Get ready to dive into this summer with Lifeguard. The Chicago punk/experimental rock trio announced today that their full-length debut, Ripped and Torn, will arrive June 6 through Matador Records.
The album follows several years of rapidly rising buzz for Lifeguard, starting when all three of its members were still in high school. Singer-guitarist Kai Slater, bass player Asher Case, and drummer Isaac Lowenstein are known for their loud, frenetic, artistically daring live shows, and they’ve begun to capture that sound on EPs like Crowd Can Talk and Dressed in Trenches, which Matador reissued together as a 12-inch record in 2023.
Recorded in Chicago with producer Randy Randall (of the great L.A. noise band No Age), Ripped and Torn is their answer to all that attention. Judging by “It Will Get Worse,” the first single from the new album, they’re about to hit us with an even hookier attack this time — in addition to being noisy and impressive, this song is damn catchy.
Lifeguard come from the same hyper-creative Chicago scene that has launched bands like Horsegirl (one of whose members, Penelope Lowenstein, is their drummer’s older sister), Friko, Answering Machines, and many more. They’re a prolific bunch; this band’s lead singer, Slater, just released a terrific power-pop album with an entirely different project, Sharp Pins, through the venerable Pacific Northwest label K Records.
When Ripped and Torn arrives in June, Lifeguard will be overseas, playing a show in Berlin. That’s the first date of a summer tour that comes to the U.S. on June 28 (a hometown show in Chicago) and continues through early August.
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Lifeguard 2025 Tour Dates
June 6 — Berlin, DE @ Neue Zukunft
June 7 — Hamburg, DE @ Hafenklang
June 9 — London, UK @ Lexington
June 10 — Brighton, UK @ Dust
June 11 — Manchester, UK @ The Castle
June 12 — Bristol, UK @ Rough Trade (instore)
June 13 — Brussels, BE @ Botanique (Witloof Bar)
June 15 — Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
June 28 — Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
June 29 — St. Louis, MO @ The Sinkhole
July 1 — Nashville, TN @ Blue Room
July 2 — Columbus, OH @ Ace of Cups
July 4 — Toronto, ON @ The Baby G
July 5 — Montreal, QC @ L’escogriffe
July 6 — Kingston, NY @ Tubby’s
July 8 — Medford, MA @ Deep Cuts
July 10 — Philadelphia, PA @ Warehouse on Watts
July 12 — Washington, DC @ Songbyrd
July 15 — Atlanta, GA @ Altar
July 16 — Memphis, TN @ B-Side
July 17 — New Orleans, LA @ Gasa Gasa
July 19 — Austin, TX @ Mohawk (Inside)
July 20 — Denton, TX @ Rubber Gloves
July 22 — Albuquerque, NM @ Launchpad
July 23 — Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar
July 24 — Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon
July 26 — San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
July 28 — Portland, OR @ Polaris
July 30 — Seattle, WA @ Baba Yaga
July 31 — Boise, ID @ The Shredder
Aug 2 — Denver, CO @ Hi Dive
Aug 4 — Kansas City, MO @ Varsity Club
Aug 5 — Minneapolis, MN @ Zhora Darling
