La Dispute announce first album in 6 years & tour (3 new songs & exclusive vinyl here)
‘No One Was Driving The Car’ was self-produced and it arrives 9/5 via Epitaph.
La Dispute have announced their first album in six years, No One Was Driving The Car. It was self-produced and “heavily inspired” by the 2017 psychological thriller First Reformed, and the title comes from a quote from a police officer that vocalist Jordan Dreyer read in an article about a lethal self-driving Tesla crash. The album arrives September 5 via Epitaph, and we’ve got an exclusive tri-color clear/red/green vinyl variant up for pre-order in the BV shop and limited to 300. Here’s a mock-up:
Along with the album announcement comes the three songs that make up the album’s first act, of which Jordan says:
it begins with a man examining his own slow dissociation from himself while shaving his head alone in a bathroom at night, then shifts through a neighbor’s open window to a conversation about control and desire, framed via the image of a man seen through it: bound on the floor with a woman standing before him, presumably a sex worker. when the woman exits the building (her companion still tied up), the narrator leaves his own, following less her than the idea represented by her inside his own struggle to reconnect to desires for life severed by time, self, and circumstance, or perhaps fleeing the implication he draws from the man left behind (his helplessness, maybe, or else his confidence to pursue something complicated where the narrator has so consistently failed). the third song follows him on that destination-less late night walk, among the street people and their disasters, ending where he had the whole night subconsciously always headed: the hospital where his partner works, at which point an internal reckoning occurs.
Opener “I Shaved My Head” also comes with a video (directed by Steven Paseshnik and La Dispute’s own Adam Vass), and the songs sound like classic La Dispute: speak-shouted vocals and vivid storytelling over a progressive post-hardcore backdrop. Check out the video and all three new tracks below. The album’s other acts will be gradually rolled out, leading up to the September 5 release date.
La Dispute also announced a North American tour that begins in the band’s home state of Michigan on album release day. Brooklyn gets a show on September 11 at Warsaw. All dates are listed below.
Tracklist
I Shaved My Head
Man with Hands and Ankles Bound
Autofiction Detail
Environmental Catastrophe Film
Self-Portrait Backwards
The Field
Sibling Fistfight at Mom’s Fiftieth / The Un-Sound
Landlord Calls the Sheriff In
Steve
Top-Sellers Banquet
Saturation Diver
I Dreamt of a Room with All My Friends
No One Was Driving the Car
End Times Sermon
La Dispute — 2025 Tour Dates
EU/UK TOUR DATES
07/10 – Leeds, UK – Brudenell Social Club
07/11 – Cheltenham, UK – 2000 Trees Festival
07/12 – Cheltenham, UK – 2000 Trees Festival
07/14 – Hannover, DE – MusikZentrum
07/15 – Nürnberg, DE – Hirsch
07/16 – Karlsruhe, DE – Substage
07/18 – Cologne, DE – Open Stage Suedbruecke (w/ Enter Shikari)
07/19 – Herk-de-Stad, BE – Rock Herk Festival
07/20 – Cuxhaven, DE – Deichbrand Festival
NORHT AMERICAN TOUR DATES
09/05 – Detroit, MI – St. Andrew’s Hall
09/06 – Toronto, ON – Phoenix Concert Theatre
09/07 – Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop
09/08 – Pittsburgh, PA – Spirit Hall
09/10 – Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club
09/11 – Brooklyn, NY – Warsaw
09/12 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
09/13 – Washington, DC – Howard Theater
09/14 – Charlotte, NC – Neighborhood Theatre
09/16 – Orlando, FL – The Beacham
09/17 – Atlanta, GA – Masquerade
09/18 – Nashville, TN – Basement East
09/19 – Columbus, OH – King of Clubs
09/20 – Indianapolis, IN – Deluxe at Old National Centre
