II for II

Unknown Mortal Orchestra's Summer U.S. tour starts tomorrow, June 14th! The band is touring in support of II, out now via Jagjaguwar.

You may remember that we caught the Portland-based band (by the way of New Zealand) last year as opener to Liars. With that tour, the band played music from their 2011 album ("Ffunny Ffrends", "Boy Witch", etc). It should be nice to hear new songs from II on this new Summer tour.

The II album was released earlier in February 2013, which received wide critical acclaim from all the usual suspects (NME, Paste Magazine, etc).

Recently, Unknown Mortal Orchestra shared their take on Otis Redding's "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay", recorded for BBC last May. As a cover lover, I approve.

Bonus: check out their video for "From the Sun" via YouTube.

Tour dates:

06/14 – Bellingham, WA – Wild Buffalo 06/15 – Vancouver, BC – Biltmore Cabaret 06/16 – Spokane, WA – The Center 06/17 – Pullman, WA – Belltower Concert House 06/19 – Sled Island Festival 06/21 – West End Cultural Centre 06/22 – Fargo, ND – The Aquarium 06/23 – Minneapolis, MN – The Cedar 06/24 – Des Moines, IA – Vaudeville Mews 06/26 – Akron, OH – Musica 06/28 – Seaport Music Festival 06/29 – Hamden, CT – The Space 07/04 – 07/07 – Roskilde Festival 07/18 – Dunedin, NZ – ReFuel 07/19 – Auckland, NZ – Kings Arm 07/20 – Wellington, NZ – Bodega 07/23 – Perth, AU – The Rosemount 07/25 – Sydney, AU – The Standard 07/26 – Byron Bay – Splendour in the Grass 07/27 – Melbourne – Corner Hotel 08/03 – Chicago, IL – Lollapalooza 08/09 – Way Out West Festival 08/10 – Oslo, Norway – Oya Festival 08/16 – Pukkelpop Festival 08/17 – Lowlands Festival 08/18 – Wales, UK – Green Man Festival 09/06 – Portland, OR – Branx (Music Fest NW) 09/26 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore 09/27 – Los Angeles, CA – Troubadour 09/28 – San Diego, CA – Casbah

09/29 – Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom 10/02 – Austin, TX – The Mohawk 10/03 – Stickyz RocknRoll Chicken Shack 10/04 – Nashville, TN – Exit In 10/05 – Atlanta, GA – Terminal West 10/06 – Carboro, NC – Cats Cradle 10/08 – Washington, DC – Rock & Roll Hotel 10/09 – Philadelphia, PA – First Unitarian Church 10/14 – Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall 10/15 – Montreal, Canada – Cabaret Mile End 10/16 – Toronto, Canada – Lee's Palace 10/17 – Detroit, MI – Magic Stick Lounge 10/18 – Columbus, OH – Ace of Cups 10/19 – Pittsburgh, PA – Altar 10/22 – Madison, WI – The Frequency 11/07 – London, UK – Electric Ballroom 11/08 – Manchester, UK – Academy 2 11/10 – Poitiers, France – Confort Moderne 11/12 – Utrecht, Holland – Tivoli Ouderacht 11/13 – Brussels, Belgium – AB Club 11/15 – Prague – Chapeau Rouge 11/16 – Vienna, Austria – B72 11/18 – Budapest, Hungary – A38 Ship 11/20 – Zurich, Switzerland – Rote Fabrik 11/21 – Dudingen, Switzerland – Bad Bonn 11/22 – Carpi, Italy – Mattatoio 11/23 – Rome, Italy – Blackout 11/25 – Montpellier, France – Rockstore 11/26 – Barcelona, Spain – La 2 11/27 – Madrid, Spain – El Sol

Moderat is basically Modeselektor (duo Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary) and Apparat (Sascha Ring), from Berlin.
Originally the two acts (Modeselektor and Apparat) met twelve years ago, but the three have reunited for their new album, II for 2013.

The trio gave this statement about reforming:
"After spending 6 quite intense months in the studio we just finished our 2nd album. It's simply called 'Moderat II' and we aged about 10 years while making it. We still think it was worth the trouble. Not seeing any sunshine or daylight for a long time, we can't wait to go on tour in August and play the new stuff live."

"Bad Kingdom" is the first single, preceding II.

Moderat's upcoming tour dates: