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Apr 10, 2024 By Mark Redfern

Amen Dunes (aka Damon McMahon) is releasing a new album, Death Jokes, on May 10 via Sub Pop, his first album for the label. Now he has shared its third single, the nine-minute long “Round the World,” via a music video. He’s also announced some new tour dates. Steven Brahms directed the video. Watch it below, followed by the tour dates.

The song started as a voice memo in winter 2019, with McMahon singing along to an improvised piano part. The song was finished in July 2022 and it features various samples.

McMahon shared this statement about the song:

“Everybody wants everything to come so easily.
Everybody wants to be comfortable, but they’re so uncomfortable.
We have so much of everything that it means nothing.
We take so much that we get nothing at all.
Some of us find a way to have our voices heard, but most of us are just being used.
You think they’re hearing you, but they’re not.
You say be yourself, but you won’t break the rules.
Poor cops, don’t let them tell you what to do.
You would punch a lot harder if you stopped being so cynical.
Fuck when you fuck, punch when you punch, love when you say you love.
We talk about wanting inclusion, but we shout about it while we hide in our cells.
We talk about being manipulated, but we do so using their methods and means.
They want us to feel like we are heard, so they encourage us to attack each other.
They tell us self-obsession is self-expression.

“You say no one cares about you, but you don’t care about them.
My songs are all death jokes, and will long outlive me.
They remind me not to take myself too seriously.
I barely wrote them anyway. So who am I kidding?
And when I break the rules and speak honestly to you because I love you,
that joke might get me killed too.
There is more that’s tragic than what you think is tragic.
Wake up, live in love.
You say life is hard, but it’s a joke.
The world is not about to end, in fact it’s just beginning.”

Previously he shared its first single, “Purple Land,” via a music video. It was one of our Songs of the Week. Then he shared its second single, “Boys,” via a music video. It was also one of our Songs of the Week.

Death Jokes follows Amen Dunes’ acclaimed 2018 album, Freedom, which was released on Scared Bones, and his 2021 single, “Feel Nothing,” which featured British duo Sleaford Mods and was his first single for Sub Pop.

Death Jokes went through a long birthing process, with work starting in 2019. McMahon was beset by health issues in 2020, including COVID-19, and lost 30 pounds. In recent years his first child was born and he moved cross country from Los Angeles to Woodstock, NY. McMahon also struggled to find collaborators who could line up with his vision for the album. Eventually he ended up working with jazz bassist Sam Wilkes and producers Christoffer Berg (Fever Ray) and Kwake Bass (Tirzah, Dean Blunt), as well as doing sessions with Panoram and Money Mark. The final album includes samples sourced from YouTube videos, including standup routines from Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor.

Read our 2018 interview with Amen Dunes on Freedom.

Amen Dunes Tour Dates:

Wed. May 8 - San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
Fri. May 10 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Bellwether
Wed. May 15 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
Mon. July 1 - Paris, FR @ Trabendo
Wed. July 3 - Berlin, DE @ Gretchen
Fri. July 5 - Roskilde, DK @ Roskilde Festival
Sun. July 7 - Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
Tue. July 9 - London, UK @ KOKO
Fri. July 19 - Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival
Tue. Aug. 13 - Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall
Wed. Aug. 14 – Seattle, WA @ The Showbox
Fri. Aug 16 – Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl
Thu. Sep. 5 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
Fri. Sep. 6 – Washington D.C. @ Black Cat
Sun. Sep. 8 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
Tue. Sep. 10 – Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater
Wed. Sep. 11 – Austin, TX @ Empire Garage
Fri. Sep. 13 – Denver, CO @ Summit
Tue. Sep. 17 – Toronto, ON @ The Concert Hall
Wed. Sep. 18 – Montreal, QC @ Le Studio

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