Tennis, the Denver indie-pop duo of Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore, have revealed that their upcoming LP, Face Down in the Garden, will also be their last. The record is out April 25, and the rarities compilation Neutral Poetry: First Recordings, Unreleased Demos 2009-2010 will follow on May 16. Tennis will then embark on a farewell tour of North America, which will wrap up in Saratoga, California on September 4.

’12 Blown Tires’, the latest preview of Tennis’ new album, also serves as their final single. It’s a collage of memories from tour that feels particularly heart-rending in the context of today’s news. “On a cross-country drive at the end of tour, our van and trailer blew four tires in quick succession,” Moore recalled. “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.”

Riley and Moore formed Tennis in 2010 after meeting as students at the University of Colorodo, Denver. “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,” Moore continued. “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.”

Opening up about the album, Moore added:

Face Down In The Garden is our seventh studio album. 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. 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.

Over the years our sound has evolved into three distinct categories: Brill Building, synth-pop, and rock. Face Down In The Garden occupies all of that space. Except for the help of some outside drumming, we worked and recorded alone as we have done for the last few albums. We wanted to write ourselves off the map by doing the unexpected thing, offsetting intuitive melodies with unusual arrangements, to make music that feels familiar but resists convention. Despite being rattled by a strange year, it is our most confident album. We are very excited for you to listen, preferably loud and on headphones.

Face Down in the Garden Cover Artwork:

Face Down in the Garden Tracklist:

1. At the Apartment
2. Weight of Desire
3. At the Wedding
4. Always the Same
5. Sister
6. Through the Mirror
7. I Can Only Describe You
8. 12 Blown Tires
9. In Love (Release The Doves)

Tennis 2025 Tour Dates:

May 26 Las Vegas, NV – Swan Dive
May 17 Salt Lake City, UT – Metro Music Hall
May 18 Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Block Party
May 21 Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
May 23 Chicago, IL – The Salt Shed
May 24 Indianapolis, IN – Hi-Fi Annex
May 25 Cleveland, OH – Globe Iron
May 27 Toronto, Ontario – The Concert Hall
May 30 Boston, MA – Roadrunner
May 31 Philadelphia, PA- Franklin Music Hall
Jun 1 New York, NY – The Rooftop at Pier 17
Jun 3 Washington, D.C. – The Anthem
Jun 5 Raleigh, NC – The Ritz
Jun 6 Atlanta, GA – The Eastern
Jun 7 Nashville TN – Brooklyn Bowl Nashville
Jun 9 Dallas, TX – The Factory in Deep Ellum
Jun 10 Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall
Jun 11 Austin, TX – Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater
Aug 18 San Diego, CA – Humphreys Concerts by the Bay
Aug 20 Los Angeles, CA – Greek Theatre
Aug 22 Pioneertown, CA – Pappy & Harriet’s
Aug 23 Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren
Aug 24 Santa Fe, NM – The Bridge at Santa Fe Brewing Co.
Aug 26 Denver, CO – The Mission Ballroom
Aug 28 Boise, ID – Treefort Music Hall
Aug 29 Portland, OR – McMenamins Grand Lodge
Aug 30 Vancouver, British Columbia – Malkin Bowl
Sep 2 Sacramento, CA – Channel 24
Sep 4 Saratoga, CA – The Mountain Winery