Piney Gir reveals the video for the new single, surreal dream-pop ballad, “Peanut Butter Malt Shop Heartthrob” created by Penny Andrea and Poppy Illsley featuring Piney as an assistant in a tropical fish and aquarium shop, lamenting a love lost, imagining her Prince Charming, blurring the lines of reality from day job doldrums to doo-wop daydreams. Piney has a London launch party for the single at Paper Dress Hackney on 19 February, also featuring Natalie Sharp (Lone Taxidermist) and Samantha Whates.
Piney explains more about the video;
“We filmed the video at Lynwood Aquatics just outside of London. There is a main attraction there; Lilly the 30-year-old tropical fish. I work in the shop and serenade the fish while I am sweeping and cleaning the tanks, feeding the fish, etc… and then a magical transformation occurs. The fish becomes a handsome sax player (Tomas Greenhalf) dressed all in white reminiscent of Frankie Avalon’s ‘Beauty School Dropout’ performance in the 1978 film ‘Grease.’ I then have a makeover of my own becoming a Pricilla Presley kind of starlet, wearing a dress covered in fish fins and feathers. I dance among the fish tanks surrounded by blue neon lights and tropical fish. It’s trippy… it’s unclear if this is all a dream, a figment of my imagination, or if some kind of magic did happen in the tropical fish and aquarium shop that day revealing my Prince Charming.”
‘Peanut Butter Malt Shop Heartthrob’ uses eerie doo-wop dream pop to celebrate daydreams and imagination. The song is about yearning for something you cannot have, striving for that which you are unable to control, needing something to fill a shadow in your soul but you just can’t reach it; it’s an innocent twist on existential heartbreak with whipped cream and a cherry on top.
The track features members of Gaz Coombes’ band, with whom Piney has been touring over the past year, as well as Tom Greenhalf (from Man Without Country, Gaz Coombes, Willie J Healey) and Sweet Baboo on saxophone.
London-based Piney Gir originally hails from Kansas and has for many years been a prolific and prodigious musician, spanning various genres from electro to alt-country to folktronic to 60’s retro pop to krautrock. She is currently working on album number seven and her new material lands at art pop with angles and spaces creating a real world of sound with deliberate spaces and spikes. There are still echoes of the signature Piney sound, with strong melodies, tuneful riffs and twisted lyrics that sound sweet at first listen and evolve to some kind of dark twisted storytelling. Piney’s inner Laura Palmer emerges with a tender bitter-sweetness, reminiscent of post punk basement bars and cherry martinis.
Piney also has a YouTube channel going live imminently in aid of of her new venture “Drunk Cookery” a punk zine cookbook of healthy and quick recipes for those late nights when you get home from the pub in desperate need of sustenance, with loads of rock’n’roll references, including using songs instead of timings. Available now at We Built This City https://www.webuilt-thiscity.com/products/drunkcookery
