You can now watch Weyes Blood perform “Something to Believe,” a beautiful new track from Titanic Rising along with Front Row Seat to Earth standout “Be Free” both filmed live at Pitchfork’s Midwinter Festival at Art Institute of Chicago [see Pitchfork TV March 11th).
Weyes Blood (pronounced wize bluhd) will release Titanic Rising, her fourth album and Sub Pop records debut, worldwide on CD/LP/DL/CS April 5th, 2019. The album features the lead single “Everyday,” and the previously released “Andromeda,” along with highlights “Movies,” “Wild Time,” and the aforementioned “Something to Believe.” The cover for Titanic Rising was shot in a bedroom submerged fully underwater by photographer Brett Stanley (zero CGI).
Under the Radar says of Titanic Rising, “On Weyes Blood’s radiant and beautifully anachronistic fourth studio album, Natalie Mering achieves a perfectly balanced synthesis between the old and familiar and the new and unexplored [8.5/10].” In its recent interview with Weyes Blood, Pitchfork had this to say, “Building on the gently lilting melodies, complex harmonies, and sophisticated chord changes of her 2016 breakthrough, Front Row Seat to Earth, Titanic Rising is Mering’s most ornate and ambitious work to date.” BUST adds this: “In the stunning opener ‘A Lot’s Gonna Change’ and the slide guitar infused ‘Something to Believe,’ Mering continuously makes the case for pushing forward anyway. These are conversations you’ll want to be privy to, no matter how far out they get [4/5].” And MOJO perfectly sums of the album with this quip, “Cosmic Carpenters, Laurel Canyon in Space.”
Weyes Blood’s previously announced “True Love is Making a Comeback Tour” for the spring of 2019 in support of Titanic Rising begins on April 22nd in Brighton, UK at the Haunt and currently ends on June 13th at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. Weyes Blood and her band will visit the UK, mainland Europe, and North American for these shows. These dates will be preceded by a run of California shows, which run April 1st-April 5th, 2019. More 2019 dates to come.
True Love is Making a Comeback Tour 2019 California Apr. 01 - Fresno, CA - Strummers Apr. 02 - Santa Cruz, CA - The Atrium at The Catalyst Apr. 03 - Santa Barbara, CA - Velvet Jones Apr. 04 - Los Angeles, CA - Masonic Lodge [Sold Out]
UK/Europe Apr. 22 - Brighton, UK - The Haunt Apr. 23 - Bristol, UK - The Exchange Apr. 24 - Manchester, UK - YES (The Pink Room) Apr. 25 - London, UK - Islington Assembly Hall Apr. 27 - Berlin, DE - Kantine am Berghain Apr. 28 - Hamburg, DE- Turmzimmer Apr. 29 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso Upstairs Apr. 30 - Dunkerque, FR - 4Ecluses May 02 - Paris, FR - La Maroquinerie May 03 - Orleans, FR - Astrolabe May 04 - Brussels, BE - Le Nuits Botanique (Venue: Rotonde)
North America May 14 - San Francisco, CA - The Independent May 16 - Seattle, WA - The Tractor Tavern May 17 - Vancouver, BC - St. James Hall May 18 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge May 21 - Minneapolis, MN - Turf Club May 22 - Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall May 24 - Toronto, ON - Horseshoe Tavern May 25 - Montreal, QC - Petit Campus May 26 - Portland, ME - SPACE Gallery May 28 - Cambridge, MA - The Sinclair May 29 - New York, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg May 31 - Washington, DC - U Street Music Hall Jun. 01 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s Jun. 03 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl Jun. 04 - Nashville, TN - The High Watt Jun. 06 - Dallas, TX - Club Dada Jun. 07 - Houston, TX - White Oak Music Hall (upstairs) Jun. 08 - Austin, TX - Antone’s Jun. 10 - El Paso, TX - Lowbrow Palace Jun. 11 - Santa Fe, NM - Meow Wolf Jun. 12 - Phoenix, AZ - Valley Bar Jun. 13 - Los Angeles, CA - The Troubadour
Titanic Rising is available for pre-order from Sub Pop. LP pre-orders in North America through weyesblood.com, megamart.subpop.com, and select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser edition on maroon colored vinyl (while supplies last). LP preorders of Titanic Rising throughout the UK and Europe from select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser edition on red vinyl (while supplies last). There will also be a new T-shirt design available.
Also Announcing 2019 “True Love Is Making a Comeback” Tour.
