WATCH AND SHARE “MY BOYFRIEND” HERE
A GIRL IN TEEN CITY, DUE OUT MAY 26 VIA STELLA RECORDS
PHOTO CREDIT : Heather Pollock // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
Two weeks ago, Oh Susanna (aka, Suzie Ungerleider) broke the news of her upcoming album, A Girl In Teen City, a record about growing up in Vancouver in the 80s, searching for identity, and conning your dad into paying for DOA concert tickets. Today, she is sharing the video for the scrappy, pop track “My Boyfriend”.
The song is “about the time in grade 10 when my gorgeous boyfriend tried out for a band but failed miserably because he was tone-deaf,” says Ungerleider. “It is seen from the eyes of a teenage girl who bemusedly watches the posturing of the young men around her. Meanwhile she secretly knows she could kick their asses if she just had the guts to sing in front of them. The song makes fun but also talks about how girls can be pushed to the side, or perhaps push themselves to the side, because of lack of confidence. Luckily, I found my courage to sing a few years later. I got my friend Paul Brennan to drum on the song because he himself is one of the characters in the story. He kept messing up the take because he kept giggling.”
WATCH AND SHARE “MY BOYFRIEND” HERE
Due out May 26 via Stella Records, on A Girl In Teen City, Oh Susanna discovers what it means to be undone by love, the exuberant freedom under the cover of night, and music bursting with riotous rebellion. “Trying to find out who she is while trying to be something she isn’t,” says Ungerleider. “Falling in love, getting drunk, having her heart broken, hanging out with friends in bedrooms, basements and parking lots, sneaking into shows in burnt out warehouses, watching the waves, walking home over bridges and railroad tracks in all that endless rain.” Like a coming of age novel, A Girl In Teen City, is both piercingly specific and exhilaratingly familiar. No matter where you grew up, or where you live, the songs will bring you home.
A Girl In Teen City reunites Ungerleider with producer Jim Bryson. The pair collaborated on her previous release Namedropper, an album featuring the songs of Canada’s top songwriters written specifically for Oh Susanna to interpret. This time, with the urging by her friend and co-conspirator, Bryson, she embarked on a time machine to visit her teenage self in a sleepy port town that she thought no one had ever heard of.
From cheeky rock pop to quietly beautiful love songs, A Girl In Teen City reflects Oh Susanna’s songwriting breadth. Her brilliant vocals float through the sensuous instrumentation to create a cinematic soundscape. The album finds Ungerleider working with longtime friends and musicians Eli Abrams on bass, Cam Giroux on drums, Gord Tough on guitar, and Jim Bryson on guitar and keyboards. Guest harmony vocalists include Holly McNarland, Gabrielle Giguere, Ungerleider’s sister Jessie and niece Sofia.
LISTEN TO AND SHARE “TICKETS ON THE WEEKEND” HERE
WATCH A GIRL IN TEEN CITY ALBUM TEASER VIDEO
The JUNO Award nominated and Genie Award winning Canadian songstress began performing as Oh Susanna in the mid-1990s, crafting a persona that matched the timeless qualities of her music, sounds that drew from the deep well of early 20th Century folk, country and blues, yet rooted in her finely-honed storytelling skills.
A GIRL IN TEEN CITY TRACKLIST
01 Flashlights
02 Wolf Boy
03 Lucky Star
04 My Boyfriend
05 The Darkroom At The School
06 Getting Ready
07 Tickets On The Weekend
08 Walked All The Way Home
09 Waiting For The Blossoms
10 Thunderbird
11 Puget Sound
12 My Old Vancouver