Photo: Morgan Klein

Beauty Pill aren’t slowing down. After releasing their full length Please Advise last year, the Washington, D.C. based band have announced details of a new EP, Instant Night, set for release via Northern Spy on December 3rd. The good news comes paired with a thrilling single and video for ‘You Need A Better Mind’. Speaking about the track, Beauty Pill’s Chad Clark comments:

“The Roland TB-303 is an old Japanese synthesizer that was designed to convincingly mimic the sound of a bass guitar. It was introduced in 1981, it sounded like a toy and failed miserably, and it was ultimately discontinued in 1984. It makes freaky, wiggly, cartoony sounds. It sounds fuck-all like a bass guitar. Why am I telling you this? One ended up in my hands for a week. I did a lot of silly stuff with it. I did come up with this one worthwhile riff, which I built a song around. The song is called “You Need A Better Mind.”

“It was recorded with my band in a single take at the end of a recording session for another song. We were tired. None of us cared that much if we failed. The fun spirit you hear in this song is mostly exhaustion… that kind of punchy exhaustion you get late at night when you’ll laugh at anything. The lyrics were inspired by the spooky/funny 10-minute movie “Rachel”. “The song is about the scourge of American loneliness. It is by far the fastest, easiest song Beauty Pill has ever created. We hope you like it.”

Here’s the video for ‘You Need A Better Mind’, directed by Drew Doucette.

Photo: Morgan Klein

Five years on from the release of the widely acclaimed Beauty Pill Describes Things As They Are, Beauty Pill have new music on the way in the form of an album. Entitled Please Advise, it is set for release on May 8th through Northern Spy. The title, and as the band’s Chad Clark explains, “was inspired by record producer Teo Macero’s famous/hilarious 1969 memo to Columbia Records about Miles Davis (“Miles just called and said he wants this album to be titled: BITCHES BREW. Please advise.”).” Clark adds:

“What I love about that memo is the insight that even in moments of majestic creative breakthrough, there is uncertainty. Abject uncertainty. Nobody really knows anything. You can only follow where your instincts lead.”

Beauty Pill are previewing the record with the mysterious and mesmerizing lead single ‘Pardon Our Dust’, and an accompanying music video featuring new member Erin Nelson. Clark offered some insight about it:

“Most Beauty Pill songs work by insinuation, but “Pardon Our Dust” is more abstract. It’s about oblivion. The dictionary says oblivion is “the state of being unaware of what is justify.” To me, oblivion seemed an idea worth interrogating in the Trump age when a lot of people feel like disappearing… To me, cumulatively the song feels like science fiction and the voice is some kind of malfunctioning artificial intelligence. What do “so few reasons left” and “willing to burn” mean? Something is happening in this song, but I can’t tell what. I’m not sure.”

Watch the video now.