Washed Out - the group’s creative force, Ernest Greene - has released their fifth and most audacious album to date, Notes From a Quiet Life, worldwide from Sub Pop. The music of Washed Out has always levitated over a timeless frontier. You can sense it in his immersive, amorphous vocals, expansive soundscapes, and wistful storytelling.
 
Today, Washed Out has shared a one-take, live performance of “Wait on You,” which was filmed on location in Bandera, Texas, and directed by Jonah Haber, who captured the inimitable footage of Greene performing “Waking Up (Solar Eclipse Performance.)”
 
Click here to watch. 
 
In 2021, Greene left Atlanta to return to the countryside he knew growing up. Where escapism once flooded his thoughts, today, he is preoccupied with the universe of wonder in the reality around him.
 
He named the former horse farm he moved to “Endymion” (after the pastoral John Keats poem about a lovesick shepherd — its opening line: “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever”). It has shaped all that he’s created there, from his music to his albums’ creative direction to his planned large-scale visual-art experiments. That purity of vision is what makes Notes From a Quiet Life so potent. It’s the first album Greene wholly self-produced, with mixing assistance from Nathan Boddy (James Blake, Mura Masa) and David Wrench (Caribou, Florence + the Machine.)
 
Additionally, Washed Out has expanded its North American run, with newly announced dates in October & November.  See below for a full list of shows.

 
Sun. Jul. 14 - Seattle, WA - Day In Day Out Festival
Thu. Aug. 01 - Atlanta, GA -  The Eastern
Fri. Aug. 02 - Columbia, SC - The Senate
Sat. Aug. 03 - Asheville, NC - AVLFest
Mon. Aug. 05 - Nashville, TN - Brooklyn Bowl
Tue. Aug. 06 - St. Louis, MO, Delmar Hall
Thu. Aug. 08 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
Fri. Aug. 09 - Chicago, IL -  Metro
Sat. Aug. 10 - Madison, WI - Majestic
Sun. Aug. 11 - Columbus, OH - Kemba
Tue. Aug. 13 - Detroit, MI - Majestic
Wed. Aug.14 -  Toronto, ON - Danforth
Fri. Aug. 16 - Norwalk, CT - District Music Hall
Sat.  Aug. 17 - Boston, MA - Paradise
Sun. Aug. 18 - Brooklyn,  NY - Paramount
Tue. Aug. 20 - Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer
Wed. Aug. 21 - Washington, DC -  930 Club
Fri. Aug. 23 - Carrboro, NC - Cat’s Cradle
Sat. Aug. 24 -  Birmingham, AL - Iron City
Thu. Oct. 31 - Houston, TX -  Warehouse Live
Fri. Nov. 01 - Dallas, TX - Longhorn Ballroom
Sat. Nov. 02 - Austin, TX - Levitation (Far Out Lounge)
Mon. Nov. 04 - Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre
Tue. Nov. 05 - Salt Lake City, UT - Metro Music Hall
Thu. Nov. 07 - Portland, OR - Revolution Hall
Sat. Nov. 09 - Vancouver, BC - Hollywood Theater
Mon. Nov. 11 - Sacramento, CA - Ace of Spades
Tues. Nov. 12 - San Francisco, CA - Regency Ballroom
Thu. Nov. 13 - Los Angeles, CA - The Bellwether
Fri. Nov. 15 - San Diego, CA - The Observatory
Sat. Nov. 16 - Phoenix, AZ - The Van Buren
Sun. Nov. 17 - El Paso, TX - Lowbrow Palace
Tues. Nov. 19 - Oklahoma City, OK - Tower Theater
Wed. Nov. 20 - Memphis, TN - Minglewood Hall
Fri. Nov. 22  - New Orleans, LA - Joy Theater

Washed Out
Notes From a Quiet Life
 
Track Listing:
1. Waking Up
2. Say Goodbye
3. Got Your Back
4. The Hardest Part
5. A Sign
6. Second Sight
7. Running Away
8. Wait on You
9. Wondrous Life
10. Letting Go 

On September 27th, Naima Bock will release Below a Massive Dark Land worldwide through Sub Pop and Memorials of Distinction. Her second album, Below… comes as the follow up to Giant Palm, one of 2022’s most critically acclaimed debuts. Along with the album announcement Naima has shared the video for the lead single ‘Kaley’ (directed by Cassidy Hansen) and the animated visualizer accompanying single ‘Further Away’ (directed by Gaia Alari).
 
