Red Light Management

TUnE-yArDs

tune-yards.com

Bio

“It’s impossible to talk about anything without putting it in the context of the world right now,” Says Merrill Garbus of Tune-Yards on the band’s new album Better Dreaming, “Making art in this day and age for me is a battle for focus…we’re in an age of interruption…but you absolutely need to focus in order to go deep into music”. Yet, distraction, depression, and heartbreak reign supreme in 2025. “Fight Fascism with Trash Music”, was a working title that Garbus and bandmate/partner Nate Brenner were previously considering. Though they eventually chose to call the album Better Dreaming, it still proudly waves an anti-fascist, liberation, freak flag. And it’s effing fun – some of Tune-Yards smoothest, funkiest, and most direct pop music to date, and yes, you can dance to it. And when you do dance to it, be prepared to sweat out something that’s been long stuck inside, and pretty deep down.

The songs of Better Dreaming came to Garbus and Brenner with unusual ease. They asked themselves what would happen if they simply let the songs come out, following any trail they wished – first thought, best thought style. There was a strong desire to move, to make music that would enter the ear and immediately loosen up the joints, get the whole body wiggling. After covid-isolation, and time away from touring and live shows, the desire to be moved by music was undeniable. The insane experience of growing an actual human being influenced this as well. Garbus and Brenner’s 3-year-old can be heard singing on “Limelight”. The song was born from dancing together as a family to George Clinton. The kid liked the demo so much that whenever Garbus and Brenner tried to push the track forward with a new version or edit, he would demand the first version. Thus the infectious, effortless original groove stayed true.

The rhythms throughout the rest of the record carry this freshness as well, with deep pockets full of subtle idiosyncrasies that stem from Tune-Yards’ return to making an album primarily as a duo. All but one of these songs are built around Merrill’s drum looping and rhythm building, as they were on some of the early albums like Bird-Brains and W H O K I L L – no full kit drummer here, and the songs love it. The album’s opening track “Heartbreak” builds huge chords of Garbus’ vocal harmony around a fat slow-jam beat full of clicks, pops, samples, and dubbed snares. Garbus, soulful as ever, sings of heartbreak as fuel, as a challenge. In the world of Better Dreaming, a lyric like, “Watch me survive another heartbreak” hits like a call to action. The four-on-the-floor pump-up jam, “How Big is the Rainbow” drips with disco-house, queer-club, anthemic strobe energy, and delivers a message to those who don’t yet understand what this means. “Do you feel a hate inside your heart? Do you feel a hatred start to grow? Just know that it’s hate that lets you know just how much further your heart has to go.” 

Better Dreaming is ferocious in its invocation of self-love, of collective action, of dance floor liberation, ego-death deliverance, and a future we could all thrive in. When diving into the present darkness of the world, Tune-Yards asks themselves how much literal energy and joy can be conjured and pumped through the music. In its life-affirming art-pop of the apocalypse, Better Dreaming comes true.

 

 

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Tour Dates

Aug 16 2025
Riverfest Elora 2025
Centre Wellington, Canada
Sep 09 2025
New Belgium Brewing Company
Fort Collins, CO
Sep 10 2025
Chautauqua Auditorium
Boulder, CO
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Sep 11 2025
Chautauqua Auditorium
Boulder, CO
Sep 14 2025
Humphreys Concerts By the Bay
San Diego, CA
Sep 22 2025
Howard Theatre
Washington, DC
Sep 24 2025
Cat's Cradle
Carrboro, NC
Sep 25 2025
Terminal West
Atlanta, GA
Sep 26 2025
Exit/In
Nashville, TN
Sep 27 2025
Off Broadway
St. Louis, MO
Sep 29 2025
HI-FI
Indianapolis, IN
Sep 30 2025
Vivarium
Milwaukee, WI
Oct 01 2025
Fine Line
Minneapolis, MN
Oct 02 2025
Majestic Theatre
Madison, WI
Oct 04 2025
Bell's Brewery
Kalamazoo, MI
Oct 05 2025
El Club
Detroit, MI
Oct 06 2025
Skullys Music Diner
Columbus, OH
Oct 08 2025
Mr. Smalls Theatre, Funhouse & Café
Millvale, PA
Oct 09 2025
Bowery Ballroom
New York, NY
Nov 15 2025
Puschenfest 2025
Berlin, Germany
Nov 17 2025
Tolhuistuin
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Nov 18 2025
Club Wintercircus
Gent, Belgium
Nov 19 2025
La Bellevilloise
Paris, France
Nov 21 2025
Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts
Falmer, United Kingdom
Nov 22 2025
Royal Festival Hall
London, United Kingdom
Nov 23 2025
Aviva Studios
Manchester, United Kingdom
Nov 25 2025
The Irish Centre
Leeds, United Kingdom
Nov 26 2025
St Luke's
Glasgow, United Kingdom
Nov 27 2025
The Fire Station
Sunderland, United Kingdom
Nov 29 2025
Whelan's
Dublin, Ireland

News

03/30/2022

TUNE-YARDS ANNOUNCE JUNE US TOUR

Today, Tune-Yards announces their first East Coast and Midwest tour dates in support of their critically acclaimed album sketchy. that was released in March 2021 on 4AD. The June US…

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07/09/2021

TUNE-YARDS ANNOUNCE SKETCHY.TV WEB SERIES PRODUCED BY MERRILL GARBUS AND NATE BRENNER

Yesterday, Tune-Yards announced an eclectic new web series sketchy.tv, directed by Dominic Mercurio and based on their critically acclaimed fifth studio album, sketchy. The 4-part series parallels sketchy. in its…

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04/08/2021

TUNE-YARDS ANNOUNCE STREAMING PERFORMANCE APRIL 28 AT 9PM ET / 6PM PT

TUNE-YARDS ANNOUNCE STREAMING PERFORMANCE APRIL 28 AT 9PM ET / 6PM PT   PARTY IN A CAN WILL STREAM FROM THEIR OWN STUDIO W/ POST-STREAM BAND Q&A    $1 FROM…

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