Frankie Cosmos is sharing “F.O.O.F,” an incredibly intricate and tactile official video from artist Cole Montminy. The song is from Inner World Peace, the group’s forthcoming new album.
On Inner World Peace, Frankie Cosmos’ are at their most psychedelic and playful, interjecting fuzz solos, bits of percussion, and other sonically adventurous ear candy. An internal logic strengthens everything, and in their proggiest moments, Frankie Cosmos are simply a one-take band who don’t miss. When on Inner World Peace they sound wildly, freshly different, it may just be that they’re coming deeper into their own. “F.O.O.F” is one of those moments.
Greta offers this on the song and video, “For me, ‘F.O.O.F’ is about creating random boundaries and schedules for yourself in an attempt to feel in control. Feeling time passing at varying speeds and time traveling with music. I love Cole’s art, and we were all so excited and grateful they were on board to make this video. I’ve struggled with feelings of isolation as a result of the pandemic, combined with escalated use of technology. This video embodies that, and the ending provides a sense of relief and freedom from those feelings. We could all stand to smash our computers and go touch some grass.”
Inner World Peace, will be available on October 21st, 2022 on CD/LP/CS/DSPs worldwide from Sub Pop. The album, which features the aforementioned “F.O.O.F.”, along with standouts “Aftershook,” “One Year Stand,” and “Empty Head,” was co-produced by Frankie Cosmos, Nate Mendelsohn, and Katie Von Schleicher at Figure 8 Recording in Brooklyn, New York, mixed by Mendelsohn and Von Schleicher, and mastered by Josh Bonati at Bonati Mastering. The Inner World Peace album art also features illustrations from band member Lauren Martin.
Frankie Cosmos has scheduled an Inner World Peace release show in Queens NY on October 7th 2022 at Knockdown Center’s The Ruins. Hannah Jadagu and Ian Sweet will be opening.
Inner World Peace is available for preorder now from Sub Pop. LP preorders from megamart.subpop.com, select independent retailers in North America, the UK and Europe, will receive the album on crystal clear vinyl (while supplies last).
Also available now with LPs preorders is a new limited edition Frankie Cosmos Zine, compiled by Greta Kline. It will include the first three issues of the Zine, bound together and will come with the first 400 Loser LPs of Inner World Peace pre-ordered on the Sub Pop Mega Mart.
Greta says of the zine, “You may not have heard of this zine if you aren’t on our mailing list, but I’ve been handmaking these and producing them in small batches, and I’m excited to have the opportunity to print and share more of them.
Frankie Cosmos Inner World Peace
Tracklisting 1. Abigail 2. Aftershook 3. Fruit Stand 4. Magnetic Personality 5. Wayne 6. Sky Magnet 7. A Work Call 8. Empty Head 9. Fragments 10. Prolonging Babyhood 11. One Year Stand 12. F.O.O.F. 13. Street View 14. Spare the Guitar 15. Heed the Call
A morning trip to the corner coffee spot becomes disorienting and hairy in the new Frankie Cosmos video for “Aftershook,” from filmmaker Andy Rose Fidoten. The song is from Inner World Peace, the group’s forthcoming new album.
Greta offers this on the song, “‘Aftershook’ is about processing the past, and grappling with maintaining a balanced ratio of emotional awareness and hopefulness. The clown represents my fear of growing up into the kind of stunted adult that toxically influenced my youth.”
As for the “Aftershook” video, Greta says, “Lauren had the basic idea for this music video, and we liked it for this song because it has a sort of spooky vibe to it. I love where Andy and their team took it because it feels like it’s about grappling with one’s sense of self/reality, and searching for one’s place in the world/community.”
Frankie Cosmos will release Inner World Peace, their fifth album, on October 21st, 2022 on CD/LP/CS/DSPs worldwide from Sub Pop. The album, which features the aforementioned “Aftershook,” along with standouts “One Year Stand,” “F.O.O.F.”, and “Empty Head,” was co-produced by Frankie Cosmos, Nate Mendelsohn, and Katie Von Schleicher at Figure 8 Recording in Brooklyn, New York, mixed by Mendelsohn and Von Schleicher, and mastered by Josh Bonati at Bonati Mastering. The Inner World Peace album art also features illustrations from band member Lauren Martin.
Earlier this month, Inner World Peace’s first single “One Year Stand” saw praise from the likes of PAPER (“Minimal and impressionistic — a collection of small features that coalesce into a vivid landscape.”), Stereogum (“soft and sad and sweet”), Brooklyn Vegan (“Instrumentally understated, with cheeky and sweet lyrics”), Uproxx (“patient and lush”) and Consequence (“dreamy”).
Inner World Peace is available for preorder now from Sub Pop. LP preorders from megamart.subpop.com, select independent retailers in North America, the UK and Europe, will receive the album on crystal clear vinyl (while supplies last).
