Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Location: Barrowland
Unknown Mortal Orchestra announces a headline UK tour. Coming to Glasgow’s Barrowland on 26th March 2026.
Along with the release of new single ‘I Killed Captain Cook’, Unknown Mortal Orchestra announced their first tour in four years with a headline UK and North American tour that is set to kick off in March 2023. The run includes stops in Los Angeles and New York City before heading to the UK for five dates including London’s O2 Academy Brixton on 31 May and Manchester’s Albert Hall on 15 June, plus shows in Bexhill, Leeds and Glasgow.
Emerging from hedonism and isolation, Unknown Mortal Orchestra is the musical vision of Ruban Nielson that started as an anonymous home-recording project that fused psychedelia, soul, choppy percussion and funk. UMO came to life in basements and bedrooms after Nielson moved from his native New Zealand to Portland, Oregon with his family. Following the recruitment of a new drummer Greg Rogove (in addition to longtime bassist Jacob Portrait), and a deal with Jagjaguwar, UMO toured the US with Grizzly Bear and Liars.
Renowned for his self titled album
II built on the break-beat, junk-shop charm the 32-year-old multi-instrumentalist and songwriter came to be renowned for following his self-titled 2011 debut, and signaled the solidification of Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s position as an endlessly intriguing, brave psychedelic band. UMO is unafraid to dig deeper than the rest, to lock into their intoxicating, opiate groove and bring rock’n’roll’s exaggerated myths to life.
Written during a punishing, debauched touring schedule during which Nielson feared for both his sanity and health, II illustrated the emotional turmoil of life on the road, painting surrealist, cartoonish portraits of loneliness, love and despair.
Pulling Pink Floyd, the Family Stone, The Beatles and the Soft Machine through his warped rock’n’roll filter; Nielson created a collection of expressive, psychedelia. Unknown Mortal Orchestra was once Ruban Nielson’s closeted concern. With an album that uses his singular musical imagination and extraordinary talent to parade his emotions with unyielding honesty, it is now a fully realised band operating at the peak of its powers.
