Guided By Voices have cancelled two upcoming New Year’s Eve shows as a result of the recent surge of COVID-19 cases.

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The band were due to play Atlantic City on December 30 and New York City’s Brooklyn Made on December 31 but those dates will no longer go ahead, as confirmed by a statement on Twitter.

They wrote: “Due to unforeseen circumstances, and out of an abundance of caution with the recent spike in COVID-19 cases, we unfortunately need to cancel the upcoming shows in Atlantic City on December 30 and Brooklyn on New Years Eve. Refunds will be issued at the point of purchase.”

Guided By Voices announced a North American tour in May this year, starting in Scully’s in Columbus, Ohio on August 28. Their shows in Irving Plaza, New York and Boston’s Royale in September ended up being postponed, with those gigs now taking place in January 2022. The band also have dates on the West Coast in spring.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, and out of an abundance of caution with the recent spike in COVID-19 cases, we unfortunately need to cancel the upcoming shows in Atlantic City on December 30 and Brooklyn on New Years Eve. Refunds will be issued at the point of purchase.

— Guided By Voices (@_GuidedByVoices) December 20, 2021

In October, Guided By Voices announced their 34th studio album titled ‘It’s Not Them. It Couldn’t Be Them. It Is Them!’. Written entirely by frontman Robert Pollard, and produced by longtime collaborator Travis Harrison, the 15-track effort includes the previously released singles ‘My (Limited) Engagement’, ‘High In The Rain’ and ‘Dance Of Gurus’.

It followed their 33rd LP ‘Earth Man Blues’ in April 2021, which was described as a “collage of rejected songs” from the band’s archives.

“I was blown away that I had discarded them,” Pollard told Rolling Stone. “Anyway, I combined some of them and created new arrangements. Others I just left the way they were.”

Earlier in 2021, the band also released the EP ‘Heaven Beats Iowa’ under the name Cub Scout Bowling Pins.