• News

• All

Apr 29, 2019 By Christopher Roberts Silversun Pickups

Los Angeles four-piece Silversun Pickups are releasing a new album, Widow’s Weeds, on June 7 via the band’s own New Machine Recordings. Previously they shared a video for its first single, the propulsive string-backed “It Doesn’t Matter Why” (which was one of our Songs of the Week). Now they have announced some new tour dates for this summer. Check them all out below, followed by the “It Doesn’t Matter Why” video again. Tickets go on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. local time.

The band features lead singer Brian Aubert, bassist Nikki Monninger, drummer Christopher Guanlao, and keyboardist Joe Lester. Widow’s Weeds is the band’s fifth album, the follow-up to 2015’s Better Nature. Garbage’s Butch Vig produced the album (he’s also worked with Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Sonic Youth).

In a previous press release Monninger had this to say about working with Vig: “He really listens to each band member, and he puts a great value on each individual, and what they can add to the music. It was very collaborative with him. He’s such an easygoing person, and he put everybody at ease.”

It’s been four years since the band’s last album. In that time the band members faced some personal challenges. Lester’s father died and Aubert decided to get sober and get treatment after finding himself in “an extremely dark place, for reasons he couldn’t immediately explain.”

“I didn’t know how to get out of it,” Aubert said in the press release. “Finally, I was just like, ‘Something big has to happen.’”

On how all this affected the album, Aubert said: “The record does have a mourning vibe, but it’s not sad. It’s change. It’s growing up and moving on and letting go of things. And it’s okay to be sad about those things and mourn them. It’s actually healthy to do so and take the time to do it. At the end of the day, it’s going to be much better and much more fulfilling when you get through it.”

Summing up Widow’s Weeds, Aubert said: “This was the first album where we were open. We were exposed. I see how that can be scary to people, but for us we really thrived on that…. This album feels the most naked out of all of them.”

Silversun Pickups Tour Dates:

June 2 /// Santa Barbara, CA /// Velvet Jones
June 3 /// Fresno, CA /// Strummer’s
June 4 /// Bakersfield, CA /// 1933 Club
June 6 /// Las Vegas, NV /// The Cosmopolitan “X107.5’s OBC”
June 8 /// Dana Point, CA /// Doheny State Beach “KROQ Weenie Roast”
July 12 /// Baldwinsville, NY /// Papermill Island “95X Big-X-Cuse”*
July 13 /// Clifton Park, NY /// Upstate Concert Hall*
July 14 /// Buffalo, NY /// Buffalo Riverworks “103.3 The Edge CRNVL”*
July 16 /// Burlington, VT /// Higher Ground*
July 17 /// Portland, ME /// State Theatre*
July 19 /// Stroudsburg, PA /// Sherman Theater*
July 20 /// Sayreville, NJ /// Starland Ballroom*
Sept 13-15 /// Del Mar, CA /// Kaaboo Festival 2019

* w/ support from I Dont Know How But They Found Me

Support Under the Radar on Patreon.