Elvis Depressedly is not always the most outwardly happy bunch, at least lyrically. The effusively melancholic title track on last year’s New Alhambra, for example, boasts both references to Satan and tender couplets about emotional malaise: “Break these wild horses/ I have drifted through my life/ Cavities caving to numbness, I am never going to die.” But the North Carolina duo, Mat and Delaney, are unafraid to search for humor in that small-town death drive, which often results in what you could call unhappy rhapsodies—a concept that may sound like a contradiction, but totally make senses if you listen to their songs.
With its candid nature scenes and shots of childhood revelry overlaid with written messages like "no more mercy left in heaven," the band’s new video for “Up In the Air,” is marked by a similar duality: disheartened by the passage of time, but nonetheless nostalgic for warm memories. As director Katherine McCollough explains to The FADER:
The “Up in the Air” video was shot over the past year and documents a period of transition for Elvis Depressedly. There's footage from Spartanburg, South Carolina, where Mat grew up, and from Asheville, North Carolina, the city Mat and Delaney have called home for two years since moving from Columbia, South Carolina and signing to Run for Cover. It contains a lot of people/places/things that have been meaningful and influential to them, either historically or just since this recent period of rapid change. I hope watching the video feels sort of like reading shorthand entries in someone's private journal: compelling because it's intimate and evocative, but not totally decipherable.
Today marks the release of Elvis Depressedly’s double EP, Holo Pleasures/California Dreamin', a partial reissue of 2013’s great Holo Pleasures, accompanied by previously unreleased material from the same recording sessions, including "Up In The Air." Check out the video for “Up In The Air” above, and get the album when it drops via Run For Cover. Elvis Depressedly are also headed on a stacked tour with Teen Suicide and Nicole Dollanganger; those dates are below.
Tour Dates:
Aug 3 – Brooklyn, NY @ Market Hotel
Aug 4 – Washington, DC @ Rock and Roll Hotel
Aug 5 – Richmond, VA @ Strange Matter
Aug 6 – Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506
Aug 7 – Atlanta, GA @ Purgatory – The Masquerade
Aug 9 – Orlando, FL @ Will’s Pub
Aug 10 – Tampa, FL @ Transitions Gallery
Aug 12 – San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger
Aug 13 – Austin, TX @ Sidewinder
Aug 14 – Dallas, TX @ Club Dada
Aug 16 – Phoenix AZ, @ Rebel Lounge
Aug 17 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo
Aug 19 – San Diego, CA @ VooDoo Lounge
Aug 20 – Anaheim CA @ Chain Reaction
Aug 21 – San Francisco, CA @ Swedish American Hall
Aug 23 – Portland, OR @ Analog
Aug 24 – Seattle, WA @ The Vera Project
Aug 26 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
Aug 27 – Denver, CO @ Lost Lake
Aug 28 – St Louis, MO @ The Firebird
Aug 30 – Chicago, IL @ Subterranean
Aug 31 – Detroit, MI @ El Club
Sep 1 – Cleveland @ Mahall’s
Sep 2 – Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church
Sep 3 – Boston, MA @ ONCE Ballroom
