Japanese Breakfast, the musical project of multi-hyphenate Michelle Zauner, releases a self-directed video for their new single “Savage Good Boy,” starring Michael Imperioli of The Sopranos.
“‘Savage Good Boy’ came from a headline I read about billionaires buying bunkers. I was interested in examining that specific type of villainy, and I found myself adopting the perspective of a rich man coaxing a young woman to come live with him underground, attempting to rationalize his almost impossible share of greed and miserliness,” says Zauner. “I knew I wanted the music video to be a pretty literal interpretation of that idea. I wanted to juxtapose images of this post-apocalyptic, industrial bunker with the lightness and extravagance of rococo fashion and set design. Aiming for that balance, my cinematographer, Adam Kolodny, and I were really inspired by Chan Wook Park’s The Handmaiden, Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon and Sally Potter’s Orlando.”
Japanese Breakfast has also expanded their summer and fall tours, which kick off July 28th in Asbury Park, NJ. All dates below.
Jubilee, Japanese Breakfast’s anticipated new album is available for pre-order now and due June 4th via Dead Oceans.
Zauner’s critically acclaimed New York Times Best Selling memoir Crying In H Mart is available now via Knopf.
WATCH THE “SAVAGE GOOD BOY” VIDEO
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TOUR DATES:
6/4 – Nashville, TN @ OUTLOUD Festival
7/28 – Asbury Park, NJ @ Asbury Lanes
7/29 – Hamden, CT @ College Street Music Hall
7/30 – Jersey City, NJ @ White Eagle Hall
8/2 – Holyoke, MA @ Gateway City Arts
8/3 – Rochester, NY @ Anthology
8/4 – Detroit, MI @ Saint Andrew’s Hall
8/5 – Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theatre
8/7 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
8/28 – Lexington, KY @ Railbird Festival
9/14 – Columbus, OH @ The Athenaeum Theatre
9/11 – Asbury Park, NJ @ Stone Pony (Shadow in the City) – SOLD OUT
9/14 – Columbus, OH @ The Athenaeum Theatre
9/15 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall – SOLD OUT
9/16 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall – SOLD OUT
9/17 – Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall
9/18 – Madison, WI @ Majestic Theatre
9/19 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Ave
9/21 – Ogden, UT @ Ogden Twilight
9/23 – Boise, ID @ Treefort Festival
9/24 – Eugene, OR @ WOW Hall
9/25 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune – SOLD OUT
9/26 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune
9/27 – Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theatre
9/28 – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
9/30 – San Francisco, CA @ Regency
10/1 – San Francisco, CA @ Regency – SOLD OUT
10/2 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent – SOLD OUT
10/3 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent – SOLD OU
10/4 – San Diego, CA @ Observatory North Park – SOLD OUT
10/5 – Las Vegas, NV @ Brooklyn Bowl
10/7 – Santa Fe, NM @ Meow Wolf
10/8 – Denver, CO @ Ogden
10/9 – Lawrence, KC @ Granada
10/10 – St Louis, MO @ Delmar Hall
10/11 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
10/16 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
From the moment she began writing her new album, Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner knew that she wanted to call it Jubilee. After all, a jubilee is a celebration of the passage of time—a festival to usher in the hope of a new era in brilliant technicolor. Zauner’s first two albums garnered acclaim for the way they grappled with anguish; Psychopomp was written as her mother underwent cancer treatment, while Soft Sounds From Another Planet took the grief she held from her mother‘s death and used it as a conduit to explore the cosmos. Now, at the start of a new decade, Japanese Breakfast is ready to fight for happiness, an all-too-scarce resource in our seemingly crumbling world.
How does she do it? With a joyful noise. Jubilee bursts with the most wide-ranging arrangements of Zauner’s career. Each song unfurls a new aspect of her artistry.
In the years leading up to Jubilee, Zauner also took theory lessons and studied piano in earnest for the first time, in an effort to improve her range as a songwriter: “I’ve never wanted to rest on any laurels. I wanted to push it as far as it could go, inviting more people in and pushing myself as a composer, a producer, and arranger.”
Throughout Jubilee, Zauner is hardly fictionalizing her lyrics, instead pouring her own life into the universe of each song to tell real stories, and allowing those universes, in turn, to fill in the details. Joy, change, evolution—these things take real-time, and real effort. And Japanese Breakfast is here for it.
EARLY PRAISE FOR JUBILEE:
“We may be contending with grief and illness on a mass scale, but Japanese Breakfast gives us a way to resist sorrow.” -Pitchfork, Best New Track
“Confidently opens up her sonic universe. ‘Be Sweet’ is immaculately executed ‘80s synth-pop, down to the polyrhythms and the harmonies that kick in during the radio-ready chorus.” -Billboard
“Cuts through her ubiquitous dreaminess with an effectively direct message. Sincerity is an uphill battle, and Michelle Zauner is committed to the climb.” -The FADER
“With its rallying cry for kindness and acceptance propelling us into another year of many unknowns, ‘Be Sweet’ is the anthem we need now more than ever.” -them.
“Zauner [is] channeling joy and ecstasy just as she once so devastatingly channeled grief.” -Stereogum
“After two albums spent amid dream-pop excavations of grief and longing, Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner is bringing the joy — and it sounds infectious as hell.” -MTV
“An impressive vocal performance… The album’s lead single is a joyous and hopeful introduction to Zauner’s next album.” -Paste
“A new era of Japanese Breakfast is coming – and it’s a very joyous one.” -The AV Club
“Upbeat and optimistic.” -UPROXX
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JAPANESE BREAKFAST
JUBILEE
PRE-ORDER
1. Paprika
2. Be Sweet
3. Kokomo, IN
4. Slide Tackle
5. Posing in Bondage
6. Sit
7. Savage Good Boy
8. In Hell
9. Tactics
10. Posing for Cars
