“Prizefighter” by Youth Lagoon

Youth Lagoon, the project of Trevor Powers has shared new single “Prizefighter,” a track off his forthcoming album Heaven Is a Junkyard, available June 9th via Fat Possum. The track Follows lead single, “Idaho Alien,” and explores the bond between two brothers, leaving undefined what is fact and what is fiction. Powers explains:

4 years ago, I started writing a song about brothers. I grew up with 3 of them, so our house was doomsday but with more sugar cereal. Our love was strong and so was our barbarity. It was real joy — the kind you didn’t have to look for cuz it smacked you in the face or pushed you off the bed into a file cabinet. Beyond that, we were homeschooled. 4 weirdos home all day who adored each other and hated each other and played baseball everyday in the backyard and threw rocks at each other’s heads and laughed ’till we threw up. Our bond is forever. That song I started those years ago meant too much to me to finish. I was scared of it. Scared of not making it great… so I tabled it.

A couple weeks before leaving to make the record, I went through some old voice memos while watching a VHS of Drugstore Cowboy. I listened to that 30-second sketch called “Prizefighter.” It was like an angel fell from the sky to tell me how to finish it. “Don’t make it great,” she said. “Make it true.” I finished the song in 2 days.

This summer, Youth Lagoon will embark on a North American tour, marking his first tour here in eight years. Powers’ tour of North America will includes stops in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and more. He’ll play music from his entire catalog. Full dates are listed below with artist and Spotify pre-sales beginning Wednesday, April 5th at 10am local time, and general on-sale on Friday, April 7th at 10am local time.

Rather than writing about the world at large, he started writing about home. “Family, neighbors, and grim reapers,” laughs Powers. “I’ve always written about far away things, but the best material has been right in front of me this whole time in Idaho.” Recorded in six weeks with co-producer Rodaidh McDonald (The xx, Adele, Gil Scott-Heron), Heaven Is a Junkyard is a work of absolute devotion. A portrait of the God-haunted American West. And a reminder that there is always love in the tall grass.

Youth Lagoon 2023 Tour Dates

Fri. July 14 – Spokane, WA @ Lucky You
Sat. July 15 – Bozeman, MT @ The Elm
Mon. July 17 – Sioux Falls, SD @ Club David
Tue. July 18 – Iowa City, IA @ Gabe’s
Thu. July 20 – Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club
Fri. July 21 – Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival
Sat. July 22 – Louisville, KY @ The Whirling Tiger
Sun. July 23 – St. Louis, MO @ Blueberry Hill
Tue. July 25 – Kansas City, MO @ recordBar
Wed. July 26 – Omaha, NE @ Slowdown
Fri. July 28 – Fort Collin, CO @ The Aggie
Sat. July 29 – Boulder, CO @ Fox Theatre
Mon. July 31 – Jackson Hole, WY @ Center for the Arts
Thu. Sept. 7 – Boise, ID @ Treefort Music Hall *
Fri. Sept. 8 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge *
Sat. Sept. 9 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater *
Mon. Sept. 11 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line *
Tue. Sept. 12 – Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon *
Fri. Sept. 15 – Detroit, MI @ El Club *
Sat. Sept. 16 – Toronto,ON @ Horseshoe Tavern *
Mon. Sept. 18 – Montreal, QC @ Theatre Fairmount *
Tue. Sept. 19 – Boston, MA @ Sinclair *
Wed. Sept. 20 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg *
Fri. Sept. 22 – Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church *
Sat. Sept. 23 – Washington, DC @ Union Stage *
Mon. Sept. 25 – Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall *
Tue. Sept. 26 – Atlanta, GA @ Aisle 5 *
Thu. Sept. 28 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall (Upstairs) *
Fri. Sept. 29 – Austin, TX @ Antone’s *
Sat. Sept. 30 – Dallas, TX @ Trees *
Mon. Oct. 2 – Santa Fe, NM @ Meow Wolf *
Tue. Oct. 3 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom *
Wed. Oct. 4 – Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room *
Fri. Oct. 6 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom *
Sat. Oct. 7 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall *
Mon. Oct. 9 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios *
Tue. Oct. 10 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos *
Wed. Oct. 11 – Vancouver, BC @ Cobalt *
Thu. Oct. 12 – Bellingham, WA @ Bellingham Exit *