There\u2019s something weighty about longtime Portland musician Laura Veirs\u2019 new single, \u201cPulse.\u201d Not the actual song, which has a jazzy saxophone section and lyrics about knowing when something wonderful is about to happen, but actual weights. In the \u201cPulse\u201d music video, Veirs gets to work in a home gym, doing dead lifts, planks, weighted squats, kettlebell swings and many more gym rat favorites. Her whole blended family\u2014husband, four teenagers, pet Chihuahua and hamster\u2014gets physical, too. Veirs also gets shot by a ton of Silly String.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s Jane Fonda surrealism,\u201d Veirs says.<\/p>\n
\u201cPulse\u201d is the lead single off of Veirs\u2019 new album, Temple Songs, which comes out Aug. 14, ahead of shows at Music Millennium on Aug. 15 and Polaris Hall on Oct. 24. \u201cPulse\u201d is a bright, beachy song, with a video that adds a feminist message: Veirs is 52, lifting heavier weights than she ever has, and looking like a rock star doing it. The look: red high-top Converse, silver hair in pigtails.<\/p>\n
Weightlifting is for everyone, Veirs says, even though it\u2019s traditionally thought of as a young, male space. The video is \u201ca mix of political, and also just fun,\u201d she says. \u201cThose two things can go together.\u201d <\/p>\n