Québec trio Men I Trust are back with the follow-up to 2019’s Oncle Jazz. They’re calling it Untourable Album because they recorded it under lockdown thinking they wouldn’t be able to perform it live, which reportedly opened up all kinds of creative possibilities. Not that fans of Men I Trust’s previous works will be confused by this batch of songs, which blurs together woozy Mac DeMarco-style indie rock, hallucinatory trip-hop, airy dream-pop, and similar meditative textures. As it happens, Men I Trust are able to support this project on the road after all — they’ve even moved one of their Brooklyn shows from MHOW to the larger Brooklyn Steel — so it should be interested to see how they pull the new material off on stage.
Here’s part of the band’s note announcing the project:
We started working on this album amidst the global lockdown and didn’t expect to be able to “tour” these songs. We wanted to take the opportunity to work on new and different material, without necessarily intending to play these songs live. We wrote freely, as if we were suspended in time with no external attachments. The initial release date had to be delayed however, when Dragos got into a motorcycle accident and had to recover for several weeks. So here we are now, almost ready to release the album, while everything is slowly reopening and the lockdown seems to be a thing of the past. It looks like the “Untourable Album” will be tourable after all!
Although Men I Trust dropped two singles in the past year — last fall’s “Lucky Sue” and last spring’s “Tides” — neither is on Untourable Album. Dig into the LP below via the band’s livestreamed premiere party starting at 10PM ET, and download it for free via Bandcamp starting at midnight.
TOUR DATES:
09/16 – Montreal, QC @ L’Astral
09/17 – Montreal, QC @ L’Astral
09/18 – Montreal, QC @ L’Astral
09/29 – Ann Arbor, MI @ Blind Pig
09/30 – Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
10/01 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
10/02 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line
10/03 – Lawrence, KS @ Bottleneck
10/05 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird
10/06 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
10/08 – Portland, OR @ Aladdin
10/09 – Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw
10/10 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos
10/12 – Oakland, CA @ New Parish
10/13 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
10/15 – Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey
10/16 – Los Angeles CA @ Echoplex
10/17 – San Diego, CA @ Belly Up
10/18 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
10/20 – Fort Worth, TX @ Tulips
10/21 – Austin, TX @ Scoot Inn
10/22 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall
10/23 – San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger
10/25 – Orlando, FL @ Soundbar
10/26 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
10/27 – Durham, NC @ Motorco
10/29 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
10/30 – Washington, DC @ Union Stage
10/31 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
11/02 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
11/03 – Boston, MA @ The Paradise
11/04 – Toronto, ON @ Phoenix
11/05 – Toronto, ON @ Phoenix
