Today, Capitol Records released Petey USA‘s new album, The Yips — the follow-up to 2023’s USA, which Paste hailed as “one of the most stirring rock releases of the year.” To athletes, “the yips” allude to the performance anxiety that can prevent peak performance — a phenomenon that Petey USA extrapolates to everyday life. The album represents the bucket-list fulfilment of a life-long dream for the alt-pop shapeshifter: to work with producer Chris Walla (Pinegrove, Ratboys, Snarls), formerly of Death Cab for Cutie. In this recent interview with The Needle Drop, Petey USA tells how the collaboration came about. Listen to The Yips HERE.
Petey USA is launching The Yips with a trio of sold-out album release shows, including performances at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn tonight and The Troubadour in West Hollywood, CA on July 15. Earlier this week, he was joined by special guests including Chicago based band Pet Symmetry at Metro in Chicago. Petey USA will support Rainbow Kitten Surprise in July and open for Zach Bryan on August 30 at Marshall University’s Joan C. Edwards Stadium in Huntington, WV. See below for itinerary. Tickets are available HERE.
The Yips is a concept album of sorts, unfolding in a fictional dive bar with each song representing a different table of patrons engaged in a heart-to-heart talk. Petey USA kicks open the saloon doors on the opening title track with a Gary Numanesque electro-funk beat and partakes in an extended barstool-therapy session — the ensuing sax solo signals the moment where things start to get emotionally swirly. The heart-racing pop-punk of “Ask Someone Else” infuses the night with adrenaline and sparkling synth-rock anthem “The Milkman” gives the bar concept a genuine sense of communal, infectiously rowdy warmth as he lets loose busted-up sing-alongs like, “Here’s to being authentic, three cheers for being yourself / What if the most accurate version of me is acting like somebody else?”
Atop the gliding War on Drugs-like rhythm of “Breathing the Same Air,” Petey USA turns our attention to two beer-drinking buddies who are too dejected to say what’s on their minds, but take comfort in each other’s silent company, while the heartland-rock anthem “Model Train Town” puts us inside the ticking time-bomb brain of a man whose anxious attachment to a partner inspires apocalyptic thoughts. “As Two People Drift Apart” is sonically and thematically a follow up to his top track to date, “Don’t Tell The Boys,” which appeared on Lean Into Life, his 2021 debut album, and has amassed over 10 million combined global streams.
Michigan-bred and Los Angeles-based, Petey USA evolved his signature sound following time in the early-2010s Midwest emo trenches. He introduced himself on Lean Into Life as a DIY musical omnivore, updating his Warped Tour influences with healthy doses of Modest Mousey indie-rock, dancefloor-ready synth-pop, glitchy textures, and even a touch of country. He also demonstrated his preternatural gift for impassioned, self-deprecating storytelling, leavened by a sardonic sense of humor, on USA, his sophomore album. The Yips is his most eclectic and ambitious work to date — and also his most relatable. At the end of the day, he says, “I’m just singing about being there for your friends.”
Track Listing – The Yips
1. The Yips
2. Breathing the Same Air
3. Ask Someone Else
4. Model Train Town
5. As Two People Drift Apart
6. I’ll Believe You
7. The Milkman
8. Spirit Animal
9. This Bucket Of Water
10. Stereoscope
11. God Is In The Gray
12. I Am Not A Cowboy
Petey USA – Tour Dates
*Petey USA to announce national headline tour soon*
Headline Shows
7/11 – Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg – SOLD OUT
7/15 – West Hollywood, CA – The Troubadour – SOLD OUT
8/29 – Columbus, OH – Newport Music Hall
Supporting Rainbow Kitten Surprise
– 7/25 – Columbia, MD – Chrysalis at Merriweather Park
7/26 – Asbury Park, NJ – Stone Pony Summer Stage
7/27 – LaFayette, NY – Beak & Skiff Apple Orchards
Supporting Zach Bryan
8/30 – Huntington, WV – Joan C. Edwards Stadium
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