The Darts Stoke the Bonfire on Their Sharpest Record Yet
Seattle’s garage-rock firebrands The Darts return with their most ambitious release yet. Halloween Love Songs, arriving March 3 via Adrenalin Fix Music, finds the all-women quartet operating at full voltage after more than a decade spent ripping through stages across Europe, the UK, and North America.
Recorded at Station House Studio in Los Angeles and produced by Grammy-winning engineer Mark Rains, the new LP captures the band in peak form — road-tested, tightly locked, and leaning fully into the raw theatricality that has made their shows cult favorites. Over years of constant touring, lineup shifts, and late-night writing sessions, The Darts have sharpened their garage-punk instincts into something cinematic and deliberate.
They’ve built a reputation the hard way: sold-out club runs, vinyl pressings disappearing as quickly as they’re printed, and standout live sessions for KEXP. Festival appearances at Punk Rock Bowling, Binic Folk & Blues, SJOCK Festival, and Bear Stone have only strengthened their standing within the global garage underground. Their following stretches from goth-punk legend Dave Vanian to horror master Stephen King to punk icon Jello Biafra.
But if anything, Halloween Love Songs shows a band that isn’t riding the wave — they’re steering it.
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A Concept Born After Dark
The record’s origin story begins in Paris during a 2024 Rock n Folk interview. Singer and Farfisa-wielding frontwoman Nicole Laurenne jokingly suggested that Halloween deserved more than a single novelty anthem. The idea stuck.
By the time she returned home, the concept had evolved into a full album built around the emotional arc of a night out.
Side A captures the electric anticipation of evening. Side B dives headfirst into the chaos that follows once darkness settles in.
Rather than a gimmicky horror theme, the record becomes a two-act mood piece — a sweaty, fuzz-drenched soundtrack to nightlife where danger, humor, romance, and catharsis collide.
From Midnight Mischief to Apocalypse
The album opens with “Midnight Creep,” a slinking groove already familiar to fans thanks to a custom dance that has ignited crowds from Switzerland to Cincinnati. Tracks like “Zombies on the Metro” and “Every Night Is Halloween” lean into the playful early-evening energy, driven by Laurenne’s Farfisa bite, Rebecca Davidson’s snarling guitar lines, Lindsay Scarey’s muscular bass, and the snapping backbeat of returning original drummer Rikki Styxx.
Then the mood shifts.
Side B dives into heavier territory. “Apocalypse,” inspired by the medieval Apocalypse Tapestry in Angers, France, stomps forward on thick Mudhoney-style fuzz and a caveman rhythm anchored by the chant “No Kings.” The line was written as a declaration of liberation from oppression — and long before the track surfaced, the phrase began appearing as a protest chant across the U.S.
Elsewhere, songs like “The Devil Made Me Do It” and “Darkness” lean into hypnotic repetition and chant-driven hooks built for packed clubs and late-night dance floors.
The DNA remains unmistakably garage rock, channeling the ghosts of The Cramps, The Trashwomen, and The Seeds while echoing the modern bite of Death Valley Girls and The Dead Weather. But the execution feels heavier, sharper, and more purposeful than anything The Darts have released before.
Built on Years of the Road
What separates Halloween Love Songs from earlier Darts releases is its sense of focus. The album feels like the culmination of years spent in vans, on trains, on festival stages, and inside sweaty basement venues around the world.
It’s the sound of a band that has spent a decade carving out its lane — and finally building the record big enough to expand it.
True to form, The Darts will spend much of 2026 back on the road, with extensive touring across Europe and North America.
The Darts 2026 Tour Dates
March–April (France)
- 3.26 Lille – Bistrot de ST SO
- 3.27 Amiens – Péniche Celestine
- 3.28 Lauzach – Festival Bouge Ton Cube
- 3.29 Rouen – Fury Défendu
- 3.30 Saint-Étienne – Entre Pots Cafe
- 3.31 Dijon – Les Tanneries
- 4.01 Clermont-Ferrand – Le Fotomat
- 4.02 Orléans – O’Patio Défi
- 4.03 Vitré – Very Rock Trip Party
- 4.04 Montaigu – Le Zinor
- 4.05 Bordeaux – Les Vivres de L’Art
May (West Coast)
- 5.01 Sacramento, CA
- 5.02 Reno, NV
- 5.03 Chico, CA
- 5.06 Eugene, OR
- 5.07 Portland, OR
- 5.08 Tacoma, WA
- 5.09 Seattle, WA
- 5.10 Bellingham, WA
- 5.12 Yakima, WA
- 5.14 Salt Lake City, UT
- 5.15 Grand Junction, CO
- 5.16 Denver, CO
- 5.17 Albuquerque, NM
- 5.19 Tucson, AZ
- 5.20 Phoenix, AZ
- 5.21 El Centro, CA
- 5.22 Los Angeles, CA
- 5.23 Long Beach, CA
- 5.24 Oceanside, CA
- 5.25 Pioneertown, CA
- 5.27 Las Vegas, NV
- 5.28 Palmdale, CA
- 5.29 Santa Cruz, CA
- 5.30 Oakland, CA
June (East Coast)
- 6.10 Jersey City, NJ
- 6.11 Washington, DC
- 6.12 Richmond, VA
- 6.13 Raleigh, NC
- 6.14 Wilmington, NC
- 6.17 Savannah, GA
- 6.18 Athens, GA
- 6.19 Atlanta, GA
- 6.20 Nashville, TN
- 6.21 Louisville, KY
- 6.23 Indianapolis, IN
- 6.24 Cleveland, OH
- 6.25 Rochester, NY
- 6.26 Lake George, NY
- 6.27 New Haven, CT
- 6.28 Brooklyn, NY
August (Pacific Northwest)
- 8.26 Eugene, OR
- 8.27 Portland, OR
- 8.28 Seattle, WA
- 8.29 Vancouver, BC
- 8.30 Olympia, WA
