Reason in Decline is the latest from Archer of Loaf, which is out now go listen to it
Archers of Loaf Tour Dates:
Nov 29 – Ottobar – Baltimore, MD
Nov 30 – Underground Arts – Philadelphia, PA
Dec 1 – The Sinclair – Boston, MA
Dec 2 – Warsaw – Brooklyn, NY
Dec 3 – The Broadberry – Richmond, VA
Dec 4 – Grey Eagle – Asheville, NC
Jan 10 – Thunderbird Music Hall – Pittsburgh, PA
Jan 11 – Lee’s Palace – Toronto, ON
Jan 12 – El Club – Detroit, MI
Jan 13 – The Bottom Lounge – Chicago, IL
Jan 14 – Delmar Hall – St. Louis, MO
Jan 15 – Basement East – Nashville, TN
Feb 7 – Teragram Ballroom – Los Angeles, CA
Feb 8 – Great American Music Hall – San Francisco, CA
Feb 10 – Mississippi Studios – Portland, OR
Feb 11 – Mississippi Studios – Portland, OR
Feb 12 – Neumos – Seattle, WA
Today, Archers of Loaf have released their first new album in 24 years, the long-awaited Reason in Decline, out via Merge. Reason in Decline is not a nostalgic, low-impact reboot but instead an entirely different noise. Guitarists Eric Bachmann and Eric Johnson are now a fluidly complementary, sonically advanced unit. And Bachmann’s lyrics balance righteous wrath with a complex tangle of adult perspective. He still spits bile, but it’s less likely to concern scene politics, music trends, or shady record labels thwarting the dreams of a young rock band, as evidenced by singles "In the Surface Noise," “Screaming Undercover,” and "Aimee." Throughout the LP, the band reshapes its powerful twin-guitar tumult into expansive backdrops that sparkle and cast shadows around Bachmann’s haunting ballads.
Though Archers of Loaf have played a handful of reunion shows in the past couple of decades, the band is set to embark on their first tour in support of Reason in Decline this fall. The first leg kicks off November 29 in Baltimore and includes stops in Philadelphia, Boston, Brooklyn, and Richmond before concluding in Asheville on December 4. The 2023 dates start on January 10 in Pittsburgh and conclude in Seattle on February 12. Along the way, the band will stop in Toronto, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Tickets are on sale now. All dates below.
After some reunion shows in 2015 reignited the band’s creative passion, Bachmann attempted to write new Archers material, but he just couldn’t do it. For him, the voice and identity of the band was trapped in the past.
“For Archers lyrics, songs, everything, I had to imagine I was this angry white curmudgeon college guy who hates capitalism and consumerism and has a broken heart,” he says. “He’s bitter about relationships, so he makes fun of things to seem cool. As I’ve aged, I’m far less like that anymore, but it is a part of my personality. I just wasn’t excited about re-energizing it. I used that guy as a starting point to get myself out of the gate, but in the course of writing the actual songs, he eventually went away.”
Unable to perform, tour, or earn, Bachmann had become the full-time stay-at-home parent of a toddler son, while his wife toiled as an ICU nurse. The change was profound. “I’m 51, I’ve been [writing and playing music] since I was 14,” he says. “I’ve been doing it for a living since I was 22, that’s 37 years. For the first time, when COVID happened, I couldn’t do it. It was a massive psychological setback, to the point that I had to get help. I already had a problem with suicide ideation, constantly thinking about this shit. And I’m not ashamed to say that. Thousands and thousands of people have the same problem. Anyway, all this got baked into the songs.”
