Phoebe Bridgers

Phoebe Bridgers shares "Kyoto," details LP2 ft. Conor, boygenius, Nick Zinner & more

Phoebe Bridgers recently released her first proper solo single since her great 2017 debut album Stranger In The Alps, “Garden Song,” and now she has released a second single (“Kyoto”) and finally announced her anticipated sophomore album.

The album’s called Punisher and it’s due out June 19 via Dead Oceans. It features her Better Oblivion Community Center bandmate Conor Oberst (on “Halloween” and “I Know The End”), her boygenius bandmates Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus (on “Graceland Too” and “I Know The End”), Blake Mills (on “Halloween,” “Savior Complex” and “I Know The End”), Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner (on “I Know The End”), Warpaint’s Jenny Lee Lindberg (on “Kyoto” and “ICU”), Christian Lee Hutson (on “Garden Song,” “Halloween,” “Savior Complex,” and “I Know The End”), Bright Eyes’ Nate Walcott (“Kyoto” and “I Know The End”), and veteran session drummer Jim Keltner (on “Halloween” and “Savior Complex”). Phoebe co-produced it with Stranger In The Alps collaborators Tony Berg and Ethan Gruska, and it was mixed by Bright Eyes collaborator Mike Mogis (who also mixed Stranger). Phoebe’s band — Marshall Vore (drums), Harrison Whitford (guitar), Emily Retsas (bass) and Nick White (piano) — all play on the album too. (That’s a lot of awesome musicians, but to recap, boygenius, Conor Oberst, and Nick Zinner will all appear on the same song!)

As for new single “Kyoto,” it’s a driving indie rock song with some uplifting horns by Nate Walcott and, as big as it sounds, it still has the intimacy of Phoebe’s earlier work too. It comes with a video, which was supposed to be shot in Japan in March but was instead done with a green screen (in an intentionally and humorously obvious way) in LA because of you-know-what. Phoebe says:

This song is about impostor syndrome. About being in Japan for the first time, somewhere I’ve always wanted to go, and playing my music to people who want to hear it, feeling like I’m living someone else’s life. I dissociate when bad things happen to me, but also when good things happen. It can feel like I’m performing what I think I’m supposed to be like. I wrote this one as a ballad first, but at that point I was so sick of recording slow songs, it turned into this.

Watch/listen below.

Phoebe will also perform “Kyoto” live from her bathroom on Jimmy Kimmel Live! tonight (4/9) and she’s doing a livestreamed concert on Pitchfork’s Instagram on Friday (4/10) at 4 PM ET. Stay tuned.

In the time since Phoebe released “Garden Song,” she released a duet with The 1975, sang (with the rest of boygenius) on a new Hayley Williams song, covered Conor Oberst, and made an isolation playlist. Both Ben Gibbard and Hayley Williams recently did Phoebe Bridgers covers in isolation performances too.

UPDATE (4/10): Here’s that Kimmel performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROwoUgKf4lU&feature=emb_title

Tracklist
1. DVD Menu
2. Garden Song
3. Kyoto
4. Punisher
5. Halloween
6. Chinese Satellite
7. Moon Song
8. Savior Complex
9. ICU
10. Graceland Too
11. I Know The End