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Parquet Courts’ A. Savage Announces New LP Several Songs About Fire, Shares “Elvis in the Army”

Savage’s second solo album will be released on October 6 via Rough Trade.

Words: Will Schube

Photo: Vince McClelland

August 23, 2023

Photo by Michael Muller. Image design by Gene Bresler at Catch Light Digital. Cobver design by Jerome Curchod.Phoebe Bridgers makeup: Jenna Nelson (using Smashbox Cosmetics)Phoebe Bridgers hair: Lauren Palmer-SmithMUNA hair/makeup: Caitlin Wronski

With 232 pages and an expanded 12″ by 12″ format, our biggest print issue yet celebrates the people, places, music, and art of our hometown, including cover features on David Lynch, Nipsey Hussle, Syd, and Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory Records, plus Brian Wilson, Cuco, Ty Segall, Lord Huron, Remi Wolf, The Doors, the art of RISK, Taz, Estevan Oriol, Kii Arens, and Edward Colver, and so much more.

The long-running band from Detroit proves that they need just five seconds to win over listeners who gravitate toward the type of quality noise-pop that takes chances.

The third collection of solo recordings from Big Thief’s guitarist weaves the mystical and everyday while meticulously obscuring the reality of either.

The Chicago indie-pop group feel it all on their fifth album, with moments of elation beautifully contrasting with those of sorrow.

A. Savage, also of the rock band Parquet Courts, has announced his second solo album, Several Songs About Fire. The project is set to arrive on October 6 via Rough Trade Records. To celebrate the news, he’s shared its lead single “Elvis in the Army,” a rollicking, guitar-led cut with galloping drums and Savage’s signature sardonic delivery. “Most things are over, the old world is gone,” he deadpans.

Several Songs About Fire is bolstered by the support of Jack Cooper (Modern Nature, Ultimate Painting) and Cate Le Bon, as well as members of Kamikaze Palm Tree and caroline. “Elvis in the Army” follows the previously shared “Thanksgiving Prayer” and is accompanied by a music video shot in Paris and directed by Emile Moutaud.

Of the track, Savage explained: “We often describe ourselves in geographic terms. American, New Yorker—two terms that I’ve used to identify myself that have to do with being from or of a certain place. So ‘Elvis in the Army’ is a bit of an inventory of those labels. They have less to do with geography than we realize. Really we’re just talking about ourselves, then framing certain characteristics geographically. No matter where I live I’ll have an American psyche until the day I die, for better or for worse. I’ll always be of America. And I can’t imagine a time where New York doesn’t feel like home. But despite that, I’d rather not be associated with a place, at least for now.”

Check out the video for “Elvis in the Army” below, and pre-order Several Songs About Fire here.