Cigarettes After Sex Playing ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ Outdoor Stage July 10th
Cigarettes After Sex Playing Jimmy Kimmel Live! On July 10th
Performing On Jimmy Kimmel Concert Series Outdoor Stage with Live Audience
World Arena Tour Selling Out Fast, Tickets On Sale Now
Madison Square Garden, The Forum + Many More Sold Out
X’s LP Due July 12th via Partisan Records
With X’s, Cigarettes After Sex finally takes center stage as not just one of today’s preeminent indie bands, but as one of the most globally accomplished acts across any genre, whose often unconventional path to superstardom has helped reshape the very definition of success for artists in the modern era.
Since the release of “Tejano Blue,” along with the announcement of X’s and the corresponding global arena tour, Cigarettes After Sex have racked up over 30M plays on the single. It was featured on 43 Spotify New Music Friday playlists, alongside a digital billboard in Times Square. They are currently the #241 most-streamed artist in the world on the platform, with over 24M monthly listeners. “Dark Vacay” has already racked up 13.5M plays and “Baby Blue Movie” was #5 on SiriusXMU’s Download 15, also appearing on SXM AltNation’s Advanced Placementtwice.
The tour – which includes venues like Madison Square Garden, The Forum, the o2 Arena and more – is off to a tremendous start with sellouts in London, Warsaw, Sydney, Athens, Brussels, Lyon, Cape Town, Paris, Amsterdam, Singapore and Melbourne. In the states, dates in San Diego, Orlando, New York City and both nights in LA have sold out. Over 500k tickets have been sold internationally thus far and demand saw them adding extra shows in LA, London, Athens, Melbourne, and Sydney. The news spread quickly, with writeups in Stereogum, Consequence, Brooklyn Vegan, Pollstar, the NY Post and more.
Cigarettes After Sex’s new LP, X’s, is out Friday, July 12th via Partisan Records.
You can see the band live on their world tour starting this Fall. Tickets are on sale now.
North American Dates
31 AUG 2024 / CA / Montreal, QC / Centre Bell
01 SEP 2024 / CA / Toronto, ON / Scotiabank Arena
03 SEP 2024 / US / Philadelphia, PA / Wells Fargo Center
04 SEP 2024 / US / Boston, MA / TD Garden
06 SEP 2024 / US / New York, NY / Madison Square Garden **SOLD OUT**
10 SEP 2024 / US / Columbia, MD / Merriweather Post Pavilion
11 SEP 2024 / US / Raleigh, NC / PNC Arena
13 SEP 2024 / US / Orlando, FL / Kia Center **SOLD OUT**
14 SEP 2024 / US / Atlanta, GA / State Farm Arena
17 SEP 2024 / US / San Antonio, TX / Frost Bank Center
18 SEP 2024 / US / Houston, TX / Toyota Center
20 SEP 2024 / US / Austin, TX / Moody Center
21 SEP 2024 / US / Dallas, TX / Dickies Arena
23 SEP 2024 / US / Chicago, IL / United Center
24 SEP 2024 / US / St Paul, MN / Xcel Energy Center
27 SEP 2024 / CA / Vancouver, BC / Rogers Arena
28 SEP 2024 / US / Seattle, WA / Climate Pledge Arena
30 SEP 2024 / US / Portland, OR / Moda Center
02 OCT 2024 / US / Greenwood Village, CO / Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre
03 OCT 2024 / US / Salt Lake City, UT / Delta Center
05 OCT 2024 / US / Oakland, CA / Oakland Arena **SOLD OUT**
07 OCT 2024 / US / San Diego, CA / Viejas Arena **SOLD OUT**
08 OCT 2024 / US / Phoenix, AZ / Desert Diamond Arena
11 OCT 2024 / US / Los Angeles, CA / KIA Forum **SOLD OUT**
12 OCT 2024 / US / Los Angeles, CA / KIA Forum **SOLD OUT**
15 OCT 2024 / MX / Mexico City / Palacio de los Deportes
EU/UK Dates
25 OCT 2024 / GR / Athens / OAKA Indoor Arena **SOLD OUT**
26 OCT 2024 / GR / Athens / OAKA Indoor Arena
28 OCT 2024 / NL / Amsterdam / Ziggo Dome **SOLD OUT**
29 OCT 2024 / BE / Brussels / Forest National **SOLD OUT**
01 NOV 2024 / IT / Milan / Forum
03 NOV 2024 / AT / Vienna / Wiener Stadthalle
05 NOV 2024 / PL / Warsaw / COS Torwar **SOLD OUT**
06 NOV 2024 / PL / Warsaw / COS Torwar **SOLD OUT**
07 NOV 2024 / DE / Berlin / Uber Arena
09 NOV 2024 / CH / Basel / St Jakobshalle
10 NOV 2024 / DE / Cologne / Lanxess Arena **SOLD OUT**
12 NOV 2024 / UK / London / The O2 Arena **SOLD OUT**
13 NOV 2024 / UK / London / The O2 Arena
16 NOV 2024 / FR / Paris / Accor Arena **SOLD OUT**
17 NOV 2024 / FR / Lyon / Halle Tony Garnier **SOLD OUT**
20 NOV 2024 / ES / Madrid / WiZink Center
21 NOV 2024 / PT / Lisbon / Altice Arena **SOLD OUT**
Asia Dates
9 JAN 2025 / HK / Hong Kong / Asia World-Expo, Hall 5
11 JAN 2025 / MY / Kuala Lumpur / Sunway Lagoon
14 JAN 2025 / PH / Manila / MOA Arena
17 JAN 2025 / ID / Jakarta / Beach City International
21 JAN 2025 / TH / Bangkok / Impact Exhibition Hall 5
31 JAN 2025 / UAE / Dubai / Coca-Cola Arena
3 Feb 2025 / SIN / Singapore / Indoor Stadium
South Africa Dates
