Today's Song of the Day, as chosen by Larry Mizell Jr., host of The Afternoon Show on KEXP, is "My Rebel" by Fievel Is Glauque, from the 2022 album Flaming Swords on MATH Interactive.
Taking their name from a diss on a 1986 cartoon character, Belgium-based vocalist Ma Clément and NY producer/musician Zach Phillips comprise the duo that is Fievel Is Glauque. ("Fievel" is a mouse who stars in the animated An American Tail film series; the internet says "glauque" translates from French to "sinister, ominous, worrying.")
The jazzy-pop of their 2021 debut cassette God’s Trashmen Sent To Right The Mess landed them an opening slot on Stereolab's recent North American tour, but their first proper LP — Flaming Swords, released back in November — adds a sheen to their prog-punk-jazz sound. The album was recorded live, in its entirety, during an evening in Brussels, August 2021.
“Musically, Ma directed melodic impetus and I directed harmonic and rhythmic framing,” Phillips said in a press release. “Lyrically, we fought and embraced our initial impulses alternatingly; above all, we tried to trust and document the psychodynamics of the process itself rather than attempting to express concrete, prefab emotional or intellectual messaging. This approach to writing is intended to promote poetry while avoiding alibis and the hall-of-mirrors reproduction of excessive self-identification.”
