Tear a piece of this and
shove it hard into your mouth
A lilylicker sounds like a particularly devoted suck-up, someone whose admiration has become a full-time occupation. Put the word beside Oscar Wilde’s fascination with actresses Lillie Langtry and Sarah Bernhardt, and a whole society of worshippers comes into view: flowers, flattery, beautiful women placed upon pedestals. Wilde was a cunning linguist, of course, though Patriarchy have a few suggestions about putting that talent to more practical use. The lily remains a lovely flower, of course, though its innocence becomes somewhat harder to maintain once somebody starts licking it.
The Los Angeles snuff-pop duo of Actually Huizenga and AJ English, otherwise known as The Drummer, premieres the video for Lilylicker, taken from their new EP, Appendices. Written and produced by Huizenga and English, the song takes its initial inspiration from Wilde’s devotion to those celebrated performers, then puts the woman receiving all that attention in charge of the proceedings.
A menacing bass synth and a blunt kick drum set the terms, leaving Actually’s near-whispered vocal close enough to feel conspiratorial. Her poetic purr slips between the beats before the track opens into a metallic industrial-techno rhythm, bringing the hard physicality of ’90s industrial into contact with contemporary darkwave. The bass keeps its grip while crushed guitars tear through the chorus, making the move from intimate persuasion to open command feel deliciously abrupt.
The words play a similar game. Wanting to be liked becomes wanting to be licked; affection, appetite, and obedience get tangled in the same exchange. Actually moves from seeking approval to prescribing exactly how it should be delivered, with an impatience that gives the song its humor. For all the literary ancestry, the central proposition is straightforward: admiration should have practical applications.
Directed by Patriarchy and shot by Hazel Hill McCarthy, the video makes that business of putting people on pedestals unusually literal. Figures revolve on small platforms against an almost uninterrupted black background, their costumes and gestures exposed by direct light. Actually appears in a white gown holding lilies, in a pale pink dress draped with chains, and in a metallic corset with enormous gold wings and a guitar. English handles a skull while wearing little white wings; their young son appears in family tableaux and as a cherub perched on a classical column. The arrangements suggest devotional statues brought to life by people with their own ideas about sainthood.
There is an affectionate absurdity to these living ornaments. The solemn poses give way to movement, expressions change, and the family portrait keeps interrupting the fantasy of immaculate statuary. Against all that black space, the slightest human detail becomes conspicuous. Even the insects have supporting roles.
The setting came about through necessity. According to the band, the owner of their original studio location objected to the proposed content and the presence of their son, who was also appearing in the video. With the shoot abruptly displaced, the crew relocated to the Angeles woods and rethought the production outdoors. Huizenga subsequently edited the footage “happily alone and for many hours,” describing editing as “one of my secret pleasures.”
“I decided not to retouch anything either. So all razor bumps, dark circles, cellulite, and sock lines are fully visible if you wish to judge me physically… I had a baby, so kill me! The boys are perfect though. A lot of the things that went ‘wrong’ ultimately added to the beauty of it, like having to shoot outside, where moths kept flying in front of our lenses, drawn in by the bright lights”
For Huizenga, leaving those imperfections intact also connects to Patriarchy’s larger, apocalyptic view of power:
“Patriarchy has never been about perfection, it’s about realizing we are the last remnants of human existence before AI enslaves us all; that’s why the project is called Patriarchy after all, patriarchy is the final human ruling order. Our next masters wont be women or men or human in any form, so we need to embrace our chaos and imperfections while we can.”
Watch the video for Lilylicker below:
Released in the wilting days of this past Summer, Appendices brings together five songs developed across different periods of the band’s life, reaching back to The Unself sessions and forward through the aftermath of 2025’s Manual For Dying. These recordings have survived abandoned versions, rewrites, and changes substantial enough to turn industrial tracks into orchestral ballads and minimal synth into metal. Alongside Lilylicker, the EP includes Bite Marks, Servile, Ode (to an Apprehensive Tyrant), and Hate Fuck, with additional production and mixing contributions across the record from Ben Chisolm and Matia Simovich.
Huizenga’s reading supplies another connection between these otherwise unruly songs. Wilde, Marchesa Luisa Casati, Emperor Tiberius, and the Manson family furnish starting points for examinations of sexuality, submission, obsession, and violence. Across three full-length albums, a live record, and numerous remixes, Patriarchy have pursued those interests through industrial electronics, synth-pop, metal, and performance art. Appendices also documents Huizenga and English becoming an increasingly self-contained production team, with Lilylicker pointing toward the club without surrendering their taste for theatrical excess.
That appetite for the personal and the unruly carries into Actually’s Sex and the Pity, Huizenga’s new podcast and livestream concept, whose pilot is announced for this Friday at 10 p.m. Pacific. Pitched as Elvira meeting Gore Vidal, it promises secret guests, fireside conversation, and previously untold stories from Patriarchy’s tours and beyond, forming a living journal for a future film project.
“I can only really seem to recount these hilarious stories properly when I’m talking one-on-one with a cute gay at a party; so I’m gonna try to recreate that free-form energy for the podcast.”
Listen to Lilylicker below and order the Appendices EP here.
Follow Patriarchy:
Or via: