The sneering irony of the LA punk scene is palpable on Turkey, the new album from Mike Krol. Weighing in at eighteen minutes—about as lengthy as his previous two releases, 2013’s Trust Fund and 2011’s I Hate Jazz—the band’s new release chafes against the oppressively sunny aesthetic while also managing to implicate itself in a smart critique of the alienating nature of the music industry in toto.
The record mates lines as introspective and intimate as anything on an Alex G release (standout: “Is this anger just some form of jealousy? Plus doubt, and you get insecurity,” on “Left Out (ATTN: SoCal Garage Rockers)”) with the lo-fi pop chord changes of garage rockers like Ty Segall and the rest of the Burger Records crew. Turkey riffs on the sunny pop heritage of California’s major labels with the lo-fi DIY disaffection of one who finds their sanitized image—all songwriting committees and car commercials—inauthentic.
Nowhere is this more apparent than on album closer “Piano Shit”. On the track, a contemporary pop-styled piano line meanders from major to minor key over the subtle hiss of a lo-fi recording device. Then, abruptly, it elides with the sound of a tape flutter to, “You still got me on this piano shit/Yeah, I don’t know man. I didn’t sign up for this shit.” The band banters and giggles over garage punk playing quietly in the background. The album’s rough edges, short length, and attendant mythology of singer-songwriter authenticity is an affectation as surely as those manufactured—image is inescapable in a town like LA, where everything is recorded and branded. The most radical thing you can do, Krol suggests, is to throw up your hands and laugh.
Mike Krol (dis)respectfully invites us to do the same.
Turkey is out August 28 via Merge. You can stream the album below, and scroll on for upcoming Mike Krol tour dates.
Mike Krol tour dates:
September
04 Madison, WI at Strictly Discs inatstore
09 Milwaukee, WI at The Cactus Club
10 Minneapolis, MN at 7th Street Entry
13 Spokane, WA at Big Dipper
14 Seattle, WA at Tractor Tavern *
15 Portland, OR at Doug Fir Lounge *
17 San Francisco, CA at Rickshaw Stop *
18 Los Angeles, CA at The Echo *
19 San Diego, CA at Seven Grand
20 Tucson, AZ at Hotel Congress
22 Austin, TX at The Mohawk (inside)
24 Atlanta, GA at The Masquerade
25 Carrboro, NC at Cat’s Cradle Back Room
26 Washington, DC at Comet Ping Pong
27 Philadelphia, PA at Ortliebs
28 New York, NY at Cake Shop
29 Brooklyn, NY at Baby’s All Right
October
01 Cambridge, MA at Out of the Blue Gallery
02 Montreal, QC at Casa del Popolo
03 Ottawa, ON at House of Targ
04 Toronto, ON at The Drake
05 Detroit, MI at Majestic Cafe
07 Chicago, IL at Empty Bottle
23 Valencia, ES at Deleste Festival
25 Paris, FR at Point Ephemere ^
26 Guildford, UK at The Boileroom
27 Bristol, UK at Start The Bus
28 Manchester, UK at The Eagle Inn
29 London, UK at Shacklewell Arms
30 Amsterdam, NL at London Calling @ Paradiso
31 Groningen, NL at Vera
November
04 Stockholm, SE at Fritz’s Corner @ Lilla Hotellbaren
05 Oslo, NO at Revolver
06 Göteborg, SE at Woah Dad HQ
07 Copenhagen, DK at Drone Bar
08 Hamburg, DE at Molotow Bar
09 Berlin, DE at The Monarch
* w/ Mac McCaughan + The Non-Believers
^ w/ Ezra Furman
