• News

• All

Jul 21, 2020 By Christopher Roberts Stephen Colbert

Phoebe Bridgers released a new album, Punisher, last month via Dead Oceans. Last night she was the musical guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, performing Punisher track “Kyoto” remotely from her home, aided by a disco ball, smoke, bubbles, and a backup dancer of sorts. She was clad in her signature skeleton pajama onesie/Halloween costume and at one point jumped off a chair as if she was leaping off a stage. Watch it all go down below.

Punisher includes “Garden Song,” a new song she shared in February via a video for it. “Garden Song” was #1 on our Songs of the Week list. Then when the album was announced, Bridgers shared another song from it, “Kyoto,” via a Nina Ljeti-directed video for the track that featured Bridgers flying around a city and battling Godzilla. “Kyoto” was also #1 on our Songs of the Week list. Then she performed “Kyoto” for Jimmy Kimmel Live!, but because of COVID-19 social distancing she did so remotely, from her bathtub at home, dressed in her pajamas and accompanied by only a synthesizer on her lap. Then she shared another single from the album, “I See You,” via a lyric video featuring hand shadow puppets (it was also one of our Songs of the Week). She also embarked on the “Phoebe Bridgers’ World, Tour,” which was a series of livestream concerts from different rooms in her house. When the album was released its closing track “I Know the End” also made our Songs of the Week list. Then she performed “I See You” on The Late Late Show with James Corden, but in a nod to his Carpool Karaoke series she did so while driving a car.

Punisher is her sophomore album, the follow-up to her acclaimed debut album, Stranger in the Alps, released in September 2017 via Dead Oceans. For Punisher she reteamed with Stranger in the Alps’ producers/collaborators Tony Berg and Ethan Gruska, although this time Bridgers co-produced the album with them. Mike Mogis mixed the album, as he did with her debut.

Punisher features Bridgers’ main band: Marshall Vore (drums), Harrison Whitford (guitar), Emily Retsas (bass), and Nick White (piano). But the album also features a slew of notable guests: Conor Oberst (“Halloween,” “I Know The End”), Lucy Dacus (“Graceland Too,” “I Know The End”), Julien Baker (“Graceland Too,” “I Know the End”), Blake Mills (“Halloween,” “Savior Complex,” and “I Know the End”), Jenny Lee Lindberg (“Kyoto,” “ICU”), Christian Lee Hutson (“Garden Song,” “Halloween,” “Savior Complex,” “I Know the End”), Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner (“I Know the End”), legendary drummer Jim Keltner (“Halloween” and “Savior Complex”), and Bright Eyes’ Nathaniel Walcott on horns (“Kyoto” and “I Know the End”).

Read our 2017 exclusive interview with Phoebe Bridgers and check out our photo-shoot with her.

Read our 2019 cover story interview with boygenius.

Support Under the Radar on Patreon.