Today, Unknown Mortal Orchestra announce their new record, Sex & Food, for release on April 6th 2018 via Jagjaguwar.
The album was recorded in a variety of locales from Seoul and Hanoi to Reykjavik, Mexico City and Auckland, not to mention Ruban Nielson’s home studio in Portland. It is a practical musical travelogue, traversing the world as well as a wide spectrum of human experience. Nielson grapples with new, sometimes dismal realities, but succeeds in bringing the epiphanies to light.
In addition to today’s album announcement, the band have shared a video for their current single, “American Guilt“, directed by Greg Sharp. Watch the video below.
Ruban said the following about the track: “American Guilt is an attempt to capture some of the feelings floating around these days. In a perverse way I wanted to embrace this abandoned genre of rock music that I keep reading is “dead” and invite people to hear what this living dead genre sounds like in the UMO universe. It was recorded in Hanoi, Vietnam during monsoon season in a studio built for traditional Vietnamese music. Additional recording was done in Mexico City but our sessions were interrupted by one of the devastating earthquakes that occurred there last year. As we slept in the Parque de Mexico, unable to get back to our Air BnB, we heard a man yell “Viva la Mexico!” and I put this in the song out of respect for them.”
Sex & Food artwork and tracklist.
1. A God Called Hubris
2. Major League Chemicals
3. Ministry of Alienation
4. Hunnybee
5. Chronos Feasts on His Children
6. American Guilt
7. The Internet of Love (That Way)
8. Everyone Acts Crazy Nowadays
9. This Doomsday
10. How Many Zeros
11. Not in Love We’re Just High
12. If You’re Going to Break Yourself
Unknown Mortal Orchestra will be touring globally promoting the new effort, full dates below.
April 22 – Northampton, MA @ Pearl Street w/Makeness
April 23 – Portland, ME @ Port City Music Hall w/ Makeness
April 25 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel w/ Makeness
April 26 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel w/ Makeness
April 27 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club w/ Makeness
April 28 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer w/ Makeness
April 30 – Boston, MA @ Royale w/ Makeness
May 1 – Montreal, QC @ Corona Theatre w/ Makeness
May 2 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall w/ Makeness
May 3 – Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre w/ Makeness
May 4 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue w/ Makeness
May 7 – Seattle, WA @ The Moore Theatre w/ Makeness
May 8 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom w/ Makeness
May 9 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater w/ Makeness
May 10 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater w/ Makeness
May 11 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern w/ Makeness
May 12 – Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy and Harriet’s w/ Makeness
May 18 – Hamburg, Germany @ Uebel & Gefährlich w/ Makeness
May 19 – Berlin, Germany @ Kesselhaus w/ Makeness
May 20 – Heidelberg, Germany @ Karlstorbahnhof w/ Makeness
May 21 – Düsseldorf, Germany @ zakk w/ Makeness
May 22 – Paris, France @ La Gaîté Lyrique w/ Makeness
May 24 – London, United Kingdom @ Roundhouse w/ Makeness
May 25 – Bristol, United Kingdom @ SWX w/ Makeness
May 26 – Manchester, United Kingdom @ Strange Waves
May 27 – Leeds, United Kingdom @ World Island
May 28 – Brussels, Belgium @ Ancienne Belgique w/Makeness
May 31 – Barcelona, Spain @ Primavera Sound
June 10 – Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands @ Best Kept Secret Festival
July 6 – Richmond, VA @ The National w/ Shamir
July 7 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel w/ Shamir
July 8 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse w/ Shamir
July 9 – Athens, GA @ Georgia Theatre w/ Shamir
July 11 – New Orleans, LA @ Republic w/ Shamir
July 12 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall w/ Shamir
July 13 – Austin, TX @ Stubbs BBQ w/ Shamir
July 14 – Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater w/ Shamir
July 16 – Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre w/ Shamir
July 17 – Ogden, UT @ Ogden Amphitheatre w/ Sylvan Esso, Shamir
July 18 – Las Vegas, NV @ Vinyl at Hard Rock
July 19 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
August 10-11 – Copenhagen, Denmark @ Haven