Death Cab for Cutie will release Built You a Tower on June 5th. Today they’ve shared “Riptides.”
”’Riptides’ is about the challenge of dealing with personal struggles as the world around us experiences tragedy and loss on an unfathomable scale,” says Gibbard. “And how when these two elements intertwine themselves in our psyches, it feels utterly paralyzing.”
The full press release, and new tour dates, can be found below.
Today, indie rock titans and eight-time GRAMMY nominees Death Cab for Cutie – Benjamin Gibbard, Nicholas Harmer, Jason McGerr, Dave Depper and Zac Rae – announce their 11th studio album. I Built You A Tower, will be released on June 5 via ANTI- Records. The move marks the band’s return to their independent roots after 20 years on Atlantic Records. Produced and engineered by John Congleton and assembled from a mere three weeks of sessions, I Built You A Tower was recorded at Animal Rites in Los Angeles, as well as the band members’ homes in Seattle, Bellingham, Los Angeles and Portland. Alongside today’s album announcement, Death Cab for Cutie share the album’s propulsive first single, “Riptides.” "’Riptides’ is about the challenge of dealing with personal struggles as the world around us experiences tragedy and loss on an unfathomable scale,” says Gibbard. “And how when these two elements intertwine themselves in our psyches, it feels utterly paralyzing." Listen to the song and watch its Jason Lester-directed video HERE. In recent years, Death Cab celebrated several historic milestones, including massive sold-out tours celebrating the 20th anniversaries of seminal releases Transatlanticism and Plans. Those tours were pivotal to the creation of I Built You A Tower, as behind the scenes, Gibbard weathered the greatest pressure of his professional life — fronting both Death Cab and the Postal Service on arena stages for hours a night — while struggling with the collapse of his personal life in the background. The strain felt too much for one person to bear, and the “tower” originated as a way to protect himself. “There’s this need to find a place in ourselves to put loss and grief,” he explains. “A place that can hold it so we can move on with our lives. But there are these moments where the trauma breaks out of that shell we created for it.” I Built You A Tower is an album of reconciling with past selves in order to locate a new future. “The anniversary tours exorcised any nostalgia in our systems,” Depper observes. “We felt part of this powerful force greater than all of us and went into the studio with a sense of, how can we capture that feeling and put it into something new?” Harmer continues, “The whole experience of this record got us back to the earliest versions of this band: If the musicians in the room like what we’re working on, that’s enough. We reconnected with the confidence that comes with that.” As such, this is not the dreaded “return to form” narrative, but a reclamation of a core ethos that has run through Death Cab’s 30-year history. PRE-ORDER I BUILT YOU A TOWER The band recently announced a North American summer tour, which is on sale now. Today the band also announces a Fall UK/EU tour, with tickets going on sale this Friday at 10 am locally. These performances come on the heels of a historic, sold-out global tour in marking the 20th anniversary of Transatlanticism plus their universally acclaimed 10th studio effort, 2022’s Asphalt Meadows. See below to find a show near you.
Tour Dates
- May 29 Denver, CO Outside Days
- July 10 Minneapolis, MN Armory *
- July 11 Milwaukee, WI Miller High Life Theatre *
- July 12 Indianapolis, IN Everwise Amphitheater at White River State Park *
- July 14 Cincinnati, OH MegaCorp Pavilion *
- July 15 Cleveland, OH Jacobs Pavilion *
- July 17 Philadelphia, PA Highmark Mann Center for the Performing Arts ^
- July 18 Canandaigua, NY CMAC ^
- July 19 Toronto, ON RBC Amphitheatre ^
- July 21 Columbia, MD Merriweather Post Pavilion ^
- July 22 Raleigh, NC Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek ^
- July 24 St. Louis, MO Stifel Theatre #
- July 25 Bentonville, AR The Momentary #
- July 26 Council Bluffs, IA Harrah’s Stir Cove #
- July 28 Sandy, UT Sandy Amphitheater #
- July 29 Sandy, UT Sandy Amphitheater #
- July 31 Phoenix, AZ Arizona Financial Theatre #
- August 2 Los Angeles, CA The Greek Theatre #
- August 3 Los Angeles, CA The Greek Theatre #
- August 4 San Diego, CA Gallagher Square at Petco Park #
- August 6 Las Vegas, NV The Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas &
- August 7 Paso Robles, CA Vina Robles Amphitheatre &
- August 9 San Francisco, CA Outside Lands
- September 16 Dublin, Ireland - 3Olympia Theatre
- September 19 Manchester, UK - O2 Victoria Warehouse
- September 20 Edinburgh, UK - Corn Exchange
- September 21 Gateshead, UK - The Glasshouse
- September 23 Bristol, UK - The Prospect Building
- September 25 London, UK - Troxy
- September 29 Utrecht, Netherlands - TivoliVredenburg
- September 30 Brussels, Belgium - Cirque Royal
- October 1 Berlin, Germany - Columbiahalle
- October 3 Paris, France - Elysée Montmartre