Also available now with LPs preorders is a new limited edition Frankie Cosmos Zine, compiled by Greta Kline. It will include the first three issues of the Zine, bound together and will come with the first 400 Loser LPs of Inner World Peace pre-ordered on the Sub Pop Mega Mart.
Greta says of the zine, “You may not have heard of this zine if you aren’t on our mailing list, but I’ve been handmaking these and producing them in small batches, and I’m excited to have the opportunity to print and share more of them.”
Frankie Cosmos has scheduled an Inner World Peace release show in Queens NY on October 7th 2022 at Knockdown Center’s The Ruins. Hannah Jadagu and Ian Sweet will be opening.
Frankie Cosmos Inner World Peace
Tracklisting 1. Abigail 2. Aftershook 3. Fruit Stand 4. Magnetic Personality 5. Wayne 6. Sky Magnet 7. A Work Call 8. Empty Head 9. Fragments 10. Prolonging Babyhood 11. One Year Stand 12. F.O.O.F. 13. Street View 14. Spare the Guitar 15. Heed the Call
On October 21st, 2022, Frankie Cosmos will release Inner World Peace, their fifth album, on CD/LP/CS/DSPs worldwide from Sub Pop. The album, which features “One Year Stand” and additional standouts “ F.O.O.F.”, “Aftershook,” and “Empty Head,” was co-produced by Frankie Cosmos, Nate Mendelsohn, and Katie Von Schleicher at Figure 8 Recording in Brooklyn, New York, mixed by Mendelsohn and Von Schleicher, and mastered by Josh Bonati at Bonati Mastering. The Inner World Peace album art also features illustrations from band member Lauren Martin.
In the sweet and tender official video for “One Year Stand,” directed by Eliza Lu Doyle, and starring Frankie Cosmos’s Greta Kline and Alex Bailey, Greta does an interpretive dance using the song’s lyrical theme of accepting new love while acknowledging that your past is part of who you are.
Eliza offers this, “We conceived of the setting for the video as a cross between a diorama and an empty arena stage. To me, the interaction between Greta and the camera is almost like an act of faith — a reach toward an absent audience. We wanted to channel the pleasure of half-performing for that imaginary gaze.”
Greta elaborates further, “This music video was created with my best friend Eliza, who makes video and performance art. It feels like an encapsulation of the record in that it’s strange and vast while also being contained and interior. Clowning and playing are a huge part of collaborating for me and Eliza. We wanted to perform a dance without dancing — the kind of movements you fall into in private, banal moments, playing without even realizing. Choreographing together felt like we were in 6th grade again, all id and giggles. The album and the video were made in these environments of love and pleasure.”
Inner World Peace is available for preorder now from Sub Pop. LP preorders from megamart.subpop.com, select independent retailers in North America, the UK and Europe, will receive the album on crystal clear vinyl (while supplies last). There will also be a new T-shirt design available.
Frankie Cosmos has scheduled an Inner World Peace release show in Queens NY on October 7th 2022 at Knockdown Center’s The Ruins. Hannah Jadagu and Ian Sweet will be opening.
About Inner World Peace by Katie Von Schleicher: Several things happened before a warm day when I met the four members of Frankie Cosmos in a Brooklyn studio to begin making their album. Greta Kline spent a few years living with her family and writing a mere 100 songs, turning her empathy anywhere from the navel to the moon, rendering it all warm, close and reflexively humorous. In music, everyone loves a teen sensation, but Kline has never been more fascinating than now, a decade into being one of the most prolific songwriters of her generation. She’s lodged in my mind amongst authors, other observational alchemists like Rachel Cusk or Sheila Heti, but she’s funnier, which is a charm endemic to musicians.
Meanwhile Frankie Cosmos, a rare, dwindling democratic entity called a band, had been on pandemic hiatus with no idea if they’d continue. In the openness of that uncertainty they met up, planning to hang out and play music together for the first time in nearly 500 days. There, whittling down the multitude of music to work with, they created Inner World Peace, a collection of Greta’s songs changed and sculpted by their time together. While Kline’s musical taste at the time was leaning toward aughts indie rock she’d loved as a teenager, keyboardist Lauren Martin and drummer Luke Pyenson cite “droning, meditation, repetition, clarity and intentionality,” as well as “‘70s folk and pop” as a reference for how they approached their parts. Bassist/guitarist Alex Bailey says that at the time he referred to it as their “ambient” or “psych” album. Somewhere between those textural elements and Kline’s penchant for concise pop, Inner World Peace finds its balance.
