In the wake of the Parkland shooting, and the Students Stand Up and Never Again movements, we've released "Dear Congress, (17)." The song was born on our last tour, and it was written to raise awareness of these tragedies and urge reform. Text DISPATCH to 877-877 to demand lasting change from Congress.

Written from the perspective of someone who just buried their loved one, "Dear Congress, (17)" is the personal side of observing Washington throw empty condolences to grieving families while accepting NRA campaign money.

How is it possible our "elected" protect the gun lobby more than the human lives they represent? How many more people have to die? How many more kids’ lives have to be erased before we pay attention and make simple common sense changes to how we buy and use guns in our country?

Available today on Apple Music, Spotify, and other music services, all proceeds from the song will be donated to our friends at Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing gun violence in America.

Here are a few more ways to make a big difference...

Donate to Parkland Survivors and Families on Go Fund Me - Go Fund Me has compiled a listing to easily donate to many of the victims for health care costs, as well as the families and loved ones of those lost.

Contact Your Rep Through Brady - You can reach out through the link provided to create a letter to your Congress members and ask them to expand background checks to all gun sales, ban assault weapons and large capacity magazines, and support state-level extreme risk laws.

Contact Your Rep Directly - All Congress members have contact information publicly available, and twitter handles are easy to come by. We encourage you to reach out directly or tweet at them, beyond the Brady Campaign form letter.

March for our Lives Sign Up - Sign up to receive more information as marches across the country, planned for March 24th, get organized over the coming weeks. Another tab on the site for "Sister Marches" will take you to a listing of Facebook events to RSVP and talk with other people in your community planning and looking to attend your local march.

As spring fades to warmer weather, rally your friends and plan your road trips! We’re heading out this summer with our friends Nahko and Medicine for the People.

Get full info on the show near you at: http://bit.ly/DispatchTour

Tickets are on sale now.

Joining us on different legs of the tour is Raye Zaragoza and Scatter Their Own.

Much like last summer, we’ll be hitting up a bunch of new cities on this tour. We’ll be playing some new songs that we haven’t tried live, as well as some songs that we recorded, but didn’t go on America, Location 12. We played some of them in Europe in 2016 and they'll be making their way back into the fold. Bringing back some old tunes too that haven’t seen the light in a while.

There will be a handful of special tour dates on this one...

Colorado Weekend - The weekend of June 15th-17th will be a special Dispatch Colorado Weekend, with two concerts. One in Vail on the 16th and one at Red Rocks the 17th.

Rebelution & Stephen Marley - on July 14th we'll be performing a unique show in Bangor, ME at Darling's Waterfront Pavillion with Rebelution and Stephen Marley.

Two Night Stands - There will be a few back-to-back shows this summer featuring different sets. First will be two shows in NYC's legendary Central Park at SummerStage on July 18th and 19th and two nights in Boston at Blue Hills Bank Pavilion to close out the tour.

Thanks always for making the drives and effort to come see us, and any live music for that matter.

See you out there!

In college, our friend Andrew Mudge made a black and white, 28 minute movie on 16 millimeter film about a can-collecting kid on the hunt for an illusive misprint of the soda pop Mello Yello. His name and the title of the film is Henry Hinkle. When we were trying to decide on a possible video direction for the song, I thought of this film I’d seen as a 17 year old. It was brought back from Colorado Springs by my best friend Weej’s older brother Andrew on VHS tape... I thought, it’s possible that this video we’re looking to create already exists within that short film. 

I remember loving it, but after so many years, I didn’t know if my memory had made it better than it was. I emailed Andrew (now an established filmmaker). He loved the idea of editing the film down for a 5 minute long song, but he’d have to go up to Vermont to his parents’ farm to see if he still had a copy of the VHS lying around, or if he could find the actual film canisters. He also warned us and threw out the disclaimer that it was a long time ago. We persisted, and he found the tape and sent it to me and Brad in Ashland, Oregon, where we had the day off on our winter tour. Bradley and I were stunned by the raw beauty, the longing, the incredible script and performances of all involved - especially my old friend as a 19 year old behind the camera... and of course the painted yellow lines.

To watch the full film, please send an aluminum can tab along with a one-dollar bill and your return address to the below recipient:

Henry Hinkle
P.O. Box 28
Vershire, VT 05079

The 20th Anniversary edition of 'Bang Bang' is now available over at dispatchmerch.com. We made a super limited quantity this time around, which includes a bootleg 7" containing original missing songs and a special 7" square flexi.

We're teaming up with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence on the acoustic tour (which starts Sunday) to raise awareness about the 93 daily gun deaths in America and how we can prevent them.

Want to talk to other Dispatch fans about gun violence prevention? Ready to learn more about this issue and what we can do about it?

We're looking for four volunteers at each show to help their fellow fans to take action and help us cut gun deaths in half by 2025. Sign up here. Volunteers will receive free tickets and after show meet and greet passes.

Heading up to Vermont for Thanksgiving weekend? Dispatch will be playing a free all ages show at Killington Resort on Saturday November 25th as part of the Audi FIS World Cup weekend. More info here.

We’re embarking on our first acoustic tour starting November 26th in Vancouver. We’ve heard requests for an acoustic tour over the years so we're returning to our roots and visiting some of the best small venues across the country, most of which we’ve never played before. We’ll also be playing two sets each night which means that we’ll get to revisit so many songs, old and new. Full info on each on the tour dates page.

We’re ending the tour in Boston with three unique shows at The Paradise to celebrate Calling All Crows' 10th anniversary and their continued work for women's rights through service and activism. There will an intimate pre-show reception with conversation and music before each show and a service project that Sunday. More on that soon.

Tickets don't go on sale to the general public until Friday, but you can get yours on Wednesday at 10AM venue local time with the presale code: LOCATION12

Want us to send you a reminder about the acoustic tour presale on Wednesday morning? Text "dispatch" to +1(646) 480-6997 (data and msg rates may apply)