Michigan state post-hardcore veterans La Dispute have announced their long-awaited return, with the outfit set to issue their first full-length in six years this September. Ahead of its release, the band are teasing their new album, No One Was Driving the Car, with a video for its self-questioning and hair-shearing first single, “I Shaved My Head.”
The new video, which was directed and edited between Steven Paseshnik and Adam Vass, begins with an extended scene of a downtrodden man trying to trudge his way through frying a couple of eggs at home, and then hitting the barbershop for a slick trim. By video’s end, he’s giving himself the titular buzz-and-Bic-razor job, while a few artistically reality-distorting images slip in and out of frame.
As for the song, it works a minimal drum and vocal motif at the top of the tune, before leaning into a dank, despairing groove. Vocalist Jordan Dreyer confirmed in a statement that the song is indeed about “a man examining his own slow dissociation from himself while shaving his head alone in a bathroom at night,” with his lyrics reflecting hair-clogged drains, moments of introspection and a profound navigation of the self (“A subtle change/A sudden stranger”).
As for the rest of No One Was Driving the Car, the band’s follow-up to 2019’s Panorama is said to have been inspired by 2017 film First Reformed. The record “grapples with malaise in the shadow of the looming apocalypse, which has noticeably been worsened by the advancement of tech,” and likewise finds Dreyer singing of “frequent daydreams of drowning, flashbacks to eye-contact with dead animals, experiences of decaying relationships and secondhand suicides.”
The album is out September 5th via Epitaph records. An pre-order for No One Was Driving the Car on exclusive tri-colored vinyl is available now in Revolver’s shop.
La Dispute will likewise mount a North American tour on release day, with the trip kicking off with a home-state show at Detroit, Michigan’s St. Andrew’s Hall.
You’ll find the upcoming U.S. show info, as well as No One Was Driving the Car’s cover art and tracklisting, down below.
No One Was Driving the Car tracklisting:
I Shaved My Head
Man with Hands and Ankles Bound
Autofiction Detail
Environmental Catastrophe Film
Self-Portrait Backwards
The Field
Sibling Fistfight at Mom’s Fiftieth / The Un-Sound
Landlord Calls the Sheriff In
Steve
Top-Sellers Banquet
Saturation Diver
I Dreamt of a Room with All My Friends
No One Was Driving the Car
End Times Sermon
La Dispute tour dates 2025:
9/5 Detroit, MI – St. Andrew’s Hall
9/6 Toronto, ON – Phoenix Concert Theatre
9/7 Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop
9/8 Pittsburgh, PA – Spirit Hall
9/10 Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club
9/11 Brooklyn, NY – Warsaw
9/12 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
9/13 Washington, DC – Howard Theater
9/14 Charlotte, NC – Neighborhood Theatre
9/16 Orlando, FL – The Beacham
9/17 Atlanta, GA – Masquerade
9/18 Nashville, TN – Basement East
9/19 Columbus, OH – King of Clubs
9/20 Indianapolis, IN – Deluxe at Old National Centre