Ezra Furman

BIG NEWS: Elton John is spinning “I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend” on his @Beats1Official radio show this weekend. Times to catch it/links to listen ⬇️ THANK YOU ELTON 🐊 🎹CROCODILE ROCK FOREVER Saturday 08/17- 9am LA / 12pm NY / 5pm LDN Sunday 08/18 - 6pm LA / 9pm NY / 2am LDN Listen Live: apple.co/eltonlive Listen Anytime: apple.co/elton @Beats1Official @EltonJohn #Rocket Hour

We are now making the most fired-up music of our careers. What I want to do onstage is to burn brightly. To get the fever. The fever, do you understand??!! And I want you to catch it too. Times like these. What can you do but rocknroll. See you there -E. Furman Tickets: www.ezrafurman.com/live

We are sad to say we have canceled our show at Sonia in Cambridge on Sept. 11th. It will now take place at GREAT SCOTT on SEPT 23 (Allston, MA) After first announcing the show, we learned that many locals have been boycotting the venue since the owner, Joseph Sater, was accused of sexual assault and harassment by multiple people. Though Sater no longer works at any of the venues he owns, he still owns them, and we cannot in good conscience do business there. We do not take this decision lightly. We spoke with multiple local artists and journalists about the issue to make our decision. We vehemently oppose rape culture and we are feminists. We have some control over who we do business with. So we have had to withdraw from performing at Sonia in solidarity with the boycotters and those who have endured a toxic culture at these venues. Other performers choose to play at Sonia and that is all right; that is each performer’s choice to make based on many ethical and financial factors. Also, unrelatedly, I’m moving to the Boston area on Tuesday, and you better believe I’m gonna be performing locally. Keep in touch and we’ll let you know when. Thank you for supporting our band as we stand with victims of sexual assault. Thanks for telling your friends about our music and shows. Let’s make our own culture that’s better than the violent and sexist one we still see so often. Two informative articles about the situation: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/08/29/owner-middle-east-nightclub-stepping-down-denies-online-claims-sexual-misconduct/OTNt145LQnORRncLdB33QL/story.html A follow-up a few months later: https://www.wbur.org/artery/2018/11/20/middle-east-cambridge-changes-musicians-avoid Our upcoming tour dates: Sep 5 - St. Paul, MN - Turf Club with Stef Chura Sep 7 - Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall With Speedy Ortiz & Stef Chura Sep 8 - Detroit, MI - El Club with Stef Chura Sep 9 - Toronto, CAN Lee's Palace with Stef Chura Sep 10 - Montreal, CAN Bar Le "Ritz" P.D.B - with Stef Chura SEP 12 - Portsmouth, NH The Press Room - with Shilpa Ray Sep 14 - New York, NY Bowery Ballroom - with Shilpa Ray Sep 15 - Philadelphia, PA Underground Arts - with Shilpa Ray Sep 16 - Washington, D.C. Union Stage - with Shilpa Ray Sep 23 - Allston, MA Great Scott

Loving Berkeley before I leave it. I move to Boston next week. Back where I first started playing in a band many years ago. I have loved California so much since I moved here in 2011, even though I moved to Chicago three times since then. I kept coming back. But now. Now a new era begins. An era in which I own this kickass jumpsuit.

TWELVE NUDES - vinyl “unboxing” (I am trying to use an internet word of which I don’t fully grasp the valence) - this exists in the world now! Will be released August 30. You can pre-order it here: http://smarturl.it/ef_twelve This is a special record and it is worth buying. There are cool secrets inside PLUS WE’RE GONNA TOUR THE USA Here’s the first round of tour dates, more to come soon: Sep 5 - St. Paul, MN - Turf Club Sep 7 - Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall With Speedy Ortiz & Stef Chura Sep 8 - Detroit, MI - El Club with Stef Chura Sep 9 - Toronto, CAN Lee's Palace with Stef Chura Sep 10 - Montreal, CAN Bar Le "Ritz" P.D.B - with Stef Chura SEP 11 SHOW IN CAMBRIDGE HAS BEEN CANCELED - more info soon about a replacement and reasons why Sep 14 - New York, NY Bowery Ballroom (Note that our previously announced show, Sep 12 at Warsaw in Brooklyn, is NOT happening) Sep 15 - Philadelphia, PA Underground Arts Sep 16 - Washington, D.C. Union Stage More shows and support acts to be announced soon!

