Mistletone is rapt to announce that Nite Jewel is in orbit to return to Australia this October.
NITE JEWEL TOUR DATES:
MELBOURNE: Fri Oct 20 @ NGV Friday Nights. Tickets on sale now from NGV.
SYDNEY: Sat Oct 21 @ Cake Wines Cellar Door. Tickets on sale now from Eventbrite.
BRISBANE: Sun Oct 22 @ The Junk Bar. Tickets on sale now from Oztix.
Los Angeles electro-R&B luminary Ramona Gonzalez — aka Nite Jewel — returns to Australia as a duo, hot on the heels of her critically acclaimed new album Real High.Nite Jewel has been prolific as ever, also sharing a B-sides collection Real Low, last year’s album Liquid Cool, a limited edition 12” for Italians Do It Better, and two collaborative EPs (one with Bay Area rapper/producer Droop-E as AMTHST).
Nite Jewel has also had memorable collaborations with Dam-Funk, Omar-S, Julia Holter, Sean Nicholas Savage, Samantha Urbani, Zoë Kravitz and many others — transforming foggy, fading memories into crystal clear lucid dreams. Her latest collab with Dam-Funk (as Nite Funk) was named Best New Music on Pitchfork.
With Real High, Ramona Gonzalez updates her feminine inner dialogue to reflect the increasing challenges of hyper-modern society, in particular with respect to selfhood. Recorded over the course of four years in Los Angeles with the help of Grammy-winning producer Cole M.G.N. (Ariel Pink, Beck, The Samps), these songs of transformational love and relentless nostalgia range from expansive, futuristic balladry (“Real High,” “Part Of Me”) to gauzy dance-floor hits (“2 Good 2 Be True,” “The Answer”); the most focused and bold Nite Jewel effort yet. The timeless production, unique voice, and pristine song-craft of Real High create an irresistible combination that is only better on the live stage.
“Real High is the album fans have been waiting for… Her whole attitude reeks simultaneously of someone not giving a fuck while also brainstorming meticulously, and her music has never sounded richer on so many levels. The album borrows heavily from the old-school R&B feel of pastime pop greats like Janet Jackson and Aaliyah while mostly marrying this visage to contemporary dancehall rhythms” – DROWNED IN SOUND
Beloved Melbourne band The Orbweavers return with Deep Leads, the eagerly awaited new album by following 2011’s Loom, out September 15 on Mistletone Records via Inertia on vinyl, CD and digital. Pre-orders for Deep Leads are now open; every vinyl or CD pre-order will receive a beautiful limited edition postcard size print (below) and a tea towel, while stocks last. Pre-orders will ship before September 15; more details here.
THE ORBWEAVERS ALBUM LAUNCH:
Sunday October 22 @ Northcote Social Club. Matinee show with special guests Biddy Connor + Dave Williams. Doors open 1:30pm. Tickets on sale now; book now to avoid disappointment!
Limited edition postcard print & album artwork by Marita Dyson, below:
Listen to “Cyclamen”, the first single from Deep Leads, below:
Mistletone is rapt to present Nite Jewel returning to Australia this October.
NITE JEWEL TOUR DATES:
MELBOURNE: Fri Oct 20 @ NGV Friday Nights. Tickets on sale now from NGV.
SYDNEY: Sat Oct 21 @ Cake Wines Cellar Door with special guests Buzz Kull + DJ Cole MGN (USA). Tickets on sale now from Eventbrite.
BRISBANE: Sun Oct 22 @ The Junk Bar. Tickets on sale now from Oztix.
Los Angeles electro-R&B luminary Ramona Gonzalez — aka Nite Jewel — returns to Australia as a duo, hot on the heels of her critically acclaimed new album Real High.Nite Jewel has been prolific as ever, also sharing a B-sides collection Real Low, last year’s album Liquid Cool, a limited edition 12” for Italians Do It Better, and two collaborative EPs (one with Bay Area rapper/producer Droop-E as AMTHST).
Nite Jewel has also had memorable collaborations with Dam-Funk, Omar-S, Julia Holter, Sean Nicholas Savage, Samantha Urbani, Zoë Kravitz and many others — transforming foggy, fading memories into crystal clear lucid dreams. Her latest collab with Dam-Funk (as Nite Funk) was named Best New Music on Pitchfork.
