U.S. Girls Announces New Album ‘Scratch It’ Out 20 June
U.S. GIRLS
Announces Scratch It
New Album Out 20 June
Shares 12-Minute Single ‘Bookends’ & 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 announces a new U.S. Girls album, Scratch It, along with the release of an epic 12-minute single ‘Bookends’, out today. The Illinois-raised musician has also shared details of a North American tour to coincide.
Co-written with Edwin de Goeji, ‘Bookends’ is the heart of Scratch It. The sprawling ballad pays tribute to Remy’s late friend and former Power Trip frontman Riley Gale, through the lens of Remy’s own reading of John Carey’s Eyewitness To History, a historical collection of 300+ eyewitness accounts spanning twenty-four centuries. In consuming these first-hand accounts of human history, she began to ponder the thought, “there is not a hierarchy to suffering, and death is the great equaliser.”
‘Bookends’ is accompanied by an official video directed by Caity Arthur. They explain, “The video is ultimately about death and absolution — how death is one of the only certain things in life; the ‘great equalizer,’ nolens volens. However, it also subverts the traditional narrative of death as a despairing void, rather, portraying it as a euphoric transitory experience or new beginning through a hallucinatory ensemble cast, a 1960s pop-star performance, and sleight of hand magic. As the video progresses, the TV channels alternate through these scenes as Meg’s lyrics evoke death in its various forms.”
Check out ‘Bookends’ HERE or via the player below.
Official Video by Caity Arthur
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 favour 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.
Scratch It is released digitally and on standard vinyl and CD on 20th June. Screenprinted 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.