On the heels of sold-out shows in Los Angeles (a two-night stand at El Cid) and Pioneertown at Pappy+Harriet’s – Skegss release of their third album Pacific Highway Music (Loma Vista Recordings), and announced a five-week North American headline tour early next year. The run will begin February 25th, 2025, in San Diego, CA, and take the band throughout the U.S. and into Canada before ending on April 2nd in Dallas, TX. A full itinerary–which includes a March 9th show at The Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles, CA, and a March 21st show at Warsaw in Brooklyn, NY.
Pacific Highway Music, Skegss’ most masterful and fully realised work to date, has been preceded by singles ‘High Beaming’, ‘Out Of My Head’, and ‘Spaceman’. Produced by Paul Butler (Devendra Banhart, Michael Kiwanuka, St. Paul & the Broken Bones), the album is now available in different vinyl variants, including a Skegss / Pacific Highway Music (Laneway Exclusive Lava) exclusive variant available for pre-order.
The follow-up to their acclaimed sophomore album Rehearsal–which debuted at #1 on their homeland Australia ARIA Albums Chart, and led to their first-ever Coachella appearance and a sold-out U.S. tour—Pacific Highway Music brings a newly heightened creative energy to every aspect of Skegss’ explosive yet introspective form of rock. Centered on singer/guitarist Ben Reed’s frenetic and playful lyricism, the album ultimately finds Skegss exploring the more complicated elements of the human experience with sincerity, soul, and unabashed joie de vivre.
Recorded at two iconic L.A. studios (The Village and Topanga Canyon’s Fivestar Studios), Pacific Highway Music partly owes its wildly unpredictable sound to the period of time Skegss spent cutting demos at Rancho de la Luna in Joshua Tree with studio owner Dave Catching (a musician/engineer known for his work with Queens of the Stone Age, Mark Lanegan, and more). “In the past I’d deprived myself of using things like synthesizers, not realizing how much texture and atmosphere they can add to the music,” says Reed. “Working with Paul felt like letting our guard down and completely opening up in terms of what these songs could be.” Pacific Highway Music sustains an unstoppable velocity as the band confronts what he refers to as “the rollercoaster of emotions that come with being human.”
In choosing a title for their new album, Skegss honour their roots by nodding to the Australian coastal road they’ve driven on countless of times (on tour and on frequent surf trips), while also reflecting the band’s deepened sense of purpose. “I’ve spent a lot of my life driving on the Pacific Highway, and most of the time it puts me in a bit of hypnotic state,” says Reed.
“With this album I tried to be as honest as possible, but I also wanted to create the kind of songs that give you that same feeling—songs where you can shut your eyes, let your imagination take over, and drift off into another world that exists only in your mind.”
Skegss Upcoming Live Tour Dates 2024/2025
18 October – Sydney, AUS – Metro Social (aa/SOLD OUT)
18 October – Sydney, AUS – Metro Social (18+/SOLD OUT)
24 October- Melbourne, AUS – Night Cat (SOLD OUT)
25 February – San Diego, CA – SOMA (mainstage)
26 February – Santa Ana, CA – The Observatory OC
28 February- Salt Lake City, UT – The Complex Grand Room
3 March – Seattle, WA – Neptune Theatre
3 March – Portland, OR – Revolution Hall
5 March – Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theatre
7 March – Berkeley, CA – The UC Theatre Taube Family Music Hall
8 March – Ventura, CA – Majestic Ventura Theatre
9 March – Los Angeles, CA – The Fonda Theatre
12 March – Englewood, CO – Gothic Theatre
14 March – Des Moines, IA – Wooly’s
15 March – Saint Paul, MN – Turf Club
17 March – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
19 March- Philadelphia, PA – Underground Arts
21 March – Brooklyn, NY – Warsaw Concerts
23 March – Washington, DC – Black Cat
25 March – Atlanta, GA – Terminal West
26 March – Tampa, FL – Ritz Ybor
27 March – Orlando, FL – The Beacham
29 March – Nashville, TN – The Basement East
30 March – New Orleans, LA – Chickie Wah Wah
1 April – Austin, TX – Scoot Inn
2 April – Dallas, TX – Granada Theater
Pacific Highway Music LP Tracklist:
1. Tradewinds
2. High Beaming
3. I Think I Can Fly
4. Brain On The Highway
5. Stuck In Cheyenne
6. Spaceman
7. Batten Down The Hatches
8. Aeroplane Heart
9. Out Of My Head
10. It Is
11. Kelly Heroes