With new music expected from David Bowie, Sia, Savages, The Besnard Lakes, Suede, and others, the early stages of 2016 are already shaping up to sound pretty solid in terms of highly anticipated new albums. Now we can add the third LP from Boston psychedelic indie rock band Quilt to the mix, as earlier today they announced Plaza, due February 26 via Mexican Summer.
The record’s announcement was made by NPR’s All Songs Considered, which premiered Plaza’s first single, a dreamy tune called “Eliot St.” that balances ’60s pop with a bit of relaxed glam rock atmospherics. It’s an understated pop song written by Quilt guitarist/vocalist Shane Butler, who relayed to NPR’s Bob Boilen via email that the subject matter deals with his time walking around the Boston area and calling his mother “to confess my troubles, triumphs and questions in life.”
Butler goes into greater detail here: “The first part of the song was written over a period of time in which I found myself isolated from the city I had lived in for years, entered an emotionally rocky relationship which slowly disintegrated, and experienced my mother’s death. The choruses hover around the pain felt in moments of unknowing, feeling adrift and always ‘one-step-away-from’ the person or thing we wish to be close to. The bridge of the song serves as a devil’s advocate of sorts; a wake-up call in the midst of despair. And the song’s coda takes strength from the intention of the bridge to suggest a renewal, a ‘second-wind’, for a love once-lost.”
Listen to “Eliot St.” below — lord knows we’ve done a bit of soul-searching of our own along Cambridge’s Eliot Street after leaving Charlie’s Kitchen one too many times — and pre-order Plaza here. Dates for the band’s upcoming West Coast shows with Widowspeak are below, as well.
Quilt: US Fall Tour 2015:
11-07 Santa Cruz, CA @ The Crepe Place (w/ Widowspeak)
11-08 San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel (w/ Widowspeak)
11-09 Santa Ana, CA @ The Constellation Room (w/ Widowspeak)
11-10 San Diego, CA @ The Hideout (w/ Widowspeak)
11-11 Los Angeles , CA @ Bootleg Bar (w/ Widowspeak)
11-13 Portland, OR @ Bunk Bar (w/ Widowspeak)
11-14 Vancouver, BC, Canada @ The Fox Cabaret (w/ Widowspeak)
11-15 Seattle, WA @ The Sunset (w/ Widowspeak)