With Real High, Ramona Gonzalez updates her feminine inner dialogue to reflect the increasing challenges of hyper-modern society, in particular with respect to selfhood. Recorded over the course of four years in Los Angeles with the help of Grammy-winning producer Cole M.G.N. (Ariel Pink, Beck, The Samps), these songs of transformational love and relentless nostalgia range from expansive, futuristic balladry (“Real High,” “Part Of Me”) to gauzy dance-floor hits (“2 Good 2 Be True,” “The Answer”); the most focused and bold Nite Jewel effort yet. The timeless production, unique voice, and pristine song-craft of Real High create an irresistible combination that is only better on the live stage.
“Real High is the album fans have been waiting for… Her whole attitude reeks simultaneously of someone not giving a fuck while also brainstorming meticulously, and her music has never sounded richer on so many levels. The album borrows heavily from the old-school R&B feel of pastime pop greats like Janet Jackson and Aaliyah while mostly marrying this visage to contemporary dancehall rhythms” – DROWNED IN SOUND
Mistletone is rapt to announce that Nite Jewel is in orbit to return to Australia this October.
NITE JEWEL TOUR DATES:
MELBOURNE: Fri Oct 20 @ NGV Friday Nights. Tickets on sale now from NGV.
SYDNEY: Sat Oct 21 @ Cake Wines Cellar Door. Tickets on sale now from Eventbrite.
BRISBANE: Sun Oct 22 @ The Junk Bar. Tickets on sale now from Oztix.
Los Angeles electro-R&B luminary Ramona Gonzalez — aka Nite Jewel — returns to Australia as a duo, hot on the heels of her critically acclaimed new album Real High.Nite Jewel has been prolific as ever, also sharing a B-sides collection Real Low, last year’s album Liquid Cool, a limited edition 12” for Italians Do It Better, and two collaborative EPs (one with Bay Area rapper/producer Droop-E as AMTHST).
Nite Jewel has also had memorable collaborations with Dam-Funk, Omar-S, Julia Holter, Sean Nicholas Savage, Samantha Urbani, Zoë Kravitz and many others — transforming foggy, fading memories into crystal clear lucid dreams. Her latest collab with Dam-Funk (as Nite Funk) was named Best New Music on Pitchfork.
With Real High, Ramona Gonzalez updates her feminine inner dialogue to reflect the increasing challenges of hyper-modern society, in particular with respect to selfhood. Recorded over the course of four years in Los Angeles with the help of Grammy-winning producer Cole M.G.N. (Ariel Pink, Beck, The Samps), these songs of transformational love and relentless nostalgia range from expansive, futuristic balladry (“Real High,” “Part Of Me”) to gauzy dance-floor hits (“2 Good 2 Be True,” “The Answer”); the most focused and bold Nite Jewel effort yet. The timeless production, unique voice, and pristine song-craft of Real High create an irresistible combination that is only better on the live stage.
“Real High is the album fans have been waiting for… Her whole attitude reeks simultaneously of someone not giving a fuck while also brainstorming meticulously, and her music has never sounded richer on so many levels. The album borrows heavily from the old-school R&B feel of pastime pop greats like Janet Jackson and Aaliyah while mostly marrying this visage to contemporary dancehall rhythms” – DROWNED IN SOUND
Mistletone Records is proud to share “Selling Good News” by Ross McLennan, the first single from his forthcoming album All the colours print can manage, out October 6 on Mistletone / Inertia.
Ross McLennan and his 10 piece band The New World will preview the new album in a rare live performance at Melbourne’s Post Office Hotel on Sunday September 24 at 4:30pm.
