Sometime last summer, Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek, James Krivchenia, and Max Oleartchik carved a few weeks out of their ceaseless tour itinerary and headed to the densely green forest of northern Washington. There, Big Thief recorded what eventually became their celestial-beckoning third LP, U.F.O.F.. As it turns out, there's a lot more to the story. Immediately after that album was made, the band headed south — right near the Mexican border, just 30 miles west of El Paso, Texas — and made an entirely new album. It's called Two Hands, and it's out this October on 4AD.
Described as “the earth twin” to U.F.O.F., the album was recorded almost entirely live in the scorching, arid desert. “Two Hands has the songs that I’m the most proud of; I can imagine myself singing them when I’m old,” Adrianne Lenker wrote in a press release. “Musically and lyrically, you can’t break it down much further than this. It’s already bare-bones.”
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The first offering from the tracklist is "Not," a six-minute stormer that stares dead in the eye of the inescapable. The band have been folding the track into their live sets for quite some time now, and if you ever had the chance to hear it before this morning, you probably still feel it stuck on your ribs to this very day. On the record, Big Thief have never sounded mightier. Stream it below, and peep Big Thief's entire tour itinerary behind U.F.O.F. and Two Hands.
Big Thief tour dates:
Wed. Aug 14 - Saint-malo, FR @ Route du Rock
Fri. Aug 16 - Hasselt, BE @ Pukkelpop Festival
Sat. Aug. 17 - Wales, UK @ Green Man Festival
Mon. Aug. 19 - London, UK @ Bush Hall
Wed. Oct. 9 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
Thu. Oct. 10 - New York, NY @ Webster Hall
Fri. Oct. 11 - New York, NY @ Webster Hall (SOLD OUT)
Sat. Oct. 12 - South Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground
Sun. Oct. 13 - Boston, MA @ Wilbur Theatre
Tue. Oct. 15 - Montreal, QC @ La Tulipe (SOLD OUT)
Wed. Oct. 16 - Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre (SOLD OUT)
Thu. Oct. 17 - Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre
Fri. Oct. 18 - Chicago, IL @ Metro (SOLD OUT)
Sat. Oct. 19 - Madison, WI @ The Sylvee
Mon. Oct. 21 - Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
Thu. Oct. 24 - Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
Fri. Oct. 25 - Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theatre
Sat. Oct. 26 - Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre
Mon. Oct. 28 - San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore (SOLD OUT)
Tue. Oct. 29 - Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
Wed. Oct. 30 - Santa Ana, CA @ The Observatory
Fri. Nov. 1 - Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
Sat. Nov. 2 - Albuquerque, NM @ Sister
Mon. Nov. 4 - Austin, TX @ Stubb's Waller Creek Amphitheatre
Tue. Nov. 5 - Dallas, TX @ Trees
Thu. Nov. 7 - Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
Fri. Nov. 8 - Saxapahaw, NC @ Haw River Ballroom (SOLD OUT)
Sat. Nov. 9 - Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
Sun. Nov. 10 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
Mon. Nov. 11 - Columbus, OH @ The Athenaeum Theatre
Mon. Feb. 17 - Lisbon, PT @ LAV
Tue. Feb. 18 - Porto, PT @ Hard Club
Wed. Feb. 19 - Madrid, ES @ Joy Eslava
Thu. Feb. 20 - Barcelona, ES @ La 2 de Apolo
Sat. Feb. 22 - Bologna, IT @ Locomotiv
Sun. Feb. 23 - Milan, IT @ Magnolia
Mon. Feb. 24 - Lyon, FR @ Epicerie Moderne
Tue. Feb. 25 - Paris, FR @ Cabaret Sauvage
Thu. Feb. 27 - London, UK @ Hammersmith Apollo
Sat. Feb. 29 - Nottingham, UK @ Rock City
Sun. Mar. 1 - Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall
Mon. Mar. 2 - Glasgow, UK @ Old Fruitmarket
Thu. Mar. 5 - Brussels, BE @ AB Ballroom
Fri. Mar. 6 - Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
Sat. Mar. 7 - Cologne, DE @ Luxor
Sun. Mar. 8 - Hamburg, DE @ Uebel & Gefährlich
Mon. Mar. 9 - Berlin, DE @ Astra
Wed. Mar. 11 - Copenhagen, DK @ Vega Main Hall
Thu. Mar. 12 - Gotheburg, SE @ Pustervik
Fri. Mar. 13 - Stockholm, SE @ Debaser
Sat. Mar. 14 - Olso, NO @ Rockefeller
Sun. Mar. 15 - Aarhus, DK @ Voxhall
