Pixies have shared the latest preview of their forthcoming eighth album, ‘Doggerel’ – an equally smoky and melodic cut of alt-rock titled ‘Vault Of Heaven’ – announcing with it a short run of US tour dates.
The song itself features an allusion to a bad drug trip and copious references to 7-Eleven, as Black Francis (aka Frank Black) sings in the first verse: “There in the vault of heaven / While trying to titrate / I ended up in… / Another case. I went to 7-Eleven / To try and get me straight / I ended up there… / In outer space.”
‘Vault Of Heaven’ arrives alongside a suitably wacky music video, directed by Charles Derenne. In the clip, a Speedo-clad man dressed as Zorro, riding a toy pony, ventures to a 7-Eleven in Hollywood where – joined by offbeat impersonators like a Black Elvis and an elderly Marilyn Monroe – he dances with puppeteered plush toys. Have a look at that below:
‘Vault Of Heaven’ comes as the second track to be shared from ‘Doggerel’, following the June release of ‘There’s A Moon On’. The album itself will arrive on September 30 via BMG, with three back-to-back gigs in California – San Diego on Saturday October 1, Anaheim on Sunday 2 and Los Angeles on Monday 3 – due to follow. After a single day off, they’ll hit New York City to play Terminal 5.
Tickets to all four of the just-announced shows are on sale now – find them here.
In announcing ‘Doggerel’, Francis said the band were “trying to do things that are very big and bold and orchestrated”. He continued: “The punky stuff, I really like playing it but you just cannot artificially create that shit. There’s another way to do this; there’s other things we can do with this extra special energy that we’re encountering.”
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Guitarist Joey Santiago added: “This time, around we have grown. We no longer have under two-minute songs. We have little breaks, more conventional arrangements, but still our twists in there.”
Speaking to NME last month, Francis opined that a collection of recent world events has led to “rippling tension everywhere”.
Noting that he worried about the world being left behind for his children and their generation, the frontman said: “Some of the events of the last few years, with the Presidential election in the United States and Donald Trump and all that other nonsense, and then the coronavirus pandemic and now worldwide recession, amid these extreme weather patterns, add together all this stuff and it starts to feel very dystopian.”
Pixies are currently on tour across Europe and the UK, where they will play a mix of headline shows and festivals – including this year’s End Of The Road and Electric Picnic – until the first week of September. See the full list of their upcoming tour dates via the band’s website, and find select tickets to the European and UK shows here.
Pixies’ 2022 US tour dates are:
OCTOBER
Saturday 1 – San Diego, SOMA
Sunday 2 – Anaheim, House Of Blues
Monday 3 – Los Angeles, The Wiltern
Wednesday 5 – New York City, Terminal 5