“McLennan puts a lot of himself into what he writes, each record is a reasonably accurate snapshot of his mental health; (and) his fourth solo record sees him balance his love of pop with some of the darker themes that naturally find their way into his songs. Anyone who has followed McLennan’s post-Snout work knows that the quality of his output hasn’t deteriorated in the slightest. Perhaps that’s because McLennan knows he must remain true to himself. It’s what McLennan has done throughout his entire career, and we’re all the richer for it” – DOUBLE J
A singular and illuminating songwriter, Ross McLennan dives deep into the collective subconscious whilst touching raw nerves which reverberate the anxieties of our times, giving his songs a revelatory and prophetic aura. The Ross McLennan hit factory has been open for business since 1991, when he formed Melbourne indie trio Snout and made an indelible impression on the Australian musical landscape throughout the 1990s. As Double J recently commented in their retrospective of Snout’s career: “Their shrewd handle on pop in all its forms meant that they could employ diverse influences into their sound – sometimes heavy, sometimes groovy, sometimes jangly – yet emerge sounding completely cohesive”. Since disbanding Snout, McLennan has made three unfailingly excellent solo albums and been shortlisted for the Amp (Australian Music Prize). Accompanied by his ensemble of strings, woodwind and a choir, Ross McLennan has manifested magical performances at Melbourne Festival, Brisbane Festival, Queenscliff Music Festival, Brisbane Powerhouse and the Famous Spiegeltent, and supported artists such as Cass McCombs and Matthew E. White.
All the colours print can manage is the title of the forthcoming Ross McLennan album and a phrase from the song “Selling Good News”. As McLennan explains, “it refers to very human visions of paradise: pictures fleshed out in hues from a colour matching booklet. The colours have corresponding numbers. The colours might look different depending on the paper stock they are printed on, and the light in which they are viewed. The people in the pictures are wearing clothes in a modern neat casual style. Complete families have died and are strolling peacefully through paradise with all their limbs intact. This is not so different to how the narrator views the world.
“Some of the songs on this record are hopeful, some not”, McLennan reflects. “This album took five or so years to make, and there Is a whole other album on the cutting room floor. But I needed to get the balance between light and shade right.
“I wanted to make a charitable album. To have some things that you could dance to and smile about, but not sell out sadness and despair. Across the record, there is a corresponding tension between physical reality and the mental drift to abstraction/distortion, the connected and the dissociative. There are the iron clad rules of the rotating earth and then there is a banana peel. The narrator has foot in each camp.”
STEVE GUNN plays BRISBANE: Sunday July 9 @ The Junk Bar. Tickets on sale now.
*Matinee show added by popular demand; 4pm doors for 4:30pm start, tickets on sale now.
Mistletone is joyous to announce that consummate American singer-songwriter & guitarist Steve Gunn is coming to Australia for the first time on a soul expanding solo tour.
“Brooklyn’s Steve Gunn is the Ty Segall of Americana, a prolific musician who has released 13 albums since 2007, some with like-minded strummers such as Kurt Vile and Hiss Golden Messenger, others solo records such as 2013’s acclaimed Way Out Weather. In other words, he’s the hipster-friendly guitar slinger of the moment, in the spirit of John Fahey or Robbie Basho, with a lovely sun-glazed lilt to his fluid fingersmithery. On Eyes On the Lines, he pairs his pastoral leanings with tales of uncertainty; Night Wander meanders through nocturnal roots with the repetitiveness of a raga; Conditions Wild’s boppy pace and falsetto channels the 1960s; Park Bench Smile coasts along on rolling drums and a shamanic, moonlit arrangement. Gunn’s voice is so mellow that the songs’ words fade into the background at times – but then the guitar is the frontman here” – THE GUARDIAN ★★★★ four stars
Steve Gunn’s music has always embraced expanse and movement. It springs from the simple and profound relationship between humans and their environment. Gunn’s most recent album and his debut for Matador, Eyes On The Lines (out now via Remote Control), is his most explicit ode to the blissful uncertainty of adventure yet. His brilliant previous album Way Out Weather (Mistletone, 2014) is still available on Mistletone mail order.
Gunn’s roots in the underground run deep, from his days in GHQ to his collaborations with Black Twig Pickers and Mike Cooper. He’s toured and recorded with Michael Chapman, and released two remarkable duo albums with drummer John Truscinski. His solo ventures, emerging over the past decade and culminating most recently the highly-acclaimed Way Out Weather, have been pastoral, evocative affairs. Here he embraces his urban surroundings through a series of songs that fully showcase his extraordinary ability to match hooks to deftly constructed melodies. Gunn is a consummate guitarist, that rare fingerpicker who can harness the enigma of the American Primitive vernacular without lazily regurgitating it. His playing is inventive and full of personality. His instrumental virtuosity calls upon a vast library of technical skills at will, but he’s never showy — his riffs and runs are always in the service of the song at hand.
And what a pleasure to have this music presented to the wider public.
