Ginger Root, the project of a multi-instrumentalist, producer, songwriter, and visual artist Cameron Lew, releases “Better Than Monday,” the latest from his recently announced new album, SHINBANGUMI, due September 13 on Ghostly International.
Of the track, which pokes fun at our universal dread of the week’s reset and plays with expectations, Lew says “I wanted to experiment with the idea of what mashing together lo-fi intimacy and hi-fi energy would sound like on a track. Lyrically I wanted to poke fun at hating a specific day of the week, and no matter how bad any given day can get for some reason it will ALWAYS be better than a Monday.”
The song comes with an inventive video directed by Cameron Lew and David Gutel that continues the storyline initiated in the video for SHINBANGUMI’s lead single “No Problems,” which The FADER called “a burst of color that only gets more vivid as the song progresses. With peppy Rhodes chords flitting between jazz, city pop, and entrancing psychedelic orchestration, the song might initially seem like a throwback, but there’s too much life here for that” and Stereogum praised calling it “catchy pop fantasia.”
Additionally, Ginger Root has announced a massive North America, Europe and UK fall tour that kicks off on September 24th. All dates below.
Since Ginger Root’s first release of what he calls “aggressive elevator soul” in 2017, the multi-instrumentalist, producer, songwriter, and visual artist has been making handmade yet immaculately polished synth-pop, alt-disco, boogie, and soul — taking shape through Lew’s lens as an Asian-American growing up enamored by 1970s and ’80s music, specifically the creative and cultural dialogue between Japanese City Pop and its Western counterparts from French Pop to Philly Soul to Ram-era McCartney.
He spins his retro-minded influences and proliferates savvily in the present, synthesizing a songwriter’s wit, an editor’s eye, and a producer’s resource into something singular and modern. His long-awaited third LP and first for new label home Ghostly International, which comes with a visual album component, translates roughly to a new season of a show. It finds Lew more poised, idiosyncratic, and intentional than ever in a new chapter of life, unlocking “exactly what Ginger Root should sound and feel like,” he says. “In terms of instrumentation and musicality, it’s the first time that I felt very confident and comfortable with what everything should be comprised of. On the more personal side, I’m coming out of the last four years of writing, touring, and living as a different person; SHINBANGUMI is a platform to showcase my new self.”
Tour Dates:
09/24 – San Diego, CA @ House of Blues
09/26 – Santa Ana, CA @ The Observatory
09/27 – San Luis Obispo, CA @ Fremont Theater
09/28 – San Francisco, CA @ Fox Oakland
09/30 – Seattle, WA @ Moore Theater
10/01 – Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl
10/02 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall
10/04 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot
10/05 – Denver, CO @ Summit Music Hall
10/08 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Ave
10/09 – Chicago, IL @ Salt Shed
10/11 – Cleveland, OH @ The Roxy
10/12 – Toronto, ON @ The Concert Hall
10/13 – Montreal, QC @ La Tulipe
10/15 – Boston, MA @ Royale
10/17 – New York, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
10/18 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
10/19 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat
10/21 – Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel
10/22 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
10/23 – Nashville, TN @ Cannery Hall
10/26 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall
10/27 – Dallas, TX @ The Factory
10/29 – Austin, TX @ Emo’s
10/30 – San Antonio, TX @ Aztec Theater
11/01 – El Paso, TX @ Lowbrow Palace
11/02 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren
11/03 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Hollywood Palladium
11/22 – Hamburg, DE @ Molotow
11/23 – Berlin, DE @ Hole44
11/25 – Cologne, DE @ Yard Club
11/26 – Paris, FR @ La Bellevilloise
11/27 – Amsterdam, NE @ Tolhuistuin
11/29 – Leeds, EN @ Brudenell Social Club
11/30 – Portobello, Dublin 2, IR @ Whelans
12/01 – Glasgow, UK @ Stereo
12/02 – Manchester, EN @ YES
12/03 – London, EN @ Koko
