Have you come across the podcast Guys: With Bryan Quinby? I haven’t tuned in myself, though a concert buddy of mine swears by it. Each episode highlights a distinct archetype of guy; recent episodes have spotlighted Debate Guys, Star Wars Guys, Small Business Guys, Pool Guys (for billiards), and Pool Guys (for swimming). It would seem that 2nd Grade has adopted a similar framework on their latest LP.
You may recall that, alongside the news of their new tie-up with Lame-O Records, the Philadelphia-based power-pop outfit dropped a track titled Cellophane Girls last month. They’ve since announced that very song as the lead single from their forthcoming album Girls And Boys, which will see a physical release around Halloween but won’t hit digital shelves until after Thanksgiving. (I’m a big fan of this release strategy!) The album’s tracklist spans ten songs about various kinds of girls, followed by ten songs about various kinds of boys. They aren’t exact anthropological deep dives in the vein of the Guys podcast, but I’ll go ahead and call the projects thematically connected.
The next Girls And Boys single is another track from the Girls half of the record. It’s titled “Anywhere Girls,” and rather than the songwriter and producer Peter Gill, it’s voiced by bandmate Catherine Dwyer (Remember Sports, Spring Onion). It reminds me of Alvvays when they crank the tempo, but with much of the dreaminess stripped away.
A word from Dwyer:
As Peter and I were going through the demos he made for Girls and Boys, deciding who would sing lead on which song, I was immediately drawn to “Anywhere Girls.” A catchy upbeat standout in a tracklist packed with catchy upbeat standouts. I quickly realized how detailed, how full of large and unfamiliar intervals the melody was, how difficult Peter’s phrasing was to duplicate at high speed. This is Peter’s greatest trick as a songwriter, disguising his complex compositions under layers of sugar and fizzy distortion. Add a little ABBA-worship countermelody and a Blitzkrieg Bop intro/outro and you’ve got yourself “Anywhere Girls.”
Listen below.
TRACKLIST:
01 “Guess And Check Girls”
02 “Radio Girls”
03 “White Album Girls”
04 “Anywhere Girls”
05 “Slingerland Girls”
06 “Flight School Girls”
07 “Nowhere Girls”
08 “Upstream Girls”
09 “Motormall Girls”
10 “Cellophane Girls”
11 “Fender Boys”
12 “Glacial Boys”
13 “Rehoboth Boys”
14 “Radio Boys”
15 “Trouble Boys”
16 “Said And Done Boys”
17 “Catch And Release Boys”
18 “Rumor Mill Boys”
19 “20th Century Boys”
20 “Crash Test Boys”
Girls And Boys is slated for a physical release on 10/30 and a digital release on 12/4 via Lame-O. Pre-order it here.