Instant centerpiece “One Year Stand” is a small snowglobe of intimacy recalling the softest moments of Yo La Tengo’s And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out. Lifted by Martin’s drones on Hammond organ and synthesizer, it could be played on repeat in a loop. I like to think it’s obvious how Greta’s vocals were recorded: late at night as we all sat by in low light, transfixed as she sings “I’m not worried about the / rest of my life / because you are here today / I go back in time / I’m a cast iron.” The voices of Kline and Martin, who have sung together since middle school, blend seamlessly.
The first order of business upon setting up camp in Brooklyn’s Figure 8 studios was to project giant colorful slides the band had made for each track. Co-producing with Nate Mendelsohn, my Shitty Hits Recording partner, we aimed for FC’s aesthetic idiosyncrasies to shine.The mood board for “Magnetic Personality” has a neon green and black checkerboard, a screen capture of the game Street Fighter with “K.O.” in fat red letters, and a cover of Mad Magazine that says “Spy Vs. Spy! The Top Secret Files.” On tracks like “F.O.O.F.” (Freak Out On Friday), “Fragments” and “Aftershook,” the group are at their most psychedelic and playful, interjecting fuzz solos, bits of percussion, and other sonically adventurous ear candy. An internal logic strengthens everything, and in their proggiest moments, Frankie Cosmos are simply a one-take band who don’t miss. When on Inner World Peace they sound wildly, freshly different, it may just be that they’re coming deeper into their own.
Throughout the album there are plays on the notion of feeling seen or invisible, as in “Magnetic Personality” when Kline sings “ask me how I am and I won’t really say,” or in “One Year Stand” when she says “maybe I’m asking myself.” Kline emphasizes that this was her first group of songs in years that weren’t written while on tour, but rather with ample time on her hands. She reflects on past selves in “Abigail” (“that version of myself I don’t want back”) and “Wayne” (“Like in first grade / How I went by Wayne / I always had / another name”). If we’re alone, what becomes of the things we see? As in “Fruit Stand,” Kline asks “If it’s raining and I can’t feel it, is it raining?”
Inner World Peace excels in passing on the emotions it holds. When in the towering “Empty Head” Kline sings of wanting to let thoughts slide away, her voice is buoyed on a bed of synths and harmonium as tranquility abounds. When her thoughts become hurried and full of desire, so does the band, and she leaps from word to word as if unable to contain them all. As a group, they carry it all deftly, and with constant regard for Kline’s point of view.
Says Greta, “To me, the album is about perception. It’s about the question of “who am I?” and whether or not the answer matters. It’s about quantum time, the possibilities of invisible worlds. The album is about finding myself floating in a new context. A teenager again, living with my parents. An adult, choosing to live with my family in an act of love. Time propelled us forward, aged us, and also froze. If you don’t leave the house, who are you to the world? Can you take the person you discover there out with you?”
Frankie Cosmos Inner World Peace
Tracklisting 1. Abigail 2. Aftershook 3. Fruit Stand 4. Magnetic Personality 5. Wayne 6. Sky Magnet 7. A Work Call 8. Empty Head 9. Fragments 10. Prolonging Babyhood 11. One Year Stand 12. F.O.O.F. 13. Street View 14. Spare the Guitar 15. Heed the Call
Including Father John Misty, Man Man, Jon Benjamin: Jazz Daredevil, METZ, Gazebos, The Gotobeds, Omni, Versing, and Frankie Cosmos.
On Friday, June 3rd, (aka Bandcamp Friday) Sub Pop & Hardly Art artists past and present – Jon Benjamin, Father John Misty, Frankie Cosmos (as Franz Charcoal), Gazebos, The Gotobeds, Man Man, Omni, METZ, and Versing – will be offering a variety of special releases, sales, and deals through Bandcamp’s “No Revenue Share Day.” Sub Pop and Hardly Art will be passing through 100% of digital sales revenue on Bandcamp to all of our active artists.
Jon Benjamin: Jazz DaredevilWell I Should Have… – long out-of-print LP now available on a special limited edition Red/White/Blue colored vinyl.
Father John MistyAnthem +3 – a 4-song EP featuring covers of Leonard Cohen, Yusuf/Cat Stevens, and Link Wray. Proceeds to benefit both CARE Action Network and Ground Game LA. Pay-what-you-want $5 minimum for the whole EP, no individual track sales.
Gazebos “Therapy” – Previously unreleased track with all proceeds raised Friday, July 3rd to benefit King County Equity Now. Pay-what-you-want on July 3rd, $1/per track after
The Gotobeds “Have You Checked the Tapes?” b/w “Blazing Sun of Youth” – Two previously unreleased tracks from their Debt Begins at 30 album sessions. Proceeds from July 3rd will benefit Sisters PGH COVID-19 support. Pay-what-you-want on July 3rd, $1/per track after Man Man “Dig Deep” – Releases a brand new single with proceeds to benefit both the NAACP and Know Your Rights Campaign. Pay-what-you-want w/ $1 minimum.
