We’re a few weeks into spring, which means there’s no better time to talk baseball (besides summer and fall, two other seasons in which baseball is very much happening). The new video for “Encore,” the live bonus track attached to Little Hag’s LP Whatever Happened to Avery Jane? released last September, takes this into account, creating a smooth analogy between the track’s anxious if not gloaty ode to winging it on stage and the dramatic victory lap batters are granted for hitting the ball out of the park. “I’m texting in the left lane,” Avery Mandeville’s rattling vocals—reminiscent of Conor Oberst’s and not much else—enunciate as she slowly makes her way around the diamond, “And I never wrote a setlist.”
“Then and now, I yearn for warmth, freckles, good hair days, and inner peace while speeding down an icy Garden State Parkway en route to the gig,” she clarifies about the song’s lyrics, providing a hopeful image both for the changing seasons and the (hopefully) imminent return of live music. The track was recorded at a 2018 Asbury Park gig almost improvisationally, with the unrehearsed song feeding off the energy of the crowd. It’s pretty self-evident in the recording—listen for yourself below, as you see just how good a slugger Little Hag is.
