The much-anticipated new album from Shakey Graves, Movie of the Week, is out now on Dualtone Records—listen/share HERE. In celebration, the video for new album track “Century City” debuts today—watch/share the video HERE.
Through the years, Alejandro Rose-Garcia (a.k.a. Shakey Graves) has always found innovative ways to engage his fan base. He continues to create unique experiences for fans with the release of Movie of the Week—this time unveiling an AI-generated website feature. Building the site was an intricate and complicated project that happily consumed his life for a few years, and the end result allows fans to create their own one-of-a-kind versions of the album, drawing from hundreds of alternate takes recorded over three separate week-long sessions. Visit the site and create your own album HERE.
“Every day, we would listen to some of the general themes/demos I had put together, talk about movies and come up with places to put a fictional character using themes and songs,” Rose-Garcia details. “This approach allowed us to avoid getting bogged down in repeating the same song for a whole day. Instead, we grew as a band, always adapting and seeking the best version of a song on any given day. The experience was exhilarating, and the result: hundreds of unique recordings captured with insane quality that took over two years to pore through and edit.”
He continues, “My ambition was to craft a perpetually evolving album. My vision was to invite listeners to curate their unique Movie of the Week, with the songs serving as its ever-changing soundtrack. Even if users encounter the same songs over time, the sequence and associated imagery would likely differ, making each experience distinct.”
“I eagerly await the diverse creations it will spawn, and I hope to feature or officially release some of these user-generated albums in the future.”
Leading up to the album’s release, he has shared “Big In The World,” “Playing Along,” “Evergreen” and “Ready or Not” (a duet with rising star Sierra Ferrell.)
Shakey Graves is gearing up to head out on an extensive North American tour this fall, kicking off September 21 in Phoenix with further stops in Nashville, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Boston and more. Support for the fall tour will include Rayland Baxter, flipturn and Sadurn. More info/tickets HERE and a complete list of dates below.
Shakey Graves has undergone a myriad of personal and sonic evolutions since its inception in 2011. Beginning as a solo music project, to now being accompanied by a full band, Rose-Garcia depicted the journey in ways such as changing his album covers from black and white to color, mirroring the musical growth. With beginnings in the folk-rock space—even winning “Best Emerging Artist” at the Americana Music Awards—he went on to move away from much of the stripped-down, folk sound and began drawing on influences such as The Beatles, The Kinks, Elliot Smith, Broken Social Scene, Built to Spill and other 90’s indie rock bands.
In the past, Rose-Garcia has burned CDs and put them in personalized bags, built intricate scavenger hunts sending fans around the city following trails of clues to find exclusive tapes, shared Bandcamp-only releases in the age of the DSPs and more to create different adventures for each fan.
Rose-Garcia grew up surrounded by the arts, his mother a playwright and his father a set designer. He had acting roles in Friday Night Lights as well as Spy Kids, and found himself going out to Los Angeles regularly to audition for parts.
Turning to music, he self-released his beloved debut album Roll the Bones and followed with an EP in 2012, The Donor Blues. That same year, the mayor of his hometown of Austin, Texas, declared February 9 “Shakey Graves Day”—a day he uses to offer his albums and hundreds of unheard songs for free. He signed with Dualtone Records in 2014 and released his breakout full length And the War Came with the label that year.
His third studio album came in 2018 with the release of Can’t Wake Up, which received a host of critical praise from NPR Music—“he pulls it off in large part due to his storytelling prowess; these songs would be welcoming, even enthralling, in any style,” Billboard—“a lyrical powder keg”—and more, marking a stylistic turn.
In 2020, Shakey Graves released an EP entitled Look Alive and in 2021 re-released his much-lauded debut album in celebration of its tenth anniversary with Roll the Bones X, which featured a number of previously unreleased tracks. He has amassed over 595,000 album sales and over 525 million streams in the US alone, and has two RIAA-Certified Gold singles with “Dearly Departed” and “Tomorrow,” and also earned the title of #1 artist on Bandcamp.
MOVIE OF THE WEEK—TRACKLISTING
1. Channel One (Intro)
2. Limbo
3. Evergreen
4. Ready or Not (feat. Sierra Ferrell)
5. Channel Five (Interlude)
6. Lowlife
7. Big In The World
8. Play It Where It Lies
9. Playing Along
10. Century City
11. Was Here
12. Heartstarter (Interlude)
13. Heartstopper
TOUR DATES
September 21—The Van Buren—Phoenix, AZ
September 22—BeachLife Ranch—Redondo Beach, CA
September 23—KBCO On Tap Breckenridge Brewery—Littleton, CO**
September 26—The Sound At Del Mar—Del Mar, CA
September 27—Orpheum Theater—Flagstaff, AZ §
September 30—Ace of Spades—Sacramento, CA §
October 1—Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas—Las Vegas, NV §
October 5—Vina Robles Amphitheatre—Paso Robles, CA §
October 6—Cascade Theatre—Redding, CA §
October 7—Crystal Ballroom—Portland, OR §
October 8—Rebels and Renegades—Monterey, CA
October 10—Paramount Theatre—Seattle, WA §
October 11—Queen Elizabeth Theatre—Vancouver, BC §
October 12—Knitting Factory Concert House—Spokane, WA §
October 13—Knitting Factory Concert House—Boise, ID §
October 14—Knitting Factory Concert House—Boise, ID §
October 15—Union Event Center—Salt Lake City, UT §
October 26—Longhorn Ballroom—Dallas, TX §
October 27—The Lawn at White Oak Music Hall—Houston, TX §
October 28—Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park—Austin, TX§
November 1—Ryman Auditorium—Nashville, TN**
November 2—The Eastern—Atlanta, GA**
November 3—Avondale Brewing Company—Birmingham, AL††
November 4—Georgia Theatre—Athens, GA††
November 5—Neighborhood Theatre—Charlotte, NC††
November 6—The Signal—Chattanooga, TN††
November 8—Roxian Theatre—Pittsburgh, PA††
November 9—Toad’s Place—New Haven, CT††
November 11—Massey Hall—Toronto, ON††
November 12—Union Transfer—Philadelphia, PA
November 13—9:30 Club—Washington, DC††
November 14—Roadrunner—Boston, MA**
November 16—Agora Theatre—Cleveland, OH**
November 17—The Salt Shed—Chicago, IL**
November 18—The Sylvee—Madison, WI**
November 19—Egyptian Room-Old National Centre—Indianapolis, IN**
*with Lucius
† with Abraham Alexander
‡ with Trampled by Turtles
§ with flipturn
** with Rayland Baxter
††Sadurn
