Ezra Furman has today announced news of a new 6-track EP entitled Big Fugitive Life, due for release 19th August on Bella Union. The EP’s barnstorming opening track, ‘Teddy I’m Ready’ is streaming below. Of the EP Furman says:

“Big Fugitive Life is a group of our favorite orphaned songs that have banded together to form a unit. They are focused on the theme of the mind unmoored–those of us who have been left to drift unsupervised through the modern world. Four of these tracks were originally intended for inclusion on ‘Perpetual Motion People’. Two of them were for ‘The Year of No Returning’. But they weren’t ready until now.

The first three songs are our vision of rock and roll. A madness that overtakes your mind and body. It’s wanting to go somewhere you’ve never been, knowing you’re on your way. The second side is acoustic guitar as open wound, a troubled mind on display. Emotional in a different way, tender like a bruise. It includes “The Refugee,” my first song entirely concerned with my Jewish background and present, a song dedicated to my grandfather who fled the Nazis as well as to all of the refugees desperate for a home today.

We dedicate this record to refugees of all kinds, all over the world. May all the wanderers find the homes they seek, and and may those with power welcome them as fellow citizens of humanity.

This feels like an end of a chapter for me, musically. A beautiful, insane chapter. Keep an ear out for our next phase – we’ve been dreaming big.”

Ezra Furman has announced some of his biggest US shows to come, including Music Hall of Williamsburg and the Hollywood Bowl.

4th Aug – Laois, IRE – Electric Picnic

5th Aug – Portland, ORE – Pickathon Festival

10th Aug – San Francisco, CA – Swedish American Music Hall (Solo show)

17th Aug – Hasselt, NED – Pukkelpop

19th Aug – Devon, UK – Beautiful Days

21st Aug – Crickhowell, UK – Green Man

22nd Aug – Bath, UK – Komedia

24th Aug – Preston, UK – Continental Pub

25th Aug – Hebden Bridge, UK – Trades Club

26th Aug – Leeds, UK –Leeds festival

28th Aug– Reading, UK – Reading festival

31st Aug – Berlin, GER – Pop-Kultur Festival

3rd Sept– Larmer Tree Gardens, UK– End of the Road

25th Sept – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Bowl (With Bloc Party and Bob Mould)

27th Oct – Manchester, UK– Ritz

29th Oct – Edinburgh, UK – Liquid Rooms

30th Oct – Cardiff, UK – Tramshed

31st Oct – London, UK – Roundhouse(with Charlotte Church’s Late Night Pop Dungeon)

2nd Nov – Zurich, SWI – Bogen F

3rd Nov – Vienna, AUSTRIA – WuK

6th Nov – Milan, ITA – Magnolia

9th Nov – New York, NY – Music Hall Of Williamsburg