U.S. Girls announce new album, pay tribute to Riley Gale on first single “Bookends”

Meg Remy has announced her new U.S. Girls album which is titled Scratch It and will be out June 20 via 4AD. She made it in Nashville with guitarist Dillon Watson and a band of session musicians, including Jack Lawrence (The Dead Weather, The Raconteurs) on bass, Domo Donoho on drums, and keyboardists Jo Schornikow and Tina Norwood, plus legendary harmonica player Charlie McCoy (Elvis, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison). The album was recorded live to analog tape with minimal overdubs.

The first single is “Bookends,” a 12-minute epid that was co-written with Edwin de Goeij and is a tribute to Remy’s friend, late Power Trip frontman Riley Gale. The song’s lyrics are told “through the lens of Remy’s reading of John Carey’s Eyewitness To History, a historical collection of 300+ eyewitness accounts of great world events spanning twenty-four centuries. In consuming these first-hand accounts of human history.”

The video was directed by Caity Arthur, who says: “The video is ultimately about death and absolution — how death is one of the only certain things in life; the ‘great equalizer,’ nolens volens. However, it also subverts the traditional narrative of death as a despairing void, rather, portraying it as a euphoric transitory experience or new beginning through a hallucinatory ensemble cast, a 1960s pop-star performance, and sleight of hand magic. As the video progresses, the TV channels alternate through these scenes as Meg’s lyrics evoke death in its various forms.” Watch that below.

Meg will take her all-Nashville version of U.S. Girls on the road this summer, including a NYC show at Bowery Ballroom on June 25. She’ll also play a solo show at Nashville’s Soft Junk on May 14. All dates are listed below.

Scratch It
01. Like James Said
02. Dear Patti
03. Firefly on the 4th of July
04. The Clearing
05. Walking Song
06. Bookends
07. Emptying the Jimador
08. Pay Streak
09. No Fruit

U.S. Girls – 2025 Tour Dates
Wed May 14 – Nashville, TN – Soft Junk w/ Caroline (solo)
Sat June 21 – Asheville, NC – Grey Eagle
Sun June 22 – Washington, DC – The Atlantis
Mon June 23 – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s
Wed June 25 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
Thu June 26 – Somerville, MA – The Rockwell
Sat June 28 – Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop
Sun June 29 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
Tue Sept 9 – Los Angeles, CA – Lodge Room
Thu Sept 11 – San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw Stop