Hear this killer cover of Olivia Rodrigo "Driver Licenses" from Middle Kids
Photo credit: Ellen Virgona
Middle Kids have released their spine chilling take on Olivia Rodrigo’s masterpiece “drivers license” for Triple J’s Like A Version cover series. The band also performed “Stacking Chairs” from their sophomore album Today We’re The Greatest which was released this year on Domino Records.
The Sydney band recently announced that they will head out on a US headline tour this fall in support of Today We're The Greatest. Tickets are selling fast and more shows have been added. Middle Kids have been busy delivering some stellar performances via US TV making their playing their uplifting uplifting album favorite “Questions” on Jimmy Kimmel Live! And CBS This Morning and playing the album’s title track on The Late Late Show With James Corden. It’s been an exciting run of quality and mesmerizing musicianship and a taste of what US audiences will get to see in-person later this year when the Aussie group hits our shores.
For information, please visit middlekidsmusic.com. A rundown of dates can be found below.
MIDDLE KIDS
TODAY WE’RE THE GREATEST
North American Tour 2021
September 18 - Space Ballroom - Hamden, CT
September 19 - Sinclair - Boston, MA
September 20 - Irving Plaza - New York, NY
September 22 - 9:30 Club - Washington, DC
September 23 - Mr. Smalls - Pittsburgh, PA
September 23-26 - Firefly Fest
September 30 - A&R - Columbus, OH
October 1 - Loving Touch - Detroit, MI
October 2 - Metro - Chicago, IL
October 3 - Fine Line Cafe - Minneapolis, MN
October 7 - Wonder Ballroom - Portland, OR
October 9 - Crocodile - Seattle, WA
October 11 - The Independent - San Francisco, CA
October 13 - Teragram Ballroom - Los Angeles, CA
October 14 - Pappy & Harriet’s - Pioneertown, CA
October 18 - Mohawk - Austin, TX
October 19 - Tuplis - Fort Worth, TX
October 21 - Aisle 5 - Atlanta, GA
October 22 - Exit/In - Nashville, TN
About Middle Kids
Recorded in Los Angeles in October 2019 with producer Lars Stalfors (St. Vincent, Soccer Mommy, Cold War Kids), Middle Kids (Hannah Joy, Tim Fitz and Harry Day) relished in exploring the space between smoldering intensity and an explosive vivacity that never burns out of control; from the brassy climax of “Questions” to the starkly confessional quality of “Some People Stay in Our Hearts Forever” and the insistent gallop of “R U 4 Me?.” They heard potential in unlikely places, as Fitz used a pair of scissors as a percussion instrument on “Summer Hill” and repurposed a recording of birds chirping in a rain shower that he captured at their old home in Sydney for “Golden Star.”
Album opener “Bad Neighbours,” a plaintive slow-burner, represents this shift in their sound, and one in their working dynamic as well: Joy has always been Middle Kids’ primary wordsmith, but Fitz wrote most of the lyrics for the melancholy tune, which was informed by a traumatic event from Joy’s childhood. “It was like he was giving me permission to go there, and he also [gave] actual speech to feeling, which I think was very profound for me,” she recalls.
“In Hannah’s songs there’s a real vulnerability and at times a volatility that came through in [Lost Friends],” says Day. “But I feel like it came through even more in this album.”
Given the massive changes Joy went through as she was working on Today We’re The Greatest, it’s easy to see -- and hear -- why. Beyond her baby’s heartbeat cameo on “Run With You,” Joy’s journey to motherhood and her marriage with Fitz has imbued her love songs with a vibrancy that’s unabashedly romantic yet free of clichés. “Stacking Chairs,” with its unique allegories and Joy’s sunny vocals, strikes this delicate balance beautifully: it’s a testament to her deep connection with Fitz and the new, “infinitesimal” love that transformed their lives with their son’s arrival.
“A few years ago, I would’ve been like, ‘I can’t write a love song!’ I think it’s because love was still too tinny, too shallow for me to actually understand where I was at personally,” she says. “‘Stacking Chairs’ is a great example of that: I’m understanding love more, and I’m still a tiny, stupid idiot. But I’m going, ‘That’s something worth fighting for, and something worth celebrating, too!’”.
Today We’re The Greatest is the open, uninhibited product of fearless collaboration: these breakthroughs wouldn’t have occurred had Joy not pushed herself to plumb new, personal depths in her lyrics, or if Fitz and Day hadn’t completed them with their instrumental flourishes. From the first note to the closing title track, Middle Kids are building on the strong foundation of Lost Friends while exploring the possibilities and beautiful contradictions in every note.
“It can be easier to live dualistically” says Joy, “splitting the world in two. We want to be able say it’s this or it’s that, but sometimes it’s both -- and can we hold both? Can we hold the brokenness? Can we hold the beauty? That has definitely been a defining bit of this album, the fragility in that dance.”