Mary Ocher – Swedish Samoa & People of Yes
Mary Ocher has been pushing the boundaries between pop and avant-garde for almost two decades, with playful and colorful form, and clever content that winks at everyone who recognizes its cultural and historical references.
Ocher is a Moscow Born, Tel Aviv raised, Berlin-based punk poet, sound artist, director and visual artist, who toured the whole world and counts artists such as Karen O (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Animal Collective, Sean Lennon, and Nan Goldin among her admirers. Her upcoming album joins a series of apocalyptic and politically charged concept albums.
The new album Your Guide To Revolution is a joyful ode to hope, set for release just six months after its predecessor, the melancholy experimental: Approaching Singularity: Music for The End of Time. It’s out July 19th US/worldwide via Underground Institute, preceded by an EU release on June 14th.
Following the album’s first single and avant-pop gem “Sympathize,” today Ocher shares the new video for the whimsically bold album opener “Swedish Samoa.” It is a tongue-in-cheek, cumbia flavored instrumental with an animated video set on a surreal planet, illustrating a fantasy colony that never quite existed.
The single includes the b-side collaboration with King Khan “People of Yes” – an outsider-rock piece, with bits of The Shaggs thrown in, along with old-fashioned nonsensical punk humor. Mary and King Khan go back quite a bit, with him having recorded her second album EDEN a decade ago.
King Khan comments on the collaboration: “Sometimes freaks need a hymn to solidify their freakdom and poke fun at those who will never understand… this is one of those sacred moments when frolic and fun is made of the moral majority even though they always seem to be on the winning side of things.”
Mary Ocher Live Dates:
05.25.24 – Chemnitz – Weltecho
05.31.24 – Linz – Stadtwerkstatt (with Your Government)
06.01.24 – Villach – Kulturhof Villach (with Your Government)
06.02.24 – Regen – Oberstübchen
06.14.24 – Berlin – Berghain Kantine – Your Guide to Revolution album release show (with Your Government)
06.26.24 – Germany – Fusion festival
08.03.24 – Finland – Norpas Festival (with Your Government)
08.18.24 – Berlin – Pop Kultur festival – Franzz Club
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