The EP features contributions from a stellar lineup, including Hand Habit’s Meg Duffy, as well as members of TOPS, Cola, and Jessica Pratt’s band. To celebrate the EP’s release last Friday, the Lightmans unveiled the video for the gorgeous song, “Etty Par 1.”

Directed by Romy Lightman and Jack Pullman, the video takes inspiration from Meredith Monk’s Book of Days and highlights the duo’s collaborative approach. It showcases appearances from Duffy, Jerry Paper, TOPS‘ Riley Fleck and Marta Cikojevic (aka Marci), contemporary dancer Tamara Hurwitz, and Sari’s young child, all dressed as mythological characters designed by Pullman.

Of the track, Lightman & Lightman stated: “This song is Etty’s introduction. Etty Hillesum, a queer Jewish writer who lived in Holland during German occupation. Her collected writing was published post humously and after I read it, it inspired me to write many songs in order to communicate with her.”

Watch below and stream the EP via Spotify.

Los Angeles-based musician Meg Duffy aka Hand Habits has a busy year. They released their very cool dirt EP (“4th of July” is one of our favourite tracks of the year) back in February, collaborated with Joel Ford on new instrumental project yes/and, and released another double single, motherless, at the dawn of summer. Where a lot of people would enjoy take a rest, Duffy is already teasing their next project, a full length-record produced by SASAMI and titled Fun House. This third album also features contributions from King Tuff’s Kyle Thomas and Perfume Genius.

As heard on dance-y lead single “aquamarine,” Fun House seems to introduce a new experimental edge.

“What originally started as a minimally arranged acoustic ballad, ‘Aquamarine’ evolved into the story of certain events in life, what informs my identity, the silence in the questions left unanswered that become the shape of understanding who I am,” Duffy stated. “It was my goal to cloak some of the perils of mortality (lyrically) in a musical landscape that didn’t require the listener for a large amount of patience, to bring grief into the metaphorical club. We filmed this video in my aunt’s bar and club in upstate New York, linking the origin and lineage themes in the song with the visuals of changing identities and characters in a space I used to wander as a teen.”

Watch the video, courtesy of director V Haddad, and pre-order the record via Bandcamp.

yes/and‘s self-titled debut album is out July 20 via Driftless Recordings.

Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Meg Duffy (aka Hand Habits) and Joel Ford (Ford & Lopatin, Young Ejecta…) have formed a new band, yes/and, and their first album is out this Summer. Coming with the announcement, they also shared two tracks, “Ugly Orange” and “Centered Shell,” where guitars intertwine with ambient and synth layers. Listen and pre-order the album via Bandcamp below.

Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Meg Duffy is a serial member of everyone’s favorite bands. To name a few, they’ve lent a hand as a studio musician on records by Weyes Blood, The War On Drugs, and Kevin Morby. However, since 2013, Duffy has stepped out of the backing band and struck out on their own under the moniker Hand Habits. Though Hand Habits is often recognized as the side project of a seasoned studio musician, tracks like recent release “4th of july” prove that Duffy‘s talent is strong enough to be lauded on its own merit.

On “4th of july,” the latest track released in advance of their upcoming EP dirt, Duffy cements their reputation as an incredible storyteller. The track begins with the lyrical equivalent of an establishing shot, as they sing, “There was an earthquake on the Fourth of July / Something inside you was shaken by that / Fireworks display over the mountainside / You couldn’t get those swinging lights out of your mind.” Later, they continue the narrative, “Well, I heard they tore that factory down / Only thing that big you felt safe around, the / beauty in all that machinery / Pumping in all its autonomy / It calmed your mind / It showed you time.” Duffy directly touches on emotional and physical placelessness, creating the feeling of being in a liminal space. Duffy‘s ability to evoke such indescribable emotions is a true testament to their superlative songwriting.

Just as the story progresses, the instrumentals naturally build upon one another. The track begins with lo-fi guitar. Duffy sings gruffly with a raw vulnerability, allowing for only small embellishments to shine through the darkness. As the second chorus sets off, euphoric drum beats, distant screams, and layered vocals drive “4th of july” forward. While the song begins somber, it climaxes on a celebratory note. The track has the rhythm of a fireworks show—there’s a slowness as the flames are lit, a feeling of anticipation as the lights start to go off, a moment of wild abandon as the show reaches its peak, and then a calmness as the sky returns to normal.

In the accompanying video directed by V Haddad and released by label Saddle Creek, the opening shot shows the artist digging a hole underneath an electric wire-filled sky. As the chorus comes to a screaming start, the singer-songwriter dances alone, clutching the air as if holding a long-gone lover. Rain falls as Duffy drops their shovel and begins to dig with their hands. The music crescendos as the action does, with Hand Habits repeatedly singing, “Both hands in the dirt / So you might as well try.” It is ultimately unclear why Duffy is digging, but they nevertheless awake anew, lying in the hole they dug themselves and staring at the sun of a new day as the track comes to a close.

Duffy provided further insight on their Instagram, explaining that the track was inspired by a drive into their hometown in Amsterdam, New York when they realized that a factory they frequented in their youth had been demolished. They write, “The feeling was a new kind of grief, mourning a set of memories, but also hopefulness because a field of grass was now in its place, a new foundation. Rebuilding *emotionally* can be a massive feat when you’re starting from the ground up… But it’s possible to change, it’s possible to find your way out of the memory maze. Sometimes you just gotta get dirty.” If all that’s not enough, Florist‘s Emily Sprague makes a surprise feature on the track. Dig into “4th of july” below.

