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Sep 17, 2019 By Christopher Roberts Ezra Furman

Ezra Furman released a new album, Twelve Nudes, last month via Bella Union (stream it here). Now Furman has shared a video for the album’s “Thermometer” and announced some more tour dates for next February. Check out the video and tour dates below.

Furman had this to say about the song in a press release: “‘Thermometer’ was inspired by touring with the inimitable So So Glos back in 2014, wondering if I could write anthems like theirs. It’s called ‘Thermometer’ because as artists it’s our job to check the temperature of the surrounding culture and try to respond with the appropriate musical medicine. Right now we’re all running so hot the mercury is breaking the glass.”

Also, in August we posted our review of Twelve Nudes and you can read that here.

Previously Furman shared a video for Twelve Nudes’ first single (and opening track) “Calm Down aka I Should Not Be Alone” (it was one of our Songs of the Week). Beth Jeans Houghton (aka Du Blonde) directed the animated “Calm Down aka I Should Not Be Alone” video. Then she shared to more songs from it: “I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend” (which was accompanied by an Alix Spence-directed video) and “Evening Prayer.” “I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend” was also one of our Songs of the Week.

Twelve Nudes is the follow-up to 2018’s Transangelic Exodus. Last year she also did the soundtrack for the Netflix show Sex Education. Twelve Nudes was recorded “quickly” in Oakland last fall and mixed by John Congleton (Sharon Van Etten, St. Vincent). A press release calls it a “‘spiritually queer’ punk record” and says it has two spiritual heroes, the late musician Jay Reatard and Canadian writer/philosopher Anne Carson. The latter inspired the album’s title, as she “used the term ‘nudes’ to describe the meditations she used to deal with intense pain in her life.”

The album tackles Furman’s Jewish identity and the Israel/Palestine conflict, wealthy men accused of sexual assault, and an America that “is balanced on a knife-edge between white male supremacy and the dream of universal opportunity.”

“One of my goals in making music is to make the world seem bigger, and life seem larger,” Furman explains in the press release. “I want to be a force that tries to revive the human spirit rather than crush it, to open possibilities rather than close them down. Sometimes a passionate negativity is the best way to do that.”

Furman sums up Twelve Nudes this way: “This is our punk record. We made it in Oakland, quickly. We drank and smoked. Then we made the loud parts louder. I hurt my voice screaming. This was back in 2018, when things were bad in the world. The songs are naked with nothing to hide.”

Read our interview with Ezra Furman on Transangelic Exodus.

Read our review of Transangelic Exodus.

Ezra Furman Tour Dates:

Mon. Sep. 16 - Washington, D.C - Union Stage
Mon. Sep. 23 - Boston, MA - Great Scott
Mon. Nov. 11 - Glasgow, U.K - Queen Margaret Union
Tue. Nov. 12 - Manchester, U.K - Albert Hall
Wed. Nov. 13 - Bristol, U.K - O2 Academy Bristol
Thu. Nov. 14 - London, U.K - O2 Forum Kentish Town
Sat. Nov. 16 - Cologne, DE - Luxor
Sun. Nov. 17 - Berlin, DE - Festsaal Kreuzberg
Tue. Nov. 19 - Paris, FR - LA MAROQUINERIE
Wed. Nov. 20 - Brussels, BE - Botanique
Thu. Nov. 21 - Amsterdam, NLD - Paradiso Noord
Sun. Nov. 24 - Copenhagen, DK - VEGA Musikkens Hus - Ideal Bar
Tue. Nov. 26 - Stockholm, SE - Debaser Strand
Sat. Feb. 15 - Santa Rosa, CA @ Arlene Francis Center
Sun. Feb. 16 - San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall *
Mon. Feb. 17 - Acrata, CA @ Richard’s Goat *
Tue. Feb. 18 - Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater *
Wed. Feb. 19 - Seattle, WA @ Crocodile Theater *
Thu. Feb. 20 - Boise, ID @ Neurolux *
Sat. Feb. 22 - Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater *
Sun. Feb. 23 - Albuquerque, NM @ Sister Bar *
Mon. Feb. 24 - El Paso, TX @ Lowbrow Palace *
Tue. Feb. 25 - Tucson, AZ @ 191 Toole *
Wed. Feb. 26 - San Diego, CA @ The Casbah *
Thu. Feb. 27 - Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom *

*w/ Kelley Stoltz

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