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Jul 12, 2023 By Kat Ramkumar Photography by Sandra Ebert

British post-punk band Yard Act have shared a James Slater-directed music video for their new song “The Trench Coat Museum.” The band have also announced a November headline tour to be added to their summer tour dates. Watch the video below followed by the upcoming tour dates.

“The Trench Coast Museum” was co-produced by the band and Remi Kabaka Jr. of Gorillaz and finds Yard Act embracing their more electronic side. This track is the band’s first new original music since their acclaimed Mercury Prize-nominated debut album, 2022’s The Overload. “The Trench Coat Museum” recalls Yard Act’s James Smith’s reaction to reaching a level of visibility, which—in Smith’s words—“left us open to security and disdain just as much as love and appreciation.”

He adds: “Criticism is fair game and the internet is lawless so you gotta take it as it comes, but I definitely stopped searching for myself on Twitter the day I read that someone wanted to punch my lights out.

“‘The Trench Coat Museum’ is about how our perception of everything shifts both collectively and individually over time at speeds we simply can’t measure in the moment. Within whatever space in society we occupy, we often see our own beliefs as being at the absolute pinnacle of what should be the ‘cultural norm’ and whilst the completely human trait of being self-assured can’t be helped, it’s an absolute hindrance on our collective process. We are one etc. (Are we fuck).”

Of the music video, Slater says: “The video serves as a continuation and expansion of the Yard Act universe we explored on the first album. It’s set some 30 years in the future in this strange, dystopian trench coat museum in which an enigmatic character—the visitor—takes an audio guided tour. The song’s an eight-minute banger so I wanted the exhibits to come to life so that we could transition from an exhibition tour to a warehouse rave. It feels like a mini-film which is no accident, we see this as the first part of a Yard Act movie that coincides with their next album.”

Read our print magazine interview with Yard Act on The Overload.

Read our rave 9/10 review of The Overload.

Yard Act Tour Dates:

Fri. July 21 - Suffolk, UK @ Latitude Festival
Fri. July 28 - Sun. July 30 - Naeba, JP @ Fuji Rock Festival
Sat. Aug. 12 - Cornwall, UK @ Boardmasters
Fri. Aug. 25 - Reading, UK @ Reading Festival
Sat. Aug. 26 - Leeds, UK @ Leeds Festival
Wed. Sep. 13 - Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line
Thu. Sep. 14 - Madison, WI @ The Terrace at University of Wisconsin
Fri. Sep. 15 - Chicago, IL @ Riot Festival
Thu. Nov. 2 - Reykjavik, IS @ Iceland Airwaves
Sat. Nov. 4 - Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw
Sun. Nov. 5 - Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
Mon. Nov. 6 - Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar
Tue. Nov. 7 - Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall
Thu. Nov. 9 - Nashville, TN @ The Basement East
Fri. Nov. 10 - Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
Sat. Nov. 11 - New Orleans, LA @ Toulouse Theatre
Tue. Nov. 14 - Austin, TX @ Mohawk
Wed. Nov. 15 - Dallas, TX @ Deep Ellum Art Company
Fri. Nov. 17 - Mexico City, MX @ Corona Capital Festival
Sat. Dec. 2 - Bangkok, TH @ Maho Rasop Festival

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