Pedro The Lion returns with the rawest, most affecting and affirming album he’s ever made, Santa Cruz (Polyvinyl Recording Co.), out June 7th, 2024. The video for the new single, “Modesto,” was just released today.  

Early into Santa Cruz, the poignant third album in David Bazan’s ongoing musical memoir of his sometimes-uncanny life, he discovers the Beatles. He is the new kid from Arizona in a new school in the famous California coastal town where his dad has accepted another post at a Bible college. He and his first friend there, Matt, are sitting on the carpet in Matt’s little bedroom, flipping through the records bequeathed by his father, when Bazan spots a familiar cover—The White Album, known only from a church documentary that warned children of the Satanic secrets of “Revolution 9.” Play it backwards, the propaganda said, and it would offer a command: “Turn me on, dead man.”

Santa Cruz begins with a prayer that feels like a dirge, a synth-led funeral march to another town where Bazan knows no one. “If I lay it down/And I keep my eyes on you,” he moans, steeling himself through self-sacrifice. “It’ll all work out.” But when he arrives in Santa Cruz to begin eighth grade, the self-flagellation comes quickly, Bazan lecturing himself for the lameness of the neon-green backpack he picked out in Phoenix and the Christian rock that is his lifeblood. For decades now, Bazan has been known for his music’s deliberate pace, often linked to slowcore. Here, however, he renders detailed images in rapid-fire waves, his voice stapled atop the quick rhythm like never before in order to capture his nerves as he learns there might be life outside of his family’s Christian fiefdom—apocrypha, whispers of sex, mere games of ping-pong.

North American Tour Dates Announced:

06/16 – Boise, ID @ Visual Arts Collective +
06/17 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge +
06/19 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater +
06/22 – St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club +
06/23 – Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon +
06/24 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall +
06/25 – Indianapolis, IN @ Hi-Fi +
06/27 – Detroit, MI @ El Club +
06/28 – Toronto, ON @ The Great Hall +
06/30 – Boston, MA @ Crystal Ballroom +
07/01 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg #
07/02 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Foundry #
07/03 – Washington, DC @ The Atlantis #
07/06 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle – Back Room #
07/07 – Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle #
07/08 – Nashville, TN @ Basement East #
07/09 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West #
07/11 – Birmingham, AL @ Saturn #
07/13 – Fort Worth, TX @ Tulips #
07/14 – Austin, TX @ Mohawk #
07/16 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom %
07/18 – San Diego, CA @ Music Box %
07/19 – Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room %
07/20 – Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room %
07/22 – Felton, CA @ Felton Music Hall %
07/23 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel %
07/25 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom %
07/26 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos %

+ w/ Squirrel Flower (solo)
# w/ Flock of Dimes
% w/ Danielle Durack