Pearl & The Oysters, the duo of Juliette Pearl Davis (Juju) and Joachim Polack (Jojo), are back with their third album on Stones Throw – Monkey Mind releases June 26th. You can listen to singles “Doom Mood” and “Wide Awake” today.
Juju and Jojo make music a lot like their current home base of Los Angeles: sunny on the surface, darker and more layered at its roots. Their brand of lounge pop – now leaning toward ‘70s piano rock as well as Brazilian, exotica and city pop influences – asks how to live with the uncertainty and disquiet of the current moment.
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In January 2025, as the second inauguration loomed and wildfires raged through LA, Juju and Jojo felt stretched to their limit, both filled with extreme panic and anxiety. The fires threatened not just the city they now call home, but the network of friends and collaborators they had built around them. From this moment, the process of creating their new album Monkey Mind began.
Monkey Mind takes its title from the Buddhist concept of a restless, looping consciousness: thoughts jumping, spiraling and rarely settling. Produced by Jonathan Rado (Weyes Blood, The Lemon Twigs, Father John Misty), the record follows that cycle across the span of a day, beginning in a state of calm before the mind wakes up, gathers speed, and eventually softens again.
Following a “primal and direct” instinct rather than retreating into long, meticulous processes, Juju and Jojo chose to work quickly, writing their sixth album in a matter of weeks.
“We felt a need to tap into a certain urgency and honesty, as a result of our growing malaise with a cultural climate plagued by digital alienation and generative AI slop,” says the duo. For their new single “Doom Mood”, Pearl & The Oysters share their cynical take on our current information age. In the accompanying video, directed by Nikki Milan Houston and inspired by “Doom Mood”’s palindrome lyrics, they create a “doomy, moody, loopy landscape” through a fever dream of mirrors, doubles, and opposites.
While Pearl & The Oysters’ first albums evoked the humidity of Gainesville, Florida, and their Stones Throw albums Coast 2 Coast and Planet Pearl saw them cast as nomads figuring out where to call home, their new album Monkey Mind is firmly rooted in LA. Both an urgent document of its time and “kind of like a giant hug”, Monkey Mind sees Pearl & The Oysters find in pain, a punchline; in disaster, a balm; in loneliness, connection.
Be on the lookout for more new music coming soon.
Pearl & The Oysters – US & Canada Tour
7/8 – Portland, OR – Polaris Hall
7/9 – Seattle, WA – Belltown Yacht Club
7/10 – Vancouver, BC – The Pearl
7/11 – Bellingham, WA – NW Tune-Up Festival
7/14 – Fargo, ND – The Aquarium
7/15 – Minneapolis, MN – Turf Club
7/16 – Chicago, IL – Sleeping Village
7/17 – Detroit, MI – Outer Limits
7/18 – Cleveland, OH – The Winchester
7/20 – Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace
7/21 – Montreal, QC – Bar le Ritz
7/23 – Saratoga Springs, NY – Saratoga Arts Center
7/24 – Brooklyn, NY – The Sultan Room
7/25 – Washington, DC – Comet Ping Pong
7/26 – Philadelphia, PA – MilkBoy
7/28 – Pittsburgh, PA – Spirit (Lodge)
7/29 – Indianapolis, IN – Healer
7/30 – Kansas City, MO – recordBar
8/1 – Denver, CO – Hi-Dive
8/20 – Los Angeles, CA – Lodge Room
8/22 – San Francisco, CA – The Independent
10/3 – Reno, NV – OffBeat Festival
