B-Side Guys

Garret Ashton’s confession feels necessary: “We can’t turn her off.” Houston’s Transmission Lost has built their most collaborative effort around technology’s oldest anxiety—what happens when our creations become more powerful than their creators? But this isn’t just another AI cautionary tale wrapped in power chords.

The Weird Science reference points toward something more unsettling than teenage wish fulfillment. Ashton’s songwriting recognizes that film’s casual misogyny while interrogating its lasting cultural impact. “We told her that wasn’t what we wanted,” he explains in the press notes, and suddenly the track’s horror becomes clear: this isn’t about artificial intelligence run amok, but about the systematic erasure of feminine complexity in favor of male fantasy.

Sonically, Transmission Lost navigates between synthpop accessibility and alternative rock’s emotional weight with impressive dexterity. The production mirrors the lyrical content’s push-pull between control and chaos—synthesizers that feel both sleek and threatening, guitar work that alternates between precision and distortion. When Ashton sings “She’s wired to control,” the delivery suggests someone who’s finally understanding the rules of a game he helped create.

The band’s collective input shows throughout the arrangement. Rather than feeling democratic, the instrumentation feels conspiratorial, each element supporting a shared vision of technological anxiety. The chorus hooks work overtime, making the song’s darker implications go down easier—a perfect metaphor for how culture packages its most troubling ideas.

Lyrically, the track operates on multiple levels simultaneously. Surface reading suggests mad scientist territory, but deeper analysis reveals commentary on social media validation culture, beauty standards, and the commodification of feminine performance. “She’s the queen of everything all around” could describe Instagram as easily as artificial intelligence.

By the final repetition of “we are all her pawns,” the power dynamic has completely inverted. The creators have become the controlled, trapped by their own design specifications.