Jun 1 — Yellowcard is keeping its name in the headlines a lot this year.
The band recently announced a tour set to launch July 1 in Milwaukee, WI and to run through Aug. 18 in Portland, OR. The tour, which will run roughly a month and a half, will take the band from the East Coast to the West with a handful of stops in the heartland along the way.
Now Thursday, the band made another announcement, revealing it has signed a new record deal with Equal Vision Records. The band’s first release with the label is a forthcoming EP titled Childhood Eyes, which is scheduled for release July 7.
Front man Ryan Key said in a prepared statement, he was happy about joining the Equal Vision artist roster.
“I just wanted to let you know how excited we are to be releasing our new EP Childhood Eyes on Equal Vision Records,” Key said. “I still remember in 1999, driving to a little store in Jacksonville Beach where I grew up called CD Connection and purchasing my copy of Saves the Day Through Being Cool. The fact that we’re going to have a record on the same imprint as Saves the Day is so so cool for all of us. Thank you so much to the Equal Vision family for having us and working so hard to make this EP for you all. We’re looking forward to getting on tour this summer as well.”
Matthew Gordner, Equal Vision Records representative, shared Keys’ enthusiasm about the two sides’ coming together.
“Equal Vision Records holds great admiration for Yellowcard’s exceptional artistic creativity and profound originality; we are thrilled to be afforded the opportunity to contribute to their success during this exciting new chapter,” Gordner said.
In anticipation of the release of the band’s new EP, the group premiered the record’s lead single/title track Wednesday, along with the song’s video. The musical arrangement featured in the band’s new single is a poppy, upbeat composition that is easily comparable to the pop punk sounds of so many of Yellowcard’s contemporaries past and present.
No information was provided about the exact theme in the new single’s lyrical content but the lyrics provided with the video hint at someone who is trying his or her hardest to stay as positive as possible despite so much negativity around that person. That is jus this critic’s interpretation.
It is an interpretation that would sit somewhat in line with Key’s brief discussion on writing the lyrics for each of the EP’s new songs.
“I’ve always enjoyed writing songs where the verses explore the struggle or the pain of an experience, and the chorus tries to find a way out of it,” Key said of the writing process. “That’s a pretty classic Yellowcard thing to do. But I’m particularly proud of these lyrics, because they’re 43 year-old Ryan writing, not 23 year-old Ryan writing. Because although we knew we were trying to capture the spirit of Paper Walls [the band’s 2007 album], we didn’t want to literally recreate it. So instead I got to write from where I am right now. And that’s kind of the mission statement of this whole thing—I found this again and I’m not going to give up.”
The video for ‘Childhood Eyes’ finds Key having to save his band mates from the clutches of a group of very young mercenary types who are torturing the men through means of music, cartoons (yes, cartoons) and water. The group manages to escape in the end, not to give away too much. The band’s new single plays over the visualization as the story plays out.
‘Childhood Eyes’ is on of five songs featured in Yellowcard’s forthcoming EP. The record’s track listing is noted below:
CHILDHOOD EYES
(hi-res EP art)
tracklisting
- Three Minutes More (feat. Vic Fuentes of Pierce The Veil)
- Childhood Eyes
- Hiding In The Light
- Honest From The Jump
- The Places We’ll Go (feat. Chris Carrabba of Dashboard Confessional)
The dates for the band’s upcoming tour are noted below. Tickets are available here.
| TOUR DATES ^ signifies dates with Mayday Parade * signifies dates with Story of the Year # signifies dates with Anberlin + signifies dates with Emo Night Brooklyn DJ set All dates with This Wild Life ~ Not a Live Nation date New dates in bold |
| Jul 01 Milwaukee, WI Summerfest Jul 05 Baltimore, MD Pier Six Pavilion ^* Jul 06 Asbury Park, NJ Stone Pony Summer Stage * Jul 08 New York, NY The Rooftop at Pier 17 * Jul 09 Boston, MA MGM Music Hall at Fenway ^* Jul 11 Philadelphia, PA Skyline Stage at the Mann *+ Jul 12 Cuyahoga Falls, OH Blossom Music Center ^* Jul 13 Detroit, MI Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill ^*+ Jul 15 Minneapolis, MN The Armory ^* Jul 16 Chicago, IL Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island ^*+ Jul 18 Charlotte, NC Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre ^* Jul 20 Atlanta, GA Cadence Bank Amphitheater at Chastain Park ^* Jul 21 Jacksonville, FL Daily’s Place ^*+ Jul 22 Jacksonville, FL Daily’s Place ^*+ Jul 23 Tampa, FL Yuengling Center ^*+ Jul 25 Houston, TX 713 Music Hall ^* Jul 26 Austin, TX Stubbs Waller Creek Amphitheater + Jul 27 Irving, TX The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory ^# Jul 29 Phoenix, AZ Arizona Financial Theatre ^#+ Jul 30 Los Angeles, CA YouTube Theater ^#+ Aug 01 San Diego, CA Petco Park – Gallagher Square ^# Aug 02 San Francisco, CA Bill Graham Civic Auditorium ^#+ Aug 04 Seattle, WA WAMU Theater ^# Aug 05 Garden City, ID Revolution Concert House & Event Center + Aug 06 Salt Lake City, UT USANA Amphitheatre #+ Aug 08 Denver, CO Levitt Pavilion Denver #+ Aug 10 Indianapolis, IN TCU Amphitheater at White River State Park ^*+ Aug 12 Pittsburgh, PA Four Chord Music Festival ~ Aug 13 Worcester, MA Palladium Outdoors ^*+ Aug 15 Hershey, PA GIANT Center ^*+ Aug 17 Syracuse, NY St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater at Lakeview ^*+ Aug 18 Portland, ME Cross Insurance Arena ^*+ |
The band’s upcoming tour is in support of its 2003 album, Ocean Avenue. Mayday Parade, Story of the Year, Anberlin, and This Wild Life will share time as support for the tour.
Key recently said he and his band mates — Sean Mackin (violin), Josh Portman (bass), and Ryan Mendez (guitar) — are all looking forward to getting back together on the road again.
“Announcing a Yellowcard tour is something I never thought we would get to do again, much less, a tour with bands of this caliber made up of such amazing people and good friends,” Key said. “Being given the opportunity to play music together again is truly a gift that we are not taking for granted. We are going to make these shows extremely special for all of the fans who we have missed so much these last six years.”
More information on Yellowcard’s upcoming tour is available along with all of the band’s latest news at:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yellowcard
Twitter: https://twitter.com/yellowcard
