In 2019, Bill Callahan returned from a long hiatus with a generous bounty of songs called Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest, then followed it up in 2020 with the shorter but no less inspired Gold Record. He then released a shit-ton of covers with Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and a rotating cast of pals. Now, the artist formerly known as Smog is back with news of another new LP.

This October, Callahan will digitally release YTI⅃AƎЯ, with a 2xLP edition due in February. His band this time around includes Matt Kinsey on guitar, Emmett Kelly on bass/backing vocals, Sarah Ann Phillips on piano/backing vocals, and Jim White on drums. He hasn’t shared any music yet, but in a press release, he offered this rather robust statement:

I wanted to make a record that addressed or reflected the current climate. It felt like it was necessary to rouse people — rouse their love, their kindness, their anger, rouse anything in them. Get their senses working again. I guess there was already plenty of anger! But we needed a better anger. To get out of this hypnagogic state. Hypnagogic rage. Disassociated rage that destroys the community and leaves only the individual eating themselves alive instead of feeding others. We were born to feed others. We have milk, breasts. We have language, tongues. We have music, ears. All to feed.

At the time it felt like we were coming out of something, getting clear of it. So I was picturing songs that would make sense to take before an audience at this crucial juncture — venturing out — where things could go either way. A reintroduction to the basics of life. Of human interaction. Face to face. A new clear vision. A new way. Which is probably just an old way we’d abandoned somewhere back there as we retreated into our screened, blindered existence.

Sometimes you forget the most basic things. The biggest things! And it just takes a little nudge to get your head back on track. I wanted sounds and words that made you feel and that lifted you up. But first there was a need to bond, to clear the air. Or to just acknowledge the air. So there is some of that on the record. I went for horns because horns are heralds, triumphs, second line funerals and just breath forced through a metal maze or amusement park slide. And I wanted voices, I wanted multiple voices, not just mine. There is too much of just mine right now. So there are 6 or 7 people singing on this record.

Listening to this record takes one hour. Ah hour sounds like a year to me these days. Taking an hour of someone’s life. I fault the internet. I fault ourselves for falling for the internet. An hour is actually lovely, nothing, a lifetime. You have to live that lifetime though in order to appreciate the hour. I’m not suggesting people must listen to this record all the way through in one sitting. It IS sequenced for that particular purpose, though, in case anyone wants to.

Below, check out the YTI⅃AƎЯ tracklist and Callahan’s tour dates in the UK and California.

TRACKLIST:
01 “First Bird”
02 “Everyway”
03 “Bowevil”
04 “Partition”
05 “Lily”
06 “Naked Souls”
07 “Coyotes”
08 “Drainface”
09 “Natural Information”
10″ The Horse”
11 “Planets”
12 “Last One At The Party”

TOUR DATES:
11/01 Bristol, UK @ SWX
11/02 London, UK @ Roundhouse
11/03 Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
11/05 Glasgow, UK @ Queen Margaret Union (QMU)
11/06 Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall
11/19 Sonoma, CA @ Sebastiani Theatre
11/20 San Francisco, CA @ Palace Of Fine Arts
11/21 Santa Cruz, CA @ Rio Theater
11/22 Ojai, CA @ Ojai Deer Lodge
11/24 San Luis Obispo, CA @ The Poetry Church/Guild Hall (special Thanksgiving show)
11/25 Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy & Harriet’s
11/26 Los Angeles, CA @ The Theater at Ace Hotel

YTI⅃AƎЯ is out 10/14/22 digitally and 2/24/23 physically via Drag City. I don’t know if I want “Partition” to be a Beyoncé cover or not.