The Final Set: Tennis Releases ‘12 Blown Tires’ Ahead Of Career-Concluding Album & Tour

Tennis will release their final studio album, Face Down In The Garden, on April 25 via their Mutually Detrimental label. The Denver-based duo of Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore shared the record’s third preview today, “12 Blown Tires,” ahead of their farewell tour which gets underway in May.

Tennis previously released the Face Down In The Garden tracks “Weight of Desire” and “At The Wedding.” Moore and Riley captured the LP in their Denver home studio and, save for some outside drumming, created the album in their classic duo format.

“Face Down In The Garden is our seventh studio album,” Moore stated. “The inspiration for new work came while we were still on the road touring Pollen. We felt a clear pull to write new music, but ran up against a series of bizarre setbacks. We blew tires and lost an engine. I developed a chronic illness. We took a doomed voyage that culminated in an attempted robbery at sea. Fragments of songs that first arrived like gifts from the universe later refused to be completed. Our days were awash in major and minor crises that dragged the album out endlessly.”

“Patrick and I felt out of sync with the world, as though we had been ejected from the flow of life,” Moore added. “My response was to bury myself in my own memories. Those years weren’t easier or better, but I could make sense of them. In Face Down In The Garden, I trace the arc of my life through a series of vignettes: a first moment of connection, a conversation at a wedding, a night offshore, a tour diary.”

Moore also detailed the latest Face Down In The Garden single, “12 Blown Tires,” as well as the decision to say goodbye to Tennis:

“On a cross-country drive at the end of tour, our van and trailer blew four tires in quick succession. That particular stretch of highway was a tire graveyard. I counted the shredded remains of twelve tires from where we sat on the side of the road, swapping out our last spare. Our bad luck was heavily contrasted by the good night we’d just had in Houston. The highs and lows of touring are unnatural, disorienting. On the shoulder of I-40, I began writing the lyrics to ‘12 Blown Tires.’ It is a constellation of memories from the road, and of our marriage, two endeavors that are completely, hopelessly entangled.

“When we recorded ‘12 Blown Tires’ a few months later, I had the sense of distilling the past 15 years into four minutes of music. It felt like the end of something, though I wasn’t sure what. Patrick and I spent most of our 20s and all of our 30s focused on Tennis. It has been the most joyous, bewildering, challenging, and humbling experience. After finishing Face Down In The Garden, it became clear that we had said everything we wanted to say and achieved everything we wanted to achieve with our band. This will be our last studio album, at least in this configuration as Tennis. We are ready to pursue other creative projects and to make space in our lives for new things. In that light, the upcoming tour feels more poignant, like a concluding thought. These two kids from Denver who only ever dreamed of playing a few house shows are very fulfilled. Perhaps we’ll see you on the road. As always, thank you.”

Watch the official video for “12 Blown Tires” below:

Tennis launch their final tour on May 16 in Las Vegas. That same day the band will bookend their career with the EP Neutral Poetry: First Recordings, Unreleased Demos 2009–2010. The eight-song collection contains early versions of favorites such as “Cape Dory,” “Marathon,” “South Carolina,” “Baltimore” and “Pigeon.” There are also three never-before-available songs, “Key Largo,” “April and It’s Still Snowing” and “One Day This Will Be a Good Songgg.”

Scroll down for Tennis’ Face Down In The Garden Tour dates and ticket info.