Speaking of the tracks, Naima says:
 “Kaley was written whilst staying at a friend’s house in Tucson, or at least it was finished there. It’s about betrayal and the subsequent lack of direction that follows. At the time there was no ‘plan’ or ‘way’ that I had for myself, let alone anyone else.”
 
“‘Further Away’ was written in Greece whilst trying to learn mini Bouzouki and missing someone.”
 
“‘Kaley”’ feels fresh and surprising in its rug-pull choppiness but is distinctly Naima in its swinging, jubilant choruses. Meanwhile, from its humble beginnings, ‘Further Away’ is fleshed out just enough while drawing you irresistibly near in its simplicity.
 
The success of Naima’s debut, Giant Palm, led to a mammoth period of touring. With headline tours including London’s EartH and support shows for artists such as A. Savage, J Mascis, Squid, Rodrigo Amarante, Arab Strap, Katy J Pearson, This is the Kit, and more, Naima’s feet have hardly touched the ground since 2022.
 
Today, fresh off the back of a solo tour with Porridge Radio’s Dana Margolin, Naima has also announced international tour dates for the summer and autumn of 2024 to support Below a Massive Dark Land.
 
They begin Wednesday, August 14th in St. Malo, France at La Route Du Rock and currently end Friday, December 13th in Paris at La Boule Noire. Along the way, Naima will perform solo (August 22nd, September 9th-15th), as a duo with Oliver Hamilton (August 14th and November 6th), and with a four-piece band (November 7th-December 13th). Please find the dates below.
 

Wed. Aug. 14 - St. Malo, FR - La Route Du Rock +
Thu. Aug. 22 - Los Angeles, CA - Barnsdall Gallery Theatre ^
Sat. Aug. 24 -  Ojai, CA - TBA
Sun. Sep. 08 - Portland, OR - Music Millennium (instore)
Fri. Sep. 13 - Walla Walla, WA - Billsville West
Sun. Sep. 15 - Seattle, WA - The Rabbit Box
Mon. Oct. 21 - Boston, MA - Warehouse XI
Wed. Oct. 23 - Philadelphia, PA - The Parish Room (First Unitarian Church 
Fri. Oct. 25 - Brooklyn, NY - Union Pool
Wed. Nov. 06 - London, UK - St. Pancras Old Church +
Thu. Nov. 07 - Bristol, UK - Jam Jar *
Fri. Nov. 08 - Liverpool, UK - Leaf *
Sat. Nov. 09 - Newcastle, UK - Cumberland Arms *
Sun. Nov. 10 - Glasgow, UK - McChuills *
Tue. Nov. 12 - Leeds, UK - Hyde Park Book Club *
Wed. Nov. 13 - Manchester, UK - Deaf Institute *
Thu. Nov. 14 - Cambridge, UK - Storey’s Field Centre *
Sat. Nov. 16 - Falmouth, UK - The Cornish Bank *
Sun. Nov. 17 - Frome, UK  - The Tree House *
Mon. Nov. 18 - Exeter, UK - Cavern Club *
Wed. Nov. 20 - Ipswich, UK - St Stephens Church *
Thu. Nov. 21 - London, UK - The Ivy House *
Tue. Dec. 03 - Lille, FR - L ‘Aéronef *
Wed. Dec. 04 - Brugge, BE - Cactus Café *
Fri. Dec. 06 - Haldern, DE - Pop Bar *
Sat. Dec. 07 - Hamburg, DE - Nachstasyl *
Sun. Dec. 08 - Berlin, DE - Neu Zunkunft *
Tue. Dec. 10 - Cologne, DE - Subway *
Wed. Dec. 11 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso *
Thu. Dec. 12 - Brussels, BE -  Botanique *
Fri. Dec. 13 - Paris, FR - La Boule Noire *
 
^ w/ Angelo De Augustine
* Full band show
+ Duo with Oliver Hamilton

 
Below a Massive Dark Land was predominantly produced by Jack Osborne (Bingo Fury) and Joe Jones, and recorded at The Crypt in north London, with additional production and arrangement by Oliver Hamilton (caroline, Shovel Dance Collective) and Naima herself. Six of the tracks on Below… were mixed by Jason Agel, with the remainder done by Osborne and Jones. The album was mastered by Kevin Tuffy.
 
