Today, Monday, March 4th, Shabazz Palaces is sharing “Take Me To Your Leader” a Kraftwerk-esque jam featuring Ishmael Butler’s alter ego Lavarr the Starr, and is the closing track from Exotic Birds of Prey, his forthcoming seven-song mini-album.
Exotic… will be available on CD/LP/DSPs March 29th worldwide from Sub Pop, and is the follow-up to Robed in Rareness, his well-received album from October 2023. Robed is available now on DSPs but will also be available on CD/LP formats on March 29th, 2024.
Shabazz Palaces has announced European and UK dates in support of Robed in Rareness and Exotic Birds of Prey, which begin April 27th in Paris, France at Le Petit Bain and currently end May 22nd in Braga, PT at Gnration. Preceding these dates, Shabazz Palaces will also appear at My Morning Jacket’s “One Big Holiday” at Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya, April 4th-7th, 2024.
Sat. Apr. 27 - Paris, FR - Le Petit Bain Tue. Apr. 30 - Lille, FR - Aeronef Wed. May 01 - Brussels, BE - AB Club Thu. May 02 - Ramsgate, UK - Music Hall in Fri. May 03 - Dublin, IE - Sugar Club Sat. May 04 - Leeds, UK - Headrow House Sun. May 05 - Manchester, UK - YES Pink Room Mon. May 06 - Brighton, UK - Patterns Tue. May 07 - London, UK - Village Underground Thu. May 09 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso Sat. May 11 - Copenhagen, DK - Huset Sun. May 12 - Hamburg, DE - Turmzimmer Mon. May 13 - Berlin, DE - Frannz Club Tue. May 14 - Prague, CZ - Meet Factory Thu. May 16 - Geneva, CH - L’Usine Sun. May 19 - San Sebastian, ES - Dabadaba Mon. May 20 - Madrid, ES - Cafe Berlin Tue. May 21 - Lisbon, PT - B. Leza Wed. May 22 - Braga, PT - Gnration
Shabazz Palaces is masterminded by vocalist and producer Ismael Butler, whose unstinting drive to reimagine hip-hop – even as he enjoys his fifth decade on Earth – remains undimmed.
Exotic Birds of Prey furthers the modus operandi of its predecessor, Robed in Rareness – a respectful eye on the past, an embrace of an ever-evolving present, and its feet are firmly planted in the future. Where Robed… warped sounds like shoegaze and ambient music into the Shabazz Palaces multiverse, Exotic… cross-pollinates these elements with twisted electro and funk vibes.
This new endeavor features collaborations with the likes of Stas THEE Boss, Irene Barber, the aforementioned Lavarr the Starr, Japreme Magnetic, OC Notes, Cobra Coil, and Purple Tape Nate.
Exotic Birds of Prey was produced by Shabazz Palaces, mixed by Erik Blood, and engineered by Ishmael Butler and Blood at Studio4 West in Venice, California, with mastering by Warren Defever at Third Man Mastering.
Exotic Birds of Prey and Robed in Rareness are now available to preorder from Sub Pop. LP preorders for each release in North America from megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser Editions for Exotic Birds of Prey on Translucent White vinyl and Robed in Rareness on Translucent Ruby vinyl.
In the UK and Europe, LP orders from Mega Mart 2 (the new, UK-based sibling site to the world-famous Sub Pop Mega Mart) and independent retail stores will receive the Loser Editions for Exotic Birds of Prey on Cream White vinyl and Robed in Rareness on Red vinyl.
NPR Music called Robedin Rareness “Enchanting and subversive…” while Pitchfork offered this, “The futurism of Shabazz Palaces has always been interwoven with the past and present, their songs scintillating tapestries of old-school shit talk, proggy psychedelia, and melodic flossing. Robed in Rareness is draped in this multiplicity as Butler and a team of close collaborators swagger across eras of rap.”
