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Apr 15, 2025 By Mark Redfern Photography by Maclay Heriot

Melbourne-based psych-rock group King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have officially announced a new album, Phantom Island, and shared a new song from it, “Deadstick,” via a music video. Phantom Island is due out June 13 on the band’s own p(doom) label. Check out “Deadstick” below, followed by the album’s tracklist and cover artwork, as well as the band’s upcoming tour dates, including their previously announced shows with a 29-piece orchestra.

Last October King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard released the album’s title track, which was one of our Songs of the Week.

Phantom Island follows Flight b741, a new album King Gizzard released in 2024. The initial tracks for the new album were recorded at the same time as the sessions for Flight b741, but still needed more work. In a press release, the band’s Stu Mackenzie says they “were harder to finish. Musically, they needed a little more time and space and thought.”

“The songs felt like they needed this other energy and color, that we needed to splash some different paint on the canvas,” Mackenzie adds.

And so they enlisted their friend Chad Kelly, who is a British historical keyboardist, conductor and arranger. “He brings this wealth of musical awareness to his chameleon-like arrangements,” Mackenzie says. “We come from such different worlds—he plays Mozart and Bach and uses the same harpsichords they did, and tunes them the exact same way. But he’s obsessed with microtonal music, too, and all this nerdy stuff like me.”

Guy Tyzack had this to say about directing the “Deadstick” video: “I started off wanting to create a frame that looked like a landscape painting with many different people and set pieces dotted about. Deadstick refers to when a plane propeller stops midflight so I decided to have a massive plane made out of cardboard crash land into a beautiful location. The song is big and chaotic so then I went about casting swing dancers and eccentric extras to fill the landscape.”

Summing up his change of approach to music these days, Mackenzie says: “When I was younger, I was just interested in freaking people out, but as I get older, I’m much more interested in connecting with people.”

In 2023 the band released a new album, The Silver Cord, via KGLW. There were two versions of The Silver Cord, an extended one and a version with shorter tracks. The Silver Cord followed the elaborately titled PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation, which also came out in 2023.

Phantom Island Tour Dates:

1. Phantom Island
2. Deadstick
3. Lonely Cosmos
4. Eternal Return
5. Panpsych
6. Spacesick
7. Aerodynamic
8. Sea of Doubt
9. Silent Spirit
10. Grow Wings and Fly

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Tour Dates:

Sun. May 18 - Tue. May 20 - Lisbon, PT @ Coliseu dos Recreios *
Fri. May 23 - Sun. May 25 - Barcelona, ES @ Poble Espanyol *
Thu. May 29 - Sat. May 31 - Vilnius, LT @ Lukiškės Prison 2.0 ^
Wed. June 4 - Fri. June 6 - Athens, GR @ Lycabettus Theatre City of Athens #
Sun. June 8 - Tue. June 10 - Plovdiv, BG @ Ancient Theatre ^
Fri. June 13 - Sun. June 15 - Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival
Mon. July 28 - Philadelphia, PA @ TD Pavilion At The Mann (w/ Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia) $
Wed. July 30 - New Haven, CT @ Westville Music Bowl (w/ Orchestra of St. Luke’s) $
Fri. August 1 - Forest Hills, NY @ Forest Hills Stadium (w/ Orchestra of St. Luke’s) $
Sat. August 2 - Forest Hills, NY @ Forest Hills Stadium (Rock ‘n Roll Show) $
Mon. August 4 - Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavilion (w/ National Symphony Orchestra) $
Wed. August 6 - Highland Park, IL @ Ravinia Festival (w/ Chicago Philharmonic) $
Fri. August 8 - Colorado Springs, CO @ Ford Amphitheater (w/ Colorado Symphony) $
Sun. August 10 - Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl (w/ Hollywood Bowl Orchestra) $
Mon. August 11 - San Diego, CA @ The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park (w/ San Diego Symphony Orchestra) $
Fri. August 15 - Sun. August 17 - Buena Vista, CO @ FIELD OF VISION at Meadow Creek %
Fri. October 31 - Manchester, UK @ Aviva Studios (Rave Set)
Sat. November 1 - London, UK @ Electric Brixton (Rave Set)
Sun. November 2 - London, UK @ Electric Brixton (Rave Set)
Tue. November 4 - London, UK @ Royal Albert Hall (w/ Covent Garden Sinfonia)
Wed. November 5 - Paris, FR @ La Seine Musicale (w/ L’Orchestre Lamoureux)
Thu. November 6 - Tilburg, NL @ 013 (Rave Set)
Fri. November 7 - Den Bosch, NL @ MAINSTAGE ( w/ Sinfonia Rotterdam)
Sun. November 9 - Gdansk, PL @ Inside Seaside Festival
(w/ The Baltic Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra)
Mon. November 10 - Berlin, DE @ Columbiahalle (Rave Set)
Tue. November 11 - Prague, CZ @ SaSaZu (Rave Set)
Wed. November 12 - Vienna, AT @ Gasometer (Rave Set)
Fri. November 14 - Copenhagen, DK @ Poolen (Rave Set)
Sat. November 15 - Gothenburg, SE @ Gothenburg Film Studios (Rave Set)

* w/ Etran De L’Aïr
^ w/ King Stingray
# w/ King Stingray, DJ Crenshaw
$ w/ DJ Crenshaw
% w/ Babe Rainbow, Gaye Su Akyol, King Stingray, Mannequin Pussy, Memo PST, Pearl Charles, The Mystery Lights, The Songs For Kids Band!, White Fence, DJ Crenshaw

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