The Cribs Announce First North American Tour In Nine Years
(PIAS) Fresh from their battle for UK #1, The Cribs have today announced details of their first North American headline tour in nine years. The tour finds the band performing shows in Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Chicago, Seattle, Toronto and more, arriving on the heels of their critically acclaimed album, Selling A Vibe which is out now via Play It Again Sam. Tickets for the tour go on general sale this Friday, January 23 @ 10 AM (local time) with presales taking place on Thursday, Jan 22 @ 10 AM (local time).
Selling A Vibe has been met with an exceptional reaction from press and radio in North America and the UK; The New York Times, Stereogum, Consequence, The Guardian, NME, The Times (UK), Sirius AltNation, BrooklynVegan, Northern Transmissions, BBC 6 Music, DIY Magazine and many more have supported the band's first new album in five years.
For the three Jarman brothers, The Cribs has always been a heart-on-sleeve endeavor, documenting a realness and honesty, imbued with a raw spirit and a love for pop melodies, that winks with a healthy skepticism at a world increasingly weighed down by quantity over quality, style over substance. You need only look as far as the new album title for evidence of that. It can be argued though that with Selling A Vibe, that honesty is increasingly turned in the direction of each other, the first time they have so openly done so on one of their records.
With a feeling in the camp that the band were stuck on the release-tour-release-tour treadmill, and with the brothers living apart across three timezones, they knew they needed to revive the essence of their relationship as family, and get away from solely feeling like band members. A summer spent together with no music, no writing, just reconnection proved the perfect place to start that process, something they say they're grateful for the opportunity to do after 20 years together making music.
If behind the scenes Selling A Vibe became about a return to truer relationships, the goal with producer Patrick Wimberly was very much about not reverting to type. Having worked with bucket-list rock producers on previous albums - Edwyn Collins, Alex Kapranos, Nick Launay, Dave Fridmann, Steve Albini, and Ric Ocasek to name a few - the appointment of former Chairlift man Patrick Wimberly for Selling A Vibe came from a place of continued curiosity, possibility, and adventure. They wanted to work with someone who operated in a more contemporary way, and Wimberly's list of production credits (Solange, MGMT, Lil Yachty) more than caught the eye. "We'd always said if we made another record we would specifically focus on enhancing the pop element of the band, so Patrick's way of working and experience in that realm seemed a great fit whilst also being a completely new experience". For The Cribs, it wasn't about recapturing lightning-in-a-bottle moments of yore, it was about breaking the bottle entirely and seeing what could be inside. That meant a slower, more considered recording process, and time in the studio to indulge their love of melody. Selling A Vibe becomes a record not only anchored in reconnection, but one put together to illicit that same response.
Bassist and vocalist Gary Jarman says: "I think as time has gone by our albums have become more and more open - and as such the songs on Selling A Vibe feel very personal. So it can be nerve wracking releasing them because they matter so much to us. I know that may sound overly romantic or idealistic, but ultimately - it's the only thing that matters when all is said and done. Did we connect with people? We don't want this to be seen as an "indie rock" record or a "punk" record or whatever - all those things that used to seem to matter to us - our only hope is that people enjoy and connect with the songs and lyrics for what they are. We want them to be for everyone, really. And as such, I suppose you could say that makes it our most ambitious album, as we have fully given ourselves over to that. In short, we sincerely hope you enjoy it."
Key to the band's creative output is that they now only release music when it feels like they have something new to contribute. A new record needs to add something to theirs and their fans' lives. In this case, the renewal of treasured relationships seems as good a reason as any for their return after a five-year absence.
North American Dates
April 23 - Constellation Room, Santa Ana, CA
April 24 - Echoplex, Los Angeles, CA
April 25 - Popscene @ Brick & Mortar, San Francisco, CA
April 28 - Mississippi Studios, Portland, OR
April 29 - Sunset, Seattle, WA
May 02 - 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis, MN
May 03 - Cactus Club, Milwaukee, WI
May 05 - Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL
May 06 - El Club, Detroit, MI
May 07 - Lee's Palace, Toronto, ON
May 09 - Warsaw, Brooklyn, NY
May 10 - The Sinclair, Cambridge, MA
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