Tracklisting 1. Exotic BOP (feat. Purple Tape Nate) 2. Angela (feat. Stas THEE Boss & Irene Barber) 3. Myths Of The Occult (feat. Japreme Magnetic) 4. Goat Me (feat. Cobra Coil) 5. Well Known Nobody (feat. OCnotes) 6. Synth Dirt 7. Take Me To Your Leader (feat. Lavarr the Starr)
Today, February 29th, Bully (aka Alicia Bognanno) has digitally released an intimate piano ballad entitled “Atom Bomb.”
Bognanno says, “The song was originally recorded with a drum machine and electric guitar; it was also quite a bit faster. When I played the demo for JT Daly (producer), he had the idea of moving it to the piano. I remember saying out loud, ‘Can you believe I’m trusting anybody like this?’ We both started laughing because starting off as someone who used to record, mix, and produce their own records to avoid the vulnerability that comes with working out creative ideas in the company of others, it was a huge step for me. That was our first real bonding moment, acknowledging that we were mutually up for trying new things and seeing each other’s ideas through before one of us shut it down.”
Bree Marie Fish directed the accompanying live video recorded and shot at MMK studios in Nashville, TN. Click HERE to watch.
This stand-alone track follows the release of Lucky For You, which garnered praise and notices from The New York Times, NPR Music,Rolling Stone, The FADER, Stereogum, Pitchfork, and more. Additionally, Bognanno recently contributed original music to the Apple TV show Buccaneers and was featured onMilitarie Gun’s recent song “Never Fucked Up Twice.”
Bully is currently on a tour of North America, performing in a rare solo setting while supporting Grouplove. The tour began last night in Seattle and ends on March 30th at Terminal Five in New York City. Please find a full list of dates below.
Thu. Feb. 29 - Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom # Sat. Mar. 02 - Oakland, CA - Fox Theater # Tue. Mar. 05 - San Diego, CA - The Observatory North Park # Wed. Mar. 06 - Anaheim, CA - House of Blues # Fri. Mar. 08 - Los Angeles, CA - Wiltern # Sat. Mar. 09 - Phoenix, AZ - The Van Buren # Mon. Mar. 11 - Salt Lake City, UT - The Van Buren # Tue. Mar. 12 - Aspen, CO - Belly Up Aspen # Wed. Mar. 13 - Denver, CO - Mission Ballroom # Fri. Mar. 15 - Saint Paul, MN - Palace Theatre # Sat. Mar. 16 - Chicago, IL - Riviera Theatre # Sun. Mar. 17 - Detroit, MI - Saint Andrew’s Hall # Tue. Mar. 19 - Columbus, OH - KEMBA Live! # Wed. Mar. 20 - Cincinnati, OH - Bogart’s # Fri. Mar. 22 - Pittsburgh, PA - Roxian Theatre# Sat. Mar. 23 - Philadelphia, PA - Franklin Music Hall # Mon. Mar. 25 - Richmond, VA - The National # Fri. Mar. 29 - Boston, MA - Roadrunner # SAT. Mar. 30 - New York City, NY - Terminal Five # Thu. Nov. 14 - London, UK - Electric Ballroom
# w/ GROUPLOVE
What People are saying about Bully’s Lucky For You: “The result is a confident, compelling record that reveals — and revels in — the softness behind the feedback and fuzz that continue to make Bully a force to be reckoned with (8/10).” -EXCLAIM!