The Eyes On The Lines song cycle melds thoughtful inquisitiveness with poetic reflection, fully embracing rhythmic uplift, allowing personal stories and impressions to live their own lives on their own terms. Gunn is more narrator than diarist; he pours real-life moments and real-life people into vibrant and evocative tales. Dreams and encounters spiral out – they form their own dramas and illuminate their own truths. Indeed, Eyes On The Lines works like a book of the finest short stories, its songs interlocking with an urgent necessity, forming an ever-questioning whole. In Gunn’s own words: “The music isn’t about me. It’s about characters, either real or fictional. It’s about images.”
And what are lines if not one of the foundational aspects of images? Lines on the road draw one’s attention to the lines comprising the landscape. Gunn’s music runs ahead and twists – like time, like the road itself. Guitar lines are highway lines are lines carved by the view out the window are the lines one waits in to get a quick meal on the way from one destination to another are lines one draws in the van to stay amused. It’s good to be out on the road and it’s good to be home, and each feeds into the other. This record sees lines run together and leap across one another.
He’s honest about the necessity of being comfortable in being lost. His music values the unknown, so it is always born of the present. We lose ourselves to find ourselves. With all of this comes humility. And gratitude. Listen to “Nature Driver,” a statement of thankfulness for the generosity of the plethora of kind souls who welcome travelers into their homes.
“Ancient Jules,” which opens the record, is a travel fantasy of a different sort. Built around a head-nodding motif, the song bobs and weaves its way through a tale which foregrounds the surprising joy that can come with a break – a deep sigh in the midst of an onrush, punctuated by the finest example of Gunn’s electric soloing to emerge yet. A song like “Conditions Wild” also rambles through strange clouds of roving. Interlocking strings, percussion, and vocals join in an irrepressible rush. This record is like that – the songs get lodged in one’s head because they’re catchy, but their atmosphere sends the mind reeling into memory and mystery.
These are songs you can take in quickly, but spend all the time in the world devouring. The very large and the very small are present in equal measure. The inability to categorize them within the avalanche of impotent diatribes that pass for categorization is a testament to their power.
Stories give us ways to discover meaning. They provide us with signposts – when we recognize our own lives within them, we clarify our existence. “Far from the world is the mystic fool,” Gunn sings on the opening track. The fool may be far from the world, but that doesn’t matter. The so-called fool is jacked in to the cosmos.
SYDNEY: Thursday July 6 @ The Basement with special guest Angie. Tickets on sale now.
MELBOURNE: Friday July 7 @ NGV Friday Nights, The Great Hall, NGV International. Doors open 6pm, Steve Gunn from 8.30pm. Tickets include after-hours entry to the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition Van Gogh and the Seasons, local DJs, art talks, and access to food and bars. Tickets on sale now.
MELBOURNE: Saturday July 8 @ Northcote Social Club with special guests Jess Ribeiro + Andrew Tuttle. Tickets on sale now.
BRISBANE: Sunday July 9 @ The Junk Bar. Tickets on sale now. *Matinee show added by popular demand; 4pm doors for 4:30pm start, tickets on sale now.Mistletone is joyous to announce that consummate American singer-songwriter & guitarist Steve Gunn is coming to Australia for the first time on a soul expanding solo tour.
“Brooklyn’s Steve Gunn is the Ty Segall of Americana, a prolific musician who has released 13 albums since 2007, some with like-minded strummers such as Kurt Vile and Hiss Golden Messenger, others solo records such as 2013’s acclaimed Way Out Weather. In other words, he’s the hipster-friendly guitar slinger of the moment, in the spirit of John Fahey or Robbie Basho, with a lovely sun-glazed lilt to his fluid fingersmithery. On Eyes On the Lines, he pairs his pastoral leanings with tales of uncertainty; Night Wander meanders through nocturnal roots with the repetitiveness of a raga; Conditions Wild’s boppy pace and falsetto channels the 1960s; Park Bench Smile coasts along on rolling drums and a shamanic, moonlit arrangement. Gunn’s voice is so mellow that the songs’ words fade into the background at times – but then the guitar is the frontman here” – THE GUARDIAN ★★★★
“So intimate and so mysteriously distant all at once” – WASHINGTON POST
★★★★ – MOJO
Steve Gunn’s music has always embraced expanse and movement. It springs from the simple and profound relationship between humans and their environment. Gunn’s most recent album and his debut for Matador, Eyes On The Lines (out now via Remote Control), is his most explicit ode to the blissful uncertainty of adventure yet. His brilliant previous album Way Out Weather (Mistletone, 2014) is still available on Mistletone mail order.