METZLive at Ramsgate Music Hall – a 4-song digital EP featuring live versions of METZ’s “Cellophane,” “Acetate,” “Nervous System,” and “Raw Materials” recorded during the band’s date at the UK venue on May 3rd, 2018. Proceeds to help raise funds through Ramsgate Music Hall’s Bandcamp page, while they’re closed due to COVID-19. Pay-what-you-want through July 5, £1.50 per track / £5 for the full EP thereafter.
Omni “The Stranger” b/w “Art for Art’s Sake” – Covers of Billy Joel’s The Stranger,” and 10cc’s “Art for Arts Sake,” originally recorded for Aquarium Drunkard Lagniappe sessions. Proceeds raised July 3rd to benefit Georgia NAACP. Pay-what-you-want on July 3rd, $1/per track after
Versing “Red Wave” b/w “Once Bitten” – Previously unreleased single with all proceeds raised Friday, July 3rd to benefit Northwest Community Bail Fund. Pay-what-you-want on July 3rd, $1/per track after
Their Reddit Indieheads AMA is tomorrow, Sep. 6th at 9:00 am PST/12:00 pm EST.
Frankie Cosmos’ fourth studio album, Close It Quietly is out tomorrow, Sep. 6th worldwide via Sub Pop Records. This album is a manifestation of the band’s collaborative spirit: Greta Kline and longtime bandmates Lauren Martin (synth), Luke Pyenson (drums), and Alex Bailey (bass) luxuriated in studio time with Gabe Wax, who engineered and co-produced the record with the band at Brooklyn’s Figure 8 Studios.
In celebration of the release of Close It Quietly, the band has shared a new video for “41st” which features tour footage from the bands Spring 2019 European tour with close friends, Ian Sweet. Watch it here or watch ithere.
Frankie Cosmos’ frontperson, Greta Kline will be camped out at her computer tomorrow, Sep. 6th starting at 9:00 AM PT/12:00 PM ET to answer any and all of your Frankie Cosmos queries. You can access the REDDIT r/indieheads AMA by clickinghere.
Close It Quietly is available from Sub Pop starting Friday, September 6th. LP preorders of the album through megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers in North America, UK, and Europe will receive the limited Loser edition on blue pearlescent (North America) and opaque yellow (UK/EU) while supplies last.
The “Puppy” version is a Stuffed Animal CD version of the album. A cute stuffed dog acts as the packaging for a CD version of “Close It Quietly”. Super cute. Super limited!
Close it Quietly, available worldwide on September 6th via Sub Pop.
On September 6th, Sub Pop will release Frankie Cosmos’ fourth studio album, Close It Quietly. This album is a manifestation of the band’s collaborative spirit: Greta Kline and longtime bandmates Lauren Martin (synth), Luke Pyenson (drums), and Alex Bailey (bass) luxuriated in studio time with Gabe Wax, who engineered and co-produced the record with the band at Brooklyn’s Figure 8 Studios.
The bands latest video for “Wannago” features comedian Catherine Cohen and was directed by the fine folks at House of Nod. The video is centered around the band’s love for reality baking shows, specifically The Great British Bake Off. “I thought a baking competition theme would translate well to a music video. In some ways I think the lighthearted drama, tension, and release of that format mirrors the ebb and flow of emotions (lyrically and musically) in this song, and so it was kind of a natural fit” says drummer Luke Pyenson. You can watch the video for the song here and also here.
When asked about the song, Kline had this to share “Wannago is an older song that I thought would never come out. Every time we ever tried to arrange it we gave up or lied that we would come back to it later. It felt too hard, and I found some of the lyrics embarrassing. Then Alex encouraged us to give it another shot because he really loved the demo. We ended up all working together to turn this into a song that feels sparkly and distinct; and it’s really fun to play. I’ve accepted the cheesier lyrics as part of the youthful glow of the song, it feels very wide-eyed and is purely about love, distance, and life.”
Frankie Cosmos has announced a World Tour, splitting these shows into three legs. The first leg of dates will begin on September 18 in Boston, MA, and end on Sep. 29 in their hometown of New York City which will include an opening comedy set from “Wannago” video star Catherine Cohen. They will then head overseas beginning on Oct. 8th in Munich, Germany with shows in Prague, Amsterdam, and Paris, ending on Oct. 22nd in London. The final leg of dates will run from Oct 31st - Nov 16th with shows in Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Los Angeles, and Berkeley. See below for a full list of shows.
Close It Quietly is now available for preorder from Sub Pop. LP preorders of the album through megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers in North America, UK, and Europe will receive the limited Loser edition on blue pearlescent (North America) and opaque yellow (UK/EU) while supplies last.
