Video: Soccer Mommy – “Cool”
Directed by Ambar Navarro. From Clean, out now on Fat Possum.
It comes as no surprise to learn that Liz Phair has tapped Soccer Mommy as the opener on her “Girly Sound to Guyville” tour. They both started out as bedroom recording artists embodying the persona of a badass young woman who’s comfortable exposing her vulnerability.
Phair wanted to be mesmerizing. Soccer Mommy’s Sophie Allison wants to be cool.
Allison told Consequence of Sound that the song “creates this figure of everything I want to be. It’s fun and upbeat because it’s like a hopeful moment where I’m thinking about how I’m going to be moving forward in my life. However, it’s idealizing things that won’t necessarily make me happy.”
But whenever I hear about a young person wanting to be cool I think back to my friend Jim Fordyce who recorded a song called “World Revolves Around Me” in 1996 after his band the Port Wine Lads split up. It’s a pretty, acoustic song with a punch line that knocks me on my ass every time I think about it: “It’s easy to be cool…when you’re cool.” That lyric conjures up all the feelings of insecurity that plagued way too much of my youth. When you’re dorky and self-conscious, it’s mystifying that some people can be so confident.
Thankfully, when you get older you stop caring…as much…
Soccer Mommy: bandcamp, twitter, amazon, apple, spotify, wiki.
Audio: Arnold (USA) – “World Revolves Around Me”
From Jet Power (Farmer Boy, 1996)
Soccer Mommy 2018 Tour Dates
4/3/18 – Spokane, WA – The Bartlett
4/4/18 – Seattle, WA – Barboza
4/5/18 – Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge
4/7/18 – San Francisco, CA – Bottom Of The Hill
4/9/18 – San Diego, CA – Soda Bar
4/10/18 – Los Angeles, CA – The Echo
4/11/18 – Phoenix, AZ – Valley Bar
4/13/18 – Austin, TX – Stubb’s Jr.
4/14/18 – San Antonio, TX – 502 Bar
4/15/18 – Dallas, TX – Three Links
4/26/18 – Columbus, OH – Rumba Cafe
4/27/18 – Lansing, MI – The Pike Room at The Crofoot
4/28/18 – Toronto, ON – Longboat Hall at Great Hall
4/29/18 – Montreal, QC – Quai Des Brumes
5/1/18 – Boston, MA – Great Scott
5/2/18 – Brooklyn, NY – Elsewhere (main room)
5/3/18 – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s
5/4/18 – Brooklyn, NY – Rough Trade NYC
5/5/18 – Washington, DC – Black Cat
5/7/18 – Norfolk, VA – Charlie’s American Cafe
5/8/18 – Durham, NC – The Pinhook
5/9/18 – Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade
5/27/18 – George, WA – Sasquatch Festival
6/4/18 – Minneapolis, MN – Turf Club
6/6/18 – Boston, MA – The Sinclair
6/7/18 – Brooklyn, NY – National Sawdust
6/9/18 – Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle
8/31/18 – Scotland, UK – Electric Fields Festival
9/4/18 – Birmingham, UK – Hare & Hounds
9/5/18 – Manchester, UK – Deaf Institute
9/7/18 – Dublin, Ireland – Grand Social
9/8/18 – Liverpool, UK – The Shipping Forecast
9/10/18 – Nottingham, UK – Bodega
9/11/18 – Bristol, UK – Louisiana
9/13/18 – London, UK – Scala
9/14/18 – Gent, Belgium – Dok
9/17/18 – Gothenburg, Sweden – Oceanen
9/18/18 – Stockholm, Sweden – Melodybox
9/19/18 – Copenhagen, Denmark – Ideal Bar at Vega