Weyes Blood (pronounced wizebluhd) will release Titanic Rising, her fourth album and Sub Pop Records debut, worldwide on CD/LP/DL/CS April 5th, 2019. The album features the lead single “Everyday,” and the previously released “Andromeda,” along with highlights “Movies,” “Wild Time,” and “Something to Believe.” The cover for Titanic Rising was shot in a bedroom submerged fully underwater (zero CGI).
The new single, “Everyday,” chronicles the chaos of modern love and dating - short attention spans, restlessness, and the continuous crusade (and carnage) to find some kind of all-encompassing soul mate. Watch the official video, in all its bloody terror, directed by Weyes Blood here.
[Cover Art Photo Credit: Brett Stanley]
Titanic Rising, written and recorded during the first half of 2018, is the culmination of three albums and many years of touring: stronger chops and ballsier decisions. It’s an achievement in transcendent vocals and levitating arrangements, conversational lyrics and thoughtful commentary on the modern condition of our souls. Like the Kinks meet WWII (or is it Bob Seger meets Enya?) Titanic Rising manages to ride that line between classic songwriting and post-apocalyptic futurism.
Titanic Rising is now available for pre-order from Sub Pop. LP pre-orders in North America through weyesblood.com, megamart.subpop.com, and select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser edition on maroon colored vinyl (while supplies last). LP pre-orders of Titanic Rising in the UK and Europe from select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser edition on red vinyl (while supplies last). There is also a new T-shirt design available now.
Titanic Rising Tracklisting
1. A Lot’s Gonna Change 2. Andromeda 3. Everyday 4. Something to Believe 5. Titanic Rising 6. Movies 7. Mirror Forever 8. Wild Time 9. Picture Me Better 10. Nearer to Thee
Weyes Blood has also scheduled an intergalactic headlining tour for the spring of 2019 in support of Titanic Rising, which begins on April 22nd in Brighton, UK at the Haunt and currently ends June 13th at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. Weyes Blood and her band will visit the UK, mainland Europe, Canada, and the US for these dates. These dates will be preceded by a run of California shows, which run April 1st-April 5th, 2019. More 2019 dates to come.
Tickets for the newly announced shows go on sale Friday, February 15th at 10 am PST.
True Love Is Making a Comeback Tour 2019
California Apr. 01 - Fresno, CA - Strummers Apr. 02 - Santa Cruz, CA - The Atrium at The Catalyst Apr. 03 - Santa Barbara, CA - Velvet Jones Apr. 04 - Los Angeles, CA - Masonic Lodge [Sold Out]
UK/Europe Apr. 22 - Brighton, UK - The Haunt Apr. 23 - Bristol, UK - The Exchange Apr. 24 - Manchester, UK - YES (The Pink Room) Apr. 25 - London, UK - Islington Assembly Hall Apr. 27 - Berlin, DE - Kantine am Berghain Apr. 28 - Hamburg, DE - Turmzimmer Apr. 29 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso Upstairs Apr. 30 - Dunkerque, FR - 4Ecluses May 02 - Paris, FR - La Maroquinerie May 03 - Orleans, FR - Astrolabe May 04 - Brussels, BE - Le Nuits Botanique (Venue: Rotonde)
North America May 14 - San Francisco, CA - The Independent May 16 - Seattle, WA - The Tractor Tavern May 17 - Vancouver, BC - St. James Hall May 18 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir May 21 - Minneapolis, MN - Turf Club May 22 - Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall May 24 - Toronto, ON - Horseshoe Tavern May 25 - Montreal, QC - Petit Campus May 26 - Portland, ME - SPACE Gallery May 28 - Cambridge, MA - The Sinclair May 29 - New York, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg May 31 - Washington, DC - U Street Music Hall Jun. 01 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s Jun. 03 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl Jun. 04 - Nashville, TN - The High Watt Jun. 06 - Dallas, TX - Club Dada Jun. 07 - Houston, TX - White Oak Music Hall (upstairs) Jun. 08 - Austin, TX - Antone’s Jun. 11 - Santa Fe, NM - Meow Wolf Jun. 12 - Phoenix, AZ - Valley Bar Jun. 13 - Los Angeles, CA - The Troubadour
Weyes Blood recently released “Andromeda,” a stellar offering also found on Titanic Rising. The track plays on a few themes (mythology, astronomy, technology), and is ultimately a love song about finding something long-lasting in an ever-changing world full of distractions, unrealistic expectations (“looking up to the sky for, something I may never find”) and past disappointments.
Stereogum recently named “Andromeda” one of its songs of the week, and said “There are few contemporary artists who sound like Natalie Mering. Her voice is enchanting, and on this song, she asks listeners to give themselves over to love, as if doing so will allow them to live in her plush, technicolor world a little longer.” And The FADER raves “…Mering, crafts melodies that feel rooted in another space and time.”
