Tennis releases final album 'Face Down In The Garden'

BELOVED INDIE-POP DUO TENNIS RELEASES FINAL ALBUM 

FACE DOWN IN THE GARDEN — OUT NOW 

VIA TENNIS’ OWN LABEL MUTUALLY DETRIMENTAL

FAREWELL HEADLINE TOUR BEGINS MAY 16 IN LAS VEGAS, NV SEE ALL DATES HERE

MILESTONE CAREER MOMENT BOOKENDED WITH FINAL EP,

NEUTRAL POETRY: FIRST RECORDINGS, UNRELEASED DEMOS 2009-2010,

COLLECTING PREVIOUSLY UNHEARD 4-TRACK RECORDINGS  FROM THE FORMATION OF THEIR BAND, AVAILABLE FRIDAY, MAY 16

Acclaimed indie-pop duo Tennis today releases their seventh studio album, Face Down In The Garden, arriving via their own Mutually Detrimental label. Produced and recorded by the husband and wife duo of Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore in their Denver, CO home studio, the album marks the final recordings from this incarnation of Tennis. Offsetting intuitive melodies with unusual arrangements, the new album sees the duo returning to their roots; making music that both feels familiar but also resists convention. Tennis has fully blossomed and leaves listeners with an LP that is unquestionably their most fully realized effort and a natural ending point.

“Face Down In The Garden is our seventh studio album,” says Moore. “The inspiration for new work came while we were still on the road touring Pollen. We felt a clear pull to write new music, but ran up against a series of bizarre setbacks. We blew tires and lost an engine. I developed a chronic illness. We took a doomed voyage that culminated in an attempted robbery at sea. Fragments of songs that first arrived like gifts from the universe later refused to be completed. Our days were awash in major and minor crises that dragged the album out endlessly.

“Patrick and I felt out of sync with the world, as though we had been ejected from the flow of life. My response was to bury myself in my own memories. Those years weren’t easier or better, but I could make sense of them. In Face Down In The Garden, I trace the arc of my life through a series of vignettes: a first moment of connection, a conversation at a wedding, a night offshore, a tour diary.

Over the years our sound has evolved into three distinct categories: Brill Building, synth-pop, and rock. Face Down In The Garden occupies all of that space. Except for the help of some outside drumming, we worked and recorded alone as we have done for the last few albums. We wanted to write ourselves off the map by doing the unexpected thing, offsetting intuitive melodies with unusual arrangements, to make music that feels familiar but resists convention. Despite being rattled by a strange year, it is our most confident album. We are very excited for you to listen, preferably loud and on headphones.”

Tennis announced the news of their indefinite hiatus earlier this month with the release of the single “12 Blown Tires.” Met with an outpouring of love over the bittersweet news, Moore shed additional light on the duo’s decision:

“When we recorded ’12 Blown Tires’ a few months later, I had the sense of distilling the past 15 years into four minutes of music. It felt like the end of something, though I wasn’t sure what. Patrick and I spent most of our 20s and all of our 30s focused on Tennis. It has been the most joyous, bewildering, challenging, and humbling experience. After finishing Face Down In The Garden, it became clear that we had said everything we wanted to say and achieved everything we wanted to achieve with our band. This will be our last studio album, at least in this configuration as Tennis. We are ready to pursue other creative projects and to make space in our lives for new things. In that light, the upcoming tour feels more poignant, like a concluding thought. These two kids from Denver who only ever dreamed of playing a few house shows are very fulfilled. Perhaps we’ll see you on the road. As always, thank you.”

ORDER FACE DOWN IN THE GARDEN ON VINYL

STREAM FACE DOWN IN THE GARDEN 

As noted, Tennis will both celebrate the arrival of Face Down In The Garden and say farewell to fans with a wide-ranging North American headline tour beginning May 16 at Las Vegas, NV’s Swan Dive and then traveling into early September. Highlights include such iconic venues as Minneapolis, MN’s First Avenue (May 21), Chicago, IL’s The Salt Shed (May 23), New York City’s The Rooftop at Pier 17 (June 1), Austin, TX’s Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater (June 11), and Los Angeles, CA’s famed Greek Theatre (August 20). Special guests include Husbands (May 16-17) and Billie Marten (May 21-June 11). For complete details and ticket availability, please visit tennis-music.com.

Tennis will bookend this milestone moment by sharing Neutral Poetry: First Recordings, Unreleased Demos 2009-2010, a new EP of previously unheard tracks from the very beginning of their artistic career, available on Friday, May 16. The eight-song collection includes early versions of such fan favorites as “Cape Dory,” “Marathon,” “South Carolina,” “Baltimore,” and “Pigeon,” along with exclusive demo recordings of the never-before-available songs, “Key Largo,” “April and It’s Still Snowing,” and “One Day This Will Be a Good Songgg.” 

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Press photo by Darren Vargas