Gunn’s roots in the underground run deep, from his days in GHQ to his collaborations with Black Twig Pickers and Mike Cooper. He’s toured and recorded with Michael Chapman, and released two remarkable duo albums with drummer John Truscinski. His solo ventures, emerging over the past decade and culminating most recently the highly-acclaimed Way Out Weather, have been pastoral, evocative affairs. Here he embraces his urban surroundings through a series of songs that fully showcase his extraordinary ability to match hooks to deftly constructed melodies. Gunn is a consummate guitarist, that rare fingerpicker who can harness the enigma of the American Primitive vernacular without lazily regurgitating it. His playing is inventive and full of personality. His instrumental virtuosity calls upon a vast library of technical skills at will, but he’s never showy — his riffs and runs are always in the service of the song at hand.
And what a pleasure to have this music presented to the wider public.
The Eyes On The Lines song cycle melds thoughtful inquisitiveness with poetic reflection, fully embracing rhythmic uplift, allowing personal stories and impressions to live their own lives on their own terms. Gunn is more narrator than diarist; he pours real-life moments and real-life people into vibrant and evocative tales. Dreams and encounters spiral out – they form their own dramas and illuminate their own truths. Indeed, Eyes On The Lines works like a book of the finest short stories, its songs interlocking with an urgent necessity, forming an ever-questioning whole. In Gunn’s own words: “The music isn’t about me. It’s about characters, either real or fictional. It’s about images.”
And what are lines if not one of the foundational aspects of images? Lines on the road draw one’s attention to the lines comprising the landscape. Gunn’s music runs ahead and twists – like time, like the road itself. Guitar lines are highway lines are lines carved by the view out the window are the lines one waits in to get a quick meal on the way from one destination to another are lines one draws in the van to stay amused. It’s good to be out on the road and it’s good to be home, and each feeds into the other. This record sees lines run together and leap across one another.
He’s honest about the necessity of being comfortable in being lost. His music values the unknown, so it is always born of the present. We lose ourselves to find ourselves. With all of this comes humility. And gratitude. Listen to “Nature Driver,” a statement of thankfulness for the generosity of the plethora of kind souls who welcome travelers into their homes.
“Ancient Jules,” which opens the record, is a travel fantasy of a different sort. Built around a head-nodding motif, the song bobs and weaves its way through a tale which foregrounds the surprising joy that can come with a break – a deep sigh in the midst of an onrush, punctuated by the finest example of Gunn’s electric soloing to emerge yet. A song like “Conditions Wild” also rambles through strange clouds of roving. Interlocking strings, percussion, and vocals join in an irrepressible rush. This record is like that – the songs get lodged in one’s head because they’re catchy, but their atmosphere sends the mind reeling into memory and mystery.
These are songs you can take in quickly, but spend all the time in the world devouring. The very large and the very small are present in equal measure. The inability to categorize them within the avalanche of impotent diatribes that pass for categorization is a testament to their power.
Stories give us ways to discover meaning. They provide us with signposts – when we recognize our own lives within them, we clarify our existence. “Far from the world is the mystic fool,” Gunn sings on the opening track. The fool may be far from the world, but that doesn’t matter. The so-called fool is jacked in to the cosmos.
MELBOURNE: Friday July 7 @ NGV Friday Nights, The Great Hall, NGV International. Doors open 6pm, Steve Gunn from 8.30pm. Tickets include after-hours entry to the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition Van Gogh and the Seasons, local DJs, art talks, and access to food and bars. This show has now sold out.
Consummate American singer-songwriter & guitarist Steve Gunn is coming to Australia for the first time on a soul expanding solo tour. Witness the contemplative magic of Steve Gunn at NGV Friday Nights, the late-night art and music series running alongside the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition Van Gogh and the Seasons, plus more dates to be announced.
