A year and a half removed from releasing his Transangelic Exodus album, Ezra Furman has shared the details behind a follow-up effort.
Titled Twelve Nudes, Furman's latest arrives August 30 through Bella Union. Eleven tracks in length, Twelve Nudes was mixed by John Congleton and is referred to by Furman as "our punk record."
"We made it in Oakland, quickly. We drank and smoked. Then we made the loud parts louder. I hurt my voice screaming," Furman recalled. "This was back in 2018, when things were bad in the world. The songs are naked with nothing to hide."
He continued: "I knew I wanted I make this album quickly and not spend time thinking how to play the songs. Twelve Nudes is a 'body' more than a 'mind' record — more animal than intellectual, And by affirming negativity, it gives you energy, to reject stuff. There's more space for positivity."
Alongside the announcement, Furman has shared album opener "Calm Down aka I Should Not Be Alone," which comes accompanied by an animated video directed by Beth Jeans Houghton.
"Desperate times make for desperate songs," Furman said of the song in a statement. "I wrote this in the summer of 2018, a terrible time. It's the sound of me struggling to admit that I'm not OK with the current state of human civilization, in which bad men crush us into submission. Once you admit how bad it feels to live in a broken society, you can start to resist it, and imagine a better one."
Furman has also mapped out a North American tour for September, following a summer of festival appearances in Europe and the U.K.. He'll play Lee's Palace in Toronto on September 9 before heading to Montreal's Bar Le Ritz the following evening on September 10. You can find his full itinerary over here, while the North American stops are below.
Twelve Nudes is available for pre-order here.
Twelve Nudes:
1. Calm Down aka I Should Not Be Alone
2. Evening Prayer aka Justice
3. Transition From Nowhere to Nowhere
4. Rated R Crusaders
5. Trauma
6. Thermometer
7. I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend
8. Blown
9. My Teeth Hurt
10. In America
11. What Can You Do But Rock 'n' Roll
Tour dates:
09/05 St Paul, MN - Turf Club
09/07 Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall
09/08 Detroit, MI - El Club
09/09 Toronto, ON - Lee's Palace
09/10 Montreal, QC - Bar Le Ritz P.D.B.
09/11 Cambridge, MA - Sonia
09/12 Brooklyn, NY - Warsaw
09/15 Philadelphia, PA - Underground Arts
09/16 Washington, DC - Union Stage
Titled Twelve Nudes, Furman's latest arrives August 30 through Bella Union. Eleven tracks in length, Twelve Nudes was mixed by John Congleton and is referred to by Furman as "our punk record."
"We made it in Oakland, quickly. We drank and smoked. Then we made the loud parts louder. I hurt my voice screaming," Furman recalled. "This was back in 2018, when things were bad in the world. The songs are naked with nothing to hide."
He continued: "I knew I wanted I make this album quickly and not spend time thinking how to play the songs. Twelve Nudes is a 'body' more than a 'mind' record — more animal than intellectual, And by affirming negativity, it gives you energy, to reject stuff. There's more space for positivity."
Alongside the announcement, Furman has shared album opener "Calm Down aka I Should Not Be Alone," which comes accompanied by an animated video directed by Beth Jeans Houghton.
"Desperate times make for desperate songs," Furman said of the song in a statement. "I wrote this in the summer of 2018, a terrible time. It's the sound of me struggling to admit that I'm not OK with the current state of human civilization, in which bad men crush us into submission. Once you admit how bad it feels to live in a broken society, you can start to resist it, and imagine a better one."
Furman has also mapped out a North American tour for September, following a summer of festival appearances in Europe and the U.K.. He'll play Lee's Palace in Toronto on September 9 before heading to Montreal's Bar Le Ritz the following evening on September 10. You can find his full itinerary over here, while the North American stops are below.
Twelve Nudes is available for pre-order here.
Twelve Nudes:
1. Calm Down aka I Should Not Be Alone
2. Evening Prayer aka Justice
3. Transition From Nowhere to Nowhere
4. Rated R Crusaders
5. Trauma
6. Thermometer
7. I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend
8. Blown
9. My Teeth Hurt
10. In America
11. What Can You Do But Rock 'n' Roll
Tour dates:
09/05 St Paul, MN - Turf Club
09/07 Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall
09/08 Detroit, MI - El Club
09/09 Toronto, ON - Lee's Palace
09/10 Montreal, QC - Bar Le Ritz P.D.B.
09/11 Cambridge, MA - Sonia
09/12 Brooklyn, NY - Warsaw
09/15 Philadelphia, PA - Underground Arts
09/16 Washington, DC - Union Stage