Palehound – “Natural Disasters” [Video]

Video · Polyvinyl Record Co.

Palehound Surveys the Wreckage, Personal and Otherwise, on “Natural Disasters”

El Kempner announces You Sing Like You’re Joking, their fifth LP out February 5 via Polyvinyl, with a lead single about a grown-apart friendship and a world that seems determined to make everything harder.

Palehound has been El Kempner’s vehicle for nearly fifteen years, from early Boston DIY days through four albums of fretwork and diaristic songwriting that earned them a spot on Rolling Stone’s “Greatest Guitarists of All Time” list and quotes from every publication that covers this kind of music. “Natural Disasters” is the lead single from their fifth LP You Sing Like You’re Joking, and it is a stripped-down meditation on a friendship that has drifted apart while the larger world falls apart around it. “My basement is flooding, and your house is burning, and we’re not talking,” Kempner sings. The directness is classic Palehound; the specific climate-dread context is new.

You Sing Like You’re Joking was co-produced with Julian Fader (Ava Luna) and Katie Von Schleicher (Frankie Cosmos) and features contributions from Nick Hakim. It arrives February 5 via Polyvinyl. Over the last two years Kempner has built a community in NYC around fellow musicians including Cassandra Jenkins, Adrianne Lenker, Samia, and Annie DiRusso, most of whom appeared at their sold-out “You’re Joking!” residency, which raised funds for the Immigrant Defense Project. The album’s subject matter is heavy at times, but Kempner frames it as ultimately about the beauty of friendship and community, not the weight of losing it. The video was directed by Rachel Brown (Water From Your Eyes).

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1Incisions

2Hourglass

3The Midwest

4Patio

5Natural Disasters

6Target

7Color

8Sum Of Our Days

9Sleep Through Anything