San Francisco experimental rock band Oxbow unveiled their new single “Dead Ahead” yesterday.

Guitarist/pianist Niko Wenner said this about the new song, which is the opening track from the band’s forthcoming album Love’s Holiday:

“’Dead Ahead’ was made to order for starting our new album, Love’s Holiday. It is one of the few songs without choral singing and the only in D Minor, my co-producer in crime Joe Chiccarelli calling for fast and abrasive, it was birthed playing for my kids on an acoustic guitar given to me at age 6 and handmade before 1957 in Umeå, Sweden by Göran Frii. The recording features both the tiny toy tine piano Dan [Adams] gave our children and my 1981 white Stratocaster, the chorus adds a Little Big Muff Pi fuzz pedal I bought in 1979 from Tom Stevenson, my friend from age 4, recently deceased, who taught me to play AC/DC, Judas Priest and Van Halen songs. RIP and rock on, Tommy.”

An accompanying music video for the song, which can be seen below, was directed by Chris Purdie. Vocalist Eugene Robinson said this about working on the video:

“This may be the only video wherein we appear just as actors/characters and while the gaming scene recalls nothing if not Ingmar Bergman’s ‘The Seventh Seal,’ the lyric is pure OXBOW: ‘This god of love destroys and creates’…indubitably.”

Purdie also said:

“The concept for the mirrors used in ‘Dead Ahead’ were inspired by Orson Welles noir, ‘The Lady From Shanghai,’ a film partly based in and around San Francisco. The idea of mirrors and reflection were used to evoke themes of duality, and the idea that there are multiple perspectives, or that things aren’t entirely as they seem.”

Oxbow also revealed a handful of performances across the United States. Kicking off on October 20 at Philadelphia’s PhilaMOCA, the trek will find Oxbow performing in Portland (Maine), Brooklyn, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Mesa. Tour dates can be seen below. Tickets are on sale to the general public right now here.

Love’s Holiday, which will arrive on July 21 via Ipecac Recordings, can be pre-ordered here.

Oxbow tour dates

U.S. Tour Dates:

October 20 Philadelphia, PA PhilaMOCA

October 21 Portland, ME SPACE

October 22 Brooklyn, NY Elsewhere

November 9 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall

November 10 Los Angeles, CA Regent Theatre

November 11 Mesa, AZ Pub Rock

European tour dates (previously announced):

September 1 Glasgow, UK Broadcast

September 2 Birmingham, UK Supersonic Festival

September 3 Leeds, UK Brudenell Social Club

September 4 Bristol, UK Exchange

September 5 London, UK Studio 9294

September 6 Kortrijk, BE Wilde Western

September 7 Brussels, BE Botanique

September 8 Nijmegen, NL Merleyn

September 9 Tetange, LU Human’s World Festival (free entry)

September 10 Bochum, DE Die Trompete

September 11 Vienna, AT Volkstheatre Rote Bar

September 12 Wroclaw, PL Liverpool

September 13 Warsaw, PL Hydrozagadka

September 14 Berlin, DE Roadrunners Paradise

September 15 Hamburg, DE Hafenklang

September 16 Aalborg, DK Lasher Fest