Caroline Rose | photo by Ashley Gellman for WXPN | agellmanphotos.com
Caroline Rose brings some body positivity to her music video “Bikini”; hear her World Cafe session and interview
Through her transition from folk to self-made genre “schizodrift” (a self-styled blend of surf rock, country and folk), Caroline Rose has created a name for herself in recent years, attracting the attention of The New York Times Magazine, NPR, Pitchfork as well as us here at WXPN, who named Rose “Artist To Watch” for May. The NYC-based songwriter’s latest record LONER’s success is attributed to taking a more pop approach, but at the same time still staying true to her aesthetic self.
Rose’s new self-directed music video “Bikini” has a colorful 60s-70s game show-esque setting where she is surrounded by a variety of dancing women in bikinis. The video is humorous, but has a deeper meaning behind, as Rose explains below via press release.
“A lot of my aesthetic tends to be very tongue-in-cheek, so I wanted to take a serious subject, in this case misogyny, and just sort of turn it around to laugh at it. I think satire can be used as an incredible tool to take the power away from the powerful when necessary. It was important to me to make sure the video was body positive. When we think of ‘girls in bikinis,’ the tendency is to see tall white models with perfect bodies. I knew that would be missing the point of the song.”
Rose also appeared on World Cafe this week, performing three songs and talking to Stephen Kallao about the sonic shift between albums, the themes in her songs, and whether or not she actually smoked all those cigarettes on the album cover. Listen below.
The East Coast singer songwriter has been on the road, supporting LONER and has added several dates to the tour. She will be coming to Union Transfer on May 24th with alternative pop artist Maggie Rogers. In addition, Rose also announced a fall tour to support Rainbow Kitten Surprise. Tour dates posted below and you can find tickets and more information on the XPN Concert Calendar.
Watch the music video for “Bikini” below.
Tour Dates:
Fri. May 18 – Gulf Shores, AL @ Hangout Music Festival
Sun. May 20 – Birmingham, AL @ The Saturn
Mon. May 21 – Knoxville, TN @ Open Chord Music
Thu. May 24 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer ^
Wed. May 30 – Baltimore, MD @ Soundstage ^
Fri. June 1 – Nelsonville, OH @ Nelsonville Music Festival
Sat. June 2 – Toledo, OH @ Maple and Main Festival
Mon. June 4 – Davenport, IA @ Redstone Room
Wed. June 6 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry
Thu. June 7 – Omaha, NE @ Reverb Lounge
Fri. June 8 – Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge
Sat. June 9 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
Tue. June 12 – Seattle, WA @ The Sunset
Wed. June 13 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
Fri. June 15 – San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop
Sat. June 16 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Moroccan Lounge
Thu. June 21 – Austin, TX @ Stubb’s Jr.
Fri. June 22 – Dallas, TX @ The Rustic
Sat. June 23 – Houston, TX @ The White Oak Music Hall
Mon. June 25 – Kansas City, MO @ Knuckleheads
Tue. June 26 – St. Louis, MO @ Old Rock House
Wed. June 27 – Milwaukee, WI @ Summerfest
Sat. June 30 – Woodstock, NY @ The Colony $
Thu. July 5 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
Fri. July 6 – Paris, FR @ Espace B
Sat. July 7 – Belfort, FR @ Eurockennees Festival
Mon. July 9 – Brighton, UK @ The Prince Albert
Wed. July 11 – Manchester, UK @ Gullivers
Thu. July 12 – London, UK @ The Victoria
Sat. July 14 – Bern, CH @ Gurtenfestival
Thu. July 19 – Benicássim, ES @ Festival Internacional de Benicassim
Fri. July 20 – San Sebastian, ES @ Dabadaba
Sat. July 21 – Fitero, ES @ Barranco Festival
Thu. Aug. 2 – Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere
Fri. Aug. 3 – Portland, ME @ State Theater %
Sat. Sep. 15- Sun. Sep. 16 – Burlington, VT @ Grand Point North Festival
Wed. Sep. 19 – Rochester, NY @ Abilene Bar and Lounge
Thu. Sep. 20 – Lancaster, PA @ Tello 360
Fri. Sep. 21 – Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle
Sat. Sep. 22 – Sun. Sep. 23 – Franklin, TN @ Pilgrimage Festival
Mon. Sep. 24 – Charlottesville, VA @ The Jefferson *
Tue. Sep. 25 – Norfolk, VA @ Norva Theater *
Thu. Sep. 27 – Richmond, VA @ The National *
Fri. Sep. 28 – Port Chester, NY @ The Capitol Theatre *
Sat. Sep. 29 – Baltimore, MD @ Rams Head *
Mon. Oct. 1 – Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom *
Tue. Oct. 2 – Montreal, QC @ Corona Theatre *
Sat. Oct. 6 – Providence, RI @ The Strand *
Mon. Oct. 8 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls *
Thu. Oct. 11 – Lexington, KY @ Manchester Music Hall *
Fri. Oct. 12 – Cincinnati, OH @ Bogart’s *
Sat. Oct. 13 – Indianapolis, IN @ Deluxe at Old National Centre *
Mon. Oct. 15 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Elevation at The Intersection *
Wed. Oct. 17 – Bloomington, IL @ The Castle Theater *
Sat. Oct. 20 – Fayetteville, AR @ George’s Majestic Lounge *
Sun. Oct. 21 – Tulsa, OK @ Cain’s Ballroom *
Tue. Oct. 23 – Oxford, MS @ Lyric Theatre *
^ = with Maggie Rogers
$ = with Mitski
% = with Guster
* = with Rainbow Kitten Suprise