About Weyes Blood’s Titanic Rising: The phantom zone, the parallax, the upside down—there is a rich cultural history of exploring in-between places. Through her latest,Titanic Rising, Weyes Blood (a.k.a. Natalie Mering) has, too, designed her own universe to soulfully navigate life’s mysteries. Maneuvering through a space-time continuum, she intriguingly plays the role of a melodic, sometimes melancholic, anthropologist.
Tellingly, Mering classifies Titanic Rising as the Kinks meet WWII or Bob Seger meets Enya. The latter captures the album’s willful expansiveness (“You can tell there’s not a guy pulling the strings in Enya’s studio,” she notes, admiringly). The former relays her imperative to connect with listeners. “The clarity of Bob Seger is unmistakable. I’m a big fan of conversational songwriting,” she adds. “I just try to do that in a way that uses abstract imagery as well.”
“An album is like a Rubik’s Cube,” she says. “Sometimes you get all the dimensions—the lyrics, the melody, the production—to line up. I try to be futuristic and ancient at once, which is a difficult alchemy. It’s taken a lot of different tries to get it right.” As concept-album as it may sound, it’s also a devoted exercise in realism, albeit occasionally magical. Here, the throwback-cinema grandeur of “A Lot’s Gonna Change” gracefully coexists with the otherworldly title track, an ominous instrumental.
Titanic Rising, written and recorded during the first half of 2018, is the culmination of three albums and years of touring: stronger chops and ballsier decisions. It’s an achievement in transcendent vocals and levitating arrangements—one she could reach only by flying under the radar for so many years. “I used to want to belong,” says the L.A. based musician. “I realized I had to forge my own path. Nobody was going to do that for me. That was liberating. I became a Joan of Arc solo musician.”
The Weyes Blood frontwoman grew up singing in gospel and madrigal choirs. “Classical and Renaissance music really influenced me,” says Mering, who first picked up a guitar at age 8. (Listen closely to Titanic Rising, and you’ll also hear the jazz of Hoagy Carmichael mingle with the artful mysticism of Alejandro Jodorowsky and the monomyth of scholar Joseph Campbell.) “Something to Believe,” a confessional that makes judicious use of the slide guitar, touches on that cosmological upbringing. “Belief is something all humans need. Shared myths are part of our psychology and survival,” she says. “Now we have a weird mishmash of capitalism and movies and science. There have been moments where I felt very existential and lost.”
As a kid, she filled that void with Titanic. (Yes, the movie.) “It was engineered for little girls and had its own mythology,” she explains. Mering also noticed that the blockbuster romance actually offered a story about loss born of man’s hubris. “It’s so symbolic that the Titanic would crash into an iceberg, and now that iceberg is melting, sinking civilization.” Today, this hubris also extends to the relentless adoption of technology, at the expense of both happiness and attention spans. The track “Movies” marks another Titanic-related epiphany: “that movies had been brainwashing people and their ideas about romantic love.” To that end, Mering has become an expert at deconstructing intimacy. Sweeping and string-laden, “Andromeda” seems engineered to fibrillate hearts. “It’s about losing your interest in trying to be in love,” she says. “Everybody is their own galaxy, their own separate entity. There is a feeling of needing to be saved, and that’s a lot to ask of people.” Its companion track, “Everyday,” “is about the chaos of modern dating,” she says, “the idea of sailing off onto your ships to nowhere to deal with all your baggage.”
But Weyes Blood isn’t one to stew. Her observations play out in an ethereal saunter: far more meditative than cynical. “I experience reality on a slower, more hypnotic level,” she says. “I’m a more contemplative kind of writer.” To Mering, listening and thinking are concurrent experiences. “There are complicated influences mixed in with more relatable nostalgic melodies,” she says. “In my mind, my music feels so big, a true production. I’m not a huge, popular artist, but I feel like one when I’m in the studio. But it’s never taking away from the music. I’m just making a bigger space for myself.”
Weyes Blood’s new song, “Andromeda,” her first recording of original material since 2016’s acclaimed Front Row Seat To Earth, is now available worldwide from Sub Pop in all the digital places.
“Andromeda” plays on a few themes (mythology, astronomy, technology), and is ultimately a love song about finding something long-lasting in an ever-changing world full of distractions, unrealistic expectations (“looking up to the sky for, something I may never find”) and past disappointments.
“Andromeda” was written and composed by Weyes Blood’s Natalie Mering, co-produced by Mering and Jonathan Rado, and mixed by Kenny Gilmore in Los Angeles. “Andromeda” will be found on her highly anticipated fourth album, due out later this Spring worldwide from Sub Pop.
