The Avalanches pay tribute to David Berman on “Running Red Lights”

The Avalanches, Rivers Cuomo, and Pink Siifu collab on a song about loss.

March 19, 2020

The Avalanches are back with the second single from their forthcoming Wildflower follow-up. Titled “Running Red Lights,” the song unites the iconic Melbourne duo with Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo as well as upstart Pink Siifu, whose verse interpolates revered and recently-departed Avalanches collaborator David Berman. Nostalgic and hazy in the same way that the album’s Dev Hynes-featuring first single was, it continues The Avalanches’ increasingly thoughtful, nostalgic trajectory. “‘Running Red Lights’ didn’t start out as a defining moment; ‘a single’ as it were,” The Avalanches’ Robbie Chater says in a statement. “But Rivers responded to our fuzzed-out Spaceman 3 inspired jam with such openheartedness, that we soon dropped all pretense and got down to the heart of the matter… loss.”

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“David had agreed to share his words with us for the middle 8 a few years back,” Chater continues later in the statement. “It’s a strange feeling releasing this now, 6 months after his passing, but we are so glad he got to hear the music, ad it means a lot to us that he really liked it.” Listen to “Running Red Lights” above.

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The Avalanches pay tribute to David Berman on “Running Red Lights”