U.S. Girls Shares New Single ‘Like James Said’
U.S. GIRLS
Shares ‘Like James Said’
LISTEN / WATCH HERE
New Album Scratch It Out 20 June
PRE-ORDER HERE
North American Tour Dates
“Avant-pop provocateur.” – Rolling Stone
“Meghan Remy draws from the lives of others, making a shell game of identity.” – The New Yorker
Toronto-based producer, film composer, and author Meg Remy anticipates her intuitive and adventurous U.S. Girls album, Scratch It (out 20 June) with a new single entitled ‘Like James Said’, an ELO-styled nugget of AM gold and nod to James Brown about the healing power of dancing alone. Remy’s own lyrical response to Brown’s ‘Get Up Offa That Thing’, the track showcases her great — and characteristically tragicomic — phrasing, notably on the exaggerated pause in the line, “I’m the queen of exercising […] pain”. It was written alongside Rich Morel, adding to his and Remy’s long string of hits together (‘Rosebud’, ‘4 American Dollars’.)
‘Like James Said’ also arrives alongside a single shot dance performance, directed by and starring comedian Tom Henry. Of the video, Henry says:
“When Meg talked to me about making some sort of video about this song that talks about dancing, I had a sudden bolt of inspiration – how about a video about dancing? I don’t know how these ideas come to me.
To me, this character has a story, but ultimately, I just think someone trying to do something well, who doesn’t fully have the faculties to do that, is funny and interesting, and possibly sad – the two and a half things I want to be as a comedian. That’s why I got my dancer friend, Gillian, to help put together this dance piece and attempted to perform it as best I could. I hope, above all else, everyone finds it breathtakingly beautiful, and that I win an award.”
Earlier this month, Remy introduced Scratch It with the release of an epic 12-minute lead single, ‘Bookends’ — a sprawling ballad that pays tribute to Remy’s late friend and former Power Trip frontman Riley Gale, 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. The single arrived alongside a cinematic short directed by Caity Arthur.
Check out ‘Like James Said’ HERE or via the player below.
Official Video by Tom Henry
In just ten days, Remy and the band — Watson on guitar, Jack Lawrence (The Dead Weather, The Raconteurs, Loretta Lynn) on bass, Domo Donoho on drums, and both Jo Schornikow and Tina Norwood on keys, as well as harmonica legend Charlie McCoy (Elvis, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison) — recorded Scratch It live off the floor with minimal overdubs, mixed to tape. Closeness and ease emanate from this core band with Remy’s singular voice sparkling on top of every tune, the most relaxed it has ever been.
Scratch It weaves together country, gospel, garage rock, soul, disco, folk balladry, and more, with Remy’s masterful songwriting threaded throughout. Her choice to discard the computer-based production of previous albums in favor of two-inch tape serves the songs well, introducing an element of sonic shapeshifting expected from an artist nearly twenty years into making records. If instinct was an instrument, Remy would be a virtuoso. Scratch It and see.
Remy will take her Nashville U.S. Girls band on the road this Summer, with more dates to be added. Remy has also just played a special pop-up show at Soft Junk in Nashville, where she and the live band performed the new album for the first time. The routing is listed below, and ticket information can be found HERE.
Scratch It is released digitally and on standard vinyl and CD on 20 June. Screen-printed vinyl test pressings will be available exclusively from the U.S. Girls Bandcamp, for more details head HERE.
U.S. Girls – Scratch It
20 June 2025 | 4AD0807
Tracklisting
1. Like James Said
2. Dear Patti
3. Firefly on the 4th of July
4. The Clearing
5. Walking Song
6. Bookends
7. Emptying the Jimador
8. Pay Streak
9. No Fruit
21 June – ASHEVILLE, NC, USA, Grey Eagle
22 June – WASHINGTON, DC, USA, The Atlantis
23 June – PHILADELPHIA, PA, USA, Johnny Brenda’s
25 June – NEW YORK, NY, USA, Bowery Ballroom
26 June – SOMERVILLE, MA, USA, The Rockwell
28 June – CLEVELAND, OH, USA, Grog Shop
29 June – CHICAGO, IL, USA, Lincoln Hall
9 September – LOS ANGELES, CA, USA, Lodge Room
11 September – SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA, Rickshaw Stop
Originally from Illinois, Meg Remy is established as one of the most acclaimed songwriters to emerge from Toronto’s eclectic underground music scene where she currently lives. As the creative force behind the musical entity U.S. Girls, her celebrated decades-long discography includes three Polaris Prize shortlisted and Juno-nominated albums on 4AD: Half Free (2015), In A Poem Unlimited (2018), Heavy Light (2020), as well as Bless This Mess (2023) and live compilation Lives (2023). Remy has exhibited collage work and directed several music videos and other video art works including her short film Woman’s Advocate (2014). She published her first book, a memoir called Begin By Telling (2021) and is working on a follow-up. Recently Remy has turned film composer, scoring Grace Glowicki’s horror comedy Dead Lover which premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Her producer credits include Bria Salmena’s Big Dog (2025, Sub Pop). As a platform and persona, U.S. Girls operates on a uniquely out-of-time wavelength, alternately wronged and rueful, classic but contemporary, bruised vignettes of poetic Americana through a feminist lens.