Amy Oelsner has been putting out music for over a decade now under the name Amy O, and the project has followed her through her Arkansas hometown and through to Ohio, Massachusetts, Brooklyn, and most recently Bloomington, IN, where she’s settled down and rounded up a full band. Last year, she released Arrow with that band and worked with fellow Indiana singer-songwriter Erin Tobey as Brenda’s Friend, and later this year she’ll put out another Amy O album called Elastic.

It’s a sharp and punchy collection of songs as evidenced by lead single “Lavender Night,” which starts off with a lot of energy and only builds from there as it picks apart a dreamlike insular haze. “The lyrics and melody came to me quickly and without fuss. I wrote it after a little scare I had at the doctor with a mysterious lump,” Oelsner explains. “It’s about the constant (and often invisible) line of fragility that we walk upon in life, learning how to follow trails of light throughout difficult circumstances, and resisting the black hole-like vacuum of negative thought patterns.”

Listen to “Lavender Night” below.

The album will be accompanied by a zine called Yoko Oh Yes — made in collaboration with Bethany Lumsdaine and Jessie Grubb of the Bloomington-based zine Shut Up And Listen — that reflects Oelsner’s experiences at the Rhino’s Youth Center where she works setting up creative afterschool programs for teenagers. Yoko Oh Yes features sections on songwriting, gear, and recording, and contains interviews with women musicians like Frankie Cosmos’ Greta Kline, Free Cake For Creature’s Katie Bennett, and the Roches’ Terry Roche. It’ll be included with the deluxe edition of the album and will be available on her upcoming tour dates.

Tracklist:
01 “Lavender Night”
02 “Soft Skin”
03 “Untouchable Heart”
04 “History Walking”
05 “Sunday Meal”
06 “Spacey Feeling”
07 “Patterns”
08 “Cherry Blossom”
09 “Elastic”
10 “Spill”
11 “David”
12 “Spinning”

Tour Dates:
05/30 Cincinnati, OH @ The Comet *
06/17 Indianapolis, IN @ The Hi-Fi ^
07/28 Raleigh, NC @ Kudzu Palace
07/30 Baltimore, MD @ EMP
07/31 Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie
08/03 Turners Falls, MA @ The Brick House
08/05 Cleveland, OH @ Happy Dog
08/10 Bloomington, IN @ The Bishop #

* w/ Cross Country
^ w/ Hoops
# w/ Bugg & Jacky Boy

Elastic is out 8/4 via Winspear. Pre-order it here.