Leeds collective Living Body are delighted to announce a run of November 2023 UK headline tour dates, with the band also joining Liverpool experimental trio and long term friends Real Terms on a stint of co-headline November shows.
Hot on the heels of a summer tour as UK support for Owen (Mike Kinsella of American Football), Holiday Ghosts, and Dolores Forever, the band will also be performing at SŴN Fest in Wales later this month, with tickets for all shows on sale now (see below for listings).
Their latest single ‘CONSUMER’, the first taste of long-awaited new music in two years, was recently released alongside a live session video, with more new material on the horizon. Filmed in Leeds at Echelon Coffee Roasters, the session showcases the intensity of the band’s live performances, interlocking polyrhythms, and euphoric vocal harmonies.
Commenting on the track, songwriter Jeff T. Smith says: “‘CONSUMER’ is a song about the information we consume, how we consume it, and how it consumes us. Examining corporate soft power and the manipulative effects of the algorithm on the human species.”
Regarding the song’s closing line ‘desire is fully digitised’, Smith continues: “We’re sort of at the point with technology where algorithms and AI have the ability to understand, anticipate, and predict human behaviours, desires, choices and, crucially, how we spend our money, with greater accuracy than other human beings actually can. We are social creatures at the end of the day. Somehow, our need for genuine human connection has become depressingly mediated by corporations who have managed to use their algorithmically generated knowledge about our own desires to keep us locked into a niche where they can try to sell us things.”
‘CONSUMER’ also includes contributions from a cast of musician friends including violas by Jenna Isherwood, guitars from former Living Body member Jack Burgess-Hunt and vocals by Alice Rowan, with all other instrumentation, mixing and production by Jeff T. Smith at his studio in Leeds, AKA ‘the Bungalow.’
Touring as a 5 piece with two drummers, with each new release Living Body are ramping up the intensity on their genre-bending contortions of synthpop, shoegaze, and indie-rock. Also peppered with flavours of math-rock and bedroom pop, their melody-driven, bliss-laden take on genre-splicing is packed with grooves and harmonies thanks to their disparate influences and diverse musical tastes.
Lead by immigrant songwriter Jeff T. Smith (f.k.a. Juffage) the band includes Alice Rowan (Mayshe-Mayshe), Sarah Statham (Crake, Fig By Four), Annie Prior (Parker Lee) and Matt Simpson. Other contributors have included Katie Harkin (Harkin, Sleater-Kinney, Courtney Barnett) and Tom Evans (Vessels), with the members’ various individual projects receiving critical praise from international press including The Guardian, Pitchfork, DORK and more.
Living Body have toured extensively throughout the USA, UK and Europe, including shows at SXSW, Canadian Music Week, Tramlines, Deer Shed, Long Division, SWN, Sounds From The Other City, High Tide and ArcTanGent festivals, as well as previous supports for Joan of Arc and live sessions for Breakthru Radio and Daytrotter.
They have received radio play on BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio 3, Amazing Radio and others, and released their full length debut album ‘Body Is Working’ in 2016 to praise from Stereogum, The Line of Best Fit, Brooklyn Vegan and more, releasing several standalone singles in the period since.
The quintet will be revealing further new material over the coming months.
Living Body Live Dates:
21.10.23 – SŴN Festival – Cardiff
01.11.23 – Brighton – The Prince Albert (w/ Perch)
02.11.23 – London – New Cross Inn (w/ Rubie & Winifer Odd)
03.11.23 – Birmingham – The Victoria (w/ TBC)
04.11.23 – Bristol – The Exchange (w/ Lifter)
16.11.23 – Newcastle – Cumberland Arms (w/ Waves of Dread)
17.11.23 – Glasgow – Hug and Pint (w/ Come Outside)
18.11.23 – Edinburgh – Voodoo Rooms (w/ Hailey Beavis)
22.11.23 – Salford – The Eagle Inn (w/ Real Terms)
23.11.23 – Liverpool – Kazimier Stockroom (w/ Real Terms)
24.11.23 – Nottingham – JT Soar (w/ Real Terms)
25.11.23 – Leeds – Wharf Chambers (w/ Real Terms)
Tickets on sale now: https://linktr.ee/livingbodylife