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Photo – Tommy Kha

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Praise for HURRAY FOR THE RIFF RAFF

“Part folk-punk memoir, part harm-reduction PSA, part spiritual invocation and/or world-historical séance…we see softness and joy in the human experience and, lurking in the background, violence, fentanyl, and barrels of crude” – Pitchfork (Best New Music)

“Alynda Segarra is finding freedom in grief…their new record functions as a kind of queer Americana ode to the colorful cast of characters they have encountered over the years” – Vogue

“Alynda Segarra is not just a musician but a historian…they honed in on a style and craft that has positioned them as one of our great American bards, telling the stories of undocumented immigrants, queer folks and addicts” – PAPER

“Hurray for the Riff Raff has written what is, in my opinion, the most important album of the 2020s so far—a stark, multi-dimensional account of boundless communal love, meditations on class disparity and despair and fear synthesized into a container of relentless courage” – Paste (Cover Story)

“I’m so in love with the music… I’ve been listening to Hurray for the Riff Raff for a long time. And their voice is just breathtaking to me.” – Norah Jones

“The next great American road album is here…Segarra revisits memories of their youth to draw a subversive—and heartbreaking—map of the nation” – The Atlantic

“Alynda Segarra has created an epic tale of life on the road, a nearly mythic version of their own life story that stands alongside other great American musical travelogues…This is Hurray for the Riff Raff’s Hejira, this is that Joni Mitchell high point” – Ann Powers, NPR Music

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Hurray for the Riff Raff – aka Alynda Segarra (they/them) – today announces three headline dates down the East Coast of so-called-Australia, with support from Naarm/Melbourne’s Annie-Rose Maloney, in addition to their headline slots at Out On The Weekend and Dashville Skyline festivals, proudly presented by Love Police. Segarra is touring off the back of their critically-acclaimed eighth album The Past Is Still Alive (2024), which was awarded Best New Music on Pitchfork, hit #23 on the ARIA Albums Chart, and received high praise from Vogue, PAPER, NPR Music, The Atlantic, The Guardian and many others. Tickets to Hurray for the Riff Raff’s headline tour are on sale at 9am AEST this Friday 19 July from HERE.

Hurray for the Riff Raff’s poetic power proves why they have become a pan-everything fixture of the modern folk movement, illustrating inequality and independence, and navigating chaos and trauma with a sense of wonder and want. The Past Is Still Alive was produced by Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Angie McMahon, Waxahatchee) and recorded in Durham, NC just a month after the passing of Alynda Segarra’s father, and features contributions from Anjimile, Conor Oberst, Meg Duffy, Mike Mogis, Phil Cook, S.G. Goodman and more. Across the record they grapple with time, memory, love and loss, marking the most magnetic Hurray for the Riff Raff album to date.

Born in the Bronx and of Puerto Rican heritage, Hurray for the Riff Raff was raised by a blue-collar aunt and uncle, while their father navigated Vietnam trauma and their mother neglected them to work for the likes of Rudy Giuliani. They were radicalised by the time they hit their teens, baptised in the anti-war movement and galvanised in New York’s punk haunts and queer spaces. At 17, Segarra split, becoming the kid in a communal squat before shuttling to California, where they hopped trains across the country. They eventually found home – spiritual, emotional, physical – in New Orleans, forming a band and finding that music was not only a way to share what they’d learned and seen, but to learn and see more. Hurray for the Riff Raff steadily rose from house shows to a major label, where Segarra became a pan-everything fixture of the modern folk movement.

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Photo – Tommy Kha

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On opener ‘Alibi’ the effects of addiction in NYC’s Lower East Side are reckoned with, ‘Hawkmoon’ honours the life-changing impact instilled by the first trans woman they ever met (a fellow traveller named Miss Jonathan) while ‘Colossus of Roads’ offers a paean for queerness and the collective fight to survive in spite of violence. The epic ‘Ogallala’ recounts a journey to evade the cops on empty Nebraska highways, while ‘Snake Plant (The Past Is Still Alive)’ paints vivid scenes of family, childhood, and the adventures that came when they left it all behind: hitchhiking and hopping freight trains, lighting campfires and making love on superfund sites, shoplifting for food and playing music with a barrel of freaks.

Alynda Segarra received The People’s Voice Award at Folk Alliance International’s 2024 International Folk Music Awards, an Album of the Year nomination at the 2024 Americana Honors & Awards, and took part in a lauded Austin City Limits 50th Anniversary taping. Tonight they will be In Conversation with acclaimed essayist and poet Hanif Abdurraqib for the GRAMMY Museum, and Hurray for the Riff Raff will tour the US with Norah Jones through until the start of August.

Support on Hurray for the Riff Raff’s tour of so-called-Australia comes from Naarm/Melbourne’s Annie-Rose Maloney, who recently wrapped up a national tour with Angie McMahon and released their second single ‘Hold Me’ this past April, which triple j Unearthed said “makes you lean in a little closer… feels like I’m in conversation with an old friend.”

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Hurray for the Riff Raff – The Past Is Still Alive
out now via Nonesuch/Warner | Stream

Track List

Alibi
Buffalo
Hawkmoon
Colossus of Roads
Snake Plant (The Past Is Still Alive)
Vetiver
Hourglass
Dynamo
The World Is Dangerous
Ogallala

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Love Police presents..

HURRAY FOR THE RIFF RAFF

with special guest Annie-Rose Maloney

Tickets on sale 9am AEST Friday 19 July from lovepolice.com.au

Fri 4 Oct – Dashville Skyline Festival – Wonnarua Country/Hunter Valley, NSW
Sat 5 Oct – Factory Theatre – Eora/Sydney, NSW
Sun 6 Oct – The Eltham Hotel –  Bundjalung Country/Eltham, NSW
Wed 9 Oct – The Triffid – Meanjin/Brisbane, QLD
Sat 12 Oct – Out On The Weekend Festival – Naarm/Melbourne, VIC
Sun 13 Oct – Out On The Weekend Festival – Bunurong Country/Korumburra, VIC

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Follow HURRY FOR THE RIFF RAFF
Instagram · Facebook · X · Spotify
Apple Music · YouTube
hurrayfortheriffraff.com

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Photo – Tommy Kha

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AMNPLIFY – DB