New album + TOUR WITH AJJ lmao
lmao that doesn't sound real
1. DO NOT READ ANY OF THIS PART, THIS IS LITERALLY NOT IMPORTANT AT ALL.
PLEASE SCROLL TO 2.
…
Welp. It’s happened again. Time has passed me by.
I kinda thought life would just end after Cheekpace tour. My calendar would just be a big scary black void after May 29. I’d wake up and there’d be a big billboard outside my window that says “you have peaked.”
And I was pretty much right. The post-tour depression was/is brutal. I’ve always heard musicians joke about post-tour depression and I assumed they meant that you get home and you are sad because you miss tour.
That is not what happened. I got home and was very happy to be home. I went to work and choir and shows and was happy to see my friends and coworkers.
And then about a week later I was hit by a semi-truck of numbness.
I did not like anything. I was not interested in anything. All I wanted to do was lay on the couch and watch horrible reality TV while simultaneously playing a horrible mobile game where you “merge fruit” because in this configuration there is no room for thoughts or feelings. On my commute I would hyperfixate on how miserable I was. At work I would hyperfixate on how miserable I was. I’d arrive home completely exhausted.
Doing anything exhausted me. Responding to text messages felt like a very difficult and un-fun video game. Actually, everything kind of felt like this recurring nightmare I have where I am driving a car but I am wasted and/or blind and falling asleep and I’m bumping into things, and it’s only a matter of time until something terrible happens, and I DO NOT WANT to be driving a car but for some reason it’s not an option to stop driving the car.
I am saying all of this in past tense like one of those eerily-targeted Instagram ads that is going to sell you a productivity app or adderall-mushrooms that solve all your problems. And actually, I am. There is currently one thing that I am interested in a sea of numbness-that-is-somehow-also-despair.
My The Beths cover band.
That’s right. I’m starting a The Beths cover band. We are planning on playing two shows on Halloween weekend.
I hate myself. I hate Pacing. I hate my album. I hate all music. I am quite confident that every single thing on planet earth is pointless bullshit, with one exception: The Beths.
This past week, whenever I get home exhausted and make my way to the couch to watch TV, I pass my guitar which is sitting on a stand in the living room. And I pick it up, because why not, it’s right there. And I start practicing this one little guitar part from Your Side by The Beths. And then I learn some more parts. And sometimes I don’t even make it to the couch. And my brain feels tired, but in a good way.
Anyway. I don’t know. I guess I just wanted to say that before I start selling you stuff because otherwise I would feel like a liar.
2. OK START READING THE NEWSLETTER HERE, THIS IS THE STUFF THAT MATTERS.
The Album
On July 25, my second full-length album PL*NET F*TNESS comes out on Asian Man Records.
This feels like a lot of pressure. I love albums. Albums are important to me. This album is important to me. It’s full of songs I wrote in moments that will never happen again. Important moments. It is personal and vulnerable and cost actual money to make in an actual studio (unlike the rest of my discography).
**Editor’s note: at this point, the writer became overwhelmed and took a one-hour break from this writing to eat some avocado toast and work on their The Beths cover band**
**The writer then sat back down to write and put on a friend’s album as background music but then became intimidated by how good it was and felt insecure about promoting their own music so they paused the album.**
Anyway, that’s where you come in. I want you to like this album. It took probably 2-3x more time and energy and money to make than songs so ideally you should like it 2-3x more. The album is about work and god and grief and corporations and parasocial relationships and chess openings and watching TV and cleaning the house and cancelling subscriptions and giving up. It’s a little more earnest than usual. But not that earnest, don’t worry.
We will also be pressing the record onto a big plastic disc, which will be available for preorder next Thursday 7/10*. At 5pm PST that day, Mike Park and I will do a live stream somewhere where we something or other. Here’s a calendar invite where I’ll add more info.
*I may or may not have previously claimed it would be July 1. That was a lie (we forgot about it).
The Tour
That’s right. We’re going on another tour. Not just any tour, another bucket list tour supporting a band that is about a million times out of our league. A band that made 12-year-old-bluegrass-nerd-kid me the songwriter I am today. A band that we look to help make sense of what the fuck is going on when the world is falling apart.
It’s freaking AJJ. (Or Andrew Jackson Jihad, as they were called on my iPod in 2012)
Yes, I am immensely lucky and also kind of an industry plant.
Upcoming Pacing shows:
7/11: San Jose, CA @ Art Boutiki - supporting Mike Huegenor and Star 99
8/30: Los Angeles, CA @ Scribble with Suzie True & Sun Kin - Pacing album release show
9/5: San Jose, CA @ Art Boutiki with The Band Cope - Pacing album release show
Tour supporting AJJ:
8/7: El Paso, TX @ Lowbrow Palace
8/8: Marfa,TX @ Planet Marfa
8/9: San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger
8/10: McAllen, TX @ The Gremlin
8/12: New Orleans, LA @ Tipitina's
8/14: Athens, GA @ 40 Watt Club
8/15: Chattanooga, TN @ JJ's Bohemia
8/16: Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall
8/17: Norfolk, VA @ The Annex
8/18: Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar
8/19: Jersey City, NJ @ White Eagle Hall
8/20: Millersville, PA @ Phantom Power
8/22: Morgantown, WV @ 123 Pleasant
8/23: Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar
8/25: Fayetteville, AR @ George's Majestic Lounge
8/26: Oklahoma City, OK @ Resonant Head
8/28: Albuquerque, NM @ NM Sister
I’m telling you, it’s all downhill from here.
Thank you as always for listening.