Critically acclaimed rock band The Walkmen will tour the southeastern United States in early 2011 in support of their Fat Possum Records debut Lisbon. Scanning over 13,000 units in its first week of release, Lisbon entered the chart at #27 making it the band’s highest debut on the Billboard Top 200. After completing a successful North American run and appearances on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” and “Last Call with Carson Daly,” the band caps 2010 with performances in New York City at Terminal 5 (December 2) and Washington, DC at the 9:30 Club (December 3). See below for a complete list of dates.
Lisbon, the Walkmen’s fifth album, was recorded over a two-year period in Philadelphia and Brooklyn. A few songs that helped establish the record’s tone were written during several inspiring and successful trips to Lisbon, Portugal. 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). See below for what the press has said about the record.
Having grown up playing together in various bands since the fifth grade including New York’s Jonathan Fire*Eater and Boston’s The Recoys, 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 TOUR
December 2 Terminal 5 New York, NY*
December 3 9:30 Club Washington, DC†
January 12 Cat’s Cradle Carrboro, NC
January 13 Variety Playhouse Atlanta, GA
January 14 Grey Eagle Asheville, NC
January 15 Exit In Nashville, TN
March 2 One Eyed Jack’s New Orleans, LA
March 3 Fitzgerald’s Houston, TX
March 4 Stubb’s Bar-B-Que Austin, TX
March 5 Granada Theater Dallas, TX
* with School of Seven Bells
† with Tennis
THE WALKMEN, LISBON
“[Lisbon sounds] like something pulled from a 1950s Sun Studio session.”—NPR Music