Tokyo psychedelic mavens Kikagaku Moyo are coming to the US for a tour starting in scenic Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — really, I mean that; I love Philly — on May 2. The adventurous lysergic rockers released their third album last year and will have a new EP titled Stone Garden out April 21 on Guruguru Brain ahead of the tour, the rather extensive reach of which you can find below.

It goes coast-to-coast and finds them paired with Holy Sons, which of course is Emil Amos from Grails and Om, as well as Mono. Routing-wise, it’s a little all over the place — Philly, D.C., Brooklyn, Vermont, Montreal; Oregon, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon — but no doubt it’ll get them in front of open eyes and open minds along the way, and of course that’s the whole idea.

Wanna see what the PR wire has to say about it? Well, here you go:

Kikagaku Moyo Announce North American Tour Kicking Off In May

New EP ‘Stone Garden’ Out April 21st

Today, Kikagaku Moyo announce their spring North American tour, to follow the release of their new EP ‘Stone Garden,’ out April 21st via Guruguru Brain. The tour will kick off in Philadelphia on May 2nd, and will take the band from the East to the West Coast.

‘Stone Garden’ started in a basement studio in Prague with a nearly continuous session over several days and nights. The original concept was influenced by the raw and seemingly endless jams of psychedelic pioneers. The freeform songs that emerged from those sessions were refined over several months at the band’s home in Tokyo where each song was sculpted into an uncommon form.

Compared to their relatively song based previous LP ‘House in the Tall Grass,’ ‘Stone Garden’ is a window into Kikagaku Moyo’s experimental side. While improvisation is essential to their songwriting process it can take on many forms. This record enabled the band to experiment not only with instrumentation but also atonality and a playful approach to mixing. The unexpected results have become five unique songs each woven together through the same process.

Kikagaku Moyo (Japanese for Geometric Patterns) is the musical union between five free spirits. Go Kurosawa (drums, Vocals) and Tomo Katsurada (Guitar, Vocals) formed the band in 2012 as a free artist’s collective. They met Kotsuguy (Bass) while he was recording noise from vending machines and Akira (Guitar) through their university. Ryu Kurosawa had been studying Sitar in India, upon returning home he found the perfect outlet for his practice.

TOUR DATES
5/2 – Johnny Brenda’s – Philadelphia, PA *
5/3 – Rock & Roll Hotel – Washington DC *
5/4 – Rough Trade – Brooklyn, NY
5/5 – Waking Windows Music & Arts Fest – Winooski, VT
5/6 – Bar Le “Ritz” P.D.B. – Montreal, QC
5/7 – Great Scott – Allston, MA
5/9 – Mahall’s – Cleveland, OH
5/10 – Spirit – Pittsburgh, PA
5/11 – Marble Bar – Detroit, MI
5/12 – The Empty Bottle – Chicago, IL
5/13 – Company Brewing – Milwaukee, WI
5/14 – 7th St. Entry – Minneapolis, MN
5/17 – Doug Fir Lounge – Portland, OR ^
5/18 – The Cobalt – Vancouver, BC ^
5/19 – Sunset Tavern – Seattle, WA ^
5/20 – Hi-Fi Music Hall – Eugene, OR ^
5/21 – The Independent – San Francisco, CA ^
5/22 – The Echoplex – Los Angeles, CA ^
5/23 – The Hideout – San Diego, CA ^
5/24 – The Flycatcher – Tucson, AZ ^
5/26 – Scottish Rite Theater – Austin, TX
5/27 – Foundry Beer Garden – Dallas, TX
5/28 – Growler’s – Memphis, TN
5/29 – Mothlight – Asheville, NC
5/30 – High Watt – Nashville, TN
5/31 – The Earl – Atlanta, GA
* w/ MONO, Holy Sons
^ w/ Sugar Candy Mountain

Stone Garden EP – TRACKLISTING
01. Backlash
02. Nobakitani
03. Trilobites
04. In a Coil
05. Floating Leaf

http://kikagakumoyo.tumblr.com/
https://www.facebook.com/kikagakumoyo/
https://twitter.com/kikagaku_moyo
https://geometricpatterns.bandcamp.com/
https://gurugurubrain.bandcamp.com/album/house-in-the-tall-grass
http://www.facebook.com/GuruguruBrain