Yard Act return with their new single and video, “The Trench Coat Museum,” and announce a November headline tour in the US, including their return to New York, Philadelphia, and Austin, and debut performances in cities including Baltimore, Nashville, Atlanta and New Orleans. Co-produced by the band and Remi Kabaka Jr. of Gorillaz, “The Trenchcoat Museum” is an epic return, marking Yard Act’s first original music since the release of their Mercury Prize-shortlisted debut album, The Overload, “an endlessly clever, devilishly sharp post-punk screed on British politics and class warfare” (SPIN), released in January 2022.
A lyrical study on ego, vanity, perception and legacy, “The Trench Coat Museum” recalls Yard Act’s James Smith’s reaction to reaching a level of visibility, which — in Smith’s words — “left us open to security and disdain just as much as love and appreciation.” He says, “Criticism is fair game and the internet is lawless so you gotta take it as it comes, but I definitely stopped searching for myself on Twitter the day I read that someone wanted to punch my lights out.”
He continues: “‘The Trench Coat Museum’ is about how our perception of everything shifts both collectively and individually over time at speeds we simply can’t measure in the moment. Within whatever space in society we occupy, we often see our own beliefs as being at the absolute pinnacle of what should be the ‘cultural norm’ and whilst the completely human trait of being self-assured can’t be helped, it’s an absolute hindrance on our collective process. We are one etc. (Are we fuck).”
“The Trench Coat Museum” video was directed by James Slater who adds, “The video serves as a continuation and expansion of the Yard Act universe we explored on the first album. It’s set some 30 years in the future in this strange, dystopian trench coat museum in which an enigmatic character — the visitor — takes an audio guided tour. The song’s an eight-minute banger so I wanted the exhibits to come to life so that we could transition from an exhibition tour to a warehouse rave. It feels like a mini-film which is no accident, we see this as the first part of a Yard Act movie that coincides with their next album.”
Yard Act’s debut, The Overload, “a debut album bursting with character” (Uncut) drew a wealth of praise from The Guardian, The Sunday Times, MOJO, NME, The Line of Best Fit, Paste, Brooklyn Vegan, Newsweek, Under The Radar, Consequence and more. Following a UK television debut on Later … with Jools Holland, Yard Act filmed a Tiny Desk Meets SXSW Concert, won the SXSW 2022 Grulke prize for Developing Non-U.S. Act, and made their US television debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Last summer, Yard Act released a special version of euphoric album closer “100% Endurance” featuring Elton John, with an accompanying video starring multi-award winning actor (and Yard Act fan) David Thewlis. Now it’s time for the next chapter.