Name: The Pet Parade
Brand: Fruit Bats

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

MRG750LPC1

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "MRG750LPC1"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

Colour

clear

Colour details

 Red and Black Swirl in Clear 

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": " Red and Black Swirl in Clear "}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

Discogs ID

[r17800441]

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "[r17800441]"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: Yes

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: Yes

Format detail

Indies Only

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "Indies Only"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2021-05-07

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Cargo

Tax rate GB

UPC / Barcode

0673855075006

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "0673855075006"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

Total Cap

1 / Extended format: Yes / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / clear

Artist

Fruit Bats

Genre GB

Alternative / Modern

Label GB

Merge Records

The Pet Parade the title track to Fruit Bats’ newest album, might be a surprising opening track for longtime fans of Eric D. Johnson’s beloved indie folk-rock project. The six-and-a-half-minute tone poem smolders and drones over just two chords, inspired by the strange and silly community events that he saw growing up outside of Chicago, in La Grange, Illinois, in which people dressed up and showed off their pets. Decades later, The Pet Parade emerges in troubled times, living within what Johnson refers to as the beauty and absurdity of existence. While many of the songs on The Pet Parade were actually written before the pandemic, it’s impossible to disassociate the record from the times. As an example, producer Josh Kaufman (Bob Weir, The National, and Bonny Light Horseman, in which he plays with Johnson and Anaïs Mitchell) was brought in for his deep emotional touch and bandleading abilities. However, Johnson, Kaufman, and the other musicians on The Pet Parade drummers Joe Russo and Matt Barrick (The Walkmen, Fleet Foxes), singer-songwriter Johanna Samuels, pianist Thomas Bartlett (Nico Muhly, Sufjan Stevens), and fiddler Jim Becker (Califone, Iron &amp; Wine) were forced to self-record their parts in bedrooms and home studios across America. Still, says Johnson, “The songs have enough intimacy that it doesn’t sound like it was made a million miles away.” Such tension and turmoil also impacted the lyrics of The Pet Parade. While Cub Pilot and Here For Now, For You began as more traditional love songs from a personal “I” to a specific “you” Johnson quickly realized that these songs needed to comfort broader audiences, changing the words to a more inclusive “we” and “us.” So too in “The Balcony,” a song ostensibly about a particular space in his grandmother’s apartment, but one that evolved into a metaphor on patience. At times upbeat and reassuring (Eagles Below Us) and at times quietly contemplative (On the Avalon Stairs), The Pet Parade marks a milestone for Johnson, who celebrates 20 years of Fruit Bats in 2021. In some ways still a cult band, in other ways a time-tested act, Fruit Bats has consistently earned enough small victories to carve out a career in a notoriously fickle scene. Johnson himself who has played in The Shins, composed film scores, gone solo and returned back to the moniker that started it all, and most recently earned two grammy nominations with Bonny Light Horseman doesn’t take this long route of life’s pet parade for granted. “I’m still really excited to make records,” he says. “Lucky and happy and maybe happier that things went slower for me. I’m savoring it a lot more.”

The Pet Parade

Music GB