[Cover photo credit to Tonje Thilesen]
Palehound’s new album Eye On The Bat, is due out July 14, 2023 on Polyvinyl Record Co., and is a “documentation of illusions shattering in the face of profound change.” The new record was announced alongside a new video for lead single “The Clutch”.
El Kempner (they/them) shares:
“The Clutch” is the very first song I wrote for this album, back in 2020 right when lockdown started. I had been on a tour that was sliced in half by the onset of the pandemic and we had to apocalypse road trip back to New York across the country from Oregon, where our next show had been scheduled for. While that was happening, I was also having a triggering romantic experience with somebody I didn’t know too well, and by the time I got home my whole body seemed to be spinning in turmoil. Writing and producing this song grounded me and helped me process a new future and self that I hadn’t anticipated.
Video co-director Brittany Reeber shares:
Adam (Kolodny, co-director), El and I wanted to create something that captured the charged, raw drive of the song. Inspired by slick, visceral performance videos of the early 00’s, we got ourselves the biggest space we could find and Adam created a visual aesthetic with the circular track, rotating head and alternating key lights that ultimately build (along with the band’s electric performance) to an epic and dizzying climax.
Eye On The Bat is Kempner’s latest release since Black Friday (2019) and Doomin’ Sun (2021) by Bachelor (a collaborative project with Jay Som’s Melina Duterte). Recorded in brief stints across 2022 at Flying Cloud Recordings in the Catskills, they forayed into co-producing the new album alongside Sam Owens (Big Thief, Cass McCombs).
Kempner also credits multi-instrumentalist Larz Brogan, who they refer to as “my platonic life partner” and longtime member of Palehound since the Boston DIY days, as a vital part of making the album come together the way it did.
