Tennis; press photo
Acclaimed indie-pop duo Tennis has announced plans for a major North American headline tour. The dates get underway February 25 at Kansas City, MO’s Madrid Theatre & Café and then continue through early May. Highlights include top-billed performances at Boise, ID’s Treefort Music Fest (March 27) and Atlanta, GA’s annual Shaky Knees Music Festival (May 3). Support on all headline dates comes from Molly Burch. For complete details and ticket information, please visit www.tennis-music.com.
TENNIS TOUR DATES:
FEBRUARY 2020
25 – Kansas City, MO – Madrid Theatre & Cafe
27 – Dallas, TX – Granada Theater
28 – San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger
29 – Austin, TX – Stubb’s Bar-B-Q
MARCH 2020
2 – Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall
4 – Santa Fe, NM – Meow Wolf
26 – Salt Lake City, UT – Metro Music Hall
28 – Missoula, MT – Top Hat Lounge
30 – Vancouver, BC – Venue Nightclub
31 – Seattle, WA – Neptune Theatre
APRIL 2020
1 – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
3 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
4 – Los Angeles, CA – The Fonda Theatre
5 – Solana Beach, CA – Belly Up Tavern
8 – Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom
10 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre
16 – Omaha, NE – Slowdown
17 – Minneapolis, MN – Cedar Cultural Center
18 – Chicago, IL – The Vic Theatre
20 – Detroit, MI – Majestic Theatre Center
21 – Indianapolis, IN – Deluxe at Old National Centre
22 – Toronto, ON – The Opera House
24 – Burlington, VT – Higher Ground
25 – Boston, MA – Royale
26 – Portland, ME – Port City Music Hall
28 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel
29 – Washington, DC – The 9:30 Club
30 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
MAY 2020
1 – Saxapahaw, NC – Haw River Ballroom
4 – Birmingham, AL – Saturn
6 – Nashville, TN – Cannery Ballroom
8 – Louisville, KY – Headliners Music Hall
9 – Saint Louis, MO – Delmar Hall
The upcoming tour heralds Tennis’s highly anticipated fifth studio album, SWIMMER, arriving via Tennis’s own Mutually Detrimental label on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2020. The album is preceded by the band’s eagerly awaited new single and first new music in almost three years, “Runner, “available now at all DSPs and streaming services. The track is joined by a colorful companion video, directed by longtime collaborator Luca Venter and inspired by singer Alaina Moore’s love of “old musicals and all things Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire and Bob Fosse.”
Known as a captivating and charismatic live act, Tennis has spent much of its existence on the road, including sold out headline runs, festival sets, tours alongside such like-minded artists as Father John Misty, Spoon, The Decemberists, and The Shins, and most recently, a sold out summer double bill with Mumford & Sons at Englewood, CO’s Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre.
Produced by Tennis and mixed by four-time GRAMMY® Award-nominee Claudius Mittendorfer (Panic! At The Disco, Parquet Courts), SWIMMER sees the Denver, CO-based husband and wife duo of Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore elevating their distinctive pop approach to heretofore unexplored new heights, experimenting with atypical instrumentation, complex time changes, and an increased focus on lyrical storytelling fueled in part by a series of life-changing experiences that only served to strengthen their already powerful personal and creative bond. As with their 2011 debut album, CAPE DORY, and their acclaimed fourth LP, 2017’s YOURS CONDITIONALLY, the new album was written largely on the sea, this time during a four-month sailing excursion in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico as well as Tennis’s own Denver, CO recording studio.
“‘Runner’ is the first song we wrote for our fifth record,” says Moore. “It began as a guitar riff Patrick recorded while we were living off grid, anchored in a fisherman’s cove called San Juanico. The only instruments we had on board were an acoustic guitar and a drum sequencer, but the limitations seemed to work in our favor. Until that point we had no clear vision for our writing. The demo Patrick recorded that day outlined our future, the first contours of our next record.
“It took months to write a chorus that fit. I wanted to respond to Patrick’s ideas without altering them. I cycled through chord progressions and pages of lyrics. A year passed. The song seemed to actively resist coherence. My breakthrough came when I began to think of the song as a conversation between two songwriters, a series of questions and answers. It constituted a shift in our writing relationship from one that was solipsistic— my songs, which were distinct from Patrick’s— to one of collaboration and attunement. I often wonder if a truly equitable partnership exists anywhere between anyone, but this song feels like a testament to its possibility.”
“Runner” follows 2017’s acclaimed WE CAN DIE HAPPY EP, hailed by Atwood Magazine as “a warm, dynamic explosion of spellbinding melodies, evocative soundscapes and intimate lyrics… Tennis take a big sigh of relief, and then, with refreshed gusto, continue to dive deep into human emotions, internal and external relationships, society’s norms, and more.” The EP includes the buoyant lead single, “I Miss That Feeling,” joined by a companion video streaming via YouTube.
Tennis’s most recent full-length LP, YOURS CONDITIONALLY, made a spectacular chart debut upon its 2016 release via Mutually Detrimental, arriving at #3 on Billboard’s “Alternative Albums” chart as well as at #2 on the “Vinyl Albums” tally, ultimately proving one of the year’s top 50 highest selling vinyl releases.