Matthew Danger Lippman Shares New Single 'Set Up' & Tour Dates

Matthew Danger Lippman announced his new LP Once You Get Low You've Gotta Start Flying Baby, coming out June 2nd, with the funny and raucous first single "AND." last month. Today, the New York-via-Buffalo songwriter is sharing the second single, "Set Up".

A true blue pop rock crooner, with Lippman lamenting being set up; on dates, in life, for failure, etc, the new single leans even further into Jonathan Richman-style humor. MDL traces the pitfalls of being single and asking yourself why this sucks so much.

Replete with a choir of Katy Rea, Scout Gillett, and Ramona Petrini, "Set Up" does what Lippman is so good at; looking at yourself at some of your lowest moments, making a joke at your own expense and then turning that into a catchy ass song. The video for "Set Up", was directed and edited by Lippman. Focusing on the songwriter, the quick cuts are literal interpretations of the lyrics. You can watch the video.

Speaking to his second single, Matthew Danger Lippman says "Set Up" "is a breezy pop-rock breakup song exploring the different meanings of the title phrase: to be "set up" on a date, to be "set up" for failure, and to have a "set up" in life that falls apart. The song features a mini-choir of backing vocals (Katy Rea, Scout Gillett, Ramona Petrini) and soaring analog synths by MDL.

The music video, directed by MDL and Violet Cowdin, is a Spike Jonze-style experiment in video trickery, a fake one-take in which every lyric is literalized by a troupe of actors around MDL."

Lippman's music is witty, comedic, and lowkey vulnerable, walking the tightrope between Leonard Cohen, Beck, Jonathan Richman, and Father John Misty. He has opened for Ratboys, Wild Pink, and Shonen Knife and has had SNL's Dan Licata cover Generation X's "Dancing With Myself" with him (9 times in a row at one show).

Lippman's song "Race To The Bottom," which closes out his new album, is featured in the buzzy, Slamdance Award-winning new indie film Hannah Ha Ha, in which Lippman also acts. An actor and filmmaker as well as a musician, Lippman was featured in Tubi's Samantha Rose and got his first trashing on Letterboxd for his recent short film, Ain't No Cure for Love; America.

MDL's first single, "AND", is a perfect introduction to his stream-of-consciousness songwriting, a fever-dream trip in breakneck speed, zooming through vignettes that veer in and out of magical realism, body dysmorphia, psychedelic visions, and an absurdist's lust for a life well lived.

In the first minute of "AND" Lippman drops one of the most memorable lines of the album, singing; "And I had that dream last night / Where I pissed on the third rail / And the charge climbed up the piss trail / And it shot into my dickhole / And electrified me". The crass, cartoonish, visualization hooks you immediately; a shot across the bow by Lippman, signaling the depth of weirdness that's waiting for you throughout the 8-songs on Once You Get Low You've Gotta Start Flying Baby.

Matthew Danger Lippman's first studio album, Once You Get Low You've Gotta Start Flying Baby, is something entirely new for him - a hi-fi folk-rock album, mainly, with detours in psychedelia, synth-pop, and country. His backing band is an all-star crew, made up of members of Wild Pink, the Big Net, Goodfight, and Scout Gillett. The songs are deeper, and more melancholic; he has revealed an astounding lyrical sensibility.

The song topics stem from a number of raw personal experiences: the death of his bandmate in 2019; a summer spent skinny-dipping in Queens; a romantic dalliance with an older woman; an LSD breakdown he had at 18. In one song, body dysmorphia urges him to transform into a spider; in another, he opines "I hope I'm a fish next time / I've had enough conversation for 20 lives." And the album title?

"I kinda imagine it as something Jimmy Stewart would say in a '50s movie," MDL says. "It's kind of a dumb little pep-talk. The album's supposed to be like that, too."

Matthew Danger Lippman Tour Dates

6/2 - Brooklyn NY @ Alphaville (with Kolb, Francesca D'Uva & Goodfight)
6/3 - Boston MA @ Ask for address
6/4 - Portland ME @ Apohadian Theatre
6/6 - Kingston NY @ Tubby's
6/7 - Albany NY @ Johnny's Bar
6/8 - Toronto ON @ Bar Orwell
6/9 - Buffalo NY @ Mohawk Place
6/10 - Pittsburgh PA @ Government Center
6/11 - Baltimore MD @ the Crown
6/13 - Cincinnati OH @ the Mockbee
6/14 - Indianapolis IN @ State St. Pub
6/15 - Chicago IL @ Cole's
6/16 - Columbus OH @ Dirty Dungarees

Photo credit: Daniel Dickerman