NYC-based postpunk duo Frenchy and the Punk offer new single and video ‘If The World Doesn’t End First’ to announce all new album ‘Zen Ghost’
The NYC-based postpunk duo Frenchy and the Punk are back with a new (and seventh) album “Zen Ghost”, out now via EA Recordings. The release comes accompanied by a new zsingle and video, “If The World Doesn’t End First”.
Frenchy and the Punk is vocalist, percussionist and lyricist Samantha Stephenson and guitarist-composer Scott Helland, who was co-founder and bassist of Outpatients and also Deep Wound (along with Dinosaur Jr. founders J Mascis and Lou Barlow). Helland and Stephenson met in NYC in 1998, when Stephenson spontaneously jumped on stage to accompany Helland during his solo guitar performance.
Over the years, they’ve performed live with Dead Can Dance’s Peter Ulrich and Dresden Dolls’ Brian Viglione, and opened for Thomas Dolby, Dinosaur Jr., The World Inferno Friendship Society, Rasputina, Cruxshadows, Hurray For The Riff Raff and The Young Dubliners.
Samantha Stephenson speaks about the inspiration behind the new single: “I have a very clear memory of seeing the apocalyptic film ‘The Day After’ as a child and being totally traumatized by it. I had a recurring nightmare for months afterwards that I was running home during a nuclear war to die with my family, I didn’t want to die away from them. It was the Cold War, it felt like the end of the world was possible back then. Extreme circumstances tend to put things in focus and in perspective. The past six years politically and culturally have been very intense. The pandemic felt like the culmination of years of social and cultural anxiety. There was a point where, after our US and European dates were all cancelled in 2020, we were trying to book some shows with the expectation that it would be possible again in early 2021 but the situation kept shifting. A promoter, suggesting a new possible show date, ended the email with ‘if the world doesn’t end first’. That phrase really hit me. It took me back and I started thinking about how all the trivialities and ridiculous things that we worry and stress about, things that in the end don’t matter, vanish in the face of survival and we are left with the one thing that does matter – love.”
Here’s the video for “If The World Doesn’t End First”
The “Zen Ghost” LP is out now, you can check the release below.
Tour dates
- Dec 2 Camden/London – Black Heart (with Before Victoria & Flesh Tetris)
- Dec 6 Edinburgh, UK – The Wee Red Bar
- Dec 10 Exeter, UK – Yule Ball (with Professor Elemental)
- Feb 4/5 Manchester, CT – Stupid Cupid Steampunk Festival
- Feb 18/19 Gettsyburg, PA – MythiCon Festival
- April 01 Galveston, TX – Galveston Steampunk Festival
- April 8-9 Baltimore, MD – Between The Worlds
- April 15/16 Chicago, IL – Chicago Steampunk Expo
- April 22/23 Apex, NC – Festival of Legends
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