Olivia Hally and Pepita Emmerichs, the Melbourne duo who record under the name Oh Pep!, are about to head out on the road with The Mountain Goats in support of their debut LP, Stadium Cake. It’s an intimidating task for anyone, setting the stage for a storyteller like John Darnielle, but Hally and Emmerichs are up to it. The duo play an uptempo and inventive version of folk music, spinning hammered mandolin notes around the kind of generous wordplay that made Darnielle his bones.
“Bushwick,” whose video we’re pleased to be premiering this morning, finds Hally and Emmerichs sketching a three-minute portrait of a person sprinting—and failing—to catch a train in the middle of winter. As with all good stories, though, there’s more to it than that. “As I catch my breath, I can’t help believing / That I don’t belong here / ’Cause the people they stare,” the duo sings. It’s a minor moment, sure, but the pedal steel lines blooming deep in the mix suggest a welling up of confused emotion, making the missed train sound like one more episode in a series of minor frustrations that all point to the same conclusion: “I wish someone would remind me / Everything I’ve done is behind me / I had it too good from the start / Something’s gonna have to remind me again.”
You can check out the “Bushwick” video below, then catch Oh Pep! on the road. Those dates follow.
Oh Pep! tour dates
Jul 21-23 – Calgary Folk Festival – Calgary, AB, Canada
Jul 25 – Revolution Roof Deck – Portland, OR, U.S.A
Jul 27 – Rickshaw Stop – San Francisco, CA
Jul 28 – Bootleg Theatre – Los Angeles, CA
Aug 1 – Larimer Lounge – Denver, CO
Aug 3 – The Demo – St. Louis, MO
Aug 4 – High Watt – Nashville, TN
Aug 5 – Evening Muse – Charlotte, NC
Aug 6 – Cats Cradle – Carrboro, NC
Sep 18 – Rams Head Live – Baltimore MD *
Sep 19 – The National – Richmond, VA *
Sep 20 – Jefferson Theatre – Charlottesville, VA*
Sep 22 – Buskirk-Chumley Theatre – Bloomington, IN*
Sep 23 – The Castle Theatre – Bloomington, IL*
Sep 26 – The Englert Theatre – Iowa City, IA*
Sep 27 – Pabst Theatre – Milwaukee, WI*
Sep 28 – Majestic Theatre – Madison, WI*
Sep 30 – The Waiting Room – Omaha, NE*
Oct 1 – Madrid Theatre – Kansas City, MO*
Oct 2 – The Blue Note – Columbia, MO*
Oct 3 – Codfish Hollow Barnstormers – Maquoketa, IA*
* w/ The Mountain Goats