4 MAR 2025 / ZA / Cape Town / Grand Arena at Grand West
5 MAR 2025 / ZA / Cape Town / Grand Arena at Grand West **SOLD OUT**
7 MAR 2025 / ZA / Pretoria / Sunbet Arena
AU/NZ Dates
11 MAR 2025 / AU / Melbourne / Rod Laver Arena
12 MAR 2025 / AU / Melbourne / Rod Laver Arena **SOLD OUT**
14 MAR 2025 / AU / Sydney / ICC Sydney Theatre **SOLD OUT**
15 MAR 2025 / AU / Sydney / ICC Sydney Theatre **SOLD OUT**
17 MAR 2025 / AU / Brisbane / Brisbane Entertainment Centre
19 MAR 2025 / NZ / Auckland / Spark Arena
X’s Biography
Ten years ago Greg Gonzalez was having a really rough Valentine’s Day. Freshly heartbroken with no hope of reconciliation, he spent two hours driving from his hometown El Paso to play a show, and he listened to Sade’s “By Your Side” on repeat both ways. “The experience that day stuck in my bones—it was an idea that I couldn’t forget,” says Gonzalez, the frontman of Cigarettes After Sex. “I thought, how do I make a record that feels like that?”
With each record—the initial 2012 EP, 2017’s eponymous debut album, and 2019’s Cry—Gonzalez has been faithful to his muse: love. In raw, imagistic, sometimes smutty vignettes set to entrancing, slowburn pop songs, Gonzalez captures every emotion a romantic arc inspires. But where previous albums have drawn from an amalgam of relationships, for the most part, their third, eagerly anticipated LP, X’s, centralizes on just one relationship that spanned four years.
This period was one of immense personal growth for Gonzalez, but it was also during these years that Cigarettes After Sex would hit staggering new levels in their career. The build has certainly been cumulative, beginning slowly with the virality around their earliest music and accelerated by a ceaseless tour ethic that has carried them all over the world, from Chile to Egypt to Indonesia and everywhere in between.
But something else happened in the worldwide pandemic pause. Cry came out at the tail-end of 2019 and wasn’t really toured until two years later, and in that gulf of time the band found themselves thrust into becoming more than simply a preeminent indie act, but as one of the most globally accomplished acts across any genre, ready to take center stage as superstars.
This ongoing rise is made all the more remarkable when you consider the band remain shadowy figures, there are no CAS music videos and their artwork is forever in moody monochrome. But in the era of the cult of personality, perhaps it’s this ongoing adherence to aesthetic, the rejection of overexposure in favor of a little mystique, that’s created the space for fans to truly commune with their music, sharing it like an illicit secret.
And so we have X’s, another lean collection which, like previous Cigarettes After Sex records, is also characterized by the place these songs were recorded. There’s the El Paso college stairwell for the first EP, the Brooklyn rehearsal space for the first album, the courtyard in a house in Mallorca, Spain for Cry, and now the home at the foot of the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles, where Gonzalez lived with his then-partner. While initial demos were captured live in August 2020, with longstanding bandmates Jacob Tomsky (drums) and Randall Miller (bass), the lion-share was recorded in a small bedroom, over the course of six live sessions from 2021 to 2022. With the addition of Jeff Kite on keys, the intimate spirit was the antithesis of a big studio vibe: the mood was relaxed and open and afterwards they’d hang out, listen to music, and drink wine.
While continuing to observe classic pop song structures, Gonzalez has moved away from the prior sonic touchstones of the 50s and 60s, finding himself now drawn to a 70s/80s slow dance. But in typical Cigarettes style, these influences are subtle—in the drums regimented to a click, in the beat and bop of “Baby Blue Movie,” and in the overall energy akin to disco ball-refracted tears on the dance floor.
And then there’s Gonzalez’s constant throughline: his deft use of reverb and space, and his soothing, androgynous vocals, which he laid down in the Spring/Summer of 2023, when the singer was still deep in his grief. Instead of waiting for the healing balm of perspective, Gonzalez pressed on the bruise and harnessed the hurt.
“I have to confront everything I went through, that’s just how I make peace,” confirms Gonzalez. “These are like photographs, and if I write a song then it’ll always be dear to me, and yes, it’s painful that it’s gone, but I’m just so fucking lucky I had that ever.”
1. X’s
2. Tejano Blue
3. Silver Sable
4. Hideaway
5. Holding you, Holding me
6. Dark Vacay
7. Baby Blue Movie
8. Hot
9. Dreams From Bunker Hill
10. Ambien Slide