This. This is important music. Quit worshipping your hippies or punks or whatever past social change movement you thought was cool. A rebellion against climate change is the movement that matters right now. Greta Thunberg, thank you. Fans of our band, you will hear from me soon about what I recommend we all do to participate in this movement. In the meantime: https://350.org https://open.spotify.com/track/6sQeHBkvilt6ycKfnJMki4?si=r-Fwk6d2RE-1m3RRHedn-g

Our new song and video, “I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend,” has arrived! Dedicated to trans people everywhere, it is a song very dear to my heart, the one ballad on our forthcoming record “TWELVE NUDES” (out aug 30 preorder it now here https://www.ezrafurman.com/pre-order jabber jabber clang clang) This video was a joy to make. Directed by Alix Spence, choreography by Sarah Prinz, and dancing by the delightful Brandon Mathis (red) and Jobel Medina (blue), and all kinda of other help from many other people. Everyone involved is so good at what they do. As any doo-wop-type song should, this one has a B-side, also out today: it’s called “Evening Prayer” and it’s available on all the streaming services and on YouTube here https://youtu.be/nuUnAAUSgf0. Also from “TWELVE NUDES,” it is perhaps even dearer to my heart. It’s a furiously spiritual song calling for us to throw our whole souls into the fight for economic and climate justice. Thank you all for your support. -Ezra https://youtu.be/8e1h31hVGSw

I think this might be my favorite music video we’ve ever made. It comes out tomorrow. “I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend,” a song of transgender longing, track 7 on 12 Nudes which by the way comes out August 30 and you can preorder it there’s a link in our Instagram bio. Thanks a million everyone who worked on this vid with me. It was such a fun and oddly empowering process. Many blessings

Exciting times!! Can't wait for you all to see the result!

Repost for Pride weekend. From Primavera Sound in Barcelona last year. Im not about to sit here and watch as they suck the blood from my wound

NYC VENUE CHANGE IN SEPTEMBER Hi New York people! I’m writing to let you know that we have moved our September 12th NYC show to a different date and venue: it will happen on Saturday, September 14th at the Bowery Ballroom. All tickets already purchased for Warsaw will be honored at the Bowery. The short explanation is that I have a disagreement with the owner of Warsaw in Brooklyn and can no longer in good conscience do business there. Here’s the long explanation, which I think many of you will find relevant: As you may know, Warsaw the venue operates out of the same building as the Polish National Home, a community center for Polish-Americans which holds many community events, and which owns the property. I found out a few weeks ago, from a concerned Greenpoint music fan on Twitter, that the Polish National Home recently hosted a talk by Ewa Kurek, a Polish historian known for Holocaust revisionism and ties to far-right anti-Semitic Polish politicians. She appeared with Witold (Witek) Rosowski, a Brooklyn-based far-right activist who is openly anti-Semitic. I should add here that I am the grandson of a Polish Jew who became a child refugee when Hitler invaded Poland. I have been following the recent ascendancy of nationalism and white supremacy in Poland with horror, as well as increasing anti-Semitism and further legitimization of neo-Nazis and other racists in the U.S. These issues are extremely personal to me. Some of you may remember my last appearance at the Warsaw venue, one week after the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. I played my song “The Refugee,” about my grandfather, and sang a traditional song in Hebrew about solidarity with Jews who are suffering. It was meaningful to me to play at a Polish community center at such a moment, because of my Polish heritage and the pain I was in after the shooting. I mention this to explain why I feel particularly bound to oppose this venue’s hosting of figures like Kurek and Rosowski. I got in touch with the venue to ask why this event happened at the Polish National Home. Kurek’s events at multiple local churches had been canceled shortly before their scheduled dates, due to local activist backlash. At the last minute she reached out to the Polish National Home as a place she could speak, since she had spoken there multiple times before. The venue owner assured me that the event was booked at the last minute, was not a promoted or ticketed event and had nothing to do with Warsaw Concerts. Those are all true statements. Nevertheless, I needed more. I couldn’t do business with the owner of a building that regularly and unrepentantly hosted events like this. So. I asked the venue owner to make a public statement apologizing for the event, opposing Holocaust revisionism and committing not to host far-right extremist events in the future. To make a long story short, he declined to make a statement that made these specific statements and commitments. Therefore, I have changed venues and will not be participating in anything that makes money for the Polish National Home in the future. This is because I oppose bigotry and fascism, which are infecting many societies and governments all over the world right now, including those of Poland and the United States. I do not fault anyone else for performing at Warsaw or attending events there, nor do I advocate any boycotts. That is not my place and you can decide that on your own. The PNH does host many positive events, as does WarsawConcerts. But because of the specific discussions I had with the venue, and because of who I am and what I particularly care about, I cannot in good conscience do business there. And I feel bound to publicly explain why. Sorry for the inconvenience. Again, our show will be happening at the Bowery Ballroom on Saturday, September 14th.