[Cover Art Photo by Brett Stanley]
Weyes Blood Tour Dates
Weyes Blood has scheduled four California shows this spring, beginning April 1st in Fresno at Strummers and currently ending April 4th in Los Angeles at the Masonic Lodge. Tickets for these shows go on sale Friday, January 18th at 10 am PST. Additional dates will be announced soon.
Apr. 01 - Fresno, CA - Strummers Apr. 02 - Santa Cruz, CA - The Atrium at The Catalyst Apr. 03 - Santa Barbara, CA - Velvet Jones Apr. 04 - Los Angeles, CA - Masonic Lodge
An intimate night of music to benefit those affected by the California Wildfires with sets from Father John Misty, HAIM, Jeff Bhasker, Jonathan Wilson, Lucius, Mac DeMarco, Nate Ruess, Rivers Cuomo, Rostam, Tim Heidecker, Weyes Blood and special guests
Father John Misty and Goldenvoice have teamed up to present The California Wildfires Benefit Concert to be held at The Theatre at The Ace Hotel on Tuesday, December 18th, 2018. The concert will include performances from Father John Misty, HAIM, Jeff Bhasker, Jonathan Wilson, Lucius, Mac DeMarco, Nate Ruess, Rivers Cuomo, Rostam, Tim Heidecker, Weyes Blood, and special guests.
Tickets go on sale Friday, December 7 at 10 am PT, and the event is all ages.
Net proceeds will go to The Southern California Disaster Relief Fund, which supports low-income families whose lives and livelihoods are affected by the current wildfires in Southern California. Created by United Way of Greater Los Angeles, in partnership with United Way of Ventura County, the fund primarily provides longer-term support to help low-income individuals and families rebuild their lives.
Through CharityBuzz fans can also bid on front row tickets to attend the California Wildfires Benefit Show. This package also includes a commemorative show poster signed by participating artists and a one night stay at the Ace Hotel.
For those who can not attend the event, there are two additional ways to donate:
Text ACEBENEFIT to 41444
Visit unitedwayla.org/2018fires (Donate online and enter ACEBENEFIT in section labeled “This donation is on behalf of” in order to be reported into this total)
Additional sponsors include Lyft, who is the official rideshare partner for this event, and Steinway & Sons will be donating a piano for use at the event.
Weyes Blood has 2017 North American and European tour dates supporting Father John Misty
[Photo Credit: Katie Miller]
Yes indeed! We signed Weyes Blood (!!!) aka Natalie Mering for the world, to release her label debut in 2018. We’ve been longtime fans of the Los Angeles-based musician/singer’s work, from her four releases for Mexican Summer, as well as her collaborations with the likes of Ariel Pink, Perfume Genius, and Drugdealer.
Weyes Blood’s most recent release is the universally acclaimed, Front Row Seat To Earth. Pitchfork gave the album “Best New Music” and said, “…She crafts emotional epics that masquerade as psych-folk ballads, subtly symphonic songs that are informed by yesterday but live and breathe right now.” The Fader raved, “The exceptional voice of Natalie Mering never ceases to sweep us off our feet…” And NPR Music offers this, “She embraces composure as a response to her generation’s uneasiness with the ruination of the planet and fading promises of stability and prosperity. Rather than treating gentleness and grace as liabilities, she refracts her kinship with the voices of ’60s folksingers like Joan Baez and Mary Travers, ’70s soft rockers like Karen Carpenter, and Celtic new-age stylists like Enya — particularly their dulcet timbres, cursive phrasing and willowy vibratos — through her own vision.”
While we wait for the new album, Weyes Blood has just released a new 7” single via Mexican Summer [link here]. The single featuring covers of Soft Machine’s “A Certain Kind” and Fred Neil’s song “Everybody’s Talkin”. “Everybody’s Talkin’” b/w “A Certain Kind” is a capsule of Mering’s care for those artists and songs that have influenced her but also a discovery of a different kind — the words and melodies become Mering’s and ours through her intimate interpretation and commitment to seeking culture’s fringes for deeper meaning. For more information on the single, please visit mexicansummer.com.
Natalie Mering aka Weyes Blood has released three full-length albums, a couple EPs, and has collaborated with such acts as Ariel Pink, Drugdealer and Perfume Genius. Mering’s entire output thus far has been an exercise in exploring the atemporal. She is a musician and a singer, after all, but the particular process of Weyes Blood’s development and Mering’s experimentation, with everything from her early days of local-noise-scene strangeness, to her present mastery of timeless balladry highlight her as a meticulous sonic alchemist.
