Boy Scouts Release New Single + Animated Video "Hate Ya 2"
Raised in California's Central Valley on country music and The Carpenters, Boy Scouts aka Taylor Vick picked up her first guitar in fourth grade.
She started writing her own songs not long after, inspired by acoustic guitar-wielding radio icons like the Dixie Chicks and Michelle Branch. Now an Oakland-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Vick makes the kind of music that hits like good advice from a beloved friend. In the vein of Frankie Cosmos and Florist, her music is generously warm and inviting, built atop her open, searching voice, but it doesn't shy away from tough emotional truths.
Today, Vick has released “Hate Ya 2”, the final track debut before the August 30th release of her new album Free Company. “With diaphanous piano flourishes and a steady pulsing rhythm of electronic drums and melancholic R&B bass, the track blooms like a plant requiring little light,” said Under the Radar. Watch the new animated video for “Hate Ya 2” HERE.
[youtube id=BqP_0sG8d78]
"”Hate Ya 2” is about trying to grapple with conflicting feelings,” Vick explains. “When you still have love for someone who can also make you feel undervalued and hurt, and how confusing that experience can be. The process of recording this song felt very cathartic. Stephen [Steinbrink] and I drove out to my parent’s house with my friend Rose Droll to have her record piano on a few songs from the record, and when she played along to this one we tracked a few takes of her improvising. It added such a beautiful melancholic element, in true Rose Droll fashion.”
Like Lomelda's secular hymns and Hop Along's energetic kiss-offs, Vick's songs survey the damage that can come from loving other people with curiosity and grace. Free Company is her most vital and incisive work yet, a stunningly tuneful rumination on heartbreak and loss that is always galloping toward the horizon.
Her tightest and most cohesive collection of songs, Vick recorded Free Company in a tiny studio her friend Stephen Steinbrink set up inside a rented shipping container--a unique spot that ended up being perfect for her. "It's a windowless little room, but that made me feel really comfortable," she says. "We did it in the comfort of a weird, atypical recording space."
This fall she will tour accompany Jay Som on a nationwide US tour – all upcoming shows are listed below.
Praise for ‘Free Company’:
“Vick had a knack for wrapping wrenching ballads in tender arrangements that foreground her voice in innovative ways.” - NPR Music
“On the one hand, Boy Scouts fits nicely within a plane previously traversed by songwriters like Elliott Smith and Phoebe Bridgers. On the other, Vick moves forward with her earnest songwriting and performance quality that is wholly and distinctively herself, and never has it been more evident than in her latest.” - PopMatters
“The track is soft and lilting, Vick’s melodies blending in with the song’s sunny sway” – Stereogum on “Get Well Soon”
“Her music is defined by its warm tenderness—twangy guitars, cooing vocals, supportive keys—but she doesn’t necessarily want to be your caretaker.” - Paste
“Pure bedroom-folk, luring you into finding yourself lost with yesterday’s thoughts, occupied by today’s choices, and captivated by tomorrow’s chances.” - The 405
TOUR DATES
9/11 – Phoenix, AZ – The Rebel Lounge#
9/12 – San Diego, CA – Irenic#
9/13 – Los Angeles, CA – Echoplex#
9/14 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore#
9/17 – Vancouver, BC – The Imperial#
9/18 – Seattle, WA – Neumos#
9/19 – Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge#
9/20 – Boise, ID – Neurolux#
9/21 – Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge#
9/24 – Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge#
9/26 – Dallas, TX – Club Dada#
9/27 – Austin, TX – Barracuda#
9/28 – Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall#
10/15 – Lawrence, KS – Granada Theatre#
10/16 – Minneapolis, MN – 7th St Entry#
10/17 – Madison, WI – High Noon Saloon#
10/18 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall#
10/19 – Columbus, OH – The Basement#
10/21 – Detroit, MI – El Club#
10/22 – Toronto, ON – Velvet Underground#
10/23 – Montreal, QC – Bar le Ritz PDB#
10/25 – Brooklyn, NY – Elsewhere#
10/26 – Cambridge, MA – The Sinclair#
10/27 – Burlington, VT – ArtsRiot#
10/29 – Philadelphia, PA – The Foundry#
10/30 – Washington DC – Rock & Roll Hotel#
10/31 – Raleigh, NC – Kings#
11/1 – Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade#
11/2 – Nashville, TN – High Watt#
# - with Jay Som