Red House Painters will play their first Stateside string of live dates in four years when their North American tour in support of Old Ramon commences June 7 in Portland, Oregon.

After the forlorn quartet — singer/guitarist Mark Kozelek, drummer Anthony Koutsos, bassist Jerry Vessel and guitarist Phil Carney — return from a European jaunt, their 14-city trek starts in the Pacific Northwest and heads through the Midwest and Northeast before wrapping up July 1 in San Francisco, according to a Sub Pop spokesperson.

Although Old Ramon, which borrows its title from a Spanish children's book, is the band's latest album, recording was actually completed in the spring of 1998. After the Island Records subsidiary Supreme released Songs for a Blue Guitar in 1996, the Universal-PolyGram merger two years later left its follow-up, as well as many other albums by artists considered risky ventures, in limbo, forcing the band to buy back the masters from the major-label conglomerate.

Sub Pop released Old Ramon, the group's sixth LP, in April, bringing Red House Painters back to their indie-label roots, which began with early-'90s hip factory 4AD's issuing of their first four albums, beginning with 1992's debut Down Colorful Hill. While the disputes over Old Ramon raged, Kozelek released solo material on the Badman imprint, including last year's Rock & Roll Singer EP and What's Next to the Moon, a tribute to Bon Scott-era AC/DC released in January. Last year Kozelek appeared on the big screen as the Stillwater bass player Larry Fellows in the film "Almost Famous." Red House Painters tour dates, according to a Sub Pop spokesperson:

  • 6/7 - Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater
  • 6/8 - Vancouver, BC @ Starfish Room
  • 6/9 - Seattle, WA @ Crocodile Cafe
  • 6/12 - Minneapolis, MN @ 400 Bar
  • 6/13 - Chicago, IL @ Double Door
  • 6/15 - Ann Arbor, MI @ Blind Pig
  • 6/16 - Toronto, ON @ Lee's Palace
  • 6/18 - Cambridge, MA @ Middle East Club
  • 6/20 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
  • 6/22 - Philadelphia, PA @ Trocadero
  • 6/23 - Washington, DC @ Black Cat
  • 6/25 - Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
  • 6/29 - West Hollywood, CA @ Troubadour
  • 7/1 - San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall