New Releases category interest

“Cruise Control” is the third offering from Pearl and The Oysters’ new album Planet Pearl, the duo’s second record for Stones Throw and the culmination of nearly two decades of connection and collaboration. The music video by David Gutel follows the duo as they play “road-trip bingo” along the West Coast, ending up at an ostrich farm.  

Pearl and The Oysters – Juliette Pearl Davis (Juju) and Joachim Polack (Jojo) – met on their first day of high school in Paris, and have been together ever since. Their creative and romantic partnership has held strong through college and jazz school, their musicology studies at the Sorbonne, and beyond as the band moved to America. 

While Pearl and The Oysters’ earlier albums documented Juju and Jojo’s lives in Florida and L.A., Planet Pearl is extra-terrestrial, written from the perspective of castaway space explorers marooned on Earth. Its themes include mental health and the feeling of being “literal outsiders everywhere we go”. Though no matter how melancholic or alienated they feel, Juju and Jojo always see the fun side, channeling their feelings into jazz-pop joy. “Cruise Control" was inspired by a secret bebop deep cut discovered in Paris. But they remind us, “don’t be fooled by the smell of polyurethane, the song’s lyrics are actually quite dark and cynical!” 

Jojo adds: “It sometimes feels like the only way to stay sane in a world that clearly isn’t, is to go through the motions in a highly desensitized 'automatic pilot' mode. In that respect, “Cruise Control” is pretty cynical because it equates the feeling of freedom and excitement one can experience zipping through the highway with a form of voluntary ignorance, which we ultimately don’t wish upon anyone.”

Written, composed, and produced by Pearl and The Oysters, Planet Pearl also includes the addition of Producer Teo Halm (Rosalía,  J Balvin, Omar Apollo) on select songs and musicians Alex Brettin of Mild High Club, Brijean Murphy and other friends and collaborators all throughout.

Already Pearl andamp; The Oysters has received praise from NPR, Pitchfork (..."synth sounds you can sink your teeth into, gooey guitar licks that stick to the roof of your mouth, and vocal harmonies so syrupy they linger on your tastebuds...", The Fader, MOJO (“...dreamy space-age exotica…”), BBC 6, KCRW, CLASH and more. 

Planet Pearl is out 20 September on Stones Throw. Pearl and The Oysters are on tour throughout the rest of the year, with headline shows and openers for Ginger Root.

PandTO Live Dates

9/24 - San Diego, CA - House of Blues*

9/26 - Santa Ana, CA - Observatory*

9/27 - San Luis Obispo, CA - Fremont Theater*

9/28 - Oakland, CA - Fox Theater*

9/30 - Seattle, WA - Moore Theatre*

10/1 - Vancouver, BC - The Pearl*

10/2 - Portland, OR - Revolution Hall*

10/4 - Salt Lake City, UT - The Depot*

10/5 Denver, CO - Summit Music Hall*

10/8 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue*

10/10 Chicago, IL - Salt Shed*

10/11 Cleveland, OH - The Roxy*

10/12 Toronto, ON - The Concert Hall*

10/13 Montreal, QC - La Tulipe*

10/16 - Brooklyn, NY - Elsewhere (Zone One)

10/17 - Philadelphia, PA - PhilaMOCA

10/18 - Washington D.C. - Comet Ping Pong

10/19 - Raleigh, NC - Neptunes

10/21 - Gainesville, FL - The Wooly

10/23 - Atlanta, GA - 529 Bar

10/24 - Nashville, TN - The Blue Room

10/26 - Denton, TX - Rubber Gloves

10/27 - Austin, TX - Mohawk

10/29 - Phoenix, AZ - Last Exit

11/03 - Los Angeles, CA - Echoplex

*Support for Ginger Root