“Alicia Bognanno’s fourth album is an open-hearted, anthemic career-best (Album of the Week).” - PASTE
“…Lucky For You is Bully’s best album yet, immediate and undeniable and kind of awe-inspiring in its complex simplicity (Album of the Week).” STEREOGUM
“‘Days Move Slow,’ from Alicia Bognanno’s grungy indie-rock project Bully, is a song about being caught in the muck of grief — but it also has a propulsive, bouncy energy that promises eventual forward motion. “There’s flowers on your grave that grow,” Bognanno sings in her signature holler, battling her buzzing guitar. “Something’s gotta change, I know.” - NEW YORK TIMES
“‘Days Move Slow’ is a punchy but poignant tune, an energetic and honest exploration of grief that Bully’s Alicia Bognanno wrote after the death of her dog, Mezzi.” - ROLLING STONE
“‘Days Move Slow’ is pristine Bully – sparking pop, but also working with a seismic edge… Retaining the anthemic bite she’s become known for, the sessions adding aspects of shoegaze, punk, and late 90s British guitar pop.” - CLASH
“‘Lose You’ attempts to reckon with the idea that even a love that seems like it’ll last forever isn’t necessarily immortal. Taking cues from late ’80s and ’90s shoegaze pioneers, the track is driven by a steadily, thumping beat that backdrops Bognanno’s fuzzed-out guitars: “Either way I’m gonna lose you,” she and Allison lament in harmony, before a ripper of a guitar solo near the song’s end.” - CONSEQUENCE
“The rasp in Alicia Bognanno’s voice makes everything she sings engaging and she uses the pain inherent in that croak to great effect on ‘Lose You’” - THE FADER
“With lashings of scuzz and slacker fire, it’s a guaranteed hit with Gen X and Z alike.” [“Lose You”] - GUITAR WORLD
“‘Lose You’ is a succinct grunge-pop tune woven with stark realizations.” - FLOOD
“Featuring fellow fuzz-rocker Sophie Allison, AKA Soccer Mommy, ‘Lose You’ is one of those tracks that is filled to the brim with pop hooks and crunchy guitar riffs. As Bully and Soccer Mommy trade harmonies, the banging backing track that supports them continuously ebbs and flows through different dynamics. The sound is always ecstatic, especially when a trippy guitar solo bubbles up from the ether.” - FAR OUT
“Her fourth album is perhaps her most candid yet, and it’s all the more triumphant for it.” - Upset
“Cherry-picked from the rich tapestry of alt-rock past… but all heart, specifically Alicia Bognanno’s torn, bleeding irresistible heart.” - Classic Rock
“More layers and nuance than ever before… magnificently raw.” - Record Collector
Pissed Jeans is sharing the Joe Stakun-directed official video for “Cling to a Poisoned Dream,” a bruising meditation of harsh truths, and a highlight from their excellent sixth album Half Divorced, out this Friday, March 1st, worldwide on Sub Pop.
The twelve songs on Half Divorced skewer the tension between youthful optimism and the sobering realities of adulthood. Pissed Jeans’ – Matt Korvette (vocals), Bradley Fry (guitar), Randy Huth (bass), and Sean McGuinness (drums) – notorious acerbic sense of humor remains sharper than ever as they dismember some of the joys that contemporary adult life has to offer.
Half Divorced has earned praise from the likes of MOJO (★★★★), and UNCUT. In their 8/10 review, the latter says, “Almost 20 years on, this lot are still kicking against the pricks with their ferocious hybrid of (post-) punk, hardcore and sludgy grunge. Track titles here such as ‘Anti-Sapio’ and ‘Cling to a Poisoned Dream’ suggest their view of the status quo remains brutally realistic, but as always it’s leavened with tunefulness and dark humour. Matt Korvette is a misanthropic force of nature, whether ticking off the negatives of cities from Boston to Rome (‘Everywhere Is Bad’) or addressing adult responsibility (‘Helicopter Parent’). ’80s hardcore rules, as on closer ‘Moving On,’ which taps Bob Mould’s chiming intensity, but PJ throw it off course, notably on Killing Joke-esque epic ‘Junktime.’” Meanwhile, God Is In the TV says the album’s “…throttling compulsion and an undeniable lightness of being make for a winning combination,” and Record Collector succinctly adds “It’s a corker.”
Half Divorced was produced and mixed by Pissed Jeans and Don Godwin and engineered by Mike Petillo at Tonal Park in Takoma Park, Maryland, and mastered by Arthur Rizk (co-producer and mixer for Why Love Now).
Half Divorced is available to preorder from Sub Pop. Preorders in North America from megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser Edition on Spotify-Colored vinyl (otherwise known as an opaque lime green…). In the UK and Europe, LP orders from independent retail stores will receive the Loser Edition on Coke Bottle Green vinyl. A UK-only Magenta vinyl edition will also be available to preorder through Mega Mart 2 (the new, UK-based sibling site to the world-famous Sub Pop Mega Mart) and Rough Trade Shops. All colored vinyl versions are available while stock lasts.
Pissed Jeans’ previously announced international tour dates in support of Half Divorced span Friday, February 29th through April 4th. More live dates will be announced soon.
Thu. Feb. 29 - Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios Fri. Mar. 01 - Seattle, WA - Madame Lou’s Sat. Mar. 02 - Los Angeles, CA - The Echo Fri. Mar. 15 - Philadelphia, PA - Underground Sat. Mar. 16 - Brooklyn, NY - St. Vitus Fri. Mar. 29 - Schijndel, NL - Paaspop Festival Sat. Mar. 30 - London, UK - EartH (aka Hackney Arts Centre) Sun. Mar. 31 - Manchester, UK - Manchester Punk Fest Tue. Apr. 02 - Glasgow, UK - Stereo Wed. Apr. 03 - Dublin, IE - Whelan’s Thu. Apr. 04 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Social Club
Next week, Pissed Jeans will host an hourlong takeover of NTS Radio on Friday, March 8th (noon EST). Pissed Jeans Half Divorced
Tracklisting: 1. Killing All the Wrong People 2. Anti-Sapio 3. Helicopter Parent 4. Cling to a Poisoned Dream 5. Sixty-Two Thousand Dollars in Debt 6. Everywhere Is Bad 7. Junktime 8. Alive With Hate 9. Seatbelt Alarm Silencer 10. (Stolen) Catalytic Converter 11. Monsters 12. Moving On
Sometimes music seems to come from an undefinable source, appearing in your mind as though sent from a place outside of yourself. Other times it comes from your friend’s brain while you are sitting right next to them, and it still somehow feels like your own.
haha same, the new project from Greta Kline of Frankie Cosmos and Cody Fitzgerald of Stolen Jars, is an effortless collaboration between friends. Filled with warmth, energy, and just a tinge of darkness, their singles “Guess What To Do” and “Calling It A Night” are a true mix of their distinct musical styles. Fitzgerald’s indie-pop production style marries perfectly with Kline’s particular lyrical sensibility, grasping for an understanding of the world at large by focusing in on the smallest moments. It all comes together to give haha same a sound all their own.
“A word that kept coming up when we talked about collaborating was ‘easy’,” says Kline of the songwriting process, “we bounced sonic ideas around and got excited about little details. Sometimes Cody would be laying down a part in the song and I’d be sitting on the floor with his dog Moon, writing lyrics. Then we kind of unfolded the stories behind the songs together, asking questions and clarifying the meanings behind each line.”
“Yeah exactly,” notes Fitzgerald, “over the course of a couple hours these songs felt like they had fallen out of our brains fully formed. At the end of the day, these songs are about extremely particular, but very relatable moments in life. So just like we did when we were writing them, we hope that everyone who listens to them will have that same moment of recognition and maybe even find themselves saying the words ‘haha same.’”
En Attendant Ana is a Paris-based indie pop band formed in 2014 and known for their jangly guitars, catchy hooks, layered melodies and poetic lyrics that gravitate around Margaux Bouchaudon’s vocals. They burst onto the international scene with their debut album Lost and Found on Chicago’s Trouble in Mind label, which led to a U.S. tour in 2018.
Their second album Juillet has a similar energy, but sees the band make an artistic shift from the lo-fi references of their debut to more sophisticated songwriting. Released just before the lock-down, the album was critically acclaimed but never got the chance to be fully presented live by the band, who are known for their raw, emotional, captivating, and honest live performances.