Below a Massive Dark Land will be available on CD/LP/DSPs and is available now for preorder from Sub Pop/Memorials of Distinction. LP preorders from megamart.subpop.com (North America), Mega Mart 2 (UK/EU), and independent retailers worldwide will receive the limited Loser edition vinyl on Blue Jay (US) and the eco-friendly Yellow Bio (UK/EU) (All whilst stock lasts!). Naima also created the art for the Below… album cover.
 
More on Naima Bock’s Below a Massive Dark Land:
Most of the writing of Naima Bock’s second album, Below a Massive Dark Land, was a solitary affair. It may not sound it – it’s made up of strong, purposeful arrangements with a huge host of musicians; filled with cradling space and warm light. This will also come as a surprise to anyone who has seen Naima perform in the time since the release of her 2022 debut Giant Palm, undoubtedly a communal experience.
 
With a band of ten, three, or even just solo, when Naima plays there’s a rare bond between the musicians on stage and the audience. In their interview with her, The Quietus declared “after every song the applause and cheering is immense, so immense in fact that it seems to be coming from a different place than the usual formalities of a live show, a link between performer and artist forged somewhere deeper and more personal.”
 
It was in Giant Palm’s music too, a record that sweeps and swells, a chorus of voices and instrumentation that rises and falls as one alongside Naima’s own somersaulting voice.
 
It’s true though, most of Below…’s songs started life very simply; Naima alone, living in her grandmother’s shed in South London, writing just with her voice, guitar and violin. She’s no violin virtuoso but had taken it up as a songwriting exercise for its ability to draw melodies from her – a trick that undoubtedly worked, these are songs that drift into the back of your mind and settle there like fallen leaves, songs you wake up singing. The remainder was written on the road after those moments of audience connection, in the quiet that follows.
 
There’s power in the solitary, too. Giant Palm was arranged with collaborator Joel Burton, but going it alone in search of something truly hers, Naima found she was capable of more. “After me and Joel stopped working together,” she remembers, “it was an impossibility to even fathom doing arrangements myself, but then I started learning violin. Playing it isn’t easy but writing melodies on it is”. Finding that she could go it alone was incredibly powerful for Naima, “I think I needed it, to be able to feel proud of something. Like, that’s me! That feels good.”
 
Once that writing portion is over, though, this ends. The record is not a stark, stripped-back affair. Below… still has that majesty that made Giant Palm so remarkable. Tugging the first record down from the skies and spreading it across the earth; there’s a newfound vocal power and confidence born from hundreds of hours on stage, and the music sounds fuller, more tangible, but no less enveloping.
 
This can be found in Below a Massive Dark Land’s singles. ‘Kaley’ feels fresh and surprising in its rug-pull choppiness but is distinctly Naima in its swinging, jubilant choruses. The accompanying “Further Away” takes a different tack, drawing you irresistibly near in its simplicity. Finally, the hazy, luxurious beauty of ‘Feed My Release’ draws on the sepia-toned traditions of The Roches, John Prine, and Loudon Wainwright III but imbues them with the kind of stark confessional songwriting of Mount Eerie. Lyrically reaching deeper and darker than Giant Palm, these are ambitious, rich arrangements.
 

Past Praise For Naima Bock Giant Palm:
 
“Exquisite solo debut” - ★★★★ MOJO
 
“Quiet, melancholy and occasionally divinely uplifting (8/10)” - Uncut
 
“A real gem..” (“Album of the Week”) - Stereogum
 
“A sharply observed, sumptuously arranged album of
idiosyncratic folk.” - Pitchfork
 
“quietly dazzling….” - Brooklyn Vegan
 
“Hugely ambitious” (“Music of the Month”) - The Quietus
 
“…exquisite. A truly special listen” (8/10) - CLASH
 
★★★★ - DIY
 
“a stellar debut (8/10)” - The Line of Best Fit
 
“…an often brilliant debut” ★★★★ - All Music
 
“The fusion of her disparate cultural influences makes for an enchanting sound entirely Bock’s own.”
[“Giant Palm”] - New York Times

Naima Bock
Below A Massive Dark Land
 
Tracklisting:
1. Gentle
2. Kaley
3. Feed My Release
4. My Sweet Body
5. Lines
6. Further Away
7. Takes One
8. Age
9. Moving
10. Star

This Friday, June 28th, Loma (Emily Cross, Dan Duszynski, Jonathan Meiburg) will release How Will I Live Without a Body?, their third album.
 
