Year of the Horse

It’s been a couple of years since local electro pop band The Please Please Me released Shake A Little Harder, an EP brimming with seductive pop and sexual ambiguity, which songwriter and front woman Jessie Torrisi had a great time making. It was released in 2013 after a successful Kickstarter campaign.

Life’s unpredictable twists made releasing the follow-up EP a bit more difficult. Challenging times, harsh dramas, band changes and bouts of severe insomnia left Torrisi in a terrible mental state. But the setbacks also presented her with a fresh start. Between a rigorous life on the road and penning new songs, Year of the Horse finally arrived, with an undercurrent of personal reflection over several things that went “comically and tragically wrong” last year, according to Torrisi.

The EP kicks off with a most appropriate sentiment, “F##k This,” declaring autonomy from all the stress-inducing ridiculousness because…look, it’s not worth the agony. Love and longing also a role in the almost wistful “Talk About You” (featured on today’s Austin Music Minute), as a lost love weighs heavily on the narrator’s mind. The sun shines, the river runs, and life goes on, but damn it, where’s the fairness in that when one’s love is unavailable?

The Please Please Me are celebrating Year of the Horse with a show tonight at the Mohawk, 912 Red River, with a stellar bill featuring opener Emily Wolfe, and folk rockers Carry Illinois closing out the night. Doors open at 8 p.m. Recommended.

-Photo courtesy of the artist.

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