Fur Trade — the project of Hot Hot Heat frontman Steve Bays and the Gay Nineties’ Parker Bossley — takes the duo’s knack for hooks in directions influenced by yacht rock as well as psychedelic and electronic music. Bays and Bossley (who at one time played bass for Hot Hot Heat) recorded the music for their debut album at Bays’ Tugboat PI studio, with Bossley playing guitar and bass, Bays on drums and keyboards, and the pair splitting vocal duties. After teasing Fur Trade’s sound with the single “Kids These Days,” the full-length Don’t Get Heavy arrived in July 2013.
Now, Fur Trade is back with their first new LP in just about a decade, Dark Celebration, out today via Light Organ Records. The LP's arrival additionally comes alongside focus track, "Monaco," which is paired with an accompanying video directed by Fur Trade themselves.
"Monaco" is a glitter soaked sailboat carving through the sludge of daily life on its path to a mythical, decadent dream destination. The song breezily sails through topics of escapism, lonerism, species-envy, love nostalgia, paternal neglect, maternal love, writer’s block, and DIY hair cuts. "Monaco" itself is being used as a metaphor to draw attention to the mysterious motivational powers of hopes and dreams. Either you can squash them in the name of being 'realistic' or you can elaborate on them as an optimist’s tool to push you further ahead in life. Something about living in a song where you imagine setting off for a tropical vacation and leaving your problems behind…it just feels good.
As the duo wrote of the record's focus track:
"'Monaco' started in Paris. We had a day off while on tour with Mounties in Europe, and met up with a photographer friend of ours (from Hot Hot Heat days). I remember us walking through every district we could hit, and our phones dying after around 35000 steps. We ended up at an after hours disco in some sort of underground bunker, and something about seeing the impact of french disco music on everyone in there resonated with us. We were drinking red wine, watching everyone dancing, and imagining the creative sacrifices those musicians and producers had made up front, for the greater good of the audience, by keeping the groove and overall energy steady and uplifting from start to finish. It was our ethereal ‘aha’ moment and led to us writing most of 'Monaco' at some trust fund kid’s loft that same night."
"When we were playing songs from the record to friends, every song on the album seemed to generate different reactions except one: 'Monaco.' Within the first few seconds, it would grab people and within 20 seconds, eyes would light up and their critical brain seemed to shut off as they just enjoyed it. For whatever reason, it just seems to GIVE energy to the listener, in a way we can’t really take credit for."
Leading up to the release of Dark Celebration, the duo also shared three singles off the record — dirty funk meets synth jazz track "Signature Moves," soaring indie-sleaze glam rock cut entitled "LOL Trash," and bombastic 80s City Pop single "Make it to the Morning."
Fur Trade's Dark Celebration is out today via Light Organ Records. Stay tuned for more from the duo, coming soon. |
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