Whitney Announce Covers 12″ and new dates

Whitney Announce Covers 12" including reworks of Lion and Dolly Parton

“You’ve Got A Woman,” was released on the B-side of Dutch duo Lion’s 1975 psych-pop 7” But I Do, is precisely one of those songs. “As soon as I heard it, I wished I’d written the vocal melody; it’s so catchy and powerful,” says singing drummer Julien Ehrlich. Whitney’s version is rich, instantaneous and deep in groove. There’s trademark brass from Will Miller, wandering lead from guitarist Max Kakacek and bursts of strings. “It’s quite evil-sounding for us,” Julien says. “It was fun to mess around with something darker and throw strings in.” It’s a Whitney hit in much the same way as a certain other single they released with ‘woman’ in the title at the beginning of 2016. Like “No Woman,” “Golden Days” and the rest of last year’s debut, it’s brushed with longing, nostalgia and serves to slow down time.

Unlike Lion, Whitney make it their A-side. Flip the 12″ and you’ll find Dolly Parton’s “Gonna Hurry (As Slow As I Can),” a short, tearful love song hewn from piano, brass, guitar and Julian’s falsetto. You’ve heard him sing it before, live, sat on the lip of the stage accompanied by Max on guitar. “The photo on the sleeve is us recording the Dolly cover,” Julien explains. “We were in a pretty room, so that adds to the image.” The room in question was Thump Studios in Brooklyn, New York, where Whitney were forced to relocate after an emergency. “We were going to record with Jacob Portrait, who mixed both tracks,” Julien says. “But his building caught fire.” If that sounds stressful, it wasn’t: recording this 12″ (“You’ve Got A Woman” was tracked in Chicago’s Treehouse Records) injected some welcome calm into Whitney’s lives.

They’ve toured virtually non-stop for 12 months, and 2017 is fully mapped out too. There’s tarmac rolling under them even as we speak, the band headed home after their first north American run of the year. “We’ve toured so much that the studio felt like the greatest thing in the entire world,” says Julien, adding that Whitney are eager to get into album two. “We’re about three songs in, we’re too emotionally unstable to write on the road, songs pop out if we have chill time to process what we’ve been putting ourselves through.”

“This time last year we were trying to prove ourselves,” says Julien. “Then there was a switch and it got way bigger than we ever thought it would. Now, Max and I are trying to conserve our brains so the next record can be better than the first. We need to control this thing a bit, and we’re doing that…”

Whitney Tour Dates (new dates in bold):

Sat. April 1 – Iowa City IA @ The Mill (SOLD OUT)
Sun. April 2 – Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock Social Club (SOLD OUT)
Mon. April 3 – Fargo, ND @ Aquarium
Tue. April 4 – Winnipeg, MB @ WECC (SOLD OUT)
Thu. April 6 – Saskatoon, SK @ Amigos
Fri. April 7 – Edmonton, AB @ Needle
Sat. April 8 – Calgary, AB @ Commonwealth
Mon. April 10 – Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret (SOLD OUT)
Tue. April 11 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos (SOLD OUT)
Wed. April 12 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall (SOLD OUT)
Thu. April 13 – Eugene, OR @ WOW Hall
Thu. April 14 – Sonoma, CA @ Gundlach Bundschu Winery
Sun. April 16 – Indio, CA @ Coachella
Mon. April 17 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent (SOLD OUT)
Tue. April 18 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent (SOLD OUT)
Wed. April 19 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent (SOLD OUT)
Thu. April 20 – Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre
Sat. April 22 – Pomona, CA @ The Glass House
Sun. April 23 – Indio, CA @ Coachella
Tue. April 25 – Santa Fe, NM @ Meow Wolf
Thu. April 27 – Houston, TX @ Secret Group
Fri. April 28 – New Orleans, LA @ Tulane University
Sat. April 29 – Baton Rouge, LA @ Spanish Moon
Sat. April 29 – Sun. April 30 – Ft. Worth, TX @ Fortress Fest
Mon. May 1 – Lawrence, KS @ Bottleneck
Sun. May 6 – Grinnell, IA @ Grinnell College
Sun. May 7 – Bloomington, IL @ The Castle Theater
Mon. May 8 – Bloomington, IN @ The Bluebird
Tue. May 9 – St Louis, MO @ Delmar Hall
Wed. May 10 – Oxford, MS @ Proud Larry’s
Fri. May 12 – Sun. May 14 – Atlanta, GA @ Shaky Knees Festival
Tue. May 16 – Chapel Hill, NC @ Cat’s Cradle Main
Sat. May 20 – Washington, DC @ 930
Mon. May 22 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
Wed. May. 24 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
Fri. May 26 – Sun. May 28 – Boston, MA @ Boston Calling
Sat. May 27 – Woodstock, NY @ Levon Helm Studios – Midnight Ramble
Fri. June 2 – Barcelona, ES @ Primavera Sound
Sat. June 3 – London, UK @ Field Day
Sun. June 4 – Manchester, UK @ The Ritz
Mon. June 5 – Milan, IT @ Magnolia
Tue. June 6 – Turin, IT @ Astoria
Wed. June 7 – Rome, IT @ Monk
Thu. June 8 – Bologna, IT @ Biografilm
Fri. June 9 – Porto, PT @ Optimus Primavera Sound Porto
Sun. June 11 – Nimes, FR @ This Is Not A Love Song Festival
Wed. June 14 – Bergen, NO @ Bergenfest
Thu. June 15 – Aarhus, DK @ Voxhall
Sat. June 17 – Hilvarenbeek, NL @ Best Kept Secret Festival
Sun. June 18 – Mannheim, DE @ Maifeld Derby
Thu. June 22 – Oslo, NO @ Piknik I Parken
Tue. June 27 – Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2
Wed. June 28 – Paris, FR @ Café De La Dance
Thu. June 29 – Werchter, BE @ Rock Werchter
Fri. July 14 – Sun. July 16 – Louisville, KY @ Forecastle Festival
Fri. July 21 – Sat. July 23 – Los Angeles, CA @ FYF Festival
Fri. July 21 – Tue. July 25 – Seattle, WA @ Capitol Hill Block Party
Sat. July 28 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall
Thu. Aug. 3 – Sun. Aug. 6 – Chicago, IL @ Lollapalooza Music Festival
Fri. Aug 4 – Sun. Aug. 6 – Montreal, QC @ Osheaga Music And Arts Festival

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