Destroyer is pleased to announce LABYRINTHITIS, out March 25, 2022, on Merge Records. Pre-order today on CD, LP, and jade & ivory Peak Vinyl in the Merge store and participating independent record shops. Alongside this announcement, Destroyer shares the first song and video from the album, “Tintoretto, It’s for You.”
LABYRINTHITIS is a journey deep into uncharted Dan Bejar country. It brims with mystic and intoxicating terrain, the threads of Bejar’s notes woven through by a trove of allusions at once eerily familiar and intimately perplexing. “Do you remember the mythic beast?” Bejar asks at the outset of “Tintoretto, It’s for You,” casting torchlight over the labyrinth’s corridors. “Tintoretto, it’s for you/ The ceiling’s on fire and the contract is binding.”
More than an arcane puzzle for the listener, LABYRINTHITIS warps and winds through unfamiliar territory for Bejar as well. Written largely in 2020 and recorded the following spring, the album most often finds Bejar and frequent collaborator John Collins seeking the mythic artifacts buried somewhere under the dance floor, from the glitzy spiral of “It Takes a Thief” to the Books-ian collage bliss of the title track. Initial song ideas ventured forth from disco, Art of Noise, and New Order, Bejar and Collins championing the over-the-top madcappery.
Bejar and Collins conducted their questing in the height of isolation, Collins on the remote Galiano Island and Bejar in nearby Vancouver, sending ideas back and forth when restrictions didn’t allow them to meet. Ahead of mixing, the Destroyer band was brought into the fold to further the unprepared synchronicity and mutual discovery.
In support of LABYRINTHITIS, the Destroyer band heads out on tour this spring. Alongside the tour announcement last fall, Bejar also released a documentary of the previous tour for 2020’s Have We Met. Tickets are on sale now.
Destroyer on tour:
Apr 22 Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theatre
Apr 23 Seattle, WA – The Neptune Theatre
Apr 24 Boise, ID – The Olympic
Apr 26 Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge
Apr 27 Denver, CO – The Bluebird Theater
Apr 28 Omaha, NE – The Waiting Room
Apr 29 St. Louis, MO – Blueberry Hill Duck Room
Apr 30 Nashville, TN – Mercy Lounge
May 02 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
May 04 Asheville, NC – The Grey Eagle
May 05 Washington, DC – Black Cat
May 06 Philadelphia, PA – Underground Arts
May 07 Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel
May 08 Cambridge, MA – The Sinclair
May 09 Montreal, QC – Theatre Fairmount
May 10 Toronto, ON – Phoenix Concert Theatre
May 11 Detroit, MI – El Club
May 12 Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall
May 13 St. Paul, MN – Amsterdam Bar & Hall
May 14 Lawrence, KS – The Bottleneck
May 15 Oklahoma City, OK – Beer City Music Hall
May 16 Fort Worth, TX – Tulips
May 17 Austin, TX – The Mohawk
May 19 Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom
May 20 Los Angeles, CA – The Belasco
May 21 Berkeley, CA – The UC Theatre
May 22 Portland, OR – Revolution Hall
