Entertainment

Neon Indian’s New Song Tackles Life as a Mexican Immigrant in Trump’s America

Alan Palomo's new ode to growing up on the border is a political turn for the chillwave group—and it slaps!
Alex Zaragoza
Brooklyn, US
Neon Indian

Venimos a estudiar! Queremos trabajar!… Todos somos Americanos! Neon Indian have returned with a psych-cumbia bop tackling the Mexican experience in America via their new track "Toyota Man," released with an accompanying video featuring a Trump piñata, a mariachi band, an ode to late-night car commercials and School House Rock, and heavy norteño iconography that speaks to life as border folk. With its bouncy synths, the song—with its lyrical mixture of Spanish, English, and Spanglish that's intrinsic to border communities—is a perfect carne asada jam.

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Frontman Alan Palomo was born in Monterrey, Mexico, and the band filmed the video along the U.S.-Mexico border, through Monterrey, Nuevo Laredo, San Antonio, and Austin—the same path frontman Palomo took when becoming a citizen himself. "Toyota Man" is a step into more political material from a band that has tended to keep social issues out of their music. But the same groovy electronics that are signature to Neon Indian are there, now with more personal and forthright discussion on the Mexican immigrant experience.

Check out the video below.