POND – “Toast”POND – “Toast”

POND, the Australian psych-rock band that shares several members with Tame Impala but is decidedly its own thing, are returning in October with the new album 9, their ninth studio album. They’ve already shared singles “Pink Lunettes” and “America’s Cup,” and today they’re sharing another, “Toast,” a spacey reverie inspired by last year’s bush fires and the wealth disparity in western Australia. As frontman Nick Allbrook explains:

The intro chords came from a Joe Ryan demo mysteriously titled “Toast.” I’ve never asked Joe why he landed on that name, and I probably never will, but it pointed toward the image of fat-headed gobblers touching flutes of bubbles, watching the End Of Days gallop over the horizon. I often wonder about those people – the money hoarders, climate change deniers, earth-pilferers and adventure capitalists – are they nihilists or anarchists or do they really believe they are to be saved by some Rock Opera Jesus? We may never know, but here is “Toast,” which is hopefully as smooth as the smooth, smooth sailing of our glorious leaders fat old white lives.

The song comes with a karaoke-style lyric video directed and edited by Pond and Alex Haygarth. “We filmed the clip on a green screen in an abandoned garden centre in one continuous take,” Jay Watson says. “It cost us $300 to make (the price of four takes worth of champagne). I ate five fried eggs over the course of it. Another installment in a long series of homemade Pond videos.” Watch and listen below.

9 is out 10/1 via Spinning Top Records. Pre-order it here.