In 2023, En Attendant Ana (Margaux Bouchaudon, Camille Fréchou, Maxence Tomasso, Vincent Hivert et Adrien Pollin) returned with a third album entitled Principia, widely considered their best work to date, which saw them travel the world on an impressive world tour. The album, said to nod to ’90s British indie, jazz, Krautrock and French pop, has been very well received, both by the media, who have placed Principia on numerous year-end lists (here’s TIME…), and by the band’s ever-growing audience. Here at Sub Pop we’re altogether crazy about them.
En Attendant Ana’s UK tour schedule for 2024 begins Tuesday, April 2nd in Kalsruhe, DE at Kohl, and runs through June 14th in Southend, UK at Twenty-One Arts. A full list of dates are below.
Tue. Apr. 02 - Kalsruhe, DE - Kohl Wed. Apr. 03 - Stuttgart, DE - Merlin Thu. Apr. 04 - Nuremberg, DE - Soft Spot Fri. Apr. 05 - Berlin, DE - Schokoladen Sat. Apr. 06 - Hannover, DE - Feinkost Lampe Sun. Apr. 07 - Hambourg, DE - Nachtasyl Mon. Apr. 09 - Amsterdam, NL - Toekomstmuziek Wed. Apr. 11 - Liège, BE - Kultura Fri. May 17 - Brighton, UK - The Great Escape (One Church) Sat. May 18 - Brighton, UK - The Great Escape (Patterns) Sun. May 19 - Coventry, UK -Just Dropped In Records Mon. May 20 - Newcastle, UK - Cumberland Arms Tue. May 21 - Hull, UK - Polar Bear Music Club Wed. May 22 - Glasgow, UK - Mono Thu. May 23 - Liverpool, UK - Kazimier Stockroom Fri. May 24 - London, UK - Dot to Dot Party (Oslo) Sat. May 25 - Bristol, UK - Dot to Dot festival Sun. May 26 - Nottingham, UK - Dot to Dot festival Fri. Jun. 14 - Southend, UK - Twenty-One Arts
You can still subscribe to the Sub Pop Singles Club Vol. 8 to get all twelve super-limited 7” vinyl records featuring exclusive music by today’s finest musicians! It’s limited to a mere 835 subscriptions because it’s volume 8, and 2023 marked Sub Pop’s 35th birthday! You’ll get the aforementioned 7”s from En Attendant Ana and haha same, along with singles from Mary Jane Dunphe, Vanishing Twin, SUNN O))), Telehealth, Thrash Palace (feat. EMA, Vice Cooler, Sarah Register), Gaye Su Akyol, Jessica Winter & Jonathan Snipes, Margaritas Podridas, Brontez Purnell, and Suki Waterhouse (which includes her collaboration with Belle & Sebastian).
Computer users: fear not! You will also get digital downloads of the tracks through your Sub Pop Mega Mart account. Hear music from the series via the Singles Club playlist, and subscribe here.
On May 24th, Australian group Girl and Girl will release their debut full-length, Call A Doctor, on CD/LP/DSP via Virgin Australia (AU/NZ) and Sub Pop (ROW.) The album is the full-length follow-up to Girl and Girl’s 2023 digital release Divorce +, an eight-track EP that featured the standout singles “All I See” and “Dance Now.”
Call A Doctor is an unforgettable first bow from Girl and Girl, an audacious and aggressively tuneful blast of a record from this Australian four-piece garage rock outfit. The band is comprised of frontperson Kai James (singer, guitarist) and his Aunty Liss (drums), along with longtime friends Jayden Williams (guitar) and Fraser Bell (bass). Call A Doctor was recorded at Sundowner Sound in Melbourne, a two-story industrial complex where the band ate, slept, and made music in marathon sessions for two weeks straight with producer Burke Reid (Courtney Barnett, Julia Jacklin).
To celebrate the launch of their new forthcoming long player, the band is sharing an official videofor their lead single, “Hello,” from director Tayla Lauren.
The band’s front person, Kai James, shares this about the single: “‘Hello’ is the story of a young man who requires daily consults with health professionals in order to rationalise his self-destructive thoughts and routines. It’s about romanticizing your own misery. Letting those deep, dark, dirty thoughts take over. Understanding that even if you could pull yourself out, you wouldn’t because the constant stress and worry are all too familiar and comfortable.”
Girl and Girl have also announced North American & Australian tour dates, with additional appearances at Eurokennees in France and End of the Road in the UK. The band will appear at SXSW in March before heading home for the Hello Australia Tour in April. In late April, the band heads back to the States for a North American tour supporting fellow Aussies Royel Otis. See below for a full list of shows.
Wed. Mar. 13 - Austin, TX - SXSW Thu. Mar. 14 - Austin, TX - SXSW Fri. Mar. 15 - Austin, TX - SXSW Sat. Mar. 16 - Austin, TX - SXSW Thur. Apr. 04 - Gold Coast, QLD - Mo’s Desert Clubhouse Fri. Apr, 05 - Sunshine Coast, QLD - Sol Bar Sat. Apr. 06 - Brisbane, QLD - Black Bear Lodge Fri. Apr. 12 - Melbourne, VIC - The Tote Sat. Apr. 13 - Sydney, NSW - Lansdowne Sun. Apr. 14 - Wollongong, NSW - La La Las Tue. Apr. 23 - St. Paul, MN - Amsterdam Bar & Hall * WED. Apr. 24 - Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall * Fri. Apr. 26 - Toronto, ON - Longboat Hall * Sar. Apr. 27 - Columbus, OH - A&R Music Bar * Sun. Apr. 28 - Cleveland Heights, OH - Grog Shop * Tue. Apr. 30 - New York, NY - Racket * Wed. May 01 - New York, NY - Racket * Thu. May 02 - Philadelphia, PA - Theater For The Living Arts * Fri. May 03 - Washington, DC - The Howard * Sat. May 04 - Carrboro, NC - Cats Cradle * Wed. May 08 - Austin, TX - The Parish * Thu. May 09 - Denton, TX - Rubber Gloves * Sat. May 11 -Denver, CO - The Perplexiplex at Meow Wolf * Wed. May 15 - Phoenix, AZ - Rebel Lounge * Thu. May 16 - Hollywood, CA - The Fonda Theater * Fri. May 17 - Santa Barbara, CA - Soho Restaurant & Music Club * Sat. May 18 - San Francisco, CA - Rickshaw Stop * Mon. May 20 - Portland, OR - The Aladdin Theater * Tue. May 21 - Vancouver, BC - Fox Cabaret * Wed. May 22 - Seattle, WA - Neptune Theater * Thu. Jul. 04 - Cravanche, FR - Les Eurokennees Fri. Jul. 05 - Cravanche, FR - Les Eurokennees Sat. Jul. 06- Cravanche, FR - Les Eurokennees Sun. Jul. 07- Cravanche, FR - Les Eurokennees Thu. Aug. 29 - Dorset, UK - End Of The Road Fri. Aug. 30 - Dorset, UK - End Of The Road Sat. Aug. 31 - Dorset, UK -End Of The Road Sun. Sep. 01 - Dorset, UK -End Of The Road
* w/ Royel Otis
Call A Doctor is available to preorder now on CD/LP/DSPs from Sub Pop. LP preorders from megamart.subpop.com, select independent retailers (US), select independent retail stores (EU/UK) & Mega Mart 2 (the new, UK-based sibling site to the world-famous Sub Pop Mega Mart) will receive the Loser Edition on White vinyl. All colored vinyl versions are available while stock lasts.
About Girl and Girl’s Call A Doctor: In one sense, it’s easy for artists—songwriters, specifically—to express their feelings in their work. After all, that’s what the lyrics are for! But it’s much harder to convey emotional energy in how you play, slash at the guitar, and the structure of the music itself. That’s precisely why Girl and Girl’s Sub Pop debut, Call A Doctor, feels like such a vital, electrifying shock to the senses. Not since the early work of Car Seat Headrest or Conor Oberst’s widescreen emotional brutality as Bright Eyes has indie rock managed to come across as this intimate and grandiose, as the Australian quartet led by Kai James lay a lifetime’s worth of woes—mental health, the human race’s planned obsolescence if you’ve been living on this cursed rock you know what we’re getting at—across a canvas of indie rock that feels both timeless and in-the-moment.
An audacious and aggressively tuneful blast of a record, Call A Doctor is an unforgettable first bow from Girl and Girl, whose origins lie in James and guitarist Jayden Williams jamming in his mother’s garage in the afternoon after school. One afternoon, James’ Aunty Liss headed down to their practice space after walking her dog and asked if she could sit in on drums. “It sounded really great,” James recalls. “We begged her to stay, and she said, ‘I’ll stay until you find another drummer.’ We wore her down, and she eventually became a permanent member.”
After bassist Fraser Bell joined to round things out, Girl and Girl hit the road and began to make a name for themselves beyond the Australian bush, eventually signing to Sub Pop off the strength of word of mouth. Call A Doctor came together quickly soon after, largely recorded in marathon sessions in a two-story industrial complex over the course of two weeks. “That added to the intensity of the album,” James says about the frenzied creative process overseen by producer Burke Reid. “I can hear the stress in the record, which is good because that’s what it’s about—being tense, tied up, and in your own head.”
Call A Doctor’s eleven songs—spanning sweeping guitar epics and wry acoustic shuffles to spiky punk maneuvers and the type of raw, adoringly unvarnished indie-pop associated with legendary PacNW label K Records—are literally plucked from James’ personal history, as he reworked older recordings with newer lyrics reflecting his past struggles as well as new anxieties that emerged prior to the album’s recording. “I’ve struggled with mental health for a lot of my life,” he explains, “and I went through a particularly difficult patch when we were making the album; the band had started to get some attention, and I felt an enormous amount of pressure to live up to it.”
Far from the sound of collapsing under pressure, Call A Doctor finds James and Co. stepping up with their entire collective chest. This is a record that’s so out-and-out alive that you nearly feel like you’re in the same room with Girl and Girl as you listen to it; lead single “Hello” practically bursts through the speakers, amplified by Aunty Liss’ unbelievable stickhandling duties. “‘Hello’ is all about romanticizing your own misery. Letting those deep, dark, dirty thoughts take over. Understanding that even if you could pull yourself out, you wouldn’t because the constant stress and worry is far too familiar and comfortable.”
“Mother” pogos on a spiky groove that’s reminiscent of the geographically close New Zealanders who make up the legendary Flying Nun label, while “Oh Boy” draws from the Shins’ own jangly sound, injected with James’ wonderfully nervy vocals. Then there’s Call A Doctor’s sorta-centerpiece “Maple Jean and the Anthropocene,” a five-minute epic offering a new perspective on climate change and the notion of what it means, in a personal sense, to suffer: “I live in the bushland, and I was driving home one night and hit and killed a wallaby with my car,” James recalls while discussing the song’s lyrical inspiration. “My first thought was, ‘What is the universe trying to tell me?’ No remorse, no guilt, just total self-centeredness. Which was like, Woah, you fucking psychopath! This wallaby wasn’t put on this earth to send you a message. That’s what the song is about, our egocentric species - thinking you’re the main character and that everything that happens is somehow about you.”
“This record is about an individual who’s too far in their head, trying to get out,” James continues while discussing Call A Doctor’s overall outlook—specifically the snapshot it offers of its creator. But even though this record deals with uneasy topics we all know well from within ourselves, it’s important to emphasize how teeming with life Girl and Girl’s music is. There’s a brazen, bold sense of humor to this stuff, an undeniable brightness to the darkness that makes it impossible not to be drawn in as a listener. Feeling down never sounded so goddamn good.
Track Listing: 1. INTRO 2. Call A Doctor 3. Hello 4. Maple Jean and the Anthropocene 5. Oh Boy! 6. Suffocate 7. Mother 8. You’ll Be Alright 9. Comfortable Friends 10. Our Love (Ours Only) 11. OUTRO
