Last month we raised a glass to Japanese Breakfast’s Melancholy Tour, which brings Michelle Zauner’s band across the country for the first time in three years, including a May 7 stop at MGM Music Hall in Fenway. The tour is in support of new album For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women), out March 21 on Dead Oceans, and a few days ago we were treated to another single from the record, a moody kind of jangle groove called “Mega Circuit.”
And like with most of Zauner’s best work, there’s something a little more serious strewing under the bubbly indie-pop demeanor.
“‘Mega Circuit’ was one of the first songs I wrote, intent on making a creepier, more guitar driven-record,” Zauner says. “The song is sort of an examination of contemporary masculinity, and explores a conflicted desire to embrace a generation that in the absence of positive role models has found refuge in violence and bigotry. We had the legendary Jim Keltner — who’s played on everything from ‘These Days’ to ‘Here You Come Again’ to ‘Dream Weaver’ — come in and play the fiercest shuffle you’ve ever heard.”
Check out all the dates of The Melancholy Tour via the Japanese Breakfast homepage, and indulge in “Mega Circuit” through the track’s video, directed by Zauner with frequent collaborator Adam Kolodny, below.