Max Knouse

Tour starts today! Thankful to have many overseas dates supporting & playing duo with @califone_timrutili and one solo US date in Brooklyn with @wearedevonchurch and special guest. We will probably have some more TBD shows in Ireland and I may have one or two more US shows this run. Will add when I know. I have advanced vinyl copies of my new record Goat Pupil with me (it sounds phenomenal on vinyl, thanks @smashedplastic ) as well as other records&goodies at the truly magical Califone merch table. Tell friends!🫐

“Um, yeah…” — we’re back, and so is @maxknouse , whose new record 𝑮𝒐𝒂𝒕 𝑷𝒖𝒑𝒊𝒍 is out June 12. Last year’s 𝑪𝒉𝒊𝒑𝒎𝒖𝒏𝒌’𝒅 𝑨𝒘𝒂𝒚 was a stone cold classic, and it’s an honor to have Max join the RR ranks. You can hear the first single, “Angel’s Share”, cowritten with @alexdupreemusic & @armsfullofronan , out today! 📸: @meermine ••••••• The very first words you hear on Max Knouse’s fourth album Goat Pupil are “Um, yeah.” The verite audio snippet sums things up nearly as well as the quixotic and gnomic lyrics the Los Angeles-via Sonoran Desert based songwriter and guitarist sprawls across the album, his voice laced with curls of smoke, a hazy woozy drawl. Turn these songs around, or upside down, or sidewise, and they reveal new insights and kaleidoscopic patterns—not through forced wit or over belabored wordplay—but self-evidently. “The title Goat Pupil could be aspirational, like a name for a student of greatness,” Knouse says, before suggesting a short list of alternate reads. “It could be something about seeing in widescreen—goats have amazing rectangular pupils. Or it could be a self-deterministic thing. Goats are pretty Satanic. I like the paradox of following someone who follows no one. There’s a lot of stuff in the songs about harnessing your own powers of evil or about perseverance while witnessing the evil around you.” — @jasonpwoodbury

Available today on JBR: Max Knouse’s (@maxknouse ) “Mint and Tobacco.” Over swirling eddies of guitar feedback and skeletal drums from his band of like-minded collaborators, Knouse sings of being “haunted by a song,” his head obscured by thick plumes of smoke. “Don’t it smell like Ohio?” he asks, bringing a kind of holy clarity to a song ostensibly devoted to vices. A holy hymn of the faded glow of Midwest surrealism and chemical Americana, this is the first taste of his forthcoming album Chipmunk’d Away, out June 13th — Knouse’s most clarified statement to date. Chipmunk’d Away presents the range and scope of Knouse’s style: bold, adventurous, frightening, and then frequently — when you least expect it — heartbreakingly lovely, like a joke that clarifies your feelings before you could actually verbalize what those feelings even are. They had been chipmunk’d away, hidden from you — and now Max Knouse has revealed them. Chipmunk’d Away is available to pre-order now on CD and limited-edition “Bramble Yellow” vinyl (limited to 300 copies) — or pick one up at one of Max Knouse’s live shows: June 5 — Seattle, WA at Rabbit Box @rabbitboxtheatre June 6 — Portland, OR at Turn! Turn! Turn! @turnturnturnpdx June 7 — San Francisco, CA at Ivy Room @ivyroom June 8 — Los Angeles, CA at Non Plus Ultra @nonplusultrala June 10 — Phoenix, AZ at Cibo Pizzeria @cibopizzeria June 11 — Tucson, AZ at EXO Roasters @exoroastco June 13 — Alpine, TX at The Ritchey @theritchey June 14 — Austin, TX at Chess Club @chessclubaustin June 15 — Tulsa, OK at The Whittier Bar @thewhittierbar_ June 21 — Chicago, IL at Bim Bom Studios @bimbom.studios June 23 — Omaha, NE at Grapefruit Records @grapefruitrecs All links in bio. Single artwork: Jam Yoo (@jam.yoyoyo ) Video Director: Star Rosencrans (@starlenbr ) #maxknouse #ChipmunkdAway #mintandtobacco

