| (photo credit: Kane Gibbered)
“The sentiment is simple and familiar—and yet so is the wind that whips through your hair while racing down a highway in the summer with friends, and who ever gets sick of that?” — Pitchfork, on “You Don’t Think You Like People Like Me” [BEST NEW TRACK]
“Earlier this year, Melbourne’s Alex Lahey released her debut EP, ‘B-Grade University,’ which is the kind of startlingly impressive debut that you just know is going to catch on…” — Brooklyn Vegan
“The fact she’s made something so vibrant and altogether fun out of a concept as straightforward as ‘being in your early 20s and just figuring shit out’ speaks volumes about her ability to put her own thoroughly entertaining spin on the ups and downs of the everyman.” — DIY Magazine
Relationship problems. Post-graduation life choices. The troubles of early-20s life. They’re millenials’ problems, sure, but weren’t they everyone’s at one point? Few people can detail these worries quite like Alex Lahey, a 24 year-old Melburnian (that’s Melbourne, Australia) who’s EP “B-Grade University” is out now on Dead Oceans. Having already garnered a Best New Track from Pitchfork for her debut single, “You Don’t Think You Like People Like Me,” Lahey’s fuzzed-out, catchy-as-hell indie rock is stacked with emotion, weighing the sound of youthful anxiety against cutting, sophisticated wordplay. Watch the EP’s first video for “Wes Anderson,” premiered earlier today via Noisey.
Alex Lahey originally released “B-Grade University” on her own label in summer 2016, shortly before playing iconic Australian festival Splendour in the Grass. Lead track, “Ivy League,” pretty much wrote itself: “I went and studied sax at uni for a few years and just fucking hated it” she told DIY Magazine last November. Lahey dropped out to concentrate all her efforts on the songwriting that she cared most about. That cliffjump proved a great decision: “B-Grade University” immediately went onto heavy rotation on Triple J, with the single “You Don’t Think You Like People Like Me.” Lahey closed 2016 being the most played artist on Triple J Unearthed, as well as being voted Best Female Artist at the Age Music Awards.
Even if your woes are not the same, Lahey’s themes demand you to sing along, close your eyes and punch your fist in the air. Underneath the millennial angst, there’s an aura of positivity, universality, good times and looking towards the future that we all need right now.
WATCH “WES ANDERSON” VIDEO —
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAQNnd7QIkk
ALEX LAHEY TOUR DATES:
Mon. Feb. 13 — London, UK @ Roundhouse w/ Tegan & Sara
Tue. Feb. 14 — Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall w/ Tegan & Sara
Wed. Feb. 15 — Bristol, UK @ O2 Academy w/ Tegan & Sara
Fri. Feb. 17 — Glasgow, UK @ O2 ABC w/ Tegan & Sara
Sat. Feb. 18 — Birmingham, UK @ O2 Institution w/ Tegan & Sara
Sun. Feb. 19 — Dublin, IE @ Vicar Street w/ Tegan & Sara
Mon. Feb. 20 — London, UK @ Old Blue Last
Sat. March 11 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo
Sun. March 12 — San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop
Tue. March 14 – Sat. March 18 — Austin, TX @ SXSW
Mon. March 20 — Chicago, IL @ Schubas
Wed. March 22 — Washington, DC @ DC9
Thu. March 23 — Philadelphia, PA @ World Cafe Live
Fri. March 24 — Brooklyn, NY @ Rough Trade NYC
Sat. March 25 — New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge
Sun. March 26 — Boston, MA @ Great Scott
“B-GRADE UNIVERSITY” TRACKLIST:
01. Ivy League
02. Let’s Go Out
03. Wes Anderson
04. You Don’t Think You Like People Like Me
05. L L L Leave Me Alone
WATCH/SHARE:
“You Don’t Think You Like People Like Me” video — https://youtu.be/Z32tgLHEEBc
“Let’s Go Out” video — https://youtu.be/sTrajo-tHMc
PURCHASE/STREAM “B-GRADE UNIVERSITY” EP —
https://alexlahey.lnk.to/B-GradeUniversity |