The Innocents, Weyes Blood’s Mexican Summer debut, deepened and broadened the shimmering murkiness of her earlier album, The Outside Room, by shaving away the fuzzy lo-fi production to reveal a classic and singular songwriting ability.
Cardamom Times, the EP that followed, went further down the folky, lyrically evocative path that The Innocents traveled. The influence of classical music can be felt throughout these two works, rivaling the folk music lineage one may like to situate Mering’s songs.
Weyes Blood’s most recent album, the critically acclaimed Front Row Seat To Earth, captivates immediately with its frank clarity in both sound and word. Still retaining the deep influence of the classical while also blending in noise experimentations, Mering is at her most intimate and vulnerable here, due in large part to her stunning vocals and simple, essential lyrical phrasing.
Weyes Blood is currently touring and working on her Sub Pop debut which will be released in 2018.
Weyes Blood Tour Dates + Ticket Links
Weyes Blood will also act as direct support on Father John Misty’s forthcoming North American and European fall tour in some of the largest rooms she’s played to date. The tour begins September 18th with a sold out show at Toronto’s Massey Hall and ends November 20th at Lisbon’s Coliseu dos Recreios. Along the way, she’ll play one-offs at The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, Pop Montreal and Joshua Tree’s Desert Daze.
Sep. 14 - Boston, MA - The Institute of Contemporary Art Sep. 18 - Toronto, ON - Massey Hall * [SOLD OUT] Sep. 19 - Royal Oak, MI - Royal Oak Music Theatre * Sep. 20 - Chicago, IL - Auditorium Theatre * Sep. 21 - Grand Rapids, MI - Covenant Fine Arts Center Auditorium Sep. 22 - St. Louis, MO - Peabody Opera House * Sep. 23 - Columbus, OH - Palace Theatre * Sep. 25 - Asheville, NC - Thomas Wolfe Auditorium * Sep. 26 - Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium * [SOLD OUT] Sep. 27 - Atlanta, GA - The Tabernacle * Sep. 29 - Austin, TX - Bass Concert Hall * [SOLD OUT] Sep. 30 - Dallas, TX - Bomb Factory * Oct. 01 - Houston, TX - White Oak Music Hall * Oct. 02 - Austin, TX - Bass Concert Hall * Oct. 04 - Phoenix, AZ - Orpheum Theatre * Oct. 05 - San Diego, CA - The Observatory North Park * Oct. 06 - San Diego, CA - The Observatory North Park * [SOLD OUT] Oct. 11 - Santa Barbara, CA - Arlington Theatre * Oct. 12 - Las Vegas, NV - Brooklyn Bowl * Oct. 13 - Los Angeles, CA - Greek Theatre * Oct. 14 - Pomona, CA - Fox Theater Pomona * Oct. 15 - Joshua Tree, CA - Desert Daze Nov. 01 - Edinburgh, UK - Usher Hall * Nov. 02 - Glasgow, UK - O2 Academy * Nov. 04 - Cardiff, UK - The Great Hall * [SOLD OUT] Nov. 05 - Manchester, UK - O2 Apollo * [SOLD OUT] Nov. 07 - London,UK - Hammersmith Eventim Apollo * [SOLD OUT] Nov. 08 - London, UK - Hammersmith Eventim Apollo * Nov. 09 - Brighton, UK - Brighton Dome * Nov. 11 - Paris, FR - Le Trianon * Nov. 12 - Brussels, BE - Ancienne Belgique * Nov. 13 - Utrecht, NL - TivoliVredenburg * Nov. 14 - Berlin, DE - Huxley’s * Nov. 16 - Milan, IT - Fabrique * Nov. 18 - Barcelona, ES - Razzmatazz * Nov. 19 - Madrid, ES - La Riviera * Nov. 20 - Lisbon, PT - Coliseu dos Recreios * * w/ Father John Misty
What “The People” have said about Weyes Blood and Front Row Seat to Earth:
What people have said about Weyes Blood and Front Row Seat to Earth:
“Weyes Blood captures a particular sort of generational anxiety and mystery on her fourth album, a softly orchestrated work of pensive, symphonic folk.” - Los Angeles Times
“Singer to watch” - Esquire
“…’60s-leaning throwback bursting with cinematic harmonies, a lysergic, dream-like melody, and vocals that sound like they were dug up from ’70s-era Laurel Canyon and Downey, when the likes of Joni Mitchell and the Carpenters roamed…” - Elle
***** - The Guardian
“Mering envelopes hearts with her mournful, full-throated bellow, which would have been just as at home in the folk-heavy ’70s as it is in 2016.” - Newsweek