Hey just runnin’ a small business over here - perhaps you’d like to support us? All ya gotta do is pre-order our record from this website and thus receive a physical copy of this creation that I feel so proud of called TWELVE NUDES. We got the vinyl, the CD, the digital, what chu neeeeed. There are worthwhile liner notes, cool art, lyrics, a gatefold thingy. All done in collaboration with Cristina Daura, amazing Spanish artist who visually captured the particular visceral madness of this record with her iconic drawings. I’m proud of what we’ve created! Get in on this! Hell, buy a T-shirt while you’re at it! (BTW: “12 Nudes”-related shirt designs coming soon, they are super cool yer gonna love em but so are the old designs so don’t be shy) https://www.ezrafurman.com/merch

Hello just posting to say don’t forget that I exist please - and that you can express that unforgetting that I exist by preordering our album (da link in the bio) and/or buying tickets to our many upcoming shows, see Ezra furman dot com for details. This is me last month on the red line in Chicago, my hometown - playing Lincoln hall on September 7th by the way, two days after my dang birthday which is also Freddy Mercury’s birthday (the 5th). Okay I will stop with the babbling now thank you and have a good day

Enormous thanks to the UK - everyone who came to our shows this past week and a half. Wales, Norwich, Sheffield and, of course, our poor sweet London. I had the best time. IN THE MEANTIME we’ve just announced more UK dates, happening in November! Tickets go on sale tomorrow! Glasgow Manchester Bristol London. Sell ‘em out for us and we’ll keep coming back! We love ya!! Oh and don’t forget to preorder our album so it’s firmly melted into your brain by the time you come see us (LINK IN BIO)

We're coming back to the UK and Europe in November! Here's where we're playing: Monday 11th November - Glasgow, QMU, UK Tuesday 12th November - Manchester, Albert Hall, UK Wednesday 13th November - Bristol, O2 Academy Bristol, UK Thursday 14th November - London, O2 Forum Kentish Town Saturday 16th November - Luxor, Cologne, DE Sunday 17th November - Festsaal Kreuzberg, Berlin, DE Tuesday 19th November - La Maroquinerie, Paris, FR Friday 20th November - Botanique / Rotonde, Brussels, BE Saturday 21st November - Paradiso Noord, Amsterdam, NL Monday 23rd November - Molotow, Hamburg, DE Tuesday 24th November - Vega, Copenhagen, DK Wednesday 25th November - Pustervik, Gothenburg, SE Thursday 26th November - Debaser Strand, Stockholm, SE Ticket pre-order: https://www.ezrafurman.com/live

Surprise London. We’re playing a show in Dalston tomorrow night. The Shacklewell Arms, where I’ve witnessed many a grimy rocknroll show and am proud to now present our own. I love little pub venues and I hope you will come to see us at this one. Tickets won’t last long. Mwah Tickets: https://bit.ly/2IcwPpI

Our new song “Calm Down” is going to be discussed on this show tonight! BBC 6 Music, coming through for us once again. I have not heard this show? Is it a good show? Do they ever talk about songs and decide they hate them and asks that none of their audience ever listen to that artist again? That would be bad

Thank you Wales for last night. That was just what I needed. Thanks Hay-On-Wye for including our version of literature at your literary festival. It was an honor

Hi honey. We have new music. Look up “Ezra furman Calm Down” and you will find the music video @du.blonde made for our new song “Calm Down.” We have a new record coming out in August and you can preorder it from Bella Union. It’s called 12 Nudes and it’s very good. Come to our shows. Ezra furman dot com. Yaaaaa

Behold, our new freaked-out banger “CALM DOWN” (with a wild video by friend/co-conspirator Beth Jeans Houghton), the first single from our next record TWELVE NUDES, out August 30th and available for pre-order now: http://smarturl.it/ef_twelve I am very fired up about this record. It is essentially a slice of pure agitated rage. It is the punk album I have always dreamed of making. It is about the refusal to accept this poisoned world, and admitting how bad it feels to live in it sometimes. We hope to use visceral negativity like a controlled forest fire to clear a space for the alternate reality we can and must build together. We recorded this in October and November 2018 as the world burned. We were in West Oakland at Coyote Hearing studio, with the brilliant Trevor Brooks engineering. We drank and smoked and did everything fast. I screamed ‘til I got sick. We made something of which I am very proud. We are, naturally, going on tour in the US and Europe—and probably other places later. These shows will be seizures of power, mass healing scream therapy, expositions of our fragile treasures and our smoldering meteorites. Here are the places you can come see us do this live, with renewed fury and evolved style: www.ezrafurman.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLecVxlnZG8

Ezra Furman's cover photo

Ezra Furman

Tomorrow is our big news day, we have multiple things to tell you. It's a good feeling to have a good secret you're about to tell. It makes me feel playful and powerful. Only because I know some of you will care, for which I am very grateful. Rock'n'roll is a fun thing to be involved in. The more you get into it the more fun it is. So thanks for being into it. Talk to you tomorrow, Luv Ezra

New music is coming sooon ...

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