Hand Habits – shares two new singles ‘Jasmine Blossoms’ + ‘Dead Rat’, from upcoming new album ‘Blue Reminder’

Hand Habits, the project of multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Meg Duffy, releases a pair of new singles from their recently announced album, Blue Reminder, due August 22nd via Fat Possum Records. 

Of the ebullient ‘Jasmine Blossoms‘, released alongside a video by frequent collaborator Otium, Duffy says “this song really conjures for me the room and the time that I wrote it in—I was living in Mount Washington in LA, which is just such a beautiful, lush neighbourhood. And there were (and are) these sort of unthinkable contradictions, between the beauty of the flowers and the trees and the birds around me, and then just being blasted with so much horrifying information and footage of war, death, and greed on the news and social media. This song is definitely not an answer to how to integrate those things, but I just wanted to try to sort of depict that experience, that one reality doesn’t negate the other. I come from a family where we don’t typically talk about the tragic or dysfunctional, which I think partly led to me being a songwriter who talks about pain and grief a lot, and at the same time, to being a person who tries to cultivate some joy, while everything falls apart.”

“There was an actual dead rat rotting in my wall. It was disgusting and I was living with the smell and couldn’t get to it, so there was truly nothing I could do but wait it out,” Duffy explains of the sweeping ‘Dead Rat’. “It just became this metaphor for me on a number of levels: There are definitely things that I’ve done or been through that a part of me would rather put behind the wall and never think about again… but that’s not the way the psyche or healing works, and things will find their way out, whether it’s through a wretched smell or through acceptance or an open window, or all three.”

1. More Today
2. Wheel of Change
3. Nubble
4. Dead Rat
5. Jasmine Blossoms
6. Way It Goes
7. (Forgiveness)
8. Beauty 62
9. Bluebird of Happiness
10. Blue Reminder
11. Quiet Summer
12. Living Proof

Tour dates:

(UK/EU dates in bold)

July 9th | Los Angeles, CA @ The Orpheum ^
Aug 21st | Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy & Harriet’s ~
Aug 23rd | Los Angeles, CA @ 2220
Sept 19th | Brooklyn, NY @ Public Records
Sept 20th | New York, NY @ Nightclub 101
Sept 21st | Washington, DC @ DC9
Sept 23rd | Albany, NY @ Lark Hall
Sept 24th | Montreal, QC @ POP MONTREAL
Sept 26th | Toronto, ON @ Sound Garage
Sept 27th | Ferndale, MI @ Magic Bag
Sept 28th | Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
Sept 30th | Pittsburgh, PA @ Warhol Theatre
Oct 1st | Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
Oct 15th | San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
Oct 17th | Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
Oct 18th | Vancouver, BC @ Fox Cabaret
Oct 21st | Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern
Oct 23rd | Healdsburg, CA @ Little Saint
Oct 30th | Paris, FR @ Le Trianon *
Nov 3rd | Berlin, DE @ Astra Kulturhaus *
Nov 4th | Hamburg, DE @ Mojo Club *
Nov 5th | Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso *
Nov 7th | Manchester, UK @ New Century Hall *
Nov 8th | Glasgow, UK @ SWG3 TV Studio *
Nov 9th | Leeds, UK @ Project House *
Nov 11th | London, UK @ Roundhouse *
Nov 12th | Bristol, UK @ Trinity Centre *
Nov 13th | Dublin, IE @ The National Stadium *

^ supporting Yeah Yeah Yeahs
~ supporting Japanese Breakfast
* supporting Perfume Genius