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May 19, 2021 By Mark Redfern

Japanese Breakfast (aka Michelle Zauner) is releasing a new album, Jubilee, on June 4 via Dead Oceans. Now she has shared its third single, “Savage Good Boy,” via a self-directed video in which she co-stars with actor Michael Imperioli of The Sopranos. Watch it below, followed by her upcoming tour dates.

“‘Savage Good Boy’ came from a headline I read about billionaires buying bunkers,” Zauner explains in a press release. “I was interested in examining that specific type of villainy, and I found myself adopting the perspective of a rich man coaxing a young woman to come live with him underground, attempting to rationalize his almost impossible share of greed and miserliness. I knew I wanted the music video to be a pretty literal interpretation of that idea. I wanted to juxtapose images of this post-apocalyptic, industrial bunker with the lightness and extravagance of rococo fashion and set design. Aiming for that balance, my cinematographer, Adam Kolodny, and I were really inspired by Chan Wook Park’s The Handmaiden, Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon, and Sally Potter’s Orlando.”

When Jubilee was announced Zauner shared its first single, “Be Sweet” (which was #1 on our Songs of the Week), and would later go on to perform it on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Then she shared a self-directed video for the album’s second single “Posing in Bondage,” which was also #1 on our Songs of the Week list.

In a previous press release, Zauner had this to say about her new album: “I’ve never wanted to rest on any laurels. I wanted to push it as far as it could go, inviting more people in and pushing myself as a composer, a producer, an arranger.”

Zauner’s most recent album, Soft Sounds From Another Planet, came out in July 2017 on Dead Oceans and was one of our Top 100 Albums of 2017.

In April Zauner also released her debut memoir, Crying In H Mart, on Knopf. The book debuted at #2 on The New York Times’ Hardcover Nonfiction Best Sellers List. Crying in H Mart is partly about the death of Zauner’s mother to cancer and how the two bonded over Korean food.

Japanese Breakfast is on the cover of our latest print issue (buy a copy directly from us here).

Read our 2017 interview with Japanese Breakfast on Soft Sounds From Another Planet.

Japanese Breakfast Tour Dates:

6/4 - Nashville, TN @ OUTLOUD Festival
7/28 - Asbury Park, NJ @ Asbury Lanes
7/29 - Hamden, CT @ College Street Music Hall
7/30 - Jersey City, NJ @ White Eagle Hall
8/2 - Holyoke, MA @ Gateway City Arts
8/3 - Rochester, NY @ Anthology
8/4 - Detroit, MI @ Saint Andrew’s Hall
8/5 - Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theatre
8/7 - Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
8/28 - Lexington, KY @ Railbird Festival
9/11 - Asbury Park, NJ @ Stone Pony (Shadow in the City) - SOLD OUT
9/14 - Columbus, OH @ The Athenaeum Theatre
9/15 - Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall - SOLD OUT
9/16 - Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall - SOLD OUT
9/17 - Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall
9/18 - Madison, WI @ Majestic Theatre
9/19 - Minneapolis, MN @ First Ave
9/21 - Ogden, UT @ Ogden Twilight
9/23 - Boise, ID @ Treefort Festival
9/24 - Eugene, OR @ WOW Hall
9/25 - Seattle, WA @ Neptune - SOLD OUT
9/26 - Seattle, WA @ Neptune
9/27 - Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theatre
9/28 - Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
9/30 - San Francisco, CA @ Regency
10/1 - San Francisco, CA @ Regency - SOLD OUT
10/2 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent - SOLD OUT
10/3 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent - SOLD OUT
10/4 - San Diego, CA @ Observatory North Park - SOLD OUT
10/5 - Las Vegas, NV @ Brooklyn Bowl
10/7 - Santa Fe, NM @ Meow Wolf
10/8 - Denver, CO @ Ogden
10/9 - Lawrence, KC @ Granada
10/10 - St Louis, MO @ Delmar Hall
10/11 - Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
10/16 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel

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