Youth Lagoon – “Speed Freak”

Youth Lagoon – “Speed Freak”

Since releasing Heaven Is A Junkyard — the first Youth Lagoon album in eight years — in 2023, Trevor Powers has shared a few songs: “Football,” “Lucy Takes A Picture,” and “My Beautiful Girl.” It turns out those are taken from his new LP Rarely Do I Dream, which he’s announcing today, alongside the release of the dreamy new single “Speed Freak.”

“This song came from a thought I had of giving the angel of death a hug,” he explained. “We spend our whole lives running from this thing we can’t outrun. This body is temporary, but there is no death. Only transformation. A door opens when you learn to let go of the identity you’ve been building your whole life. Someone told me a couple years ago, ‘I have good news for you and I have bad news. The bad news is Trevor is doomed. There’s no hope for Trevor. The good news is — you’re not Trevor.’ When I heard that, it clicked.”

The inspiration for Rarely Do I Dream was sparked when Powers discovered a shoebox of home videos in his parents’ basement and began experimenting with them in his art. “What I was really consumed with was how much I could zoom in on my actual history,” he said. “I wanted to really make someone feel like they were inside my living room in 1993, but rearrange the furniture a bit. Something about combining that level of hyperreality with fairytales of devils and detectives weirdly felt like the truest way to immortalize these pieces of my family.”

Watch the Tyler T. Williams-directed music video for “Speak Freak” below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Neighborhood Scene”
02 “Speed Freak”
03 “Football”
04 “Gumshoe (Dracula From Arkansas)”
05 “Seersucker”
06 “Lucy Takes A Picture”
07 “Perfect World”
08 “My Beautiful Girl”
09 “Canary”
10 “Parking Lot”
11 “Saturday Cowboy Matinee”
12 “Home Movies (1989-1993)”

TOUR DATES:
03/27 – Spokane, WA @ District Bar @ Knitting Factory
03/28 – Missoula, MT @ ZACC
03/29 – Boise, ID @ Treefort Fest
04/03 – Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater
04/04 – Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret
04/05 – Victoria, BC @ Upstairs
04/06 – Seattle, WA @ Crocodile
04/08 – San Francisco, CA @ August Hall
04/09 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent
04/10 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah
04/11 – Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress
04/14 – San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger
04/15 – Austin, TX @ Mohawk
04/16 – Dallas, TX @ Deep Ellum Art Co
04/18 – Nashville, TN @ Exit/In
04/19 – Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade (Altar)
04/20 – Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506
04/21 – Washington, DC @ The Atlantis
04/22 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Foundry
04/24 – Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw
04/25 – Jersey City, NJ @ White Eagle Hall
04/26 – New Haven, CT @ Space Ballroom
04/27 – Boston, MA @ Middle East Downstairs
04/29 – Montreal, QC @ La Sala Rossa
05/01 – Toronto, ON @ Axis
05/02 – Detroit, MI @ El Club
05/03 – Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
05/04 – Louisville, KY @ Whirling Tiger
05/05 – Indianapolis, IN @ Hi-Fi
05/07 – Chicago, IL @ Outset
05/08 – Milwaukee, WI @ Vivarium
05/09 – Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon
05/10 – St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club
05/12 – St. Louis, MO @ Atomic Cowboy
05/13 – Lawrence, KS @ The Bottleneck
05/15 – Denver, CO @ Marquis
05/16 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Block Party

Rarely Do I Dream is out 2/21 via Fat Possum. Pre-order it here.

Tyler T Williams

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