Islands, is celebrating the release of their debut album Return to the Sea with a reissue due on November 11th. The band, has also announced NYC and LA shows where Return to the Sea will be played in full, featuring a string section and special guests from the original recording. The artwork has received a touch-up, with gatefold, printed inner sleeves, archival photos never before released, and an in-depth essay about the album’s creation by Nick Diamonds. The following excerpts are the first and last paragraphs from that essay:

“On December 31st, 2004, I flew down to Los Angeles from Campbell River, B.C. I was at a puzzling intersection: A few days earlier, my band, the Unicorns, had finally combusted onstage in Houston, Texas. I’d just turned twenty-three. I had thrown all of my possessions on the sidewalk a year prior and now had nowhere to live. I was adrift. My friend Adam Gollner convinced me to come down to LA, where he was writing and researching his first book. The idea was to clear my head and get some sun for two weeks. It ended up raining torrentially every day. After the rain cleared, I invited my former bandmate Jamie Thompson to join me. We spent the next three months in LA plotting our next move, knowing we wanted to continue playing music together after the dissolution of the Unicorns….

…For years, I maintained a distance to this record, and considered overhauling it entirely. After Jamie and I had assembled the band to perform the songs live in the fall of 2005, I wanted to re-record everything with them. When the 10th anniversary of the record’s release started rolling around in the spring of 2016, I strongly considered doing a reimagined remix, losing excess instrumentation and caking my vocals in a more professional gloss. For ages I bristled at the record’s flaws; my squeaky, earnest vocals, drums and guitars that sounded meek when I wanted them to sound heavy, precious lyrics, naive melodies. No, this record isn’t anywhere near perfect, and nor should anything earthly be. I’ve only started to realize that this record’s imperfections are exactly what cradles its meaning and curiosities, its heart and spirit. Here it is again. Back in my arms or under my wings, the waves licking our ankles, ready to head back out again. Don’t forget to lift the locked groove.”

After releasing not one but TWO albums on the same day earlier this year, Islands are hitting the road for their second major tour of 2016. The upcoming tour will include shows in stops in Austin, New Orleans, Atlanta, Nashville, Denver and more. The tour will be supported by Alex Cameron and Steady Holiday and the full routing can be found below.

Taste, Islands’ sixth record, is a muscular, crystalline affair, with the majority of the music electronic, buoyed by drum machines, programming and arpeggiated vintage synths. The songs still flirt with Islands’ bread and butter; evergreens such as ennui, remorse, and a general disenchantment with the modern world hover over the tracks, with lines like “we got so thrown, we felt lost at home” and “steal a little moment, lose it like you own it”, to hammer home the point. The songs cut a wide swath, however, and also go in directions that Islands has never tackled, including police brutality and white male privilege (!).

Islands Tour Dates

10.11 Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar *
10.13 Dallas, TX @ Three Links *
10.14 Austin, TX @ The Sidewinder *
10.15 Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall *
10.16 New Orleans, LA @ House of Blues – The Parish *
10.17 Tallahassee, FL @ Club Downunder *
10.19 Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West %
10.20 Nashville, TN @ The High Watt %
10.21 Knoxville, TN @ The Concourse %
10.22 Baltimore, MD @ Metro Gallery %
10.23 Wilmington, DE @ Arden Gild Hall %
10.25 Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Cafe %
10.26 Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop %
10.27 Indianapolis, IN @ The Hi-Fi %
10.28 Kansas City, MO @ The Riot Room %
10.29 Denver, CO @ Marquis Theater %
10.31 Salt Lake City @ Urban Lounge %
12.02 Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Forever Cemetery #
12.10 New York, NY @ Webster Hall #

* with Alex Cameron
% with Steady Holiday
# Return to the Sea 10th Anniversary Show