Stream: POP ETC, ‘When Push Comes to Shove’

on
0
POP ETC

Indie trio POP ETC have been busy since releasing their last full-length, “Souvenir,” in 2016. So busy that Jonathan Chu napped through their latest photo shoot? Perhaps.

The band — brothers Chris and Jon Chu and Julian Harmon — surfaced last week with the new single “When Push Comes to Shove,” a mildly delivered admonishment to stop playing the blame game. “Blame it all on America / or the way you were raised / Blame it on all that people that / never give you the time of day / Does it give you the peace of mind / to leave all of that behind?” Chu sings in a voice so measured you feel as if he’s delivered the lecture before. It’s another of POP ETC’s penchant for sneaky-smart pop songs, and it’s a tune that Chu says is “about the pointlessness of blame. The futility of it.

“I guess it’s human nature to want to put the blame or responsibility squarely on another person. Maybe it’s our desire to try and make things seem neater and clearer than they ever are. Or just a way for us all to sleep at night.”

The new single follows the July release of the band’s “Covers Collection,” a 21-track volume of covers that Chu said date back to the band’s days as the Morning Benders. (They’ve released two albums of originals under their newer name and released two under their old moniker.) Included was the cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” that appeared in a June episode of HBO’s “Big Little Lies.”

“Ever since I started making music, I’ve loved covering songs. Aside from the sheer joy of it, it was a way for me to study songwriting and practice my home recording skills,” he says. “It feels like a kind of musical journal for me, and a good reminder of all the music that soundtracks our lives.”

Meanwhile, early this year, POP ETC released the song “All the Wrong Places.” Their time has been split between their own music and working on other projects — Chris has been co-writing with and producing numerous bands, most recently Bear Hands’ new album “Fake Tunes” and Van William’s “Revolution” EP. Jon Chu has work on music videos (including Local Natives’ “Tap Dancer”) and Harmon has manned the drums for various bands around L.A.

||| Stream: “When Push Comes to Shove” and “All the Wrong Places”

||| Previously: “Bad Break”