Blowout is the latest album from artist, producer, composer, and keyboardist John Carroll Kirby. The record is inspired by a period in Costa Rica spent playing with local musicians while Kirby imagined “failed utopias.”

In 2021, Kirby visited Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica to film an episode of his Kirby’s Gold travelogue series with the Kawe Calypso Band. Here, Kirby wrote the majority of Blowout between the early-morning wake-up calls from the local oropendola birds and psychedelic sunsets. Kirby says, “The oropendola is a very cool bird that lives in a sac-like hanging nest. There was a tree full of them outside where I stayed that woke me up every morning at 5 am, so I had to write a song about them.” The album was finished upon Kirby’s return to Los Angeles with a stripped-down band at 64 Sound Studios.

Blowout sways between the title’s two definitions – a moment of destruction and one big party. While writing the album, Kirby thought of episodes of collective madness or delusion, like Fyre Festival and the Heaven’s Gate cult. The album imagines “a festival where everyone gets beamed up to utopia or heaven instead of starving or dying unfulfilled.” Kirby says, “I’m trying to use imagination in music to create my own myths, and keep things playful and funny and not too sanctimonious.”

“His strongest album to date. It hits all the points you want, and then some.” – Clash 8/10

“A left-field jazz date traversing elation and sadness” – MOJO ****

Purchase vinyl: John Carroll Kirby – Blowout
Stream: John Carroll Kirby – Blowout

John Carroll Kirby – Blowout Tracklist:
1. Oropendola
2. Mates
3. The Takedown
4. Hotel Jonny Chingas
5. Vertigo
6. So So So
7. Sun Go Down
8. Gecko Sound
9. Flying Cat
10. Mates (Dub)
11. So So So (Dub)
12. Hotel Jonny Chingas (Dub)

John Carroll Kirby Upcoming Tour Dates
July 30 – Niigata, JP – Fuji Rock*
Aug 5 – Shanghai – YongFoo Elite*
Aug 18 – Los Angeles, CA – Lodge Room
Aug 24 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
Aug 26 – Port Townsend, WA – Thing Festival
Sep 13 – Chicago, IL – Sleeping Village
Sep 15 – St Paul, MN – Turf Club
* with Eddie Chacon