Suzanne Vega – Rats
Widely regarded as one of the foremost songwriters of her generation or any other, Suzanne Vega is sharing a new single, “Rats,” and a music video directed by acclaimed animator and filmmaker Martha Colburn.
“Rats”—a meditation on the rats of New York City—comes ahead of NYC’s Urban Rat Summit which kicks off tomorrow. “Rats” was written by Vega with music and production by her long time guitarist and musical director, Gerry Leonard.
Of the track, which hails from sessions for a forthcoming album, Vega notes, “I was talking to Jimmy Hogarth, the producer of my 2007 album Beauty and Crime. We were discussing who had seen the biggest rat. After that conversation, I kept reading about or hearing various rat stories, all of them true. I took careful note and set it all to music, inspired by The Ramones and Fontaines D.C.”
Video director Colburn blends surreal stop-motion with distinctive collage elements. Her films are held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
Vega kicks off the next leg of her Old Songs, New Songs and Other Songs tour with a performance at the Bourbon & Beyond Festival in Louisville, KY on September 19, with dates running throughout the fall.
SUZANNE VEGA, OLD SONGS, NEW SONGS AND OTHER SONGS TOUR
September 19—Louisville, KY—Bourbon & Beyond Festival
September 21—Wilmington, DE—Baby Grand
September 22—Sellersville, PA—Sellersville Theater
September 24—Annapolis, MD—Rams Head On Stage
September 25—Alexandria, VA—The Birchmere
September 27—Flushing, NY—Kupferberg Center for the Arts
September 28—South Orange, NJ—South Orange Performing Arts Center
September 30—Old Saybrook, CT—The Kate
October 1—Old Saybrook, CT—The Kate
October 4—Kingston, NY—Old Dutch Church
October 5—Great Barrington, MA—The Mahaiwe PAC
October 6—Groton, MA—Hill Music Center
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