Released April 27, 2004 | Format CD Length 3:23 | |
Recorded November 2003 - February 2004 at Sound City in Los Angeles, California | ||
"Los Angeles Is Burning" is a single by the punk rock band Bad Religion from their 2004 album The Empire Strikes First. "Los Angeles Is Burning" was released to radio on April 27, 2004. The song reached number 40 on the Modern Rock Tracks in July 2004.
Contents
Meaning and composition
According to bassist Jay Bentley, the lyrics argue that the media is sensationalistic. The music video features men with cameras replacing their heads firing flame into the animated landscape of Los Angeles. It was written at a time when there was a major fire nearby, the Cedar Fire of late 2003, but Bentley makes clear that the song was using the fire as a metaphor.
Music video
The music video is shot in cut-out animation and depicts a man in a track singlet and shorts with a Crossbuster (Bad Religion's logo which features a black cross with a red prohibition sign over it) on it running through an apocalyptic Los Angeles. People with cameras replacing their heads shoot fire out their mouths. Frontman Greg Graffin plays a psychotic newsreporter which reads messages like "We're not trying to brainwash you". In the end the entire city goes up in flames.