Casper dreamed of a band that changed costumes between every song.
The audience didn’t know who they were watching. Neither did the band.
That was the point.
Okay, quick pop quiz.
Can you name a band that started as teenagers playing 72-second powerviolence songs about how much everything sucks, spent the next two decades moving through classic hardcore, Wire-influenced garage rock, Joy Division post-punk, synth-laced new wave, and finally landed on an album that Stereogum called “Album of the Week” seven years after their last record — and somehow the reviews all say “this might actually be their best”?
No, it’s not Radiohead. No, it’s not the Beatles. It’s a band from Rohnert Park, California, named after a New Order song, and they’ve been pulling off the most quietly audacious genre run in modern punk without anyone really noticing.
I’m talking about Ceremony, and their new album Tell Me Your Dream is out now. Let me explain why this matters.
The 21-Year Pivot#
Ceremony formed in 2004 when most of them were still in high school. Their early stuff — Violence Violence (2006), Still Nothing Moves You (2008) — was the kind of hardcore where you could play the entire set in under 20 minutes and still make the crowd bleed. If you were at a house show in Northern California in the mid-2000s, you probably saw them and you definitely got hit by someone.
But here’s the thing they told themselves early: never make the same record twice.
That’s not a throwaway line. Look at their arc:
graph LR
VV[2006: Violence Violence
Blistering powerviolence] --> RP[2010: Rohnert Park
Classic hardcore swagger]
RP --> Z[2012: Zoo
Wire-esque garage rock]
Z --> LM[2015: The L-Shaped Man
Joy Division post-punk]
LM --> SW[2019: In the Spirit World Now
Synth-laced new wave]
SW --> TD[2026: Tell Me Your Dream
Career summation, every era at once]
style VV fill:#1a1a2e,color:#fff
style RP fill:#16213e,color:#fff
style Z fill:#0f3460,color:#fff
style LM fill:#533483,color:#fff
style SW fill:#e94560,color:#fff
style TD fill:#f5a623,color:#fff
Each move is a genuine pivot, not a tepid evolution. Their 2010 album Rohnert Park was hardcore with swagger. Their 2012 album Zoo was angular art-punk. Their 2015 album The L-Shaped Man was a full-on Joy Division tribute act in the best way — which makes sense, because they named the band after a New Order song. And their 2019 album In the Spirit World Now had synths everywhere and sounded like what would happen if a hardcore kid discovered Depeche Mode at 30.
Most bands that pull moves like this lose their audience. Ceremony just kept their heads down and played sold-out Palladium shows.
What Happens When You Give a Producer the Keys#
For Tell Me Your Dream, Ceremony reunited with producer John Reis — the Rocket from the Crypt / Hot Snakes / Drive Like Jehu legend who worked on their 2015 album. Reis, according to guitarist Anthony Anzaldo, “sort of joined the band on this one.” They gave him the keys. That level of trust, after 21 years, tells you something.
The result is a record that draws from anarcho-punk forebears (Discharge, Crass) while folding in new-wave synth wobbles, dance-punk grooves, and the kind of bittersweet rock swagger Reis has been perfecting since the early 90s. It’s 10 tracks in 31 minutes — punk brevity, but the density of a band that’s been accumulating influences for two decades.
“Other Hells” (2:06) — the lead single — is a feral adrenaline spike with a new-wave synth wobble cutting through the chaos like a migraine. “Madness” (3:12) finds them doing !!!-style dance-punk, complete with funky bass and call-and-response, until vocalist Ross Farrar drops what might be the album’s best line:
“Being young’s like being rich. You have this thing that everyone wants, and you couldn’t care less. And you waste it.”
“Dark Summer” (3:55) is propulsive 80s alternative with a melancholy undertow. “Death Destruction Mayhem” is the most unapologetically punk thing here — an anthem built for the pit, multiple vocalists in lockstep, the ghost of Violence Violence breathing through it.
And then there’s the closer, “Paradise” (4:56), which dissolves everything into something hypnotic. Synth-driven. Vocals somber and almost relaxing. New Noise called it “a field of blissful thinking.” A band that started as teenagers screaming about nothing taking shape is ending albums with ambient new-wave meditations in 2026, and it doesn’t feel like a betrayal. It feels like arriving somewhere.
The Thing Everyone’s Talking About#
There’s a quote from guitarist Andy Nelson that keeps bouncing around my head. When asked about the album’s directness, he said:
“Why aren’t punk bands actually saying the word ‘Palestine’ on their records?”
That’s a real question from a real interview, not a press-cycle provocation. And it lands differently coming from a band that’s been doing this for 21 years than it would from, say, a reunion tour or a nostalgia act.
Vocalist Ross Farrar put it this way: “We’re living in an era of mass uncertainty. In punk, I don’t see how you can’t respond.”
Ceremony has been shapeshifting for two decades — hardcore punks, garage rockers, post-punk revivalists, new wave explorers — but the politics never left. They just got more specific. Tell Me Your Dream isn’t the record of a band that’s figured everything out. It’s the record of a band that kept showing up, kept asking questions, and refused to pick a lane. The punk isn’t in the genre. It’s in the refusal to stop evolving.
Why This Matters Now#
Tell Me Your Dream arrives in a year where punk’s political voice feels newly urgent. Seven years is a long time between albums — especially when you’re not a legacy act playing greatest hits sets. (Ceremony never stopped playing; they just didn’t release a studio album. There were sold-out shows, side projects, a live celebration of Rohnert Park’s anniversary, and Ross Farrar earning a poetry MFA at Syracuse. They stayed busy.)
Stereogum’s album-of-the-week writeup framed it perfectly: “Ceremony never stop searching, and their continued fearless existence feels like more of a miracle with every passing year.”
I think about that a lot — the “continued fearless existence.” In an era where bands either burn out fast or coast for decades on past glories, Ceremony is out here doing neither. They just keep making the album that makes sense for who they are right now, even if it sounds nothing like what they did before. Twenty-one years of that, and somehow they’re still getting better.
Go Listen#
The 22-date North American tour kicks off September 9 in Montreal — hitting Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and the Fillmore in San Francisco. But you don’t need to wait for the live show. Tell Me Your Dream is out now on Relapse Records. Start with “Other Hells” if you want to feel how fast it moves. Start with “Paradise” if you want to understand where 21 years of shapeshifting actually lands. Or start with “Madness” and tell me that line about being young and being rich doesn’t hit you somewhere specific.
Do yourself a favor and listen to — well, all of it. But especially “Madness.” That lyric is going to live in my head for a while.