The Lemon Twigs Tease New Concept Album Go To School
The Lemon Twigs, the psych-pop duo made up of young Long Island brothers Michael and Brian D’Addario, have been working on the full-length follow-up to their 2016 debut album Do Hollywood for a while now. A year ago, during a conversation with Todd Rundgren for the now-defunct Interview magazine, Brian D’Addario revealed that they were writing a concept album about a monkey who goes to school:
For this one, we originally set out to make a concept album. When we wrote the majority of the songs, we were really into the concept. But now that some time has passed, it has occurred to us that we still have to write all these songs about a monkey who goes to school. [all laugh]
And when Stereogum’s own Ryan Leas spoke to them a few months later, the D’Addario brothers offered a few more details. Inspired by his time spent going to school day and night in order to graduate high school ahead of the Lemon Twigs’ tour, Michael wrote songs about school and “the jungle or something,” and Brian, inspired by musicals like Oklahoma! and South Pacific, wrote songs about “people getting worse as a whole.” Together, their songs came together to make an old-school rock opera album that also happens to feature Todd Rundgren.
Brian wasn’t kidding about being inspired by movie musicals, either. In a Reddit AMA from nearly a year they teased something called “GO TO SCHOOL a movie by the lemon twigs,” and Michael even provided a jokey taste of a possible script: “ever feel left out? ever feel like a shining star but you look around and the naysayers are boggin you down, man? well that’s just exactly how our Shane felt. open up on an old fashioned school bell ringing…” Now, the Lemon Twigs have taken to social media to share a real teaser for the project, a one-minute clip that features new music and ends with a title card: Go To School: A Musical By The Lemon Twigs. Watch below.