New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra) releases a solo acoustic version of "PIERCED ARROWS" on Nonesuch today; you can hear it here. Segarra calls the song, from their critically acclaimed Nonesuch debut album, LIFE ON EARTH, "a heartbreak song, lost in the realm of memory. Being stuck in the past, and finding the rapidly changing world uncanny and bizarre. Trying to outrun trauma. Finding a meeting place between tough and tender. Memory replaying inside/beside you, triggering fight or flight responses." Hurray for the Riff Raff continues a headline tour of North America through April 20 before opening for Bright Eyes and Mitski and heading to Europe (full schedule below).
Life on Earth is a departure for the New Orleans-based Segarra. Its eleven new "nature punk" tracks on the theme of survival are music for a world in flux-songs about thriving, not just surviving, while disaster is happening. For their eighth full-length album, Segarra drew inspiration from The Clash, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Bad Bunny, and the author of Emergent Strategy, adrienne maree brown. Recorded during the pandemic, Life on Earth was produced by Brad Cook (Waxahatchee, Bon Iver, Kevin Morby).
Life on Earth has received critical praise, appearing on most anticipated records of 2022 lists by NPR, Pitchfork, the Guardian, Stereogum, the Observer, Vulture, the Wall Street Journal, Paste, the Evening Standard, and the Irish Times, among others. The Guardian says, "What's most impressive about Life on Earth is the way Segarra metabolises bleak and disturbing subjects into songs that brim with hope, beauty and cheer," while the Observer says, "Hurray for the Riff Raff promises a manual for Life on Earth, a 'nature punk' album for tough times," and NPR's Ann Powers says, "If you need some music to take you forward in this strange winter, I think Life on Earth is gonna do it for you." Mojo, in its four-star review, calls it "a remarkably delicate, tender record full of gentle empathy, of lines that ring with the truth of shared experience. Hurray for The Riff Raff might not be able to save the world, but Life on Earth is a compassionate, humane record at a time when it can only be a gift."
Alynda Segarra was born and raised in the Bronx, which they left at age seventeen, running away from everything and everyone they knew, hopping freight trains or hitchhiking across the country in the company of a band of street urchins. Segarra moved to New Orleans in 2007 and formed two bands: Dead Man's Street Orchestra and Hurray for the Riff Raff. In 2015, Segarra decamped to Nashville, then to New York, to make 2017's critically praised The Navigator, an ambitious and fully realized concept album that was her quest to reclaim her Puerto Rican identity. Segarra's previous records as Hurray for the Riff Raff are Crossing the Rubicon (EP, 2007), It Don't Mean I Don't Love You (2008), Young Blood Blues (2010), Hurray for the Riff Raff (2011), Look Out Mama (2012), My Dearest Darkest Neighbor (2013), and Small Town Heroes (2014).
HURRAY FOR THE RIFF RAFF ON TOUR
Apr 15 Elsewhere Brooklyn, NY
Apr 16 Underground Arts Philadelphia, PA
Apr 17 Union Stage Washington, DC
Apr 18 Motorco Music Hall Raleigh, NC
Apr 20 Basement East Nashville, TN
May 7 New Orleans Jazz Fest New Orleans, LA
May 19 Jones Assembly* Oklahoma City, OK
May 20 The Factory in Deep Ellum* Dallas, TX
May 21 ACL Live at the Moody* Austin, TX
May 22 The Lawn at White Oak Music Hall* Houston, TX
May 23 Orpheum Theatre* New Orleans, LA
May 25 Charleston Music Hall* Charleston, SC
May 26 Hard Rock Live* Orlando, FL
May 27 Fillmore Miami Beach* Miami, FL
May 28 St. Augustine Amphitheater* St. Augustine, FL
May 29 The Eastern* Atlanta, GA
May 31 The Fillmore* Charlotte, NC
Jun 15 Knitting Factory* Boise, ID
Jun 16 Knitting Factory* Spokane, WA
Jun 17 Paramount Theatre* Seattle, WA
Jun 18 McMenamin's Edgefield Amphitheater* Troutdale, OR
Jun 20 The Masonic* San Francisco, CA
Jun 24 SOMA* San Diego, CA
Jun 25 Van Buren* Phoenix, AZ
Jun 28 The Union* Salt Lake City, UT
Jun 30 Mission Ballroom* Denver, CO
Jul 1 Uptown Theater* Kansas City, MO
Jul 2&3 The Admiral Theatre* Omaha, NE
Jul 16 Lemon Tree Aberdeen, UK
Jul 17 Doune the Rabbit Hole Festival Port of Menteith, UK
Jul 19 The Cluny Newcastle, UK
Jul 20 Barrow Library Barrow in Furness, UK
Jul 21 Trades Club Hebden Bridge, UK
Jul 22 The Bulingdon Oxford, UK
Jul 21-24 Latitude Festival Suffolk, UK
Jul 27 The Wedgewood Rooms Portsmouth, UK
Jul 28 Phoenix Exeter, UK
Jul 28-31 Cambridge Folk Festival Cambridge, UK
Aug 4 Pickathon Happy Valley, OR
Aug 10 Deer Lake Park** Burnaby, BC
Aug 12 Day In Day Out Festival Seattle, WA
Aug 26 Todays Festival Turin, ITALY
Aug 27-29 Greenbelt Festival Kettering, UK
Aug 31 Whelan's Dublin, IRELAND
Sep 2 St Luke's Glasgow, UK
Sep 3 Brudenell Social Club Leeds, UK
Sep 4 End of the Road Festival Salisbury, UK
Sep 5 Clwb Ifor Bach Cardiff, UK
Sep 7 YES Manchester, UK
Sep 8 Hare & Hounds Birmingham, UK
Sep 9 Lafayette London, UK
Sep 10 CHALK Brighton, UK
Sep 12 Point Éphémère Paris, FRANCE
Sep 14 Bogen F Zurich, SWITZERLAND
Sep 16 Botanique Brussels, BELGIUM
Sep 17 Tolhuistuin Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS
Sep 19 Jaki Cologne, GERMANY
Sep 20 Hole 44 Berlin, GERMANY
* w/Bright Eyes
** w/Mitski.
