Perfume Genius
Send Perfume Genius the Salvador Dalí Cookbook, Immediately
Book Club is a monthly series from Speedy Ortiz’s Sadie Dupuis, exploring the literature that inspires some of our favorite musicians. Whether it’s a music biography that got them through the slog of tour, the poetry collection that eked into their most poignant lyrics, or the novel that sparked a rock opera, we’ll get to the bottom of it so you can add it to the top of your book stack. This month, we speak to Mike Hadreas, a.k.a. Perfume Genius. Perfume Genius’ Mike Hadreas studied to be a painter, and he brings that honed sense of aesthetic balance to his songwriting, too. “When I’m writing lyrics for my songs, I like to see them written out,” he says. “And I think about that when I’m reading poems—how the words look together.” Poetry played a major role in Hadreas’ first two records, 20...
Yeah Yeah Yeahs Debut New Single at First Show in Three Years
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs opened their first show in three years last night (May 30) at Los Angeles’ Teragram Ballroom by debuting their new single, “Spitting Off the Edge of the World.” The studio version of the track, which features Perfume Genius, will be released tomorrow. They also performed new songs “Fleez” and “Splitting.” [embedded content][embedded content] [embedded content][embedded content] [embedded content][embedded content] The atmospheric, synth-heavy “Spitting Off the Edge of the World” is the first new music from the New York rockers in the more than nine years since the release of Mosquito in 2013. Last night’s setlist featured a few other new, as-yet-unreleased tracks, including “Burning,” “Fleez” and “Black Top.” Back in March, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs announced they’ll rel...
Perfume Genius Announces New Album Ugly Season
Perfume Genius announced the release of his new album, Ugly Season. It is out on June 17 through Matador Records. It’s been two years since Mike Hadreas’s last album, Set My Heart On Fire Immediately, was released. The album landed on our best of 2020 list. Hadreas has crafted a visually and sonically immersive experience for Ugly Season. In addition to the album, a short film made in collaboration with visual artist Jacolby Satterwhite will feature Perfume Genius and the music of Ugly Season. “This project is the genesis of a whole new direction that I’m taking, one that I’ve been thinking about within this endemic culture, since 2020. Mike and I are both writing scripts,” Satterwhite said in a statement. My visual narrative serendipitously mirrors the lyrical direction in his music; it’s...
Perfume Genius Remixes Live’s ‘Lightning Crashes’
Perfume Genius rang in the new year with a remix of “Lightning Crashes,” the standout track from Live‘s 1994 album Throwing Copper. Mike Hadreas stretches the iconic song to seven and a half minutes, but once it gets to the third line, “The placenta falls to the floor,” it gets stuck on a loop. “What if the angel never opened their eyes? What if the confusion never set in? Something to think about as we start this new year,” Hadreas wrote about the remix. Listen to Perfume Genius’ meditative “Lightning Crashes” remix below. [embedded content][embedded content] You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards...
The 30 Best Albums of 2020
After a deluge of canceled or delayed tours, drive-in experiments, Bandcamp Fridays and bedroom livestreams, we’re finally here. Yay? It’s hard to celebrate much of anything in 2020. But one encouraging sign from the music industry has been the number of artists innovating on the fly — figuring out ways to sustain their careers through the madness. And as fans, at least we’ve had new albums to help us process our continuing semi-apocalypse. Having (mercifully) reached the end of this awful year, we have even more perspective on the functionality of a great record. The 30 we’ve assembled here have prompted us to dance, helped us grieve, made us laugh, or even just allowed us to escape into a transportive riff or soundscape. We assume they did the same for the artists themselves. Let us reme...
Perfume Genius Shares Organ-Infused Cover of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Bird on the Wire’
On Tuesday (Sept. 9) indie pop star Mike Hadreas — known by his stage name Perfume Genius — hopped on Los Angeles radio station KCRW to perform some new tunes. He did cuts off 2020’s Set My Heart On Fire Immediately album, including “On the Floor” and “Jason.” But Hadreas also dropped a real gem: a cover of music icon Leonard Cohen’s 1968 track “Bird on the Wire.” The cover hears Perfume Genius mirror Cohen’s somber tone throughout, with some heavy organ playing carrying it to the end. In short, it feels like a real trip to church, or at the very least, it might inspire some type of religious experience. “If I could play this cover anywhere, I think I’d want to play in a big church with a big pipe organ, or if we could somehow get the pipe organ into like a deep dark cave,” ...
Perfume Genius Shares Video for Recently Discovered ‘Rusty Chains’ Demo
In what’s been a terrible year, one of the few standouts has been Perfume Genius. The artists also known as Mike Hadreas released his latest effort, Set My Heart on Fire, wayyyyy back in April. Apparently being at home has allowed him to unearth some other material from his past. In a tweet on Monday night, Hadreas revealed that he recently stumbled upon a nearly 10-year-old demo for “Rusty Chains.” What’s someone to do while at home and while in quarantine? Make a video for the alternative version. “I found this demo from nearly ten years ago now, it really stirred something up in me so i made a video for it to share with you,” Hadreas said. I found this demo from nearly ten years ago now, it really stirred something up in me so i made a video for it to...
The 30 Best Albums of 2020 (So Far)
On one hand, who can think about stuff as trivial as this? On the other, what else is there to do? If art was made to fill a cultural vacuum, well… now’s the fucking time, buddy. Hopefully, you’ve been binging every show, reading every book, repainting every bathroom you’ve been putting off. Hopefully, when (and if) we make it out of quarantine alive, we’ll be able to look forward to better things. For now, we still have music. Some of the great albums and EPs below demand your full and undivided attention. Some of them demand to intensify your workout or gaming session. Mostly they just sound good, and you should pair them with whatever activities music enhances for you. Even sleep; lord knows that could be improved upon. Others will keep you wide awake. If any of these albums make you th...