“Brooklyn’s Steve Gunn is the Ty Segall of Americana, a prolific musician who has released 13 albums since 2007, some with like-minded strummers such as Kurt Vile and Hiss Golden Messenger, others solo records such as 2013’s acclaimed Way Out Weather. In other words, he’s the hipster-friendly guitar slinger of the moment, in the spirit of John Fahey or Robbie Basho, with a lovely sun-glazed lilt to his fluid fingersmithery. On Eyes On the Lines, he pairs his pastoral leanings with tales of uncertainty; Night Wander meanders through nocturnal roots with the repetitiveness of a raga; Conditions Wild’s boppy pace and falsetto channels the 1960s; Park Bench Smile coasts along on rolling drums and a shamanic, moonlit arrangement. Gunn’s voice is so mellow that the songs’ words fade into the background at times – but then the guitar is the frontman here” – THE GUARDIAN ★★★★ four stars
Steve Gunn’s music has always embraced expanse and movement. It springs from the simple and profound relationship between humans and their environment. His most recent album and his debut for Matador, Eyes On The Lines, is his most explicit ode to the blissful uncertainty of adventure yet. His brilliant previous album Way Out Weather (Mistletone, 2014) is still available on Mistletone mail order.
Gunn’s roots in the underground run deep, from his days in GHQ to his collaborations with Black Twig Pickers and Mike Cooper. He’s toured and recorded with Michael Chapman, and released two remarkable duo albums with drummer John Truscinski. His solo ventures, emerging over the past decade and culminating most recently the highly-acclaimed Way Out Weather, have been pastoral, evocative affairs. Here he embraces his urban surroundings through a series of songs that fully showcase his extraordinary ability to match hooks to deftly constructed melodies. Gunn is a consummate guitarist, that rare fingerpicker who can harness the enigma of the American Primitive vernacular without lazily regurgitating it. His playing is inventive and full of personality. His instrumental virtuosity calls upon a vast library of technical skills at will, but he’s never showy — his riffs and runs are always in the service of the song at hand.
And what a pleasure to have this music presented to the wider public.
The Eyes On The Lines song cycle melds thoughtful inquisitiveness with poetic reflection, fully embracing rhythmic uplift, allowing personal stories and impressions to live their own lives on their own terms. Gunn is more narrator than diarist; he pours real-life moments and real-life people into vibrant and evocative tales. Dreams and encounters spiral out – they form their own dramas and illuminate their own truths. Indeed, Eyes On The Lines works like a book of the finest short stories, its songs interlocking with an urgent necessity, forming an ever-questioning whole. In Gunn’s own words: “The music isn’t about me. It’s about characters, either real or fictional. It’s about images.”
And what are lines if not one of the foundational aspects of images? Lines on the road draw one’s attention to the lines comprising the landscape. Gunn’s music runs ahead and twists – like time, like the road itself. Guitar lines are highway lines are lines carved by the view out the window are the lines one waits in to get a quick meal on the way from one destination to another are lines one draws in the van to stay amused. It’s good to be out on the road and it’s good to be home, and each feeds into the other. This record sees lines run together and leap across one another.
He’s honest about the necessity of being comfortable in being lost. His music values the unknown, so it is always born of the present. We lose ourselves to find ourselves. With all of this comes humility. And gratitude. Listen to “Nature Driver,” a statement of thankfulness for the generosity of the plethora of kind souls who welcome travelers into their homes.
“Ancient Jules,” which opens the record, is a travel fantasy of a different sort. Built around a head-nodding motif, the song bobs and weaves its way through a tale which foregrounds the surprising joy that can come with a break – a deep sigh in the midst of an onrush, punctuated by the finest example of Gunn’s electric soloing to emerge yet. A song like “Conditions Wild” also rambles through strange clouds of roving. Interlocking strings, percussion, and vocals join in an irrepressible rush. This record is like that – the songs get lodged in one’s head because they’re catchy, but their atmosphere sends the mind reeling into memory and mystery.
These are songs you can take in quickly, but spend all the time in the world devouring. The very large and the very small are present in equal measure. The inability to categorize them within the avalanche of impotent diatribes that pass for categorization is a testament to their power.
Stories give us ways to discover meaning. They provide us with signposts – when we recognize our own lives within them, we clarify our existence. “Far from the world is the mystic fool,” Gunn sings on the opening track. The fool may be far from the world, but that doesn’t matter. The so-called fool is jacked in to the cosmos.
SYDNEY: Thursday July 6 @ The Basement with special guest Angie. Tickets on sale now.
