photo credit: Ted Min @tedminted / Courtesy of Wavy International
South Korean indie rock band wave to earth released their much-anticipated new album, bad pieces, along with the music video for single “courage” on August 7, 2026. The album marks a new chapter and creative shift for the trio—Daniel Kim, John Cha, and Dong Q—as they experiment with new instruments and sounds, a process that ultimately leads them to discover more about themselves individually and as a band.
bad pieces finds a band walking away from the formula that made them in order to grow. wave to earth built a global audience on lo-fi jazz. On bad pieces, they set that sound down at the exact moment it was working best. The band doesn’t frame this as a reinvention; the trio calls it the record that sounds most like who they actually are right now.
“We studied a lot of records from the past, and we wanted to incorporate the sounds and the instruments used on those records. As we started using these new sounds, we felt like, apart from them feeling analog, they bring a certain type of inspiration,” Kim says. “Sonically, it’s about establishing a new sound for wave to earth,” Cha continues, “We were talking about how, maybe, we can’t do what that we did before, because that sound was already out there.”
This pivot comes off a peak, not a plateau, with 100+ shows across 2024 and 2025, 29 sold-out U.S. dates, and three nights at Olympic Hall selling out in under a minute. Their 2023 song “bad” hit No. 1 on Spotify’s Global Viral 50, while their 2020 track “seasons” crossed 500 million streams. Their new sound on bad pieces gets tested immediately, at the largest scale of their career.
The trio debuted in 2019 and has gone on to captivate a global audience, selling out shows across North America, Europe, and Asia. Their May 2026 single, “heaven and hell,” was the first taste of new music since play with earth! 0.03 (2024). The EP debuted at No. 5 on Spotify’s Top Albums Debut Global Chart and was followed by a fully sold-out tour across North America.
They have released the EPs wave 0.01 (2020) and summer flows 0.02 (2020). Their first full-length album, 0.1 flaws and all (2023), arrived following their signing to independent label WAVY. The much-lauded album included the breakout single “bad,” which soared to No. 1 on Spotify’s Viral 50 Global Chart. The band has gone on to accumulate more than 7 million monthly listeners on Spotify and more than 500 million streams of their hit “seasons,” while performing hundreds of shows around the world, including Lollapalooza in Chicago, Chile, and India.
wave to earth will launch an extensive global tour this fall. “the pieces tour,” promoted by Live Nation, will begin September 4 in Vancouver, with stops in 21 cities across North America, including Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis, Seattle, San Francisco, Atlanta, Austin, and more. The tour will also stop at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall and Los Angeles’ Greek Theatre.
The tour will also include shows in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, and more across Asia this November. A complete list of dates is below.
Listen to bad pieces HERE. Watch the music video for “courage” HERE.
wave to earth
the pieces tour
September 4 /// Doug Mitchell
Thunderbird Sports Centre /// Vancouver, BC
September 5 /// WAMU Theater @ Lumen Field /// Seattle, WA
September 8 /// The Theater at Bill Graham
Civic Auditorium /// San Francisco, CA
September 9 /// Greek Theatre /// Los Angeles, CA
September 11 /// Cal Coast Credit Union
Open Air Theatre /// San Diego, CA
September 12 /// Arizona Financial Theatre /// Phoenix, AZ
September 15 /// Pepsi Center WTC /// Mexico City, MX
September 18 /// The Union Event Center /// Salt Lake City, UT
September 19 /// Fillmore Auditorium /// Denver, CO
September 21 /// The Armory /// Minneapolis, MN
September 22 /// Aragon Ballroom /// Chicago, IL
September 25 /// The Theatre at Great
Canadian Toronto /// Toronto, ON
September 26 /// MTELUS /// Montreal, QC
September 27 /// MGM Music Hall at Fenway /// Boston, MA
September 29 /// Radio City Music Hall /// New York, NY
October 2 /// The Anthem /// Washington, D.C.
October 3 /// The Met Philadelphia
presented by Highmark /// Philadelphia, PA
October 6 /// Coca-Cola Roxy /// Atlanta, GA
October 7 /// Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre /// Charlotte, NC
October 9 /// 713 Music Hall /// Houston, TX
October 10 /// ACL Live at the Moody Theater /// Austin, TX
October 11 /// The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory /// Dallas, TX
November 12 /// UOB Live /// Bangkok
November 15 /// SM Mall of Asia Arena /// Manila
November 18 /// AsiaWorld-Expo Hall 10 /// Hong Kong
November 20 /// Singapore Indoor Stadium /// Singapore
November 22 /// Idea Live Arena /// Kuala Lumpur
November 24 /// Taipei International
Convention Center (TICC) /// Taipei
November 26 /// BIGCAT /// Osaka
November 27 /// Zepp DiverCity /// Tokyo
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