Coming up soon, May 28th @califone_timrutili + @kiranleonard10 at @richmixlondon Tickets on sale now via Dice Califone is an acclaimed musical project centered around Tim Rutili and a regular and rotating list of contributors. Formed out of the Chicago band Red Red Meat, they've been exploring the tension between experimental noise, acoustic texture, technology, humanity, cinematic images and microscopic poetry since 1998 with over a dozen albums of sleeper hits and enduring classics. For this tour Califone will be touring as a duo: Tim Rutili and @maxknouse Support comes from @kiranleonard10 Kiran Leonard's unique and ambitious body of work spans more than a decade of frenetic noise rock, ornate avant-folk, DIY no-fi, and everything in between. First becoming known as a teenager for his unpredictable and home-recorded chamber-prog epics such as "Bowler Hat Soup" (2013) and "Grapefruit" (2016), his more recent work has crystallised a vast aesthetic scope into a focused and singular voice, placing a greater emphasis on the directness of song and stream-of-consciousness poetics. 2024's "Real Home" brings a newfound streak of candid and clear-cut melodicism to the elaborate, formalist qualities of his writing and arranging. Completed after half a decade of songs without choruses, the album is the culmination of years operating in the UK's independent and experimental music circuits as one of its best-kept secrets.

Happy to announce that @kiranleonard10 will be opening for @califone_timrutili at @richmixlondon on May 28th Also happy to announce that Califone will be touring as a duo: Tim Rutili and @maxknouse Tickets on sale now via Dice Califone is an acclaimed musical project centered around Tim Rutili and a regular and rotating list of contributors. Formed out of the Chicago band Red Red Meat, they've been exploring the tension between experimental noise, acoustic texture, technology, humanity, cinematic images and microscopic poetry since 1998 with over a dozen albums of sleeper hits and enduring classics. Kiran Leonard's unique and ambitious body of work spans more than a decade of frenetic noise rock, ornate avant-folk, DIY no-fi, and everything in between. First becoming known as a teenager for his unpredictable and home-recorded chamber-prog epics such as "Bowler Hat Soup" (2013) and "Grapefruit" (2016), his more recent work has crystallised a vast aesthetic scope into a focused and singular voice, placing a greater emphasis on the directness of song and stream-of-consciousness poetics. 2024's "Real Home" brings a newfound streak of candid and clear-cut melodicism to the elaborate, formalist qualities of his writing and arranging. Completed after half a decade of songs without choruses, the album is the culmination of years operating in the UK's independent and experimental music circuits as one of its best-kept secrets.

Max + a Dominican dog here to say that there are many @califone_timrutili shows coming up in Midwest and PNW U.S. as well as places like Norway, Sweden, Italia, UK, Ireland etc over the next months. I have put the thing in the place you go for things on here. More and more instagram looks like staring at a slot machine to me so I have to avert my eyes to save precious moments. I suggest you do the same- come to a real life show where we won’t extract your consciousness but instead- affirm and grow it! 🩶🐗

Los Angeles friends! I’m playing a secret show tonight with some other (great) musicians to raise some funds for a good friend’s expenses surrounding a car accident. Would love to see some buddies (I no longer live here and already miss it!) Music at 8. Hit me for the address…

Having a little spooktober kit sale! These are deals. Let me know if you see something so dang autumnal that you must adopt! Would love to sell to someone who will keep in gud use.. •pretty rare 1960’s Harmony H79 electric 12 string- 900$ •1960’s Harmony-made ‘Stella’ acoustic 12 string-400$ •1 of 1 2014 Wes Peabody acoustic (madrone back/sides!)- make me an offer, I don’t know what it’s worth, probably in actuality worth less than maybe what Id sell it for if that makes sense? so it’s a little conundrum.. I’d probably get like ~200$ for it if I didn’t really care but I think it’s a little more special than that- handmade in Oregon out of found and recycled pieces of madrone and cedar and other rarely used and ill-advised guitar woods. Total piece of art that is still functional as a toneful guitar(full of cracks!)

LA (Pas) show is tonight @healingforcerecords w/ @jacquelynwest and @adeline.hotel . My band will be @armsfullofronan @uncanny_sally @remymorritt , & we are sounding pretty great methinks! Lucky to have these wonderful musicians exploring my various sound-gasstations..

Ashland OR gig tonight at @acidcastlesvintage !

PDX show tonight (Monday!) with @bigtop.band and @calmposeur at Turn! @turnturnturnpdx

Playing in Sacramento 2night sep14 @goldenbear916