Unknown Mortal Orchestra Announce Sex & Food, Share “American Guilt” Video

New Zealand’s Unknown Mortal Orchestra have a new album on the way, and if it’s anywhere near as gratifying as its title, we’re in for a treat. Sex & Food is due out on April 6 via Jagjaguwar.

Frontman Ruban Nielson is taking UMO “into both familiar and unexpected territory” on their new album, per a press release, exploring questions like, “What are we consuming? How is it affecting us, and why does everything feel so bad and weird sometimes?” Sex & Food is the band’s first release since 2015’s Multi-Love, an acclaimed set of exceedingly danceable psych-rock songs.

UMO recorded Sex & Food in an assortment of far-flung locales, including Seoul, Hanoi, Reykjavik, Mexico City and Auckland, in addition to Nielson’s Portland home base, lending the record a seeking, exploratory sort of feel. The title’s simplistic delightfulness is a deliberate stroke on the band’s part, meant to emphasize “two of the most undeniably pleasurable experiences in life; positivity despite the strangeness of our times.”

In addition to their album announcement, UMO have shared the Greg Sharp-directed video for their recent single “American Guilt.” We highlighted the song as our Daily Dose last month, with Paste’s Loren DiBlasi dubbing it “a distinctly democratic … psych rock banger.” “American Guilt” is the first new single that the band has released since 2016’s “First World Problem.”

Nielson says of “American Guilt” in a statement:

“American Guilt” is an attempt to capture some of the feelings floating around these days. In a perverse way I wanted to embrace this abandoned genre of rock music that I keep reading is “dead” and invite people to hear what this living dead genre sounds like in the UMO universe. It was recorded in Hanoi, Vietnam during monsoon season in a studio built for traditional Vietnamese music. Additional recording was done in Mexico City but our sessions were interrupted by one of the devastating earthquakes that occurred there last year. As we slept in the Parque de Mexico, unable to get back to our Airbnb, we heard a man yell “viva la Mexico!” and I put this in the song out of respect for them.

UMO will tour North American and Europe in support of Sex & Food starting this spring and into the summer, sharing stages with Makeness, Shamir and Sylvan Esso at select shows along the way. Their run kicks off on April 22 in Northampton, Mass., spending the latter half of May in Europe and stopping at the Netherlands’ Best Kept Secret Festival in June before later concluding with a July 19 stop in Phoenix, Ariz.

Watch the video for “American Guilt” and listen to UMO’s 2011 Daytrotter Session below. Further down, you’ll find the details of Sex & Food and the band’s 2018 tour dates.

Sex & Food Tracklist:
01. A God Called Hubris
02. Major League Chemicals
03. Ministry of Alienation
04. Hunnybee
05. Chronos Feasts on His Children
06. American Guilt
07. The Internet of Love That Way
08. Everyone Acts Crazy Nowadays
09. This Doomsday
10. How Many Zeroes
11. Not in Love We’re Just High
12. If You’re Going to Break Yourself

Sex & Food Album Art:

Unknown Mortal Orchestra Tour Dates:

April
22 – Northampton, Mass. @ Pearl Street w/ Makeness
23 – Portland, Maine @ Port City Music Hall w/ Makeness
25 – Brooklyn, N.Y. @ Brooklyn Steel w/ Makeness
26 – Brooklyn, N.Y. @ Brooklyn Steel w/ Makeness
27 – Washington, D.C. @ 9:30 Club w/ Makeness
28 – Philadelphia, Pa. @ Union Transfer w/ Makeness
30 – Boston, Mass. @ Royale w/ Makeness

May
01 – Montreal, Quebec @ Corona Theatre w/ Makeness
02 – Toronto, Ontario @ Danforth Music Hall w/ Makeness
03 – Chicago, Ill. @ Vic Theatre w/ Makeness
04 – Minneapolis, Minn. @ First Avenue w/ Makeness
07 – Seattle, Wash. @ The Moore Theatre w/ Makeness
08 – Vancouver, British Columbia @ Commodore Ballroom w/ Makeness
09 – Portland, Ore. @ Roseland Theater w/ Makeness
10 – Oakland, Calif. @ Fox Theater w/ Makeness
11 – Los Angeles, Calif. @ The Wiltern w/ Makeness
12 – Pioneertown, Calif. @ Pappy and Harriet’s w/ Makeness
18 – Hamburg, Germany @ Uebel & Gefährlich w/ Makeness
19 – Berlin, Germany @ Kesselhaus w/ Makeness
20 – Heidelberg, Germany @ Karlstorbahnhof w/ Makeness
21 – Düsseldorf, Germany @ zakk w/ Makeness
22 – Paris, France @ La Gaîté Lyrique w/ Makeness
24 – London, United Kingdom @ Roundhouse w/ Makeness
25 – Bristol, United Kingdom @ SWX w/ Makeness
26 – Manchester, United Kingdom @ Strange Waves
27 – Leeds, United Kingdom @ World Island
28 – Brussels, Belgium @ Ancienne Belgique w/ Makeness

June
10 – Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands @ Best Kept Secret Festival

July
06 – Richmond, Va. @ The National w/ Shamir
07 – Asheville, N.C. @ The Orange Peel w/ Shamir
08 – Atlanta, Ga. @ Variety Playhouse w/ Shamir
09 – Athens, Ga. @ Georgia Theatre w/ Shamir
11 – New Orleans, La. @ Republic w/ Shamir
12 – Houston, Texas @ White Oak Music Hall w/ Shamir
13 – Austin, Texas @ Stubbs BBQ w/ Shamir
14 – Dallas, Texas @ Granada Theater w/ Shamir
16 – Englewood, Colo. @ Gothic Theatre w/ Shamir
17 – Ogden, Utah @ Ogden Amphitheatre w/ Sylvan Esso, Shamir
18 – Las Vegas, Nev. @ Vinyl at Hard Rock
19 – Phoenix, Ariz. @ Crescent Ballroom