Bachelor—the collaborative project of Jay Som’s Melina Duterte and Palehound’s Ellen Kempner—will release its debut album Doomin’ Sun on May 28th via Polyvinyl Record Co. (North America), Lucky Number (ROW) and Milk! Records (AUS/NZ). To celebrate the album release they have also announced Doomin’ Sun Fest, a massive livestream festival / telethon to benefit and uplift Seeding Sovereignty. The festival will take place on June 10 starting at 6pm ET., and will be followed by a virtual afterparty inside the 3D social game Hotel Hideaway.
Created as a chance to gather for “Community, Compassion, Climate, and Celebration,” Doomin’ Sun Fest will be FREE to attend, but donations to Seeding Sovereignty will be highly encouraged. The organization is an Indigenous-led collective working to radicalize and disrupt colonized spaces through land, body, and food sovereignty work, community building, and cultural preservation.
Melina & Ellen will live-host Doomin’ Sun Fest, which will culminate in the first ever Bachelor concert, shot and directed by Haoyan Of America with designer Richie Brown, powered by HIFI Labs. “Basically we just wanna have fun celebrating our album release, raise funds for Seeding Sovereignty, and get people excited about donating and opening their hearts to themes of the fest – the “4 C’s” as we call them – that are driving this endeavor,” note Ellen and Melina.
Featuring:
Adeline
Adrianne Lenker of Big Thief
Alexis from Sleigh Bells w/ Young Women Who Crush
Alynda Segarra (Hurray For The Riff Raff)
Andy Shauf
Anjimile
Bartees Strange
Beach Bunny
Becca Mancari
Benjamin Gibbard
Black Belt Eagle Scout
Boy Scouts
Brijean
Christelle Bofale
Claud
Courtney Barnett
Faye Webster
Fime
Frankie Cosmos
Hand Habits
Japanese Breakfast
Jeff Rosenstock
Jeff Tweedy
Jessi Frick of Father Daughter Records
Jose James + Taali
Julia Jacklin
Julien Baker
Kero Kero Bonito
KR from Decolonize UnConference
Lala Lala
Long Beard
Lucy Dacus
Luna Li
Madeline Kenney
Madison McFerrin
Mannequin Pussy
Manu Grace
MICHELLE
Miloe
Pendant
Quinn Christopherson
Rozzi
Sasami
Sen Morimoto
Shamir
Soccer Mommy
Soft Glas
Sylvan Esso
Tagalikha
Tank & the Bangas
Tasha
Tegan and Sara
Thao
Tune-Yards
Vagabon
Bachelor—the collaborative project of Jay Som’s Melina Duterte and Palehound’s Ellen Kempner—will release its debut album Doomin’ Sun on May 28th via Polyvinyl Record Co., and today the duo share another single off of the record. Of the country-inflected “Sick of Spiraling” the band says “Sick of Spiraling is one of the last songs we wrote and recorded together in Topanga. Both of us initially tried to play drums on the song but the groove wasn’t right so we enlisted help from James Krivchenia. He came over for a day and drummed on a few songs on the record, he really brought this song to life with his unique style. Ellen had the riff in her voice memos for a while, and had originally imagined it as a slow kinda melancholic song. Once we got together and listened back to the riff we heard it a whole new way as an upbeat driving song. After that Ellen wrote lyrics inspired by driving on tour and the rush and anxiety of being completely untethered and unprotected on the open road.”
Written and recorded in Topanga, CA over the course of two weeks in January of 2020, pre-pandemic, Doomin’ Sun is a record steeped in friendship. Kempner and Duterte hybridized their individual songwriting talents, producing a collection that slips between moods with ease and showcases their lyrical prowess. While the album features collaborations with the likes of Big Thief’s Buck Meek and James Krivchenia, as well as Duterte’s partner and Routine-counterpart Annie Truscott of Chastity Belt, the record was largely made by the two musicians in isolation as a fitting precursor to the forthcoming year. Creating the space to explore significant themes from queerness to climate change, the collection also finds Bachelor experiencing pure, unadulterated joy: the kind of joy that can only come from creating, laughing, and having a ridiculous amount of fun with a close friend.
Bachelor will be touring this summer opening for Lucy Dacus.
Australian artist Indigo Sparke worked with Adrianne Lenker of Big Thief for her debut album Echo coming January 29.
Lenker says, “I had the privilege and pleasure of getting to help Indigo put these recordings together back in April and throughout 2019. These songs became near and dear to me, and it was beautiful to help build the billowy landscapes within them. Indigo’s writing and voice are ethereal and angelic and guide me through internal canyons and plains. I’m deeply grateful to have been part of this and to have gotten to play and sing along side Indigo, and to have been able to eternalize a very special space and time with her, which I will always cherish.”
Today the first single “Baby” is out. Sparke says, “I think love is quite sadly beautiful and haunting, to be at the mercy of the tides of love, to let it turn you inside out and distill you into something magnificent or strip you bare. I think this song came from dreams and endless love letters sent back and forth across oceans in the forms of songs. So much hope and fear and a burning star shining with just that one persons image… and the lullaby, there is only love. Sometimes it feels like you are canoeing in the river in the sky searching for this person who truly sees you and sometimes it comes along in the most unexpected ways. It can feel so achy. The longing.”
Spin Magazine