Tennis is an American indie pop band from Denver, Colorado, United States, made up of husband-and-wife duo Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley. The duo formed in 2010, and released their debut album, Cape Dory, in 2011. Their second album, Young & Old, was released the following year. Their third release, Ritual in Repeat, was released on Communion records. The band's fourth album, Yours Conditionally, was released in 2017, followed by Swimmer in 2020.
Background
Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley met in a philosophy class while both were students at the University of Colorado, Denver in 2008. The couple started the band after they returned from an eight-month sailing expedition down the Eastern Atlantic Seaboard after their graduation. Moore had initially intended to go to law school. The songs on the band's first album would come to document their experiences sailing. Prior to forming Tennis, Moore's earliest singing experience was in church choirs during her youth.
Career
2010–2013: ''Cape Dory'', ''Young & Old''
Their first releases, both in July 2010, were the "Baltimore" EP on the Underwater Peoples label and the "South Carolina" single on Fire Talk. Tennis released their first studio album, Cape Dory on Fat Possum Records in January 2011. The album, featured on NPR, was based on the couple's experiences during their sailing trip. During their first tour, James Barone joined the band on drums. The second Tennis album, Young & Old, was released on Fat Possum Records on February 14, 2012, produced by Patrick Carney of The Black Keys, preceded by the single "Origins", which was issued on Forest Family Records on December 6, 2011. Tennis released a number of covers as self-released singles during 2011-2012, including versions of "Tell Her No" by the Zombies, "Is It True?" by Brenda Lee, "Tears in the Typing Pool" by Broadcast and "Guiding Light" by Television. American Songwriter named Tennis their Writer of the Week for the week of April 23, 2012. The band made several television appearances during 2012, performing "Origins" on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on March 21, "It All Feels the Same" on Late Night with David Letterman on April 9, and "My Better Self" and "High Road" on Conan on July 25.
2014–2015: ''Small Sound'', ''Ritual in Repeat''
In November 2013, Tennis released a 5-song EP titled Small Sound on Communion Records. It was previewed through Pitchfork Advance on October 29, 2013. In May 2014, the band supported sister-act Haim on their North American spring tour. Their third album, Ritual in Repeat, was released on Communion in September 2014 to critical acclaim. In a feature on the album, NPR Fresh Air's Terry Gross said, "Can you re-invent lively pop from the distant past?...songwriting team Tennis does just that with their new third album, Ritual in Repeat", while NPR's critic Milo Miles stated, "On Ritual in Repeat, it's like Moore and Riley discover just how much ancient Latin, or in this case extinct pop styles, is their natural language". Barone left the group in 2015. On March 29, 2015, Tennis performed at Burger Records' Burgerama 4 festival in Santa Ana, California, and two songs from that set, "I'm Callin" and "Never Work for Free", were later aired on the May 7 episode of Last Call with Carson Daly. Tennis were also selected to perform on April 1, 2015 at the United Artists Theater at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles for "The Music of David Lynch" event, hosted by the David Lynch Foundation.
2016–present: ''Yours Conditionally'', ''We Can Die Happy''
In early 2016, Moore and Riley once again set out on a sailboat journey in the Pacific Ocean, intended to provide inspiration for their next album, with their sailing experience being blogged by Urban Outfitters. The band's fourth and first self-produced album, Yours Conditionally, was released March 5, 2017 on the band's own label Mutually Detrimental. Record club Vinyl Me, Please chose Yours Conditionally as its "album-of-the-month", and the album debuted at No. 3 on Billboard's Alternative Albums chart and No. 2 on the Vinyl Albums chart. Tennis appeared at the 2017 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, and toured supporting Spoon and the Shins. On November 9, 2017, Tennis released the EP We Can Die Happy, preceded by the singles "No Exit" and "I Miss That Feeling". The band will tour North America from November 2017 to February 2018 in support of the project.
