Pokey LaFarge To Release New Album ‘Rock Bottom Rhapsody’ This Spring

Rejoice neo-trqd fans, Pokey LaFarge will release eighth studio LP ‘Rock Bottom Rhapsody’ on April 10th of this year. The 13-song set is his New West Records debut and was produced by Chris Seefried (Fitz and the Tantrums).

The album was recorded at Reliable Recorders on Chicago’s Northwest Side during the polar vortex of 2019 and features the guitarist Joel Paterson, keyboardist Scott Ligon, upright/electric bassist Jimmy Sutton, and drummer Alex Hall. ‘Rock Bottom Rhapsody’ is LaFarge’s first album in over three years and follows 2017’s ‘Manic Revelations.’

The first cut released is the radio unfriendly “Fuck Me Up” which you can hear in the surreal video directed by Keene McRae and Brandon Bernath. (below)

The song’s rollicking saloon-house piano and Dixieland tempo contrast with the darkly amusing imagery of LaFarge participating in and around his own funeral procession.

“The writer and directors and I decided to take a surrealist, absurdist point of view to the video for ‘Fuck Me Up,’” LaFarge says. “We rented a ghost town in the Mojave desert of California — a timeless, placeless location — to present past and present forms of ‘Me,’ as well as outside forces, clashing for control.” LaFarge says.

“This song was a prophetic vision of the self-destruction yet to come, instead of what I now know that I need — peace!” LaFarge says. “I imagined the music to be what I thought it would be like to write with Willie Dixon, perhaps in the Sixties.”

Preorder ‘Rock Bottom Rhapsody’

Rock Bottom Rhapsody track list:
1. “Rock Bottom Rhapsody”
2. “End of My Rope”
3. “Fuck Me Up”
4. “Bluebird”
5. “Rock Bottom Reprise”
6. “Lucky Sometimes”
7. “Carry On”
8. “Just the Same”
9. “Fallen Angel”
10. “Storm-A-Comin’”
11. “Ain’t Comin’ Home”
12. “Lost In The Crowd”
13. “Rock Bottom Finale”

Pokey LaFarge tour dates:
April 24 — Rotterdam, Netherlands @ Maasilo
April 25 — Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso
April 26 — Berlin, Germany @ Roadrunners Paradise
April 29 — Paris, France @ La Maroquinerie
April 30 — Antwerp, Belgium @ De Roma
May 1 — Lessines, Belgium @ Roots & Roses Festival
May 2 — London, UK @ Islington Assembly Hall
May 8 — Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle
May 9 — Mt. Airy, NC @ The Earle
May 10 — Charleston, WV @ NPR’s Mountain Stage
May 13 — Lexington, KY @ The Burl
May 15 — St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway
May 16 — St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway
May 17 — Nashville, TN @ 3rd & Lindsley
June 2 — Maquoqueta, IA @ Codfish Hollow
June 3 — Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line
June 4 —Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
June 5 — Grand Rapids, MI @ Pyramid Scheme
June 6 — Indianapolis, IN @ HiFi
June 9 — Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
June 10 — Pittsburgh, PA @ Thunderbird
June 11 — Philadelphia, PA @ World Cafe Live
June 12 — Annapolis, MD @ Rams Head Live
June 13 — Jersey City, NJ @ White Eagle Hall
June 16 — Fairfield, CT @ The Warehouse
June 17 — New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
June 18 — Boston, MA @ Sinclair
June 19 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground
June 20 — Albany, NY @ The Egg
June 23 — Rockport, MA @ Shalin Liu
June 24 — Portsmouth, NH @ Prescott Park
June 26 — Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
June 27 — Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern