FATHER JOHN MISTY – The X-panded Universe
“The X-panded Universe” spins a crossover plot: a scientist sent to recover a girl who might be a weapon, a medicated candy heiress on a padded cell floor cast as the last hope, a resistance camp a week’s walk away. Then it drifts into a question about a God whose goodness only holds up next to the villains he writes. By the end the whole cast gets saved, heroes or not, and Tillman sings that promise straight, which from him is the surprising part.
It starts with almost nothing, a skeletal beat under his voice, before Drew Erickson’s arrangement brings in strings and keeps stacking until the last stretch opens into full orchestral sprawl. Tillman wrote it, Erickson arranged it, the two co-produced, and Michael Harris mixed and engineered at Fivestar Studios in Topanga, with mastering by Adam Ayan. It’s out now on Sub Pop, the third single of the year after The Old Law (W02) and The Payoff (W19).
Tour dates
- October 6: Los Angeles, CA, The Fonda Theatre (sold out)
- December 9: Boulder, CO, Boulder Theatre (with Damien Jurado)
- December 10: Fort Collins, CO, Washington’s (with Damien Jurado)
- December 12: Santa Fe, NM, The Lensic Center for the Arts (with Damien Jurado)
- December 13: Tucson, AZ, La Rosa (with Damien Jurado)
- December 15: Napa, CA, Uptown Theater (with Damien Jurado)
- December 16: Grass Valley, CA, Center for the Arts (with Damien Jurado)
- December 18: Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA, Sunset Cultural Center (with Damien Jurado)
- December 19: Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA, Sunset Cultural Center (with Damien Jurado)
