VIRB

We welcome DFA into Oregon with our open arms.

Right before I Believe In You came out last year, I got an email from Jonathan Galkin of DFA Records asking me if I wanted to go on tour with LCD Soundsystem. The tour started two days from that phone call, because the scheduled support band couldn't get US Visas. I said yes.

The tour was epic. LCD Soundsystem were (and are) the nicest people you could imagine, so on a day off in Portland we made this song as sort of a love letter to them. A year later, after we'd played the song a ton of times on tour, celebrating both the Southern and Northern hemisphere's summers, DFA asked us if they could release it. We said yes.

This is DFA's first audio-handshake with a Northwest band. We are honored and giddy to be that band. In honor of this awesome moment, we present to you: Summer Song, the musical-based video. Say yes!

YACHT - SUMMER SONG EP

a1 Summer Song 3:34

a2 I'm In Love With A Ripper (Party Mix) 5:15

b1 It's Boring/You Can Live Anywhere You Want 8:51

b2 So Post All 'Em (Salvia In The Club Remix) 4:23 *

* iTunes exclusive track

The Summer Song EP is available on iTunes (with an exclusive bonus track). The 12" hits a shelf near you very soon. I guess now is as good of time as any to casually announce that we're also putting out a new album, also on DFA, in early 2009! It's called See Mystery Lights and the songs on this single will be on it, along with other songs that are not on this single. More on that soon.

I'd been a fan of Tapeheads for a good while, my parents used to have a gas station in Astoria that had a room with video rentals in it. The Tapeheads box totally intrigued me, and I think the movie was one of my early inspirations for making video stuffs. I'd forgotten all about it until earlier this year when we found it in a video shop in Brooklyn and rented it with some friends. Claire and I freaked out about how goddamned good the movie was and decided right there and then that we wanted to remake the "Baby Doll" scene shot-for-shot. Luckily Portland is the kind of place where you can do something like make a music video with no money. Judah Switzer did the video on "spec," we had a team of super helpful interns I gathered from Flickr (no shit), and the rest we scraped together with amazing friends like Curtis Knapp of Marriage Records, Steve Schroeder of States Rights Records, and brilliant photographer Sarah Meadows.

After Judah first showed us a rough cut of the video we jokingly said we were going to reshoot every scene shot-for-shot with different Portland bands. IMAGINE!

One million thanks to everyone involved in this weird production: Judah Switzer, who directed the thing, Mike Merrill, Curtis Knapp, Steve Schroeder, Dean Chen, Amanda Clem, Rachel Liberman, Barrett Hanrahan, Christine Rutan, Geoff Nudelman, and Sarah Meadows for taking beautiful photos. We love you.

Also, I made a Summer Song micro-site for press and record stores.

...and now we're off:

August

23rd - Leeds, UK @ The Favesham

24th - Cheshire, UK @ Creamfields Festival

26th - Sheffield, UK @ Bungalows & Bears

27th - Southsea, UK @ The Fat Fox

28th - London, UK @ ICA

29th - Manchester, UK @ Ruby Lounge

31st - Stradbally Estate @ Electric Picnic

September

2nd - Cardiff, Wales @ Shape Function @ Clwb Ifor Bach

5th - Isle of Wight, UK @ Bestival

6th - Brighton, UK @ The Arc

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