reproductive rights nonprofit, Noise for Now.
Listen to Kim Gordon’s ‘BYE BYE 25!’ below.
In 2019, NME spoke with Gordon about Trump, capitalism, and rock ‘n’ roll. When asked about what the message of her debut solo album ‘No Home Record’, she said:“The message of the record is that the end of capitalism is coming and that Trump is going to be the person who drives it into the ground. I remember when the [Berlin] Wall came down and this general feeling in the ‘Western World was that Communism didn’t work and that this proves it’. What came out of it was just lots of corruption, and we’re just that way already with lots of corruption.”
Then, to follow up, Gordon was asked if Trump is just the manifestation of capitalism being as “bloated as it can be”, to which she responded, “totally, yeah – but he’s also not good at it! Which is funny.”
In other Kim Gordon-related news, earlier this year she linked up with Kim Deal to perform Sonic Youth‘s ‘Little Trouble Girl’. The moment, which marked their first time ever performing live together, took place on the Netflix talk show Everybody’s Live, hosted by John Mulaney.
Gordon was the first to perform, singing her song ‘Bye Bye’ taken from her 2024 solo album ‘The Collective‘. Deal then took to the stage to play her own track ‘Nobody Loves You More’ – the title track from her debut solo album also released last year.
Then, the pair joined forces to play the Sonic Youth track ‘Little Trouble Girl’, which Deal contributed vocals to on the band’s 1995 LP ‘Washing Machine’. The track is the only time Gordon and Deal have ever collaborated. Though Deal appeared in the song’s music video, she never joined the band to play it live before they broke up in 2011.