Perfume Genius - Mr. Peterson

About two years ago I was perusing Xiu Xiu's myspace and came across Perfume Genius on their top friends list. I listened to his music and was utterly blown away. I've been waiting for him to have a proper physical release and now it's finally arrived. Chalk this up to another brilliant step by the ever brilliant Transparent records who seem to have an ear to the ground like few other labels out there right now.

Perfume Genius is the music of Mike Hadreas who like Morrissey has the ability to kill you with so few lines. I'm not a big lyrics guy, but some people can just hit you where it counts. Take these lines from Mr. Peterson, a song about a relationship between a high school student and his teacher: "He made me a tape of Joy division/ He told me there was a part of him missing/ When I was sixteen/ he jumped off a building". So simple, but it cuts you right to the bone.

The Mr. Peterson 7" is out now via transparent and can be purchased from Pure Groove.