Perfume Genius

These days, a palpable tension is crisp within any environment where people congregate. You see it on people’s faces (or if they’re wearing a mask, through their eyes) that many of us have forgotten how to “be”. For those who see our local music venue as a temple, the continuously evolving pandemic has hindered our ability to feel whole. It’s not just the music; it’s the restorative sensation of knowing that you are with your “people”. That so many of us from varied lived experiences can find a commonality through four chords, a microphone, and strategically timed lighting has always felt like a miracle.

Hrishikesh Hirway, host of the popular podcast and Netflix series "Song Exploder," on Wednesday presented a showcase at Central Presbyterian Church during South by Southwest Music Festival. The diverse roster for the evening featured art-rock performer Perfume Genius, singer-songwriter Kimbra, rapper Fly Anakin, rocker Sarah Kinsley and singer-songwriter Jenny Owen Youngs.

This year record label Jagjaguwar is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and they’ve separated their celebration into four parts. The first was dubbed Dilate Your Heart, which featured the collaboration between poet Ross Gay and artists such as Bon Iver, Gia Margaret, and Mary Lattimore. The latest installment is titled This is a Mindfulness Drill, which is out June 25 and features a full-length tribute to Richard Youngs’ formative solo album Sapphie by Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, along with vocals by Moses Sumney and Sharon Van Etten. Today, we get to hear the gorgeous rendition of Youngs’ “A Fullness Of Light In Your Soul” featuring Perfume Genius.

Bloomington, Indiana indie label Jagjaguwar has been celebrating its 25th anniversary with a bunch of great musical surprises like Bon Iver’s collaboration with poet Ross Gay. The latest is this new cover of Richard Youngs’ “A Fullness Of Light In Your Soul,” performed by Hypnotic Brass Ensemble and Perfume Genius. It comes from This Is A Mindfulness Drill, a full tribute album to Youngs’ album Sapphie. The album also features Sharon Van Etten and Moses Sumney, who shows up on the previously released “It Will Be Fire.”

The new Wasserman Music agency and livestreaming service Twitch have partnered to launch “There is Light,” an indie-centric channel and concert series. The series will present 20 live concerts from independent music venues in the U.S. and U.K., starting with a May 4 — tonight — performance by Perfume Genius at the Lodge Room in Los Angeles. Other confirmed headliners include Best Coast, Cautious Clay, Creeper, Jade Bird, JpegMafia, Orla Gartland, Porches, The Snuts, and Two Feet, with more to be announced. All performances are “100% live” and free to view exclusively at https://www.twitch.tv/thereislight.

Set My Heart on Fire Immediately, Mike Hadreas’ fifth album as Perfume Genius, doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for improvement. Hadreas crafts songs with an incandescent glow, bubbling with the sugary pulse of the very best pop music, but also rich with vulnerability if you crack them open and examine their core. Set My Heart makes big, bold musical decisions, in no small part because it seems purposeful every step of the way.

In its original form, Perfume Genius’ “Describe” was a feedback-charred rock song. Mike Hadreas had summoned a dense glut of heavy harmonic noise to represent the kind of depression that makes you forget what happiness feels like. As the lead single from Set My Heart On Fire Immediately, it was a hell of an introduction to this latest era of Perfume Genius.