RICH AUCOIN IS BACK ON THE ROAD SUPPORTING 4TH ALBUM UNITED STATES WITH STOPS THROUGHOUT CANADA // TICKETS HERE
LISTEN / SHARE “DOPAMINE” HIDEBEHIND REMIX
BUY / STREAM UNITED STATES HERE
“On United States, beauty and sadness, hope and pain are shown not to be mutually exclusive — the album demonstrates a jolting acknowledgement of reality combined with an electrifying hope of what could be” - Exclaim!
“peppered with Beach Boy harmonies, ’70s soul grooves and dance beats that move the body while his lyrical pleas move the mind. ...powerful, motivational” - The Halifax Chronicle Herald
Photo Credit : Corbin Smith // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
It’s been three years since Rich Aucoin was last out on the road with The Death Tour in support of his album Release. Now, the celebrated songwriter is finally ready to hit the road again in support of his latest LP, United States, which was released during the height of the pandemic. Full tour dates, including stops throughout Canada, can be found below and tickets can be purchased at http://www.richaucoin.ca.
Today, Aucoin is also sharing “Dopamine” remixed by Hidebehind, which is the final installment in a series of remixes which also included Steve Bays, DJ Double A, Saint Drogo, and AA Wallace.
“The remixes have been a great bridge from the album's release in September of 2020 to the album's tour starting next week in Toronto, as the tour pushed back a few times over the pandemic, yet with many of these songs never performed live,” says Aucoin. “The remixes have also been great to open up the sound of this record and will be a good bridge towards the more ‘very electronic’ music to come from me next."
LISTEN / SHARE “DOPAMINE” HIDEBEHIND REMIX
THE UNITED STATES TOUR TICKETS HERE
THE UNITED STATES TOUR 2022
03.10 - Austin @ The Parish*
03.11 - San Antonio @ Paper Tiger*
03.12 - Dallas @ Deep Ellum*
03.17 - Toronto @ Velvet Underground
03.18 - Ottawa @ Club SAW
03.25 - Montreal @ Ursa
04.08 - Calgary @ Broken City
04.09 - Edmonton @ Starlite
04.15 - Winnipeg @ Good Will
04.16 - Saskatoon @ Amigos
04.18 - Tucson @ 191 Toole*
04.19 - San Diego @ The Casbah*
04.20 - Costa Mesa @ The Wayfarer*
04.21 - LA @ Teragram Ballroom*
04.22 - Sacramento @ Harlow’s*
04.24 - San Francisco @ Rickshaw Stop*
04.26 - Portland @ Doug Fir*
04.27 - Seattle @ Neumos*
04.29 - Bellingham @ The Shakedown*
04.30 - Victoria @ Lucky Bar
05.01 - Vancouver @ Fortune Sound
05.14 - St. John’s @ Rock House
*in support of TWRP
MORE ABOUT UNITED STATES
United States, released during lockdown in September 2020 via Haven Sounds, was written while Rich Aucoin cycled across America in 2018 for both Mental Health America as well as The Canadian Mental Health Association. He wrote the album while on his bicycle and edited the melodies and beats in the motel rooms alone each night. The end result was a flushed out vocally heavy record writing both about the country he was crossing as well as more universal themes of connected consciousness. Vocal heavyweights: Kyla Charter, James Baley, Maylee Todd, Simone Denny, Carleigh Aikins, Tarik Henry all helped flush out the album which won the ECMA for Best Electronic Album last year in 2021.
WATCH AND SHARE “WALLS” HERE
While taking this Robert Frank approach, Aucoin composed a song for each of the 12 states he pedaled through. The record is as much about the current socio-political climate of America as it is about states of consciousness; as much fuelled by the burgeoning American protest movement or Hedges’ social commentary as it is fuelled by the McKenna/Pollan world of psychedelics and meditation apps.
Rich Aucoin has never been short on ambitions or concepts. From his first EP, Personal Publication—on which he played over two dozen instruments and wrote it to sync to How the Grinch Stole Christmas—to We’re All Dying to Live’s 500 performers, to his death meditation Release, the pop anthemist has always dug deep and gone big.
WATCH AND SHARE “RESET” HERE
But this is the first time he’s written a record from the grounds of a crumbling empire.
In the spring of 2018, Aucoin set off from Los Angeles on one of his customarily challenging (and eco-friendly) tours. Final stop: New York City. Vehicle: Bicycle.
He traveled the perimeter of the United States, down the west coast, across the south, and up the eastern seaboard. He saw a country, two years into a dictatorship, divided and hurting. A pair of wheels and his own two feet took him through landscapes varied in their construction and grandeur, from the boarded-up storefronts of Route 66 to the fountain formation of Red Rocks. Tiny towns and major cities. Thriving and fading.
At night, after cycling dozens of kilometres in a day, he would write about and demo the things he saw. Two years later, with its namesake country on the precipice of ruin, he turned that travelogue into United States, a journey through the states of consciousness that unite us all.
He began with an idea in each state, and fleshed those out lyrically while staying connected to something in that state, creating a living historical document.
WATCH AND SHARE “HOW IT BREAKS” HERE
In addition to the physical territory Aucoin traversed, he’s traveling new artistic ground as well: This is the quickest he’s ever made an album, recording it in a handful of studios across Canada. It’s got just 16 collaborators. It doesn’t sync up with an existing film. It’s a deliberately minimal work from a joyously maximal artist. True, he had to power himself across an entire country, but he came out on the other side with his most focused, deeply realized, catchiest album yet.
As the United States reckons with its narcissistic leader, its splintering systems, and a fed-up populace determined to have its voice heard, United States offers a soundtrack for these unwieldy, unpredictable days. It doesn’t pull any punches or sugarcoat any truths, but it’s got faith, and hope, and heart.
Aucoin has been long-listed for the Polaris Music Prize twice. His music video for “Brian Wilson is A.L.I.V.E.” won the Prism Prize. Aucoin has built a reputation as one of the best live shows in Canada according to CBC Radio3. His albums all sync to old movies like Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon with The Wizard of Oz. He has performed dozens of festivals including Osheaga, The Great Escape, Les Eurockéennes, Berlin Music Festival, Art Basel Miami, Luminato Art Festival, Iceland Airwaves, SXSW, and Pop Montreal.
PRAISE FOR RICH AUCOIN
“A bold talent, his grasp of sonics is interlinked with a desire to express something, to challenge both himself and those around him.” - Clash Magazine
"’The Middle’ is an extremely earnest, charming-as-hell reflection on the self at the midpoint of life and death." - Noisey
"This is an anthemic collection of head nodding and foot tapping electro-pop" - PopMatters
"Easily one of the most mesmerizing tracks we've heard so far this year." - CBC Music
“Aucoin, a characteristically ambitious artist” - Paste Mag
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