In addition to being the home of the best-dressed referees in all of professional sports, Australia seems to be home to the most melody per capita of any country on earth. Sure, there’s your heavy hitters—your Tame Impalas, your Nick Caves, your Courtney Barnetts—but the country’s musical bounty seems to extend to the remotest regions of the outback.
Which is why Perth’s Methyl Ethel don’t feel like a revelation so much as a confirmation. Led by Jake Webb, the trio play a punchy, slightly sepia-toned version of of the Oceania sound, culling a bit of the sad-time sunshine from nearby New Zealand.
Today, we’re pleased to be presenting the North American premiere of their new video for “Drink Wine,” which is taken from Everything is Forgotten, which 4AD released in March. Like the song it illustrates, it’s a clip that’s designed to feel classic—grainy VHS textures and in-view cameramen give it a bit of a Live at Pompeii–goes-indoors vibe.
But it’s a song that shouldn’t be reduced to its signifiers. With clipped synthesizers buzzing around him, Webb sits back in the pocket and surveys the song before him like a farmer does a field. “Back in the time, let’s see now, I don’t even know—Can’t ask me if I do,” he begins, but as his memory begins to click into place and the song finds its footing, that open-heartedness turns brackish with a bit of the industrialized melancholy that made their label famous. Webb’s masterful melody feels distantly familiar, almost as if he’s gently correcting a misunderstood memory. And if you’re trying to peg “Drink Wine” as a pure product of ‘80s nostalgia, perhaps it’s you that he’s working on. Maybe it is a revelation after all.
You can check out the “Drink Wine” video below, and this fall you’ll be able to catch Methyl Ethel on the road supporting The Drums. Those dates are below.
Methyl Ethel tour dates
10/6–8 – Austin, TX, Austin City Limits
11/6 — Denver, CO, Bluebird Theater (w/ The Drums)
11/7 — Omaha, NE, The Waiting Room (w/ The Drums)
11/8 — St. Louis, MO, The Ready Room (w/ The Drums)
11/10 — Columbus, OH, Skully’s (w/ The Drums)
11/11 — Toronto, ON, The Mod Club (w/ The Drums)
11/13 — Montreal, QC, Theatre Fairmount (w/ The Drums)
11/14 — Cambridge, MA, The Sinclair (w/ The Drums)
11/16 — Washington, DC, Black Cat (w/ The Drums)
Everything is Forgotten is out now on 4AD.
