Today, Fruit Bats, the nom de rock of Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Eric D. Johnson, announces The Landfill, as well as a massive tour of North America. The product of a highly prolific period of songwriting following 2025's critically-acclaimed solo outing, Baby Man, The Landfill is one of the most vibrant full-band albums in Fruit Bats' beloved catalogue. It's title track, “The Landfill,” is now available wherever you stream music — watch the Adam Willis-directed video below, fire up a grilled cheese, and reserve your copy of The Landfill on CD, LP, or limited edition “hummingbird sage” Peak Vinyl ahead of its June 12 release from the UK or US Merge store today!

Eric D. Johnson on “The Landfill”:

This is my 6th video with the great Adam Willis, AKA Brother Willis. Another in our long line of collabs which are often funny with cold opens and strange characters plumbing the depths of the human psyche. The very first brainstorm session, we landed on Close Encounters of the Third Kind as an initial reference. Especially the notion of a man at a crossroads who is haunted by a mysterious shape. Later that morphed into the idea that, for some strange reason, I live a double life as a tortured art star in Europe. And that my music career there is completely unknown. Truth be told, Fruit Bats have had a strange journey as more or less a cult band for a long time. Things have gotten bigger in recent years in North America but we ARE still quite obscure in Europe. This is a less than subtle nod to that fact.

Silly and obscure as these concepts may be - the video still plays to the lyric and feeling of the song. The notions of memory and legacy and following signs that may or may not lead you down the right path. Adam and I always like winking in these videos but the concepts and stories are still kinda poignant at the end of the day.

The album title draws from a familiar feature of the Midwestern landscape where Johnson grew up: the quiet hills that rise unexpectedly from otherwise flat terrain. For Johnson, those sites became a powerful metaphor. The Landfill imagines standing atop a towering pile of history—personal, emotional, and cultural—using that unlikely vantage point to survey what lies ahead. The result is an album concerned with memory, consequence, and possibility, where the debris of the past becomes the ground from which new visions emerge.

Fruit Bats fans seeking to climb to the peak of The Landfill and take in those new visions for themselves, take heart: the full Fruit Bats band is embarking on their largest ever tour of North America, beginning this June. 

Fruit Bats on tour: 
Jun 11 San Diego, CA – Belly Up
Jun 12 Tucson, AZ – La Rosa
Jun 13 Santa Fe, NM – The Bridge
Jun 14 Oklahoma City, OK – Tower Theatre
Jun 17 Columbia, MO – Rose Music Park
Jun 18 Indianapolis, IN – HI-FI Annex
Jun 19 Lexington, KY – The Burl
Jun 20 Nelsonville, OH – Nelsonville Music Festival
Jul 16 Winston-Salem, NC – Ramkat
Jul 17 Isle of Palms, SC – Windjammer
Jul 18 Asheville, NC – Hellbender by The Orange Peel
Jul 19 Richmond, VA – The Broadberry
Jul 21 Toronto, ON – Concert Hall
Jul 23 Norwalk, CT – District Music Hall
Jul 24 Newport, RI – Newport Folk Festival
Jul 25 Kingston, NY – Assembly
July 28 Northampton, MA – Academy of Music
Sep 30 Los Angeles, CA – Bellwether
Oct 01 Berkeley, CA – UC Theatre
Oct 02 Santa Cruz, CA – Rio Theatre
Oct 03 Grass Valley, CA – Center For The Arts
Oct 07 Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom
Oct 09 Seattle, WA – Showbox SoDo
Oct 10 Victoria, BC – Capitol Ballroom
Oct 11 Vancouver, BC – Commodore
Oct 13 Moscow, ID – International Ballroom at University of Idaho
Oct 14 Boise, ID – Treefort Music Hall
Oct 15 Missoula, MT – The Wilma
Oct 16 Salt Lake City, UT – Commonwealth
Oct 17 Denver, CO – Mission Ballroom
Oct 20 Lawrence, KS – Liberty Hall
Oct 21 Iowa City, IA – Englert Theatre
Oct 22 Minneapolis, MN – Fine Line
Oct 23 Madison, WI – Majestic Theater
Oct 24 Chicago, IL – The Salt Shed
Nov 05 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
Nov 06 Burlington, VT – Higher Ground Ballroom
Nov 07 Boston, MA – Royale
Nov 08 Portland, ME – State Theatre
Nov 11 New York, NY – Webster Hall
Nov 12 Pittsburgh, PA – Thunderbird
Nov 14 Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
Nov 15 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
Nov 17 Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
Nov 18 Nashville, TN – Basement East
Nov 19 Birmingham, AL – The Saturn
Nov 20 New Orleans, LA – Tipitina’s
Nov 21 Austin, TX – Mohawk