THE BETHS SHARE NEW SINGLE & VIDEO ‘I’M NOT GETTING EXCITED’. ALBUM JUMP ROPE GAZERS OUT JULY 10
Image Credit: Mason Fairey
"'Dying to Believe' is a welcome return from The Beths, featuring frontwoman Elizabeth Stokes’ signature songwriting that is both introspective and clever."
- PASTE MAGAZINE
"another of The Beths’ instantly catchy powerpop gems."
- BROOKLYN VEGAN
“Future Me Hates Me is one of the most impressive indie-rock debuts of the year… It’s the kind of record you expect to come from a band’s third or fourth attempt"
- PITCHFORK
“fleet and lovely, strutting and sweet”
- ROLLING STONE
The Beths share a fervent new single and video, ‘I’m Not Getting Excited’, from their second album, Jump Rope Gazers, out July 10 via Dew Process. Following the rambunctious lead single, ‘Dying to Believe’, ‘I’m Not Getting Excited’ is an urgent track about imposter syndrome. The track opens with driving guitar and a jockeying melody before bursting with a crashing rhythm section. The band performed the new single on their ‘Live From House 2’ live stream earlier this morning.
“People always ask ‘are you excited!?’ and it's a fair question, because exciting things do happen to us sometimes,” says Elizabeth Stokes. “Support slots, overseas tours, music releases. Stuff we've dreamed about for years. So the correct answer is always ‘yes.’ But the truth is that deep down there's a tiny Liz saying, ‘don't get excited.’ She is certain that anything good that could happen will most likely not happen, because of a freak accident. Or because somebody finally realises that we aren't worthy, shouts ‘phony!’ and takes everything away. I wrote 'I'm Not Getting Excited' last year, well before everything really did get taken away. From everyone. It feels like the song has a new context, but we don't know what it is yet. And now we all share a blurry, uncertain future.”
The official video was filmed during the first month of lockdown in New Zealand. It’s a spooky more-is-more collage of animated night terrors. The directors Sports Team “turned our laundry into a film studio and spent our inside time mastering the art of stop-motion animation. We animated old towels, all the cardboard in the house and The Beths themselves... frame by bloody frame. There's a lot of scary imagery in the song that we wanted to play on. There's a madness too, in the contradiction between what the song is about and its frenetic energy. It has defined the lockdown for us—being locked indoors but furiously busy."
The Beths are Elizabeth Stokes (vocals/guitar), Jonathan Pearce (guitar), Benjamin Sinclair (bass), and Tristan Deck (drums). Jump Rope Gazers is the follow-up to Future Me Hates Me, “one of the most impressive indie-rock debuts of the year” (Pitchfork). The album received glowing praise and appeared on many year-end lists including Rolling Stone, NPR, Stereogum, and more.
Jump Rope Gazers tackles themes of anxiety and self-doubt with effervescent power pop choruses and rousing backup vocals, zeroing in on the communality and catharsis that can come from sharing stressful situations with some of your best friends. Touring far from home, The Beths committed to taking care of each other while simultaneously trying to take care of friends living thousands of miles away. That care and attention shines through on Jump Rope Gazers, where the quartet sounds more locked in than ever. Jump Rope Gazers stares down all the hard parts of living in communion with other people, even at a distance, while celebrating the ferocious joy that makes it all worth it.
JUMP ROPE GAZERS TRACK LISTING
1. I’m Not Getting Excited
2. Dying to Believe
3. Jump Rope Gazers
4. Acrid
5. Do You Want Me Now
6. Out of Sight
7. Don’t Go Away
8. Mars, the God of War
9. You Are a Beam of Light
10. Just Shy of Sure
THE BETHS TOUR DATES
*w/ Green Day, Weezer and Fall Out Boy
Sun 8 Nov - Perth, WA @ HBF Park*
Wed 11 Nov - Melbourne, VIC @ Marvel Stadium*
Sat 14 Nov - Sydney, NSW @ Bankwest Stadium*
Tue 17 Nov - Brisbane, QLD @ QSAC Stadium*
Fri 20 Nov - Dunedin, NZ @ Forsyth Barr Stadium*
Sun 22 Nov - Auckland, NZ @ Mt Smart Stadium*