The Walkmen's Peter Matthew Bauer has announced a new solo album, Liberation!, which is out June 24 on Mexican Summer in the U.S. and June 23 in the UK through Memphis Industries. First single is "Latin American Ficciones".
The Walkmen went on "indefinite hiatus" late last year, but "reunited" for a "final" performance during the NBA All-Star Game festivities a couple weeks ago. Bauer, meanwhile, has announced four shows in support of his new solo material. Liberation! is a collection of mostly autobiographical songs on the topic of belief and its various incarnations and phenomena. It touches on such subjects as growing up in a Hindu Yoga cult, Scientology, the city of Philadelphia, the God Shiva, the city of Varanasi, Richard Dawkins and Jorge Luis Borges, and was heavily influenced by the work of Roberto Bolaño & Elvis Presley. While a solo artist, his album makes the noise of a full on rock & roll band and his traveling act is a made up of dirtbag greasers from Fishtown, Philadelphia and Austin, Texas.
