Having swooned over the album since the announcement that they'd signed to Merge, we're thrilled to finally say that Last Missouri Exit, the debut album by Chicago's Case Oats, is out today! Listen to the record in full wherever you stream music, and pick up a copy on CD or LP from the Merge store!

Arriving in the wake of praise from Rolling Stone, Paste, The New York Times, Stereogum, and elsewhere, Last Missouri Exit longs to be listened to while one watches the sun set from their porch swing. But the record’s wistful, idyllic take on the Midwest isn’t nostalgia for the past; it is what Casey Gomez Walker and the band—Spencer Tweedy (drums), Max Subar (guitar, pedal steel), Jason Ashworth (bass), Scott Daniel (fiddle), and Nolan Chin (piano, organ)—conjured “Big Pink-style” in the basement one summer on an ad-hoc rig. What they’ve made is warm and inviting, an album that reveals itself on first spin and grows deeper with each listen. 

The record gels around Gomez Walker’s sharply drawn character studies, capturing a transitional time for her. On the drive north from her Missouri hometown to Chicago, the sign before the Illinois border reads, in part, “Last Missouri Exit.” Crossing it signaled the end of her childhood and the beginning of the rest of her life. The album is a hinge between those two states, its pangs of homesickness overlapping with the thrill of breaking for the horizon.

What critics are saying about Last Missouri Exit: 

“Embodying the farmhouse caprices aglow in Paul and Linda McCartney’s early brilliance and the soulful, rootsy grooves imagined by Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, Casey Gomez Walker and Spencer Tweedy are two halves of an inquisitive, goofy, and sentimental brain.” —Paste

“Case Oats’ Last Missouri Exit weaves ten tracks of raw Midwest folk rock, its “Big Pink-style” home recordings overflowing with vivid, heart-on-sleeve storytelling. Spencer Tweedy’s crisp and refined drum grooves and a tight-knit band’s glorious twang cradle lyrics that spill out like confessions from a well-worn, doodle-strewn diary.” —New Commute

“Captivating” —NPR Music

The last of Case Oats’ album release shows is tonight, in their hometown of Chicago, IL. Following their September appearances around Nashville’s Americanafest, the band hits the road again in October supporting Lucius and Superchunk. Tickets for all dates are on sale now.

Case Oats on tour:
Aug 22 Chicago, IL – The Hideout%
Sep 09–13 Nashville, TN – Americanafest
Oct 03 New Orleans, LA – Tipitina’s^
Oct 07 Omaha, NE – Slowdown^
Oct 08 Lawrence, KS – Liberty Hall^
Oct 10 Oklahoma City, OK – Tower Theatre^
Oct 11 Dallas, TX – Granada Theater^
Oct 12 Austin, TX – Austin City Limits Festival
Oct 13 Denver, CO – The Gothic Theatre*
Oct 14 Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge*
Oct 15 Boise, ID – Shrine Social Club Ballroom*
Oct 17 Seattle, WA – Tractor Tavern*
Oct 18 Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios*
Oct 19 Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios*
Oct 21 San Francisco, CA  – The Independent*
Oct 23 Los Angeles, CA – Teragram Ballroom*

% Album release show
^ w/ Lucius
* w/ Superchunk