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Oct 20, 2023 By Mark Redfern Photography by Lance Bangs

Kurt Vile has announced a new EP, Back to Moon Beach, and shared its first single, “Another Good Year For Roses,” via a music video that features actors Michael Shannon and Kevin Corrigan. Vile has also announced some new 2024 tour dates. Back to Moon Beach is due out November 17 via Verve. Check out the “Another Good Year For Roses” video below, followed by the EP’s tracklist and cover artwork, as well as the tour dates.

Back to Moon Beach features nine tracks and is almost an hour long, making it an album by most definitions. But Vile is still calling it an EP, perhaps because it “collects new songs, one-offs, covers, and newly reworked versions of beloved tracks,” as a press release puts it. For example, it includes his cover of Charli XCX’s “Constant Repeat,” which was originally only available via Amazon Music, although you have to buy the deluxe double vinyl edition of the EP to get the track (it’s not included on the CD/download/streaming version of the EP, nor the regular LP).

Cate Le Bon co-produced and features on “Another Good Year For Roses” and the song also features Stella Mozgawa (Warpaint, Courtney Barnett). The song’s video culminates at New York City’s Otto’s Shrunken Head, which is where Vile performs with Michael Shannon and Kevin Corrigan.

Vile’s most recent album, (watch my moves), came out in 2022 on Verve. Read our interview with Vile on the album here.

Back to Moon Beach was recorded at various times in various studios in various parts of America. Four of the tracks were recorded in the fall of 2019 at Panoramic Studios in Stinson Beach, California alongside Rob Laakso, Stella Mozgawa, and Chris Cohen, with co-production by Cate Le Bon on three of them. The Stinson Beach recordings are the final unreleased recordings by Vile recorded with longtime creative partner Rob Laakso, who died in early 2023.

Later Vile worked on the songs with bandmate and producer/engineer Adam Langelotti, as well as “Farmer” Dave Scher and Mikel Patrick Avery. Work was also done at Vile’s Philadelphia studio, OKV Central, and at Mant Sounds in Los Angeles, which is run by Rob Schnapf and features Matt Schuessler as engineer. “Cool Water” was originally on (watch my moves) but gets a more radio-ready mix by Schnapf for the EP.

The EP includes covers of Wilco’s “Passenger Side” and Bob Dylan’s Christmas song, “Must Be Santa,” which was a Spotify exclusive last year and features vocals by Vile’s daughters Awilda and Delphine Vile.

Vile had this to say about the EP in a press release: “Hi! Here’s the opening track from my upcoming EP… ok, it’s longer than an EP… now I call it a KV comp. The first 6 tracks — which are the ones that fit on a single LP — are new to the world, with one foot in the not-too-distant past and the other with one tiny toe pointing toward the future. Together my feet are like a couple spanning time together. This song was started at Stinson Beach, CA in September 2019 for a few days of recording with Rob Laakso, Stella Mozgawa, Chris Cohen, Cate Le Bon (and Adam Langellotti floating as a fly on the wall as well). Adam and I being the two overseers across this entire endeavor: we finished it on our own (and with some friends along the way). We ended up demonically overdubbing for weeks straight at OKV Central, Philly (my studio)... this was all of May 2023… so many magic moments.”

Back to Moon Beach EP Tracklist:

Back to Moon Beach Digital/Streaming/CD Tracklist:

1. Another good year for the roses (5:34)
2. Touched somethin (caught a virus) (6:31)
3. Back to Moon Beach (8:15)
4. Like a wounded bird trying to fly (5:29)
5. Blues come for some (5:09)
6. Tom Petty’s gone (but tell him i asked for him) (8:15)
7. Must Be Santa (5:12)
8. Passenger side (3:10)
9. Cool Water (Single Mix) (4:29)

Back to Moon Beach Vinyl (Standard) Tracklist:

Side A

1. Another good year for the roses (5:34)
2. Touched somethin (caught a virus) (6:31)
3. Back to Moon Beach (8:15)

Side B

1. Like a wounded bird trying to fly (5:29)
2. Blues come for some (5:09)
3. Tom Petty’s gone (but tell him i asked for him) (8:15)

Back to Moon Beach Vinyl (Deluxe D2C-Only) Tracklist:

Side A

1. Another good year for the roses (5:34)
2. Touched somethin (caught a virus) (6:31)
3. Back to Moon Beach (8:15)

Side B

1. Like a wounded bird trying to fly (5:29)
2. Blues come for some (5:09)
3. Tom Petty’s gone (but tell him i asked for him) (8:15)

Side C

1. Must Be Santa (5:12)
2. Passenger side (3:10)

Side D

1. Cool Water (Single Mix) (4:29)
2. Constant Repeat (5:22)

Kurt Vile Tour Dates:

Sat. Nov. 18 - Allentown, PA @ Miller Symphony Hall
Sun. March 17 - Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar +
Mon. March 18 - Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall +
Tue. March 19 - Louisville, KY @ Headliners Music Hall + &
Thu. March 21 - Sun. March 24 - Knoxville, TN @ Big Ears Festival
Fri. March 22 - Memphis, TN @ Minglewood Hall +
Sat. March 23 - Little Rock, AR @ The Hall +
Sun. March 24 - Oxford, MS @ The Lyric Oxford +
Tue. March 26 - New Orleans, LA @ Tipitina’s +
Wed. March 27 - Birmingham, AL @ Iron City +
Thu. March 28 - Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse +
Fri. March 29 - Athens, GA @ 40 Watt Club +

+ w/ Weak Signal
+ & w/ King Kong and Weak Signal

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