ARCHERS OF LOAF REUNION TOUR HAPPENING NOW! MERGE TO REISSUE ALL FOUR STUDIO ALBUMS EXPANDED ICKY METTLE OUT AUG 2, 2011
After a now famous secret show opening for The Love Language at the Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro, NC last January, Archers of Loaf kicked off their first tour since the fall of 1998 with a sold-out show at the Grey Eagle in their hometown of Asheville, NC. A raucous set at the Sasquatch Festival over Memorial Day weekend followed and was captured by NPR Music. The band is currently on tour, playing smaller venues across the country in an effort to replicate the more raw experience for which they are famous.
Merge Records will reissue all four Archers of Loaf studio albums, starting with their acclaimed 1993 debut album Icky Mettle on August 2. Re-mastered by Bob Weston and featuring new liner notes by Robert Christgau, Icky Mettle will come with bonus material including the entire Archers of Loaf vs. The Greatest of All Time EP as well as singles and b-sides from the Icky Mettle era. It will be available on CD, limited-edition blue vinyl, and digital download. Reissues of Vee Vee, All the Nation’s Airports, and White Trash Heroes will follow next year.
Download “What Did You Expect” from an out-of-print Merge 7-inch included on the Icky Mettle reissue
Singer/guitarist Eric Bachmann, guitarist Eric Johnson, bassist Matt Gentling, and drummer Mark Price formed Archers of Loaf in Chapel Hill, NC, in 1991. Icky Mettle was the first of four studio albums for the band that seemed to personify what SPIN magazine deemed “a tremendously optimistic time in underground music, that 15-minute period in the early 1990s when it looked like indie rock really might take over the world.”
In addition to these dates, Archers of Loaf will make their late-night television debut on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on June 24.
Pre-order Icky Mettle on CD or LP now in the Merge store to receive an exclusive download of live video from the January 2011 show at Cat’s Cradle, as well as a download of the re-mastered original album
ARCHERS OF LOAF 2011 TOUR DATES
Jun 25 Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg
Jun 26 New York, NY – Webster Hall
Jul 08 Chicago, IL – The Bottom Lounge
Jul 09 Chicago, IL – The Bottom Lounge
Jul 22 Atlanta, GA – The Earl
Jul 23 Atlanta, GA – The Earl
Jul 24 Atlanta, GA – The Earl
Aug 05 Washington, DC – Black Cat
Aug 06 Philadelphia, PA – The Trocadero
Aug 19 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
Aug 20 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
Sep 02 San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
Sep 03 San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
Sep 08 Portland, OR – Music Fest NW
Sep 09 Seattle, WA – Neumo’s