Its eleven tracks feature the highlights “How It Starts,” “Pink Sky,” and today’s offering, the hypnotic official video for “Affinity,” directed by Allison Beondé.
 
Beondé offers this, “In creating the video for ‘Affinity,’ I wanted to collect quiet moments that explore the experience of inhabiting a body, existing both collectively and simultaneously alone. Capturing people in public spaces embodying their own experience, their own world, while surrounded by others, the song is carried on a rolling rhythm reminiscent of waves—a soft and mysterious ebbing and flowing of time marked by something so elemental to our existence and uniquely capable of eliciting reflection on what it means to be alive.”
 
How Will I Live Without a Body? was produced and recorded by Loma in England, Texas, and Germany, mixed by Dan Duszynski, mastered by Steve Fallone, and mixed for Dolby Atmos by Steven Wilson. All songs were composed by the group—with a few nudges from a unique AI (see below).
 
How Will I Live Without a Body? is a gorgeous, unique, and oddly comforting album about partnership, loss, regeneration, and fighting the feeling that we’re all in this alone. Many of its songs have a feeling of restless motion; faceless characters drift through meetings and partings, tangling together and slipping away.
 
Throughout, the core of Loma’s sound remains intact: earthy, organic and deeply human, anchored by Cross’s cool, clear voice.
Loma’s previous album, Don’t Shy Away, was galvanized by the encouragement of Brian Eno. This time, they were inspired by another hero, Laurie Anderson, who offered a chance to work with an AI trained on her work. Meiburg sent it a series of photos; Anderson’s AI responded with two haunting poems. “We used fragments of these poems in ‘How It Starts’ and ‘Affinity’,” he says. “And then Dan noticed that one of AI-Laurie’s lines, ‘How will I live without a body?’ would be a perfect name for the album, since we nearly lost sight of each other in the recording process.” [Read more about the album’s genesis here].
 
How Will I Live Without a Body? is available to preorder on CD/LP/DSPs from Sub Pop. LP preorders from megamart.subpop.com (North America), Mega Mart 2 (UK/EU), and independent retailers worldwide will receive the limited Loser edition vinyl on Transparent Smoke (US) and Neon Orange (UK/EU) (All whilst stock lasts!).
 
As for How Will I Live Without a Body?’s cover art, returning collaborator Lisa Cline took inspiration from the histories of “bog people,” human bodies found naturally mummified in peat bogs. (From Wikipedia: “These “bodies” are both geographically and chronologically widespread, having been dated to between 8000 BCE and the Second World War.”).
 

What people are saying about Loma’s
How Will I Live Without a Body?:
“A masterclass in atmospherics” ★★★★ MOJO
 
“As beautifully ethereal as the title suggests.” 8/10 - Uncut

“The much anticipated follow up to their ethereal sophomore album, Don’t Shy Away, sees the band mine a new musical depth; sharing powerfully earnest lyricism and utilizing sophisticated production techniques.” 9.1/10 - Northern Transmissions
 
“Where 2020’s Don’t Shy Away played with ornate arrangements that leaned toward British art rock and psychedelia, parts of How Will I Live Without a Body? were recorded in the English countryside (in addition to Texas and Germany), where a ruined chapel was used to record vocals due to its natural reverb. Indeed, Loma can do a lot with very little. The drums on “Arrhythmia” build up to the clatter of what sounds like running horses as singer Emily Cross harmonizes with herself, creating an atmosphere that’s more important than any single lyric.” SLANT MAGAZINE

Loma
How Will I Live Without A Body?
 
Tracklisting
1. Please, Come In
2. Arrhythmia
3. Unbraiding
4. I Swallowed a Stone
5. How It Starts
6. Dark Trio
7. A Steady Mind
8. Pink Sky
9. Broken Doorbell
10. Affinity
11. Turnaround