MELBOURNE: Friday July 7 @ NGV Friday Nights, The Great Hall, NGV International. Doors open 6pm, Steve Gunn from 8.30pm. Tickets include after-hours entry to the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition Van Gogh and the Seasons, local DJs, art talks, and access to food and bars. Tickets on sale now.
MELBOURNE: Saturday July 8 @ Northcote Social Club with special guests Jess Ribeiro + Andrew Tuttle. Tickets on sale now.
BRISBANE: Sunday July 9 @ The Junk Bar. Tickets on sale now. *Matinee show added by popular demand; 4pm doors for 4:30pm start, tickets on sale now.Mistletone is joyous to announce that consummate American singer-songwriter & guitarist Steve Gunn is coming to Australia for the first time on a soul expanding solo tour.
“Brooklyn’s Steve Gunn is the Ty Segall of Americana, a prolific musician who has released 13 albums since 2007, some with like-minded strummers such as Kurt Vile and Hiss Golden Messenger, others solo records such as 2013’s acclaimed Way Out Weather. In other words, he’s the hipster-friendly guitar slinger of the moment, in the spirit of John Fahey or Robbie Basho, with a lovely sun-glazed lilt to his fluid fingersmithery. On Eyes On the Lines, he pairs his pastoral leanings with tales of uncertainty; Night Wander meanders through nocturnal roots with the repetitiveness of a raga; Conditions Wild’s boppy pace and falsetto channels the 1960s; Park Bench Smile coasts along on rolling drums and a shamanic, moonlit arrangement. Gunn’s voice is so mellow that the songs’ words fade into the background at times – but then the guitar is the frontman here” – THE GUARDIAN ★★★★ four stars
Steve Gunn’s music has always embraced expanse and movement. It springs from the simple and profound relationship between humans and their environment. Gunn’s most recent album and his debut for Matador, Eyes On The Lines (out now via Remote Control), is his most explicit ode to the blissful uncertainty of adventure yet. His brilliant previous album Way Out Weather (Mistletone, 2014) is still available on Mistletone mail order.
Gunn’s roots in the underground run deep, from his days in GHQ to his collaborations with Black Twig Pickers and Mike Cooper. He’s toured and recorded with Michael Chapman, and released two remarkable duo albums with drummer John Truscinski. His solo ventures, emerging over the past decade and culminating most recently the highly-acclaimed Way Out Weather, have been pastoral, evocative affairs. Here he embraces his urban surroundings through a series of songs that fully showcase his extraordinary ability to match hooks to deftly constructed melodies. Gunn is a consummate guitarist, that rare fingerpicker who can harness the enigma of the American Primitive vernacular without lazily regurgitating it. His playing is inventive and full of personality. His instrumental virtuosity calls upon a vast library of technical skills at will, but he’s never showy — his riffs and runs are always in the service of the song at hand.
And what a pleasure to have this music presented to the wider public.
The Eyes On The Lines song cycle melds thoughtful inquisitiveness with poetic reflection, fully embracing rhythmic uplift, allowing personal stories and impressions to live their own lives on their own terms. Gunn is more narrator than diarist; he pours real-life moments and real-life people into vibrant and evocative tales. Dreams and encounters spiral out – they form their own dramas and illuminate their own truths. Indeed, Eyes On The Lines works like a book of the finest short stories, its songs interlocking with an urgent necessity, forming an ever-questioning whole. In Gunn’s own words: “The music isn’t about me. It’s about characters, either real or fictional. It’s about images.”
And what are lines if not one of the foundational aspects of images? Lines on the road draw one’s attention to the lines comprising the landscape. Gunn’s music runs ahead and twists – like time, like the road itself. Guitar lines are highway lines are lines carved by the view out the window are the lines one waits in to get a quick meal on the way from one destination to another are lines one draws in the van to stay amused. It’s good to be out on the road and it’s good to be home, and each feeds into the other. This record sees lines run together and leap across one another.
He’s honest about the necessity of being comfortable in being lost. His music values the unknown, so it is always born of the present. We lose ourselves to find ourselves. With all of this comes humility. And gratitude. Listen to “Nature Driver,” a statement of thankfulness for the generosity of the plethora of kind souls who welcome travelers into their homes.
“Ancient Jules,” which opens the record, is a travel fantasy of a different sