JAPANESE BREAKFAST PLAYING PITCHFORK'S JUAN'S BASEMENT
STREAMING LIVE ON MONDAY JUNE 11TH AT 1 PM EST
Photo Credit: Joyce Jude
Japanese Breakfast will be appearing on Pitchfork's performance and interview series Juan's Basement at 1 PM EST on Monday June 11th. Following the set, fans will be able to ask questions via Facebook that will be answered during the interview. It will be streamed live on Facebook,YouTube and Pitchfork.com.
Japanese Breakfast is on tour now, that includes dates with Belle & Sebastian and stops at the Pitchfork Music Festival, Panorama and Austin City Limits. All dates below.
Soft Sounds From Another Planet, Japanese Breakfast's critically acclaimed 2017 album, is out now via Dead Oceans.
TOUR DATES:
6/14 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Spirit #
6/15 - Cincinnati, OH @ Taft Theatre Ballroom #
6/16 - St Louis, MO @ The Ready Room #
6/17 - Kansas City, MO @ The Record Bar #
6/19 - Denver, CO @ Ogden Theater ~
6/20 - Sundance, UT @ Sundance Amphitheater ~
6/21 - Las Vegas, NV @ The Bunkhouse Saloon
6/22 - San Diego, CA @ The Observatory North Park ~
6/23 - Pomona, CA @ The Glass House
6/25 - Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater ~
6/26 - San Rafael, CA @ Terrapin Crossroads
6/28 - Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theatre ~
6/29 - Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theatre ~
6/30 - Portland, OR @ Oregon Zoo Amphitheater~
7/12 - Dennis, MA @ Cape Cinema
7/13 - Burlington, VT @ ArtsRiot
7/14 - Porstmouth, NH @ 3S Artspace
7/15 - Kingston, NY @ BSP Kingston
7/16 - Rochester, NY @ The Bug Jar ^
7/18 - Toronto, ON @ The Phoenix ^
7/19 - Grand Rapids, MI @ The Pyramid Scheme ^
7/20 - Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall ^
7/22 - Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival
7/24 - Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom ^
7/28 - New York, NY @ Panorama Music Festival
8/10-11 - Waynesville, OH @ Bellwether Music Festival
9/12 - Columbus, OH @ Skully's *
9/13 - Bloomington, IN @ The Bishop *
9/14 - DeKalb, IL @ The House Cafe *
9/16 - Madison, WI @ Majestic Theater *
9/17-22 - Lincoln, NE @ Lincoln Calling
9/18 - Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line *
9/19 - Iowa City, IA @ The Mill *
9/23 - Boise, ID @ Neurolux *
9/25 - Seattle, WA @ The Neptune Theatre *
10/2 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda *
10/3 - Mesa, AZ @ The Nile *
10/5-7 - Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits
10/12-14 - Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits
# w/ Half Waif
~ w/ Belle & Sebastian
^ w/ Mothers
* w/ Ought
ABOUT JAPANESE BREAKFAST:
"The title Soft Sounds From Another Planet alludes to the promise of something that may or may not be there. Like a hope in something more. The songs are about human resilience and the strength it takes to claw out of the darkest of spaces."
Michelle Zauner wrote the debut Japanese Breakfast album in the weeks after her mother died of cancer, thinking she would quit music entirely once it was done. That wasn't the case. WhenPsychopomp was released to acclaim in 2016, she was forced to confront her grief. Zauner would find find herself reliving traumatic memories multiple times a day during interviews, trying to remain composed while discussing the most painful experience of her life. Her sophomore album, Soft Sounds From Another Planet, is a transmutation of mourning, a reflection that turns back on the cosmos in search of healing.
"I want to be a woman of regimen," Zauner sings over a burbling synth on the album's opening track "Diving Woman." This serves as Zauner's mission statement: stick to the routine lest you get derailed, don't cling to the past, don't descend. In fact, ascend to the stars; Zauner found artistic solace removed from Earth, in outer space and science fiction. "I used the theme as a means to disassociate from trauma," she explains. "Space used as a place of fantasy."
And yet, Soft Sounds From Another Planet isn't a concept album. Over the course of 12 tracks, Zauner explores an expansive thematic universe, a cohesive outpouring of unlike parts structured to create a galaxy of her own design. In the instrumental "Planetary Ambience," synths communicate the way extraterrestrials might, and on the shapeshifting single "Machinist," which Zauner has been performing live for over a year now, she details the sci-fi narrative of a woman falling in love with a machine. "It's pure fiction," she explains, "But it can map onto real relationships in a relevant way." The track, which begins with spoken-word ambience, moves into autotune '80s pop bliss and ends with a sultry saxophone solo, perfectly marries the experience: there's a perceptible humanity in mechanical, bodily events.
Within its astral production, much of Soft Sounds From Another Planet stays grounded. "Road Head" is the last chest compression in attempt to resuscitate a doomed relationship, while the penultimate track "This House" is an acoustic dirge that honors Zauner's chosen family. The baroque pop "Boyish" has a haunting, crystalline clarity that recalls the pathos of a Roy Orbison ballad, while "Body is a Blade" embraces the dark intimacy of Zauner's Pacific Northwest heroes Elliott Smith and Mount Eerie.
With help from co-producer Craig Hendrix (who also co-produced Little Big League's debut) and Jorge Elbrecht, (Ariel Pink, Tamaryn) who mixed the album, Zauner recontextualizes her bedroom pop beginnings, expanding and maturing her sound. The sheer massiveness of the big room production onSoft Sounds From Another Planet introduces listeners to a new Japanese Breakfast. Zauner's familiar, capacious voice will serve as their guide.
"Your body is a blade that moves while your brain is writhing," she sings. "Knuckled under pain you mourn but your blood is flowing." There's discernible pain in the phrasing, Zauner recognizing limitation, a lack of control, but then subverting the feeling, creating her own musical language for confronting trauma. Where Psychopomp introduced the world to Japanese Breakfast, Soft Soundsdives deeper. It builds space where there is none, and suggests that in the face of tragedy, we find ways to keep on living.
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JAPANESE BREAKFAST
SOFT SOUNDS FROM ANOTHER PLANET
DEAD OCEANS
JULY 14, 2017
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