Grumpy, the indie rock project of New York's Heaven Schmitt, will release their new EP Piebald next month. Grumpy is technically Schmitt's solo project, but they like collaborating with other artists too: Earlier this year they teamed up with claire rousay and Pink Must for the one-off single called "Harmony." That's a perfect segue into today's news, which is that former Girlpool member Harmony is a featured guest on Grumpy's latest single "Bird Parts."
If you read Stereogum's profile on Grumpy back in January, you might already know that Schmitt's drummer is also their ex-husband. It seems like things are chill now, but they certainly weren't at first! "Bird Parts" is an off-kilter rocker that unpacks some of that emotional turmoil with some great hooks that mutate into an eerie outro. Of the song's backstory, Schmitt says in a press release:
I was living in Chicago, realizing I was accepting crumbs and I didn’t know why. My husband and I were hanging by a thread, and the girl I loved didn’t want me, she wanted my husband. I wrote "Bird Parts" about that painful proximity to the thing I wanted: "My girl isn’t mine, I’m a bottom feeder/ I can’t kiss her but she calls me when I really need her." I was settling for being near her love, but not the recipient of it.
I thought maybe we could make it work. Maybe we could stay an unconventional family. But it didn’t last. I didn’t want to be the unwanted sister-wife in this collapsing matrix. I started to unravel, to question what I was even doing there. That chaos is reflected in the song itself. It’s the only track on the EP that sings in a more vague, dream-like voice.
All of Grumpy's visuals are awesome, but the "Bird Parts" video might be their best yet. Schmitt directed it with their frequent collaborator Anya Good, and you can check it out below.
Piebald is out 9/26 via Bayonet. Pre-order it here.
