Year Of The Banana is the stalwart indie band Rubblebucket’s upcoming 7th full-length album, and along with its official announcement, they’ve shared new single and video “Moving Without Touching.”
On “Moving Without Touching”, Kal sings high Brian Wilson-esque ooh-oohs while describing disconnection. “I just wanna love you how you want me to, so tell me how you like it…” The lyrics from the album are adapted from a collection of poems Kal wrote in 2015, setting these past feelings to looking-back emotions, sympathy for what their past selves went through, the uncertainty of that year, and gratitude to be able to look back at it safely from the other side.
The track is an undeniable art-power-pop jam that is equal parts St. Vincent and Tom Tom Club but, as with everything they do, is absolutely 100% Rubblebucket.
Rubblebucket’s new album explores one particular year from the band’s past known as the Year Of The Banana. Frontwoman Kalmia Traver has a personal practice of naming each year since 2011, ie: Year of Brushstrokes (2014), Year Of The Mountain And The Steady Flame (2022), Year Of Stop Crying, Start Flying (2023), etc. However, in 2015 (Year Of The Banana) Kalmia’s romantic relationship with Rubblebucket co-founder Alex Toth fell apart, and that year was spent peeling off psychological layers in search of the sweetness that would allow the friendship, and the band, to continue.
Frontwoman Kalmia Traver says “People get obsessed with the albums that were never finished because the band couldn’t stay together. But Year Of The Banana is the album that did get finished” –– evidently against all odds and only with the support of “mediators, hypnotherapists, psycho-therapists, life coaches, business coaches, recovery groups, guided hallucinogens.”
Are you vibing with Rubblebucket’s latest, “Moving Without Touching”?
