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Apr 12, 2021 By Mark Redfern Photography by Angelina Castillo

Lambchop (the project of Kurt Wagner) are releasing a new album, Showtunes, on May 21 via Merge. Now they have shared the album’s second single, the seven-minute long “Fuku,” via a strange video/short film for it. Doug Anderson directed the video, which features silent movie title cards. Watch it below.

Wagner had this to say in a press release: “There is a theatricality to the song ‘Fuku’ which is a thread that runs through the Showtunes idea. Doug Anderson responded to that like a cat to catnip. On first viewing, the visual might appear a bit unusual, foreign even, but trust me, it could have been a lot weirder.”

Anderson had this to say: “I heard Kurt’s song and was absolutely in love. ‘Fuku’ evokes all of the things that the musical theater reaches for but is incapable of representing: the desire, longing, and impossibility of really falling in love. It reminded me of the truth in Walter Pater’s ‘All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music.’ Pure and abstract. The characters in the video try and fail to communicate their experience—they possess nothing and are incapable of giving that nothing to another. Attempting to evoke coherence from the inconsistent, disparate, and stupid. They persist.”

Lambchop previously shared the album’s first single, “A Chef’s Kiss,” which was one of our Songs of the Week.

Showtunes was created remotely by Wagner with the help of several other musicians, including Ryan Olson of Gayngs and James McNew of Yo La Tengo.

Wagner said in a previous release press release: “In hindsight, it made perfect sense. The original idea behind Lambchop was: anyone could be part of Lambchop (so long as they behaved themselves). This revolving-door policy is how the band has grown and contracted through our many years.”

He added: “One of the things that holds Lambchop together, what binds us is that we are friends with similar likes and an appreciation and respect for what each other does. It’s what has kept this band evolving through time. With this approach, the group has just gotten larger with its members free to come and go, to be a part of the music as the songs and their interest might allow. Just like in the beginning.”

The band’s most recent album, TRIP, came out last year on Merge.

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