Phoebe Bridgers is about to return to the road in September, playing her first shows in support of her excellent second solo album, 2020's Punisher. Ahead of that, she's shared three new remixes of Punisher single "Kyoto," by Bartees Strange, The Marias, and Glitch Gum. All three offer wildly different takes on the track - The Marias inject it with loungey, stylized vibes, Glitch Gum launches it into hyperpop oblivion, and Bartees gives it a baroque, fabulously orchestrated cover, not unlike his transformative renditions of The National's songs.
"All I know is one day, when I was in between Zoom classes last Fall, I thought, 'Man, what if Phoebe Bridgers did hyperpop?,'" Glitch Gum writes. "That idea turned into a 30-second snippet of 'Kyoto', which turned into a full song, which turned into working with Phoebe and her team to make this little quarantine project come full circle in ways I could never even fathom. It was so fun deconstructing the musical realms of both Phoebe and I and combining them into something that filled the hyperpop-indie-crossover-shaped hole in my brain. I am just really happy with how it turned out and forever thankful for Phoebe, her friends, and their continuous support."
"I remember seeing Phoebe years ago at an open mic here in Los Angeles, and I knew right off the bat that she was really special," The Marias write. "Working on this remix was a sort of full circle moment for us. ‘Kyoto’ is an amazing song as-is, so with the remix we were just curious to see what it would sound like with the vocal slowed down and adding some of our favorite synth sounds behind it."
"I wanted to find a way to make this song hit in a completely different way, but still retain some of the big and small moments that make the song special to me," Bartees writes. "At first I was thinking through how I could use the stems, but the more I got into it the more I wanted to take it somewhere else entirely. Crushing tune, glad I could mess around with it."
Stream all three versions, and see Phoebe's upcoming tour dates, along with pictures from one of her 2018 shows at Brooklyn Steel, below.
Get Punisher on cassette, Better Oblivion Community Center (Phoebe's project with Conor Oberst) on vinyl and cassette, and the boygenius EP on vinyl at the BV store.
PHOEBE BRIDGERS: 2021 TOUR
September 3/ The Pageant/ St Louis, MO +
September 4/ Bonnaroo Festival/ Manchester, TN
September 5/ Iroquois Amphitheater/ Louisville, KY +
September 7/ Royal Oak Music Theatre/ Detroit, MI *
September 8/ Royal Oak Music Theatre/ Detroit, MI *
September 10/ Pitchfork Music Festival/ Chicago, IL
September 11/ Palace Theatre/ St Paul, MN *
September 12/ Palace Theatre/ St Paul, MN *
September 14/ The Sylvee/ Madison, WI *
September 15/ Egyptian Room at Old National Centre/ Indianapolis, IN *
September 17/ Stage AE Outdoors/ Pittsburgh, PA *
September 18/ Express Live/ Columbus, OH *
September 19/ The Fillmore/ Charlotte, NC *
September 20/ The Ritz/ Raleigh, NC *
September 23/ Firefly Festival/ Dover, DE
September 25/ Governor's Ball Festival/ New York, NY
September 26/ Leader Bank Pavilion/ Boston, MA *
September 27/ Leader Bank Pavilion/ Boston, MA *
October 2/ ACL Festival/ Austin, TX
October 3/ The Orpheum Theater/ New Orleans, LA
October 4/ Avondale Brewing Company/ Birmingham, AL
October 9/ ACL Festival/ Austin, TX
October 16/ Greek Theatre/ Berkeley, CA
October 21/ Greek Theatre/ Los Angeles, CA
October 24/ Shaky Knees Festival/ Atlanta, GA
October 26/ The Anthem/ Washington, DC
