Yacht’s new album, I Thought the Future Would Be Cooler, drops on October 16, but the collective is teasing the new songs in expectedly inventive ways. You can only watch the video for the new single “L.A. Plays Itself” when Uber puts surge pricing into effect in Los Angeles. This is a fun trick.
Actually, let me dial that back a little. This is a trick, done in a playful manner that wonderfully illustrates how Uber’s surge pricing is total late-capitalist bullshit. As Yacht says on its website for the promo:
Traffic sucks, and paying extra to sit in it is even worse. To help ease the pain, we’ve got a new song called “LA Plays Itself.” It’s all about the city, and we want to play it for you when you need it most.
So you’re stuck paying too much money to sit in traffic? Yacht will hook you up with a free song. If surge pricing goes up to two-times the normal price, Yacht will play you a sweet remix of the song by Darq E Freaker. See how fun that is?
All that said, the future we live in is one that lets people sit in cars on highways and watch music videos on their pocket computers. This is both futuristic and cool. But Yacht thought it would be cooler.