Fruit Bats Confirm New Album ‘The Pet Parade’ & Share Single

Eric D. Johnson begins the 20th year of Fruit Bats with the announcement of a new album. Today, Johnson unveiled “Holy Rose,” the first single from The Pet Parade, an LP set for release through Merge Records on March 5.

The forthcoming Fruit Bats album was produced by Josh Kaufman, who performs on The Pet Parade along with drummers Joe Russo and Matt Barrick, pianist Thomas Barlett, fiddler Jim Becker and singer-songwriter Johanna Samuels. In a sign of the times, each musician self-recorded their parts remotely last summer from locations across the country.

Eric D. Johnson wrote each of the 11 tracks featured on The Pet Parade with Kaufman co-authoring “Discovering.” Most of the songs were penned before the pandemic began.

“‘Holy Rose’ is possibly the most ‘direct’ song on The Pet Parade,” Johnson explained of the first single from the LP. “I wrote this about the 2017 Tubbs Fire in Sonoma County and was finishing it up right when fire season was raging in California. My wife grew up in Sonoma County and just had to sit there and watch her childhood burn down. This is a love song to the native West Coasters.”

Stream The Pet Parade single “Holy Rose” below:

The Pet Parade Tracklist

1. The Pet Parade
2. Cub Pilot
3. Discovering
4. The Balcony
5. Here For Now, For You
6. On the Avalon Stairs
7. Eagles Below Us
8. Holy Rose
9. All in One Go
10. Gullwing Doors
11. Complete