French Cassettes Unveil Fall 2024 Tour Dates

Fresh from a hometown performance at this year’s Outside Lands festival, indie trio French Cassettes have announced Fall 2024 tour dates, kicking off September 28 in Tennessee and running through October 16 in Minneapolis. The run is bookended by additional Cali shows in Berkeley, Modesto and Santa Cruz [all dates below]. Tickets available here.

Guitarist/vocalist Lorenzo Scott Huerta, guitarist Mackenzie Bunch and drummer Rob Mills, released their third album Benzene, earlier this summer via Tender Loving Empire, hitting Schellraiser Festival in Nevada, before a tour West of the Mississippi.

Benzene was recorded at Bunch‘s Oakland studio. Produced by the band, the record was mixed by Nick Krill (War On Drugs, Generationals). Across its 10 songs, Benzene finds French Cassettes feeling both comfortable and confident allowing them to take more risks with their songwriting and performances. The intricate guitar work on first single, “Medium Horny,” is a holdover from the demo version, and that re-potting gives it a delicate, almost antique feel. While “Megabus” smooth lilting melody and Nashville-tight rhythm section, takes listeners down an empty highway, surrounded by dubious strangers. Then there are songs that just do a little bit of everything: “White Noise,” a testament to Bunch’s knack for adventurous production. The song finds its warbling, dueling guitars competing with brutally oversaturated drums before exploding into cleaner rock pastures while Huerta sings about the intimate details of a voicemail message he’s grown obsessed with.

The album contains a world of references, quotes and handmade word-puzzles that only Huerta can fully unpack. Some of the band’s influences are apparent: The Magnetic Fields in the tight song construction and humor, The Beach Boys in the harmonies and experimentation. But Huerta’s lyrical aesthetic is his own, and Benzene is packed to the gills with funny, memorable one-liners (“I’m sick of bar banter, but attracted to the neon”) and punctuated by knife twists (“Sometimes you swear you barely know her”). It's themes never veer too far from separation: from partners you still want the best for; from family members who have died; from a person you’re trying hard not to be.

Lyrically and musically, the songs on Benzene are in constant motion: The band never misses an opportunity to do something interesting. Melodically, production-wise, lyrically. There's always room to add another hook, or a new harmony, a strange sound, or a little secret handshake of a lyric. It’s that search for authentic energy that makes it all feel cohesive. The boys of French Cassettes follow their instincts to all destinations earnest, funny, joyful and heartbreaking with no regard for genre or posturing, making it feel like a new listen every time. The band’s confidence—which is very apparent on their third album—seems less important than their trust.