Listen: Girls – Honey Bunny

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“I’ve been messing with so many girls / who could give a damn about who I am / They don’t like my boney body / They don’t like my dirty hair / Or the stuff that I say / Or the stuff that I’m on”, sings Girls frontman Christopher Owens.

We feel ya, buddy, we feel ya.

‘Honey Bunny’ is the second track to be premièred from the San Fran duo’s follow-up to their 2009 debut. On the basis of this and prior single ‘Vomit’, the wonderful mindmaze of a video to which can be streamed here, the album looks to be marked more morosely introspective than the first album, and a lot closer to their last EP, the more mature Broken Dreams Club.

The song sees the San Fran band replace the party drugs and comedowns of Album with the manically-induced optimism and subsequent maudlin lows of prescription pills. The new tracks seem to show glimpses of light as the singer tries to find his way out of the dark. With the high-tempo jangling surf-rock vibe, this must be the “kicking up a leg or two” spoken of in ‘Hellhole Ratrace’.

Owens revealed a little to NPR Music about the new track:

‘Honey Bunny’ was my 19th song to write. I wrote it on my birthday in 2008. I think the fact that it’s No. 19 gives it a little perspective. My first songs were kind of like, “Ahhhh, Help!” This one has a bit of swagger to it, and some reflection about my mother. It’s a special song to me now, not for the sassy swagger bits as much the parts about Mama. But I think for the listener, it could be the exact opposite. The energy and optimism and determination in it is quite appealing. But that’s the great thing about these things, right? The fact that all of us are hearing something entirely different. I believe that. And so, in 2011, surfer guitar still rules.

You can listen to ‘Honey Bunny’, the first track from the forthcoming second LP, over on NPR or below:

Father, Son, Holy Ghost is due out 13 September on True Panther Sounds.