New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Los Angeles-via-Paris pop voyagers Pearl & The Oysters - the duo of JuliettePearl Davis (Juju) and Joachim Polack (Jojo) - today announce their new album, Planet Pearl, their second LP for Stones Throw out September 20th. Unlike the band's previous LPs deeply rooted in a sense of place, Planet Pearl is an extraterrestrial concept record, written from the perspective of castaway space explorers marooned on Earth. Like Bowie's Major Tom, Pearl & The Oysters look at home from a new perspective, feeling not wonder but estrangement.
Accompanying today's announcement is the AOR-indebted/yacht rock-tinged "depressed disco" song "Big Time" which casts a skeptical eye on sun-drenched, seemingly carefree Los Angeles with a vibrant music video directed by Nikki Milan Houston. The video is a spin on an 80s B-movie, inspired by John Carpenter's alien flick "They Live." "It's our version of an LA-centric mini-musical," says Houston. "It showcases the inhabitants of Planet Pearl as they pose for their own kind of postcard."
The influence of Brazilian music is strong all throughout Planet Pearl - 1/2 of the duo (Jojo)'s PhD was on the composer Antônio Carlos Jobi - as is the concept of saudade, the melancholic longing for a beloved yet absent something or someone. "Big Time" is inspired by the Brazilian singer-songwriter Chico Buarque's "Construção", with the lyrics written in rhyming couplets. The main harmonic and melodic influence for the song was the Doobie-Brothers-to-Rita-Lee pipeline also featuring Teo Halm on bass Parcel's Jules Crommelin on drums, guitar and backing vocals, and Brijean's Brijean Murphy: on percussion.
Written, composed, and produced by Pearl & The Oysters, Planet Pearl also includes the addition of Producer Teo Halm (Rosalía, J Balvin, Omar Apollo) on more select songs and musicians Alex Brettin of Mild High Club, Brijean Murphy and other friends and collaborators throughout.
Already Pearl & The Oysters has received praise from NPR, Pitchfork (..."synth sounds you can sink your teeth into, gooey guitar licks that stick to the roof of your mouth, and vocal harmonies so syrupy they linger on your tastebuds...", The Fader, MOJO ("...dreamy space-age exotica…"), BBC 6, KCRW, CLASH and more. Recently they wrapped up a West Coast tour with stops in Pioneertown, San Francisco, Seattle, and today announce their own set of headline tour dates for the fall with stops in Los Angeles, Nashville and more.
Now based in Los Angeles, the duo first met on their first day of high school in Paris, and have been making music together ever since. The two moved across the Atlantic in 2015 after pursuing musicology degrees at Sorbonne University, with a brief stint in Gainesville, Florida, where Polack pursued his PhD in musicology eventually crash landing in Los Angeles.
Planet Pearl Tracklist:
Side Quest
Halfway There?
Together, Alone
Phototropic
Cruise Control
A Planet Upside Down
Ripples
Big Time
Triangular Girl
Feed The Meter
I Fell Into a Piano
4D
Mid City
P&TO Live Dates:
Europe
11 August - Venlo, The Netherlands - Zomerparkfeest
16 August - Geneva, Switzerland - Piz Palü
18 August - Le Juch, France - Chez Hubert
USA
10/16/2024 - Brooklyn, NY - Elsewhere (Zone One)
10/17/2024 - Philadelphia, PA - PhilaMOCA
10/18/2024 - Washington D.C. - Comet Ping Pong
10/19/2024 - Raleigh, NC - Neptunes
10/21/2024 - Gainesville, FL - The Wooly
10/23/2024 - Atlanta, GA - 529 Bar
10/24/2024 - Nashville, TN - The Blue Room
10/26/2024 - Denton, TX - Rubber Gloves
10/27/2024 - Austin, TX - Mohawk
10/29/2024 - Phoenix, AZ - Last Exit
11/03/2024 - Los Angeles, CA - Echoplex