A few weeks before the release of their sophomore album, Meg Duffy, also known as Hand Habits, shares a brand new track from the 12-track project. Released on Valentine’s Day, the tender “what lovers do” compares desire to fire and seems to mark the end to some intimacy struggles as they sing “halfway with my hands into the fire of my desire” and “now I know what lovers do.”

The follow up to the excellent “can’t calm down” also comes with an Alexa Viscius-directed video which features Griffin Goldsmith of Dawes. About this new release, Duffy explained to The Fader:

[su_quote]Hesitation, revelation, and repetition-aspects of the story you can identify easily, and must be the witness and the participant. When the shame baton gets passed back and forth between parties, who is the fool? I could never claim to have a complete understanding.[/su_quote]

[su_youtube_advanced url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O58U3ZBwpHg”]

Hailing from Upstate New York, Hand Habits is the moniker of vocalist and guitarist Meg Duffy. Recently, they announce the release of their new album placeholder, the follow up on their 2017’s debut Wildly Idle (Humble Before The Void). Following up on the first single and title track, here’s the lovely and introspective new offering “can’t calm down”. A beautiful track which was not an easy one to write according to Duffy‘s statement:

[su_quote]this song took the longest lyrically for me to finish. i started it about 3 years ago and kept it in progress throughout different cycles of feeling. ‘ancestral damage’ and learned behaviors and conditioning to react/hold and place certain emotions are patterns i’m interested in taking part and understanding better. what can one do with rage? with pain? with sadness? and is it is possible to learn how to wipe away completely the knee jerk reactions to situations that are buried deep in one’s dna? and the role models that taught us how to behave, whether directly or residually…are they the ones who should be held responsible or is memory partially to blame?[/su_quote]

“can’t calm down” also comes with a metaphorical Vanessa Haddad-directed video starring Meg Duffy in the role of a hunting vampire. Watch below.

[su_youtube_advanced url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJIaJQBYfcA”]

Although often categorized as folk music, there is a definitive edge to Kevin Morby‘s live performances, prevalent as of the band’s very entry. In front of an audience already warmed up by the fierce guitars of the opening act Steve Gunn, the band barged in and immediately drew the attention of the audience to the stage. Like on the new record “Singing Saw”, out now via Dead Oceans, the track “Cut Me Down” initiates the show calmly, but with a quiet energy to it. It is made clear, however, that the musicians are amongst those who mean business. The bass and drums are strong and steady, but it is Meg Duffy, guitar shredder and backing vocalist who would have stolen the show if Kevin was not a so good performer.

It would not be completely honest to call him a showman, but this is perhaps what makes him so entertaining to listen to. Most of the times, he seems utterly immersed in the words he’s singing, bleary-eyed, and looking into space. And the audience, rather than being turned off, looks equally engaged in response, even for those who cannot understand the lyrics. Yet for all the importance given to the content of the verses, the music too was honored by lots of instrumental breaks, and we all had our fill of solos during the night.

It is with the psychedelic ending of “Harlem River”, the eponymous hit of his sophomore solo album, that the concert really started to lift off. Responding to the cheering of the crowd, more familiar with this song, on stage the musicians began to dance, to make more eye-contact, and most of all Morby‘s curls, now shoulder-long, went flying around his head. Despite the pauses between songs (god do they like tuning their guitars), the energy never fell back, carried on by the balmy sound of the Fender Deluxe amps. Overall, Meg‘s work on guitars was outstanding, reminiscent of Jeff Beck’s musicality when soloing and George Harrison’s melodic taste when accompanying.

Yet the emotion certainly reached its peak with the more intimate moment. For despite his seeming timidity, Kevin Morby has its way for speaking with his audience, engaging them easily by his let’s-grab-a-beer-together attitude. Hence when he raised gloomier topics, such as Leonard Cohen‘s death or Trump‘s election, it felt like it just strengthens the cohesion in the room. And when alone with his guitar, he went on to play “Beautiful Stranger”, the song he dedicated to the victims of massacres and which sales profits go to the association Everytown For Gun Safety, the emotion became sensible, climaxing with the line “Pray for Paris”.

[su_spacer]
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/290239423″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
[su_spacer]

Thankfully, he never fell into the trap of sentimentality, and the best way to describe the nature of the emotions being shared there would be to qualify them as tender. Tender, the benevolent ways of singing songs of love and pain ; tender, the way that the band played together, or with the opening acts for a moving rendition of Leonard Cohen‘s “Passing Through”; and most of all, tender the welcome of an audience so happy to find the feeling of togetherness that had seemed to go missing during the past week.

Kevin Morby is still on tour in Europe. Check the dates below:

21.11.2016 La Paloma, Nimes (fr)

22.11.2016 Apolo la 2, Barcelona (es)

23.11.2016 Kafe Antzoki, Bilbao (es)

24.11.2016 Cafe Berlin, Madrid (es)

25.11.2016 Auditorio de Espinho, Espinho (pt)

26.11.2016 Vodafone Mexefest, Lisbon (pt)