• News

• All

Jun 22, 2023 By Mark Redfern Photography by Tonje Thilesen

Palehound (aka El Kempner) is releasing a new album, Eye on the Bat, on July 14 via Polyvinyl. Now Kempner has shared the album’s third single, “Independence Day,” via a music video. Brittany Reeber directed the video. Watch it below, followed by Palehound’s upcoming tour dates.

Kempner (who uses they/them pronouns) had this to say about the new single in a press release: “The ending of a relationship that spanned the majority of my 20s illuminated a forked road that daunted me. In the aftermath of our breakup, I found myself dwelling on what that other life would have been like and who I would have become had we chosen differently, or even if circumstance or tragedy had chosen for us.”

Palehound previously shared the album’s first single, “The Clutch,” via a music video. “The Clutch” was one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared the album’s second single, “My Evil,” via a lyric video that pays homage to the opening titles of the classic HBO TV series The Sopranos. “My Evil” was #1 on our Songs of the Week list.

Eye on the Bat is the follow-up to 2019’s Black Friday, although in 2021 Kempner teamed up with Melina Duterte of Jay Som to form Bachelor and release their debut album, Doomin’ Sun, via Polyvinyl.

Eye on the Bat was recorded across 2022 at Flying Cloud Recordings in the Catskills, with recording done in various brief sessions. Kempner co-produced the album with Sam Owens (Big Thief, Cass McCombs) and also worked with multi-instrumentalist Larz Brogan, a longtime Palehound collaborator.

Summing up the new album in a previous press release, Kempner said: “It’s about me, but it’s also about me in relation to others. After hiding for so long—staying inside and hiding your life and hiding yourself from the world—I was ready. I think I flipped.”

Check out our COVID-19 Quarantine Artist Check-In interview with Palehound from 2020.

Check out our 2021 interview with Bachelor.

Check out our My Favorite Album interview with Palehound.

Palehound North American Tour Dates:

# w/ Empath
$ w/ alexalone

10/17: Syracuse, NY @ The Lost Horizon #
10/19: New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom #
10/20: Philadelphia, PA @ The Foundry #
10/21: Washington, DC @ Union Stage #
10/23: Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall #
10/24: Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall #
10/25: Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade - Purgatory #
10/26: Nashville, TN @ Blue Room @ Third Man #
10/28: Austin, TX @ TBA
10/29: Oklahoma City, OK @ Factory Obscura
11/01: Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel Lounge $
11/02: San Diego, CA @ Casbah $
11/03: Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room $
11/04: San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel $
11/06: Seattle, WA @ Madame Lou’s $
11/07: Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios $
11/09: Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court $
11/10: Denver, CO @ Globe Hall $
11/11: Fort Collins, CO @ The Coast $
11/14: Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St. Entry $
11/15: Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon $
11/17: Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle $
11/18: Columbus, OH @ A&R Music Bar $

Support Under the Radar on Patreon.