The Music Tapes have announced the first nationwide dates for The Traveling Imaginary. Also, the Music Tapes trio will tour Europe this summer in support of the European release of Mary’s Voice on June 24.

The band will be visiting towns and cities across the country as The Traveling Imaginary. They will pitch the circus tent home built especially for this tour and host an evening of songs, stories, games, movies, magic, amusements, and more. Deemed “magical and enchanting” by NPR Music’s Bob Boilen, the Traveling Imaginary will surprise and delight all who are lucky enough to enter the tent.

As soon as audiences walk through the door, they will be greeted with The Music Tapes’ surreal, carnival-esque games before entering the tent for a dreamlike show that includes songs from the band’s newest album Mary’s Voice which Pitchfork described as “a grand, genre-straddling vision in sound.” The evening’s entertainment also antique 16mm cartoons, virtuoso Klezmer music performed on the singing saw, Julian Koster’s unique narratives about dehydrated European cities and half-imagined children’s games, a 12-foot snowman, and the usual array of mechanical musical friends like the 7-Foot Tall Metronome and Static the Singing Television.

The Music Tapes have a long history of hosting surreal tours since first emerging as part of the influential Elephant 6 Collective – including the annual Caroling and Lullaby tours that have brought them into over 500 homes across the country. The Traveling Imaginary is an extension of those shows on a more ambitious scale than anything The Music Tapes has ever done.

This tour was inspired by the Music Tapes’ frontman Julian Koster’s wildest dreams and he invites you to experience something totally new yet strangely familiar. “It’s our sincere desire to offer audiences an unusual sort of fun, a new kind of experience,” says Julian. “Something that feels like exploring a wonderful dream or a pleasant memory. Something that gives a feeling of holiday and amusement that begins the very moment you walk in the door.”

Watch the official trailer for The Traveling Imaginary

Mary’s Voice is available on CD, limited-edition pop-up LP and digital now in the Merge store.

The Traveling Imaginary on tour:
April 22 Purchase, NY The Stood Center at SUNY Purchase
April 25 Philadelphia, PA First Unitarian Church – EARLY SHOW
April 25 Philadelphia, PA First Unitarian Church – LATE SHOW
April 29 Annandale-on-Hudson, NY Fisher Center
May 1 Chicago, IL Bottom Lounge (2 shows)
May 3 Minneapolis, MN Cedar Cultural Center (2 shows)
May 7 Portland, OR Mission Theatre (2 shows)
May 9 Seattle, WA Vera Project (2 shows)
May 12 San Francisco, CA TBA
May 14 Los Angeles, CA Bootleg Theatre (2 shows)

The Music Tapes’ new album, Mary’s Voice, is available now! Stream the album in its entirety via SoundCloud, and find it on CD, digital, and limited-edition LP with pop-up artwork in record stores everywhere and in the Merge store.

Mary’s Voice as described by Julian Koster: “I love sentimental melodies that you can hum with feeling. People warn against sentimentalizing or mythologizing the past. It’s any failure to mythologize the present that I think we have to be afraid of. This is a miracle. You are a miracle. Our lives are magic, and our times all the more so. Music proves it.”

Stream Mary’s Voice now at the Merge SoundCloud page

Mary’s Voice, the follow up to 2008′s acclaimed Music Tapes for Clouds and Tornadoes inaugurates a newly active phase in The Music Tapes’ evolution—with plans to tour the world in a circus tent later this year. To achieve these goals, The Music Tapes launched a Kickstarter page earlier this week to great response! The Kickstarter levels include autographed pillow cases, telephone concerts, and even the banjo that Julian used while recording Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Beginning with a goal of $5,000, they have already raised nearly $14,000!

Visit the Music Tapes’ Kickstarter page to find out how you can help bring the Traveling Imaginary to life, and order your copy of Mary’s Voice on CD, digital or LP (with special pop-up artwork) now in the Merge store.