Bartees Strange and Ohmme Cover TV on the Radio’s “Province”

Bartees Strange, Dr. Dog’s Eric Slick, and Ohmme have shared a cover of TV on the Radio’s “Province.” It’s the A-side to a new single that includes Anjimile’s version of Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s “Ever New” on the B-side. Hear the songs below.

The tracks are being released by Psychic Hotline, the new label from Sylvan Esso. A 7" vinyl edition of the single is due out in 2022.

“I’ll never forget when I found TVOTR,” Bartees Strange said in a press release. “I saw their performance on Letterman while channel surfing. I jumped out of my bed. They gave me somebody to look up to. I don’t think I really knew what I wanted to do musically until I saw them. That was a big deal for me.”

Eric Slick added:

Bartees and I started talking earlier this year. I loved his album and there seemed to be some interest in working together. We talked about our admiration for TV on the Radio. I was driving around one day and thought about how much I listened to Return to Cookie Mountain in 2006, and how it was a formative record for me. It’s such a strange and simultaneously straightforward album. I made a basic acoustic cover of their song “Province,” and, from there, Bartees added his vocal take. Then I reached out to Ohmme, one of my favorite bands from Chicago. Sima [Cunningham] and Macie [Stewart] added some ethereal swells and tied the whole song together. Then I removed all of the rough tracks and built a more modern structure underneath with Mellotron, Moog, and MPC. I’m so excited about the way it came out, and I am deeply inspired by what Bartees and Ohmme brought to the table.

Read about Bartees Strange’s favorite venue in Pitchfork’s feature “19 Artists on Their Favorite Independent Music Venues.”