The Walkmen to tour in support of upcoming album

This summer and fall The Walkmen will embark on a nationwide tour in support of Lisbon, their highly anticipated debut for Fat Possum Records, due September 14. Lisbon follows 2008’s You & Me, which landed on numerous year-end “best of” lists including NPR, Pitchfork, Stereogum, Time Out NYC, and many others. You & Me received five stars from The Guardian who described the album as “intimate, intense and beautiful,” while Pitchfork called it “the sound they’ve reached for since the beginning.” The tour will include stops in New York, Los Angeles, Lawrence and Philadelphia. See reverse for a complete list of dates.

Lisbon was recorded over a two-year period in warehouses on Girard Ave in Philadelphia, and on the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. A few songs that helped establish the record’s tone were written during several inspiring and successful trips to Lisbon, Portugal.

The 11 songs on Lisbon were carved out of 29 songs that the band recorded over the course of ten months beginning in August 2009. You & Me engineer Chris Zane (Passion Pit, Les Savy Fav, Tokyo Police Club) worked with the band from August to February, and then in March of 2010 the band traveled to south Dallas to finish the album with John Congleton (St. Vincent, Explosions in the Sky).

Featuring the band’s signature vintage instrument-sound, Lisbon brings a raw, fiery rock ‘n’ roll spirit to the complexities of the You & Me songwriting. Lisbon will showcase “a bunch of fast rockers and big bashers, and a couple great oddballs” says front man Hamilton Leithauser.

The Walkmen broke through in 2002 with their debut album Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone. 2004’s Bows & Arrows featured indie rock anthem “The Rat” which Pitchfork recently named the #20 song of the decade. In 2006 the band recorded a song-by-song cover of Harry Nilsson and John Lennon’s 1974 classic Pussy Cats as a farewell to their Harlem studio space Marcata. The Walkmen grew up playing together in various bands since the fifth grade including New York’s Jonathan Fire*Eater and Boston’s The Recoys.

THE WALKMEN TOUR
07-02 Minneapolis, MN - Taste of MN
07-04 Des Moines, IA - 80/35 Festival
07-17 Philadelphia, PA - Xponential Music Festival
07-31 Montreal, Quebec - Osheaga Festival
08-06 Chicago, IL - Lollapalooza
08-12 New York, NY - Governors Island #
08-25 London, England - Islington Academy
08-27 Leeds, England - Leeds Festival
08-28 Reading, England - Reading Festival
09-08 Seattle, WA - The Showbox %
09-09 Vancouver, British Columbia - Malkin Bowl $
09-10 Vancouver, British Columbia - Malkin Bowl $
09-11 Eugene, OR - WOW Hall %
09-12 Portland, OR - Music Fest NW $
09-14 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore ^
09-15 Los Angeles, CA - The Music Box ^
09-17 Phoenix, AZ - Clubhouse ^
09-18 San Diego, CA - Belly Up ^
10-07 Boston, MA - Royale *
10-09 Toronto, Ontario - Opera House *
10-10 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick *
10-12 Indianapolis, IN - The Vogue *
10-14 Madison, WI - Barrymore Theatre ^
10-16 Omaha, NE - Waiting Room ^
10-18 Boulder, CO - Fox Theatre ^
10-19 Lawrence, KS - Bottleneck ^
10-20 St. Louis, MO - Off Broadway ^
10-21 Louisville, KY - Zanzibar ^
10-22 Pittsburgh, PA - Mr. Smalls Theatre ^
10-23 Philadelphia, PA - The Trocadero ^
10-28 Glasgow, Scotland - O2 Academy @
10-30 Newcastle, England - O2 Academy @
10-31 Leeds, England - O2 Academy @
11-02 London, England - O2 Academy Brixton @
11-04 Nottingham, England - Rock City @
11-06 Liverpool, England - O2 Academy @
11-07 Bournemouth, England - O2 Academy @

# with Grizzly Bear, Gang Gang Dance
% with Helio Sequence
$ with the National
^ with Japandroids
* with A.A. Bondy
@ with the Black Keys