We’ve been a fan of Peter Riley’s lyrical brilliance ever since his New York City modern rock band Saintface dropped “Hudson & Day” back in the hungover mid-2000s. These days, he’s shed his guitars for synthesizers alongside fellow Saintfacer Michael Parkin (keyboards), and in the Dossier, creates the type of swirling synth-pop that smears lipstick with strobe lights and lights lips with disco sticks.
The Dossier, who we believe last performed live in Boston back at the pill’s 12th anniversary party in 2009, have a new record, Strange Arrangements, ready for release this fall. And the lead track off of that is “Give Me Your Name,” a new wave rollercoaster that has all the necessary Riley-isms, making us long for the days when Saintface’s Apartment Stories CD was permanently entrenched in our iPod playlists. In fact, the Strange Arrangements title is pulled right from a lyric off “Give Me Your Name.”
The music video, which premiered this week and is posted above, shows Riley and Parkin both on stage and running around a nearly abandoned New York City… which, to us, is the best kind of New York City. In “Give Me Your Name,” we’re also getting the best kind of Riley.
BONUS: Check out the Dossier performing the Depeche Mode classic “But Not Tonight” (forever the favorite Mode song of this humble writer), live from Le Poisson Rouge early last year.