Katy Kirby – “Drop Dead” [Video]

On her second album ‘Blue Raspberry’ – out today – the New York-based songwriter Katy Kirby dives headlong into the artifice of intimacy: the glitter smeared across eyelid creases, the smiles switched on with an electric buzz, the synthetic rose scent all over someone who’s made herself smell nice just for you. An exegesis of Kirby’s first queer relationship, ’Blue Raspberry’ traces the crescendo and collapse of new love, savoring each gleaming shard of rock candy and broken glass along the way.

Many of the songs that make up ’Blue Raspberry’ stemmed from a single page of lyrical fragments, words and phrases that kept their hold on Kirby even as she slipped them into multiple settings. Images repeat on different songs throughout the album: cubic zirconia gleaming at a woman’s throat, the lab-grown substitute indistinguishable from earth-crushed diamonds; salt crystallizing as seawater dries on reddened skin; teeth that shine in a grin and then bite till they bruise. These refrains and reprises lend a tight narrative cohesion to the record, elevating its sharp queries into all the unlikely shapes love takes as it surges through you.

To underscore Blue Raspberry‘s lyrical themes, Kirby worked with her band to develop a newly lush sonic palette replete with orchestral gestures arranged by her friend Rowen Merrill. “I felt like I was intending to write love songs for the first time. Once I realized they were queer love songs and celebrating artificiality, I wanted them to sound like they were bidding for a spot in the wedding reception canon,” she says. “It was more fun to just go for it than to try to restrain ourselves. Especially if we were just accepting the fact that we were trying to make objectively beautiful music, whatever that means.”

Next week Kirby embarks on a nationwide headlining tour, bringing the songs of ’Blue Raspberry’ to her fans. Then on April 4 she begins a run of shows opening for The Mountain Goats. All upcoming dates are listed below.

TOUR DATES
Feb 3 – Washington, DC @ Songbyrd # SOLD OUT
Feb 4 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle – Back Room #
Feb 5 – Asheville, NC @ Eulogy #
Feb 7 – Nashville, TN @ The Blue Room at Third Man Records #
Feb 8 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade – Purgatory #
Feb 9 – Jackson, MS @ Hal & Mal’s #
Feb 11 – Dallas, TX @ Sons of Hermann Hall #
Feb 13 – Austin, TX @ The Ballroom #
Feb 15 – Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress #
Feb 16 – Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room #
Feb 17 – West Hollywood, CA @ The Roxy Theatre #
Feb 18 – San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop #
Feb 19 – Sacramento, CA @ Goldfield Trading Post #
Feb 21 – Portland OR @ Polaris Hall #
Feb 22 – Seattle, WA @ Barboza #
Feb 23 – Walla Walla, WA @ Billsville West # SOLD OUT
Feb 24 – Boise, ID @ Shrine Basement #
Feb 25 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court #
Feb 27 – Denver, CO @ Hi Dive #
Feb 29 – Omaha, NE @ Reverb Lounge #
Mar 1 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St. Entry #
Mar 2 – Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon #
Mar 3 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall #
Mar 5 – Detroit, MI @ The Sanctuary #
Mar 6 – Pittsburgh, PA @ The Warhol Entrance Space #
Mar 7 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s #
Mar 8 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom #
Apr 4 – Saxapahaw, NC @ Haw River Ballroom %
Apr 6 – Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern %
Apr 8 – Evansville, IN @ Victory Theatre %
Apr 9 – Kalamazoo, MI @ State Theatre %
Apr 10 – Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall Ballroom %
Apr 12 – St. Paul, MN @ Palace Theatre %
Apr 13 – Champaign, IL @ City Center %
Apr 15 – Fort Collins, CO @ Washington’s %
Apr 16 – Englewood, CO @ The Gothic Theatre %
Apr 17 – Englewood, CO @ The Gothtic Theatre %
Apr 19 – Salina, KS @ Stiefel Theatre %
Apr 20 – St. Louis, MO @ Delmar Hall %
Apr 21 – Pelham, TN @ The Caverns %
Apr 22 – Asheville, NC @ Salvage Station %
June 7 – 9 – Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands @ Best Kept Secret
Aug 4 – St. Charles, IA @ Hinterland Music Festival

# – with Allegra Krieger
% with The Mountain Goats