PRN (Big Stir Digital Single No. 91)
The Persian Leaps
BIG STIR RECORDS gratefully welcomes THE PERSIAN LEAPS back to the weekly Singles Series this Friday, September 4, with two brand new tunes, “PRN” b/w “Chamberlain,”, up for pre-order at www.bigstirrecords.com/big-stir-digital-singles now. It's the public's first chance to hear what's in store on the band's forthcoming EP Smiling Lessons, due in
BIG STIR RECORDS gratefully welcomes THE PERSIAN LEAPS back to the weekly Singles Series this Friday, September 4, with two brand new tunes, “PRN” b/w “Chamberlain,”, up for pre-order at www.bigstirrecords.com/big-stir-digital-singles now. It's the public's first chance to hear what's in store on the band's forthcoming EP Smiling Lessons, due in mid-September and delivering exactly what we hope for in midwestern guitar pop of the edgy, classic college-rock variety. Fans of Hüsker Dü, Teenage Fanclub, The Lemonheads and Guided By Voices – not to mention the band's own stellar prior work – are sure to be as delighted as we are.
Hailing from St. Paul, Minnesota, The Persian Leaps are Drew Forsberg (vocals, guitars, keyboards, drum programming) and Jon Hunt (bass, vocals). Of the A-side, Forsberg says: "’PRN’ is a song I wrote about our society’s (over)reliance on prescription drugs to keep our sanity and emotions in check, and I say that as a long-time satisfied beneficiary of antidepressants. The abbreviation ‘PRN’ is short for the Latin phrase pro re nata, which is used by doctors and pharmacists and basically means ‘take as needed.’ In these turbulent times, we need our meds more than ever."
“‘Chamberlain,’” continues Forsberg, “uses Neville Chamberlain, prime minister of Britain in the years leading up to World War II, as a metaphor for failure and cowardice. Chamberlain famously opted to appease Adolf Hitler rather than stand up to him after Nazi Germany annexed part of Czechoslovakia. Honestly, no one would intentionally set out to write a rock song about Neville Chamberlain, but I came up with the line “You’re throwing in the towel just like you’re Chamberlain’ and it snowballed from there.”
Embedded on a magnetic alternative rock foundation, the batch of 7 new songs comprising the forthcoming Smiling Lessons EP continue The Persian Leaps' tradition of power pop earworms with a midwestern charm, on topics as diverse as the two cuts hear suggest. As no less than NME noted, "The Persian Leaps sound like they’ve heard more than a few of the great British indie records of the ’80s and ’90s. Silky fuzz and solid hooks echo The Smiths, Orange Juice and Teenage Fanclub with great enthusiasm, and they never fail to recreate that celestial guitar jangle.” The songs on hand here, and the whole of Smiling Lessons, bear that out handily.
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