The Giraffes - Million Year Old Song
Brooklyn alternative rock outfit The Giraffes presents their new single 'Million Year Old Song', a caustic zipper from their self-released eighth album 'Cigarette', accompanied by an adventurous video, conceived and directed by Damien Paris, featuring a crass tongue-in-cheek modern depiction of America the wild.
'Cigarette' is a hypnotic hard-edged psychedelic rock score for our current age of decay and disappointment, fear and fury, idiocy and hope. Previewed by the singles 'Pipes' and 'The Shot', this long-awaited and loaded 7-track offering is full of surprises, taking new risks with subject matter and composition while maintaining the intensity and dexterity fans know and love.
Recorded and engineered by Andrew Totolos at Apesauce Studio, this was mixed by Grammy nominated producer Francisco Botero (Matisyahu, Odesza) at the iconic Studio G Brooklyn and by James Dellatacoma (Bill Laswell, Herbie Hancock, TS Monk, John Zorn, Angelique Kidjo) at Bill Laswell's famed Orange Music Sound Studio.
Since forming in 1996, The Giraffes have been crafting a hedonistic soundtrack that is loud, agile, dangerous, funny, sick, complex and satisfying. Known for their trademark menu of metal-tinged scuzz-rock, The Giraffes offer a tasteful mixture of heavy rock, punk, post-punk, surf and whatever else they find interesting.
With lead singer Aaron Lazar and guitar maestro Damien Paris as its core, drummer Andrew Totolos provides the locomotive rhythm section with Hannah Moorhead anchoring the bass. This year marks the beginning of a new era for the band, with Moorhead now also contributing backing vocals and songwriting. With the line-up no longer in flux, the focus is now largely on songwriting.
Aaron Lazar explains the origins of this song: "One of Damien's most “badass” style cartoon bad guy riffs deserved some extemporizing. The phrase “a million year old song in twenty year old lungs” caused me to remember how I was at that age. The first verse is a picture of that time in my life - the feeling of invincibility along with my backward looking cultural tastes (obsessed with blues explosion and old soul and punk from the 70s). The smoke everywhere at all times. No phone culture. It was a world that kids today would not believe existed. I wanted to not be a total old man stuck looking back at my youth so I imagined someone my kid's age hitting 20 and what the world will look like for them for the second verse. This protagonist has the power of youth but in a much more dire world. I believe that the animating spirit of “rock n roll” or whatever is that self-destructive imperative for fun at all costs. Interesting to think of what that will look like later on down the line. The song remains the same - just the world changes."
Four years since forming and two years since debuting with their 1998 album 'Franksquilt', The Giraffes finally found their true form in 2000 when joined by vocalist Aaron Lazar. Upon releasing 'Helping You Help Yourself', their first album with Lazar in 2002, the band would stake its claim as the most unbridled and fun-loving Brooklyn live act. Indeed, with fierce musicality and peak audience participation, The Giraffes earned themselves a dedicated fan base.
From 2002, the band toured nationally and released four studio albums in succession, signing with various labels along the way. Their spaghetti western EP 'A Gentleman Never Tells' (2003) was followed by 'The Giraffes' album (2005), the 'Pretty In Puke' EP and the 'Prime Motivator' album (2008). Their epic 2010 concept album 'Ruled' proved to be Lazar's swan song before leaving the band in 2011. While his departure seemed to mark the end of an era, the embers of their explosive sound would later reignite, proving that this was not the band's final act.
2014 brought sold-out reunion concerts with Lazar back at the helm, reuniting fans from far and wide, followed by their critically acclaimed sixth album 'Usury' in 2015. New impetus came with a lineup change in 2019 with the addition of bassist Hannah Moorhead (previously with Netherlands and Twenty Two’s) and the release of their 'Flower of the Cosmos' album and remixes by Swervedriver's Adam Franklin and notable hip-hop record producer Blockhead.
Over the years, The Giraffes have toured with Eagles of Death Metal, Local-H, The Vacation and Skeleton Key, and shared the stage with Interpol, Fishbone, Yeah Yeah Yeah's and The Strokes. They've played SXSW, Bonnaroo, Amsterjam, Voodofest, Monolith, Northside and CMJ Festivals, and landed sync licensing placements in the 'Guitar Hero' video game, Sundance Festival winning film 'I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore', and the forthcoming 'Toxic Avenger' remake.
The 'Cigarette' album is out now, available everywhere, including Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp.
