LA indie band Cheekface holds up a mirror to Trump's America | Opinion

I have joked for some time that, if nothing else, the horrors of the second Trump administration might at least bring us some good protest music.

That's a flip statement, I realize. But those appalled by what has happened in America over the past two years – from federal agents rounding up or killing people on U.S. streets to yet another senseless war – often need a bit of dark humor to process what we see. It's the equivalent of sharing a link to a story about President Donald Trump's latest anti-democracy comment and adding the "This is fine" meme showing a dog sitting calmly with a coffee in a room that's in flames.

As the nation crumbles around us, I'm happy to report the good protest music has arrived, courtesy of a fiercely independent, slyly funny and very in-the-moment indie band called Cheekface.

A band called Cheekface has crafted a perfect protest album

Take this lyric from their new song "Discrete":

"I disagree with the government, yeah, I said it/What are you gonna do? Send 16 agents in a mask to put me in a van?/OK, what if I like being in a van? Bet you didn't think of that, did you?"

The Los Angeles trio's latest album is called "Podium," and it touches on everything from Immigration and Customs Enforcement roundups and government overreach to artificial intelligence to the routine sense of hopelessness many of us feel when confronted with a relentless stream of scary news.

From the dangers of AI to the threat of authoritarianism

What do we do when the boycotts aren't working? Cheekface captures that dryly and succinctly in the song "Black Site":

"I, I boycotted everything/Nothing got better/It only got worse/And now I don't know where to buy soap."

What if we're being tricked by AI or deepfakes? On "The Weather," lead vocalist Greg Katz sings: "I wonder if there's any fake content out there fooling me/No, I would never fall for it/I would never fall for it."

And again on "Black Site," with a propulsive rhythm that makes you want to dance while angry, Katz offers Cheekface's own song as a perfect choice for torturing prisoners held in secret government prisons: "If you're the last to leave, will you blow out the burning flags?/If you're the last to leave, would you put out the burning bill of rights?/When they lock me in a black site, here′s the music to put on/I would not want this place to burn down while I′m gone."

The lyrics are brilliant, both pointed and funny, and Katz speaks/sings them in a tone that captures the subtle sarcasm and frequent bemusement commonplace in our age of digital communication.

A truly independent band goes viral on TikTok

When I first heard and saw Cheekface, with the band's rhythmic pop and joyful, funny stage presence, it echoed back to the first time I heard and saw Talking Heads in the 1984 concert film "Stop Making Sense."

"This is so weird," I thought. "What is this amazing, groovy, funny, danceable thing I'm listening to? Who are these delightful people?"

Cheekface consists of Katz on vocals and guitar, his songwriting partner Mandy Tannen on bass and backup vocals, and Mark "Echo" Edwards on drums. They put their music out themselves; Tannen handles the graphic designs for the band's albums and merchandise and they proudly answer to no one but themselves and the band's welcoming community of fans, known as Cheek Freaks.

Recently, one of their older songs, "I Feel So Weird," was posted on TikTok, showing the eminently shareable nature of the band's music.

Most good songs are written around some kind of hook. Cheekface's songs tend to be all hooks, lyrically and musically. They've created a sound that is somehow 100% earworm.

'The infringement of politics on all aspects of everyone's life'

Not long ago, the band members turned down a commercial offer from a major telecommunications company because it didn't align with their values. Their music – clean, clear indie rock that bounces with influences ranging from 1980s hip-hop to punk to Motown – is made without samples or digital wizardry, and absolutely zero AI.

Before a recent show in Chicago, I sat down with the Cheekface trio to talk about their independence and their message of protest.

"We started writing music together, playing together, the three of us, not thinking that this was a project that anyone was going to hear," Katz said of the band's formation in 2017. "It was not one of those bands that you start being like, ‘We're going to get signed to Atlantic Records, and then we're going to headline Coachella, and we're gonna be famous like Bono.' It was three indie-band lifers who are just like, ‘All we know is playing in band, and so here we are playing in a band again.' "

The band members make no bones about "Podium" being a Trump-era protest album.

"It feels weird when you're writing about a nonpolitical topic in 2026, because the infringement of politics on all aspects of everyone's life is so obvious and so unavoidable," Katz said. "And that is kind of the purpose of fascist leadership, right? That's how fascism works. It's to control every aspect of your life. It's to invade every aspect of your life."

'Podium' shows the power of protest music you can dance to

Tannen said many of the songs on "Podium" were written when immigration raids and protests against ICE violence were happening throughout Los Angeles.

"It was scary, and we were angry," Tannen said. "And we formed the band around feeling so powerless about what was happening and not knowing what to do because protesting didn't seem to be working. Everything was like, ‘What do you do?' and ‘How do you use your own talents for good?' And for us, it was cathartic. It was like I felt so powerless, so let's put it down in a song."

That's easy to say, but putting feelings of anger and protest into music that's somehow fun and empowering is no easy task. That, to me, is where Cheekface threaded the needle.

Cheekface has brought protest music into the modern age

In January, Bruce Springsteen released a powerful protest song about federal agents killing Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. It's a great song, but it's haunting, heavy and reminiscent of 1960s protest music, the polar opposite of Cheekface's sound.

Certainly other musicians are weaving words of protest into their music these days, but few if any have managed to capture the "Wait, is this all really happening?" feeling so many of us share.

"You know, a lot of our lyrics, they're with humor, but there's an anger there," Tannen said. "It's just, let's do it in a way that's like, ‘Yeah, we can do it with a smile because we're enjoying playing music with our friends and making music,' but that anxiousness and anger that's in our everyday is also in our music."

It is. Cheekface is a wildly talented and truly affable, authentic band. They've held a mirror up to our present day and created a truly relevant protest album that says: "Well, s---, this is really messed up. This isn't fine. Let's acknowledge it. Let's stand up to it. And let's dance while we're at it."

Cheekface is currently on tour. You can find out more about the tour and other Cheekface stuff here: linktr.ee/cheekface.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: LA indie band Cheekface holds up a mirror to Trump's America | Opinion

Reporting by Rex Huppke, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect

This story was originally published October 14, 2026 at 3:02 AM.