Bartees Strange, Eric Slick, and Ohmme have teamed up for a cover of TV on the Radio’s ‘Province’. The track is being released by Psychic Hotline, the new label founded by Sylvan Esso, as part of the second installment in their singles series. The single’s B-side features Anjimile’s rendition of Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s ‘Ever New’. Take a listen below.
“I’ll never forget when I found TVOTR,” Strange said in a press statement. “I saw their performance on Letterman while channel surfing. I jumped out of my bed. They gave me somebody to look up to. I don’t think I really knew what I wanted to do musically until I saw them. That was a big deal for me.” Eric Slick added:
Bartees and I started talking earlier this year. I loved his album and there seemed to be some interest in working together. We talked about our admiration for TV on the Radio. I was driving around one day and thought about how much I listened to Return to Cookie Mountain in 2006, and how it was a formative record for me. It’s such a strange and simultaneously straightforward album. I made a basic acoustic cover of their song “Province,” and, from there, Bartees added his vocal take. Then I reached out to Ohmme, one of my favorite bands from Chicago. Sima [Cunningham] and Macie [Stewart] added some ethereal swells and tied the whole song together. Then I removed all of the rough tracks and built a more modern structure underneath with Mellotron, Moog, and MPC. I’m so excited about the way it came out, and I am deeply inspired by what Bartees and Ohmme brought to the table.
Of his take on Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s ‘Ever New’, Anjimile said: “‘Ever New’ is simply one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard. As a black trans musician it is an honor to cover it.”