David Wax Museum Announce New Album & Share 'Luanne' Ahead of US Tour Dates

David Wax Museum announce their new album You Must Change Your Life to be released May 5 on Nine Mile Records and share its first single. "Luanne" is a rollicking celebration of the lover as a force of nature.

The song crackles with a world-be-damned attitude, a splendor of ELO-esque fiddle and synth fills and saxophones pitch-shifted several octaves up into a helium state of excitement. It's a vivacious anthem, an image of life as the married duo David Wax and Suz Slezak see it-beautifully and endlessly fluid-"a shape-shifter, fate-twister, truth-sifter, dream-drifter, seam-ripper."

Wax shares: "When these words tumble out of me, I am channeling a younger version of myself, back when Suz and I first fell in love while touring the country in a borrowed mini-van, taking on the world one city at a time. Friends and family thought we were crazy to turn our backs on our academic pedigrees and potential 401(k)s. 'What's your Plan B?' was a common question, and the naysaying carried over into folks not believing our relationship would last - that it was dependent on the band and our early success."

The vividly commanding title of David Wax Museum's band's 9th studio album-You Must Change Your Life-is a truth the pair hold sacred. In late 2022, David Wax suffered a sudden and inexplicable collapse. Headed for a heart catheterization in his hometown of Columbia, Missouri, his doctors suspecting a heart attack, Wax hurriedly signed his name to a waiver-and was struck by a revelation. "Lying there on that stretcher the thing that kept running through my mind was: at least we made You Must Change Your Life," Wax recalls. "Whatever else happened, I felt at peace because this record exists."

David Wax Museum blend the ancient, ever-relevant rhythms of traditional Mexican music with amber pop hues, unabashed rock riffs emanating an air of AM radio circa 1975, all tethered together by seductive harmonies.

Produced by Dan Molad (of Lucius, Coco) You Must Change Your Life comprises a makeshift orchestra-an instrumental array bewildering on paper but perfectly intuitive to the ears-everything from electric guitar and bass clarinet duets to the large-bodied Mexican huapanguera; tubular bells a la Pet Sounds to Jagger-esque heavy breathing; fiddles and marimbas adventuring through effects. Wax credits Molad's instinct with making the songs "3-D," each tune inching toward pop glory.

It's a seamless tapestry of boundless curiosity, an artful display of what Wax frames as "the lines blurring and dissolving between musical cultures and eras." As it humbly beckons listeners to fulfill its title, You Must Change Your Life sounds out a thousand minor- and major-key ways one can do just that. Read the full album bio here.

You Must Change Your Life refracts the light of a band whose vibrancy has been globally recognized by the highest tier of tastemakers. Since their early breakout as a buzz band at the revered Newport Folk Festival, Wax and Slezak have transmitted their kinetic energy in platforms including CBS This Morning: Saturday, Tiny Desk Concert, and NPR's World
Cafe.

They have soundtracked love stories on and off screens, from the Netflix #1 show Firefly Lane to the wedding of US Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg. The band have drawn praise from The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and TIME for what NPR called "pure, irresistible joy" and The Guardian described as "global crossover at its best," David Wax Museum have toured the world, often with their two young children in tow, sharing stages with The Avett Brothers, Los Lobos, The Wood Brothers, Old 97's, Buena Vista Social Club, Guster, Josh Ritter, Gregory Alan Isakov, and Watchhouse among others.

David Wax and Suz Slezak, the plucky husband-wife duo behind the band, are touring with their full ensemble in support of the new album with dates spanning the East Coast and Midwest, including a stop at SXSW in Austin, all detailed below.

TOUR DATES

Sunday, Feb 26 - Charlottesville, VA - Paramount Theater - supporting Los Lobos - Tix

Monday, Feb 27 - Winston-Salem, NC - The Ramkat - supporting Los Lobos - Tix

March 14-17 - Austin, TX - SXSW

Wednesday, May 3 - New York, NY - Mercury Lounge - Tix

Thursday, May 4 - Somerville, MA - The Armory - Tix

Friday, May 5 - Washington, D.C. - The Hamilton - Tix

Saturday, May 6 - Charlottesville, VA - The Southern - Tix

Sunday, May 7 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's - Tix

Wednesday, May 17 - Chicago, IL - Golden Dagger - Tix

Thursday, May 18 - Milwaukee, WI - The Backroom at Colectivo - Tix

Friday, May 19 - Minneapolis, MN - Icehouse - Tix

Saturday, May 20 - Columbia, MO - Rose Music Hall (outdoors) - Tix