“There is no planet B.” A simple but powerful phrase. While it’s unclear where it originated, it has been a common slogan for environmentalists across the world since long before joining the Gizzverse canon. As Earth warms and thresholds are broken, the consequences will be, and already are, deadly. Ocean levels are rising to displace those living near the coasts, our ability to grow crops is getting more and more restricted, trillions of gallons of water have evaporated from rivers and basins, and the increasing heat continues to take the lives of more and more people. Meanwhile, factories pump out CO2 like it’s nothing, hunters and farmers kill animals for food and sport and we build cities and developments over forests, deserts and plains. Earth as a planet is extraordinarily unique — the only known planet in the universe to host any life, yet one we gradually destroy out of greed and desire. One might argue that there are other places humanity could go. Perhaps an exoplanet like Kepler-22b is capable of hosting life, or maybe Mars? However, even these have major caveats that make it hard to say they’re viable options; even if humanity can survive off Earth, would it be worth it knowing what we gave up? The truth is we’re all alone. This is our home. There is no planet B. This idea of mass suffering and environmental instability here on Earth is the foundation for the first song from Infest the Rats’ Nest, simply titled “Planet B.”
“Planet B” was a real turning point for King Gizzard. Metal had been a part of the lives of Stu, Joey and Cavs, and while they dabbled in some metal tendencies on Nonagon Infinity and Gumboot Soup, it was this song that provided the idea to go further. In a 2020 Reddit AMA, Stu wrote “I didn't think we would ever make a thrash album until we wrote ‘Planet B.’ It was a light bulb moment and ended up inspiring the whole record.”
A barebones demo for the song (released on Demos Vol. 1: Music To Kill Bad People To) features a drum machine and some distorted guitars at a slower pace. The form is mostly there, barring the bridge, but the song features different lyrics that are obscured by the instrumental. Notably, it ends with a unique phrase that doesn’t make it to the studio version, “there is one Planet B” — perhaps alluding to Mars’ role within the story of Infest the Rats’ Nest. The creation of the song in the studio is detailed in the documentary RATTY which shows the band struggling to get the song down, with Joey stating “this song’s fucked” and Stu remarking on how the song makes him feel tense. The final song was performed by only Stu (vocals/guitar), Joey (bass) and Cavs (drums).
A music video would be released on April 8th, 2019, with a single releasing on the 14th. The first directed by John Angus Stewart, it starts with bold red words on a black background spelling the band name and song title while the band is heard barking like dogs. It then cuts to them on an old airfield in orange shirts and pants with white sneakers, eerily smiling and dancing around during the middle of the day. About halfway through, during the song’s break, a white Mitsubishi Lancer pulls up and out comes a bald woman referred to as Zagan (played by Katherine Grinlaw). Aiming a shotgun, she shoots Cook, splattering blood onto Stu’s face. As the band runs away, she then shoots Eric, Cavs and Joey. Ambrose voluntarily lies on the ground and is shot dead, with Lucas pretending to play jump rope before meeting the same fate. At dusk Stu sits in the middle of the tarmac, arms outstretched, and is shot. At night, illuminated by the headlights of the Lancer, the band’s bodies are put into a pile where Zagan douses them in gasoline, lights a match and throws it at them. The video was released at the same time the band was promoting their album Fishing For Fishies. In fact the video for that album’s title track was released only a month prior. The contrast couldn’t be stronger.
In a Flightless newsletter the video’s plot was described like so: “Standing in the final moments of civilization, the offerers repent. Through their rituals they summon Zagan, a president of Hell. Zagan, wearing the meat suit of a woman grants them a safe passage into the vestibule of hell. Using a Mitsubishi Lancer and a sawn off shotgun she performs her last rights opening the gateway to hedies.” Later in an interview with KEXP’s Cheryl Waters, Stu said that the theme throughout the videos for Infest were based on humanity’s uncaring attitude towards the natural world. “The interesting thing about humans is that we are kind of going down laughing at the moment, and we’re having a good time as we go down, and I think that was the main, general theme for all of the videos.” He would share a similar sentiment in the previously mentioned Reddit AMA. The video would be referenced on the posters for their shows on 2019-07-05 and 2019-08-24.
Two versions of the song have been released. The single version features two drum parts played over each other to create a heavier rhythm section. The final version, released on August 16th, has only one drum part with an added higher-pitched guitar part before the verses.
“Planet B” was debuted live on 2019-06-26 during a surprise show at Howler in Naarm (Melbourne). Since then, the track has been in regular rotation. Deviating little from the studio version, the song’s only notable change has been a longer drum break before the bridge. A rendition of the song from 2019-06-28 would appear in the video Live at the Forum Melbourne, where it was originally mis-labeled as having taken place in April. This was a test run for their concert film Chunky Shrapnel, where a performance from 2019-10-05 would also appear.
Lucas noted that it was one of the most taxing songs he ever had to learn due to its speed picking.