Fruit Bats announce new LP ‘The Landfill’ & tour, share title track

Eric D. Johnson has announced a new album as Fruit Bats, The Landfill, due out June 12 via Merge. It’s the follow up to last year’s Baby Man, and about it, he says, “Full swashbuckling band vibes, laser beams aimed at your heart as usual, all my lyrical preoccupations distilled further down into the heart cavity.” See the cover art below.

The first single is the title track, which is accompanied by a video directed by Adam Willis. Johnson says:

This is my 6th video with the great Adam Willis, AKA Brother Willis. Another in our long line of collabs which are often funny with cold opens and strange characters plumbing the depths of the human psyche. The very first brainstorm session, we landed on Close Encounters of the Third Kind as an initial reference. Especially the notion of a man at a crossroads who is haunted by a mysterious shape. Later that morphed into the idea that, for some strange reason, I live a double life as a tortured art star in Europe. And that my music career there is completely unknown. Truth be told, Fruit Bats have had a strange journey as more or less a cult band for a long time. Things have gotten bigger in recent years in North America but we ARE still quite obscure in Europe. This is a less than subtle nod to that fact.

Silly and obscure as these concepts may be – the video still plays to the lyric and feeling of the song. The notions of memory and legacy and following signs that may or may not lead you down the right path. Adam and I always like winking in these videos but the concepts and stories are still kinda poignant at the end of the day.

Watch below.

Fruit Bats also announced a full band North American tour, with summer shows in June and July followed by a fall run in September, October, and November. See all dates below.

The NYC show is at Webster Hall on November 11. Tickets to that and all dates go on sale Friday, March 27 at 10 AM local.

FRUIT BATS: 2026 TOUR DATES
Jun 11 San Diego, CA – Belly Up
Jun 12 Tucson, AZ – La Rosa
Jun 13 Santa Fe, NM – The Bridge
Jun 14 Oklahoma City, OK – Tower Theatre
Jun 17 Columbia, MO – Rose Music Park
Jun 18 Indianapolis, IN – HI-FI Annex
Jun 19 Lexington, KY – The Burl
Jun 20 Nelsonville, OH – Nelsonville Music Festival
Jul 16 Winston-Salem, NC – Ramkat
Jul 17 Isle of Palms, SC – Windjammer
Jul 18 Asheville, NC – Hellbender by The Orange Peel
Jul 19 Richmond, VA – The Broadberry
Jul 21 Toronto, ON – Concert Hall
Jul 23 Norwalk, CT – District Music Hall
Jul 24 Newport, RI – Newport Folk Festival
Jul 25 Kingston, NY – Assembly
Jul 28 Northampton, MA – Academy of Music
Sep 30 Los Angeles, CA – Bellwether
Oct 01 Berkeley, CA – UC Theatre
Oct 02 Santa Cruz, CA – Rio Theatre
Oct 03 Grass Valley, CA – Center For The Arts
Oct 07 Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom
Oct 09 Seattle, WA – Showbox SoDo
Oct 10 Victoria, BC – Capitol Ballroom
Oct 11 Vancouver, BC – Commodore
Oct 13 Moscow, ID – International Ballroom at University of Idaho
Oct 14 Boise, ID – Treefort Music Hall
Oct 15 Missoula, MT – The Wilma
Oct 16 Salt Lake City, UT – Commonwealth
Oct 17 Denver, CO – Mission Ballroom
Oct 20 Lawrence, KS – Liberty Hall
Oct 21 Iowa City, IA – Englert Theatre
Oct 22 Minneapolis, MN – Fine Line
Oct 23 Madison, WI – Majestic Theater
Oct 24 Chicago, IL – The Salt Shed
Nov 05 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
Nov 06 Burlington, VT – Higher Ground Ballroom
Nov 07 Boston, MA – Royale
Nov 08 Portland, ME – State Theatre
Nov 11 New York, NY – Webster Hall
Nov 12 Pittsburgh, PA – Thunderbird
Nov 14 Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
Nov 15 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
Nov 17 Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
Nov 18 Nashville, TN – Basement East
Nov 19 Birmingham, AL – The Saturn
Nov 20 New Orleans, LA – Tipitina’s
Nov 21 Austin, TX – Mohawk