Gilla Band have shared their first new song in four years in the form of the head-scrambling ‘Giraffe’ – check it out below.
The influential Dublin group, formerly known as Girl Band, have not released a studio album since their third record ‘Most Normal’ in 2022, but they are now back with new music.
They have also confirmed details of a string of US tour dates for the end of 2026 and a European tour in January and February 2027, at the end of which they will be playing in Bristol, London, Manchester and Glasgow – see all the details below.
‘Giraffe’ is typical of the band’s experimental, boundary-pushing approach to guitar music, with distortion and atonality at the fore, and singer Dara Kiely’s tortured, yelled vocals spilling out an internal monologue.
It will be available as a 7” picture disc via Rough Trade from Friday (May 29) and you can pre-order your copy here.
Kiely has said: “In this track, the first few sections represent what my general headspace is like. It can be a very scattered and sometimes lonely place. Feeling unloved and finding it difficult to articulate what I’m actually thinking.”
“The outro on the other hand indirectly details a kind of confirmation that affection towards me does exist. While I appreciate it, I still find that hard to believe. ‘She chased me out the door with a hairbrush demanding that I would wear a suitable jacket.’ It’s a very Irish Mammy action. That amount of love is difficult for me to accept but it is a beautiful thing to have in life.”
Gilla Band will play:
OCTOBER
14 – Philadelphia, PA, Underground Arts
15 – Brooklyn, NY Elsewhere – The Hall
17 – Allston, MA Brighton Music Hall
19 – Montreal, QC Fairmount Theatre
20 – Toronto, ON Lee’s Palace
21 – Detroit, MI Third Man Records – Cass Corridor
23 – Chicago, IL The Bottom Lounge
24 – Saint Paul, MN Turf Club
27 – Denver, CO Bluebird Theater
28 – Salt Lake City, UT Kilby Court
30 – Portland, OR Mississippi Studios
31 – Vancouver, BC The Pearl on Granville
NOVEMBER
01 – Seattle, WA Neumos
03 – San Francisco, CA The Independent
04 – Los Angeles, CA Lodge Room Highland Park
07 – Phoenix, AZ Valley Bar
08 – Santa Fe, NM Meow Wolf
10 – Austin, TX 29th Street Ballroom
11 – Denton, TX Rubber Gloves Showroom
13 – Nashville, TN The Blue Room at Third Man Records
14 – Carrboro, NC Cat’s Cradle (Back Room)
15 – Washington, DC The Atlantis
JANUARY 2027
20 – Trabendo – Paris, France
21 – Le Botanique – Brussels, Belgium
22 – Le Grand Mix – Tourcoing, France
23 – Tolhuistuin – Amsterdam, Netherlands
25 – Ekko – Utrecht, Netherlands
26 – Betty – Hamburg, Germany
27 – Loppen -Copenhagen, Denmark
29 – SO36 – Berlin, Germany
30 – Hydrozagadka – Warsaw, Poland
31 – Subzero -Prague, Czech Republic
FEBRUARY 2027
02 – Durer Kert – Budapest, Hungary
03 – Flucc Wanne – Vienna, Austria
05 – Bogen F – Zurich, Switzerland
06 – Arci Bellezza – Milan, Italy
10 – Trinity – Bristol, UK
11 – Heaven – London, UK
12 – Band on The Wall – Manchester, UK
13 – Grand Classic – Glasgow, UK
Last year, the band’s guitarist Alan Duggan Borges launched a new project called The Null Club, with a debut EP featuring collaborations with members of The Horrors and Mandy, Indiana.