Moon Duo wanna take you on a psychedelic picnic, maaaaaaan, to a place where it’s always summer, where the vibes are hazy, and fuzzed-out bliss is only a rocket’s hop away. A place called Circles, which is — coincidentally — the name of the band’s forthcoming LP on Sacred Bones. It’s the band’s first full-length since 2010’s critically-acclaimed Mazes. So pack up your Magic Eye posters, your friendliest psychedelics, and your freeze-dried astronaut ice cream, because Wooden Shijps guitarist Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada are gonna take you on a long, strange journey into transcendentalism.
Circles was dreamed up over a long winter in the band’s newish Rocky Mountains home in Blue River, CO, and inspired by American philosopher/high wizard of thinkin’ ‘bout nature, Ralph Waldo Emerson. In fact, the album’s title comes from Emerson’s 1841 essay on the unattainable, or “flying perfect.” As Emerson wrote, and the Duo jam, “The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated without end.” It’s an album with roots around the world; as previously mentioned, the tracks were written in early 2012 in Colorado, recorded a couple months later with engineer Phil Manley (Grass Widow, Fresh and Onlys) at Lucky Cat Recordings in San Francisco, and then mixed at Kaiku Studios in Berlin. And fittingly for an album with such diverse geographic seeds, Moon Duo’s fall/winter tour itinerary takes them all over the globe, from Atlanta to Antwerp. Circles drops October 2.
Circles tracklisting:
01. Sleepwalker
02. I Can See
03. Circles
04. I Been Gone
05. Sparks
06. Dance pt. 3
07. Free Action
08. Trails
09. Rolling Out
Dates:
09.26.12 - Lawrence, KS - Replay Lounge
09.27.12 - St. Louis, MO - Firebird
09.28.12 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
09.29.12 - Detroit, MI - Lager House
10.02.12 - Toronto, ON - Silver Dollar
10.03.12 - Montreal, QC - Casa Del Popolo
10.04.12 - Boston, MA - O’Brien’s
10.05.12 - Brooklyn, NY - Knitting Factory
10.06.12 - Philadelphia, PA - Kung Fu Necktie
10.08.12 - Washington, DC - DC9
10.09.12 - Raleigh, NC - King’s Barcade
10.10.12 - Atlanta, GA - 529
10.11.12 - New Orleans, LA - TBC
10.12.12 - Houston, TX - Rudyard’s
10.14.12 - Austin, TX - Austin City Limits
10.20.12 - Groningen, Netherlands - Vera
10.21.12 - Utrecht, Netherlands - Ekko/Sunday Noise
10.22.12 - Haarlem, Netherlands - Patronaat
10.23.12 - Antwerp, Belgium - Trix
10.25.12 - Paris, France - Point Ephemere
10.26.12 - Reims, France - La Cartonnerie
10.27.12 - Vendome, France - Les Rockomotives
10.29.12 - Montpelier, France - Le Rockstore
10.30.12 - Lyon, France - Sonic
10.31.12 - Milan, Italy - Leon Cavallo
11.01.12 - Rome, Italy - Angelo Mai
11.02.12 - Bologna, Italy - Covo
11.03.12 - Vienna, Austria - Rhiz
11.05.12 - Lausanne, Switzerland - Le Bourg
11.07.12 - Kortrijk, Belgium - De Kreun
11.08.12 - Hamburg, Germany - Kampnagel
11.09.12 - Leipzig, Germany - Skala
11.10.12 - Berlin, Germany - H.A.U.
11.12.12 - Glasgow, UK - Captain’s Rest
11.13.12 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Social Club
11.14.12 - London, UK - Corsica Studios
11.16.12 - Bristol, UK - The Croft
11.30.12 - San Diego, CA - The Casbah
12.01.12 - Los Angeles, CA - The Down + Out
12.04.12 - San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill
12.07.12 - Vancouver, BC - The Biltmore
• Moon Duo: http://moonduo.org
• Sacred Bones: http://www.sacredbonesrecords.com