Are you familiar with the podcast Guys: With Bryan Quinby? I've never listened, but I have a concert buddy who swears by it. Each episode zeroes in on a certain type of guy; recent subjects include Debate Guys, Star Wars Guys, Small Business Guys, Pool Guys (as in billiards), and Pool Guys (as in swimming). It seems like 2nd Grade have taken a similar approach on their new LP.
You may recall that, along with announcing their new affiliation with Lame-O Records, the Philly power-pop band released a song called "Cellophane Girls" last month. Today they've revealed that track to be the lead single from new album Girls And Boys, which will be out physically around Halloween but not digitally until after Thanksgiving. (Big fan of this release strategy!) The tracklist contains 10 songs about various kinds of girls, followed by 10 songs about various kinds of boys. These are not exactly anthropological deep dives as heard on the Guys podcast, but I'm going to go ahead and call the projects thematically linked.
The next Girls And Boys single is another tune from the Girls half of the album. It's called "Anywhere Girls," and rather than songwriter and producer Peter Gill, it's sung by bandmate Catherine Dwyer (Remember Sports, Spring Onion). It reminds me of Alvvays when they get revved up, but with much of the dreaminess scraped off.
A word from Dwyer:
As Peter and I were going through the demos he made for Girls and Boys, deciding who would sing lead on which song, I was immediately drawn to "Anywhere Girls." A catchy upbeat standout in a tracklist packed with catchy upbeat standouts. I quickly realized how detailed, how full of large and unfamiliar intervals the melody was, how difficult Peter’s phrasing was to duplicate at high speed. This is Peter’s greatest trick as a songwriter, disguising his complex compositions under layers of sugar and fizzy distortion. Add a little ABBA-worship countermelody and a Blitzkrieg Bop intro/outro and you’ve got yourself "Anywhere Girls."
Listen below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Guess And Check Girls"
02 "Radio Girls"
03 "White Album Girls"
04 "Anywhere Girls"
05 "Slingerland Girls"
06 "Flight School Girls"
07 "Nowhere Girls"
08 "Upstream Girls"
09 "Motormall Girls"
10 "Cellophane Girls"
11 "Fender Boys"
12 "Glacial Boys"
13 "Rehoboth Boys"
14 "Radio Boys"
15 "Trouble Boys"
16 "Said And Done Boys"
17 "Catch And Release Boys"
18 "Rumor Mill Boys"
19 "20th Century Boys"
20 "Crash Test Boys"
Girls And Boys is out 10/30 physically and 12/4 digitally via Lame-O. Pre-order it here.
