Orville Peck is an obsession.
The mysterious goth-country (or whatever we’re all calling this) crooner released an Album of the Year contender in March’s Pony, a Sub Pop album so rich in emotive songwriting and dramatic intrigue this writer raced to his local brick and mortar to snag the vinyl as soon as he first stumbled upon recent singles “Turn To Hate” and “Dead Of Night”.
Though some sites have lifted Peck’s fringy veil to reveal his true identity, there’s a playful value in just absorbing this relative newcomer for his music and Western glam persona: Part male Lana Del Rey, part outlaw country rebel, part weathered queer icon for the broken-hearted, all voiced by perhaps a modern-day Roy Orbison. Pony is brimming with undeniable magnetism, of sex appeal and country luster reflected off the shine of a performer’s rhinestone, and now the LP’s penultimate track “Hope To Die” receives the video treatment.
The Blake Mawson-directed video, viewable below, is nothing short of stunning. It’s art itself.
“There are a few hidden things in there for people,” Peck tells Vogue. “There is a lot of reference to classic cowboy motifs, and in this video we reference Spaghetti Western and classic images of the cowboy and the sunset, but we add my own twist and the Orville take.”
We don’t know where he came from (we do but don’t wanna say), we don’t know where he’s going (probably to global goddamn superstardom), but all we do know, on the record, is that 2019 has been enriched by this performer, giving us not only some of the most remarkable and thought-provoking music of the past year, but an escape into a fantasyland of our own making. It’s the cowboy way. We’re on the horse, we’re gazing off into the sunset, and we’re riding until we hit water, far from the craziness and minutiae of daily life.
If, like many, you missed Peck’s recent performance at Great Scott a few weeks ago, you can get back on that bull and ride into ONCE Somerville come September 19.
That’ll be one hot ticket.
Like the man himself.
Orville Peck 2019 North American Live Dates:
August 14 – Santa Ana, CA – The Observatory
August 15 – San Diego, CA – The Casbah
August 17 – Los Angeles, CA – The Troubadour
August 18 – Los Angeles, CA – The Troubadour
August 19 – San Francisco, CA – Swedish American Music Hall
August 21 – Ogden, UT – Ogden Amphitheater
August 22 – Boise, ID – Knitting Factory
August 23 – Portland, OR – Keller Auditorium
August 24 – Fort Worden, WA – The Thing
August 26 – Victoria, BC – Capital Ballroom
August 27 – Vancouver, BC – Commodore Ballroom
September 06 – Raleigh, NC – Hopscotch Music Festival
September 12 – Lansdowne Park, OT – City Folk Festival
September 18 – Montreal, QC – La Sala Rossa
September 19 – Somerville, MA – ONCE Ballroom
September 20 – Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg
September 21 – Washington, DC – Union Stage
September 24 – Atlanta, GA – The Purgatory Room at The Masquerade
September 25 – Ybor City, FL – Crowbar
September 26 – Orlando, FL – The Social
September 28 – New Orleans, LA – Gasa Gasa
September 30 – Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall
October 01 – Dallas, TX – Club Dada
October 03 – Kansas City, MO – The Record Bar
October 04 – St. Louis, MO – Blueberry Hill
October 05 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
October 06 – Grand Rapids, MI – The Pyramid Scheme
October 08 – Columbus, OH – Ace of Cups
October 09 – Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop
October 10 – Philadelphia, PA – The Foundry
October 12 – Austin, TX – Austin City Limits Festival
October 15 – Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg
October 18 – Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace