Palehound has unleashed the hotly anticipated, critically acclaimed new album Eye On The Bat today on Polyvinyl Record Co.! A documentation of illusions shattering in the face of profound change, the expansive new collection is a sonic tangle of raw nerves coming undone amongst swelling, propulsive instrumentation. It traces the tiny details that build or break a relationship, and the flood that comes after. While El Kempner’s (they/them) sinewy and off-kilter guitar playing remains front and center and their singular poetic voice is very much still present, Kempner no longer buries the hurt in metaphor. “It’s about me, but it’s also about me in relation to others,” they say of the album. “After hiding for so long – staying inside and hiding your life and hiding yourself from the world – I was ready. I think I flipped.”
Palehound has added three new dates supporting boygenius to their North American headline tour. The headline tour will make stops in NYC, LA, Chicago, DC, Seattle, Philly and more this fall.
Photo credit: Tonje Thilesen
Eye On The Bat is Kempner’s latest release since Black Friday (2019) and Doomin’ Sun (2021) by Bachelor (a collaborative project with Jay Som’s Melina Duterte). Recorded in brief stints across 2022 at Flying Cloud Recordings in the Catskills, they stepped up to the soundboard for the first time, co-producing the new album alongside Sam Evian (Big Thief, Cass McCombs). Kempner also credits multi-instrumentalist Larz Brogan, who they refer to as “my platonic life partner” and longtime member of Palehound since the Boston DIY days, as a vital part of making the album come together the way it did.
Eye On The Bat is the biggest – and best – Palehound has sounded on record. It is not a hopeful record in content, but it presents listeners with a reminder that – if you made it through that, you’ll handle whatever comes next.
Tour dates:
9/16: West Springfield, MA @ The Big E &
9/25: Boston, MA @ MGM Fenway *
9/26: Boston, MA @ MGM Fenway *
9/28: New Haven, CT @ Westville Music Bowl *
10/17: Syracuse, NY @ The Lost Horizon #
10/19: New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom #
10/20: Philadelphia, PA @ The Foundry #
10/21: Washington, DC @ Union Stage #
10/23: Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall #
10/24: Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall #
10/25: Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade - Purgatory #
10/26: Nashville, TN @ Blue Room @ Third Man #
10/28: Austin, TX @ Parish ^ $
10/29: Oklahoma City, OK @ Factory Obscura %
11/01: Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel Lounge $
11/02: San Diego, CA @ Casbah $
11/03: Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room $
11/04: San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel $
11/06: Seattle, WA @ Madame Lou’s $
11/07: Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios $
11/09: Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court $
11/10: Denver, CO @ Globe Hall $
11/11: Fort Collins, CO @ The Coast $
11/14: Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St. Entry $
11/15: Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon $
11/17: Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle $
11/18: Columbus, OH @ A&R Music Bar $
# w/ EMPATH
$ w/ alexalone
& w/ Jimmy Eat World
* = w/ boygenius
% = w/ LABRYS
^ = w/ Speedy Ortiz
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