Lutalo - "Oh Well"

Photo by Adam Alonzo

We've been enjoying how wildly diverse the singles from Vermont's Lutalo have been. The Vermont artist has dabbled in folk-rock, indie rock, post-punk, and singer-songwriter among others. Their latest single, "Oh Well," is described as "space grunge." The term grunge is being overused lately, but "Oh Well" is the rare song that lives up to that description. It has all of the heavy fuzz of grunge, but mixed with the alt-rock goes psychedelic of the post grunge mid to late 90's. It's a heavy song, but it's also spacey. It's reminding me a little of artists like Hum or Self's debut album. I would say Lutalo keeps defying expectations, but at this point we've come to expect and look forward to their genre hopping.

Lutalo says that their latest single "... focuses on remembering my parents separation and my mother's mental instability at a time when I didn’t understand what was going on. She was suffering with heavy schizophrenia and had some episodes that stuck with me. The main idea was to capture the hope that I held onto for my mother to come back into my life as a main figure; witnessing the struggle my father had trying to manage his partner and care for his three children at the same time. She was admitted to a mental health hospital and we had to carry on with our lives. During that time I’d ask my father about why things were the way they were, he’d try and find an age appropriate answer mostly came to 'It's just an unfortunate situation.' I ended up adopting an 'it is what it is' attitude and stopped questioning and holding out hope."

You can watch the video for "Oh Well" below. The Academy is due out September 20 on Winspear, and is available for pre-order here. For more on Lutalo, check out the artist on Instagram and Twitter. Upcoming tour dates are below the video.

08/22/24 - London, UK @ The Shacklewell Arms
08/28/24 - Glasgow, UK @ Audio *
08/29/24 - Leeds, UK @ Brudenell *
08/30/24 - Brighton, UK @ Brighton Psych Fest
08/31/24 - Manchester, UK @ Manchester Psych Fest
09/01/24 - Birmingham, UK @ Hare and Hounds *
09/19/24 - Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue ^
09/28/24 - Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts +
09/30/24 - Washington, DC @ Black Cat +
10/01/24 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel +
10/02/24 - Boston, MA @ Royale +
10/04/24 - Montreal, QC @ La Tulipe +
10/05/24 - Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre +
10/06/24 - Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop +
10/07/24 - Chicago, IL @ Metro +
10/09/24 - Nashville, TN @ Basement East +
10/10/24 - Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle +
10/11/24 - Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West +
10/13/24 - Lawrence, KS @ Bottleneck +
10/15/24 - Denver, CO @ Meow Wolf +
10/16/24 - Salt Lake City, UT @ State Room +
10/18/24 - Vancouver, BC @ Hollywood Theatre +
10/19/24 - Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile +
10/20/24 - Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom +
10/22/24 - San Francisco, CA @ August Hall +
10/24/24 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda +

* w/ Palehound
^ w/ hippo campus
+ w/ Nilüfer Yanya