NPR once described them as “haunting and gorgeous … moody and incapacitating”, now the Austin-based cosmic indie folk band The Deer, are warming up for the release of their new album The Beautiful Undead due September 9 on Keeled Scales (Katy Kirby, Sun June, Twain, Buck Meek).
This new album blooms, living up to prospect of their sound reaching lively new heights, which, after listening to their latest single ‘Baby Green’, is perfectly pitched somewhere between Fleetwood Mac and Big Thief. The full-band performance was filmed in the historic Fischer Hall in Wimberly, Texas.
The band have shared that the lyrics “The love below it, the ugly above it” are a direct reference to Andre 3000’s album “The Love Below,” an allegory for his own struggle with the duality between sex and love. The Deer play with sexual references throughout Baby Green, but to embody a wider-reaching restlessness and frustration. Frontwoman and co-songwriter Grace Rowland explains: Being on “the welfare of my dreams” meant I was unemployed, and not able to perform. Music is not only a job, it’s a huge outlet of my creative and social energy. After several months of no shows I started to feel a very familiar kind of pent-up ardor. But “I’m never lonely; that beautiful undead is at my doorstep.” We all must die sometime and leave a memory behind. There’s something strangely uniting to me about that, like we’re all of us bound together in a huge way.
The Beautiful Undead is out September 9 on Keeled Scales
TOUR DATES
Sep 6 | Austin, TX @ Long Play Lounge East
[Oxford American’s Points South Live Series]
Sep 8 | New Orleans, LA @ Howlin Wolf w/ Texas String Assembly
Sep 9 | Alpharetta, GA @ Music Under the Pines
Sep 10 | Tryon, NC @ Tryon Fine Arts Center
Sep 11 | Richmond, VA @ Get Tight Lounge
Sep 17 | Nashville, TN AmericanaFest official showcase
Oct 13 | Chicago, IL @ The Hideout w/ special guests OTHERPEACE
Oct 14 | Trempeleau, WI @ Eckers Apple Farm w/ Them Coulee Boys
Oct 15 | Wasau, WI @ White Water Music Hall w/ Them Coulee Boys
Oct 16 | Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St Entry w/ special guests Val Son
Oct 18 | Oklahoma City @ Ponyboy w/ Them Coulee Boys
Oct 19 | Denton, TX @ Dan’s Silver Leaf w/ Them Coulee Boys
Oct 20 | Houston, TX @ Continental Club w/ Them Coulee Boys
Oct 21 | San Marcos, TX @ The Porch w/ special guests Them Coulee Boys
Oct 22 | Austin, TX @ The Parish w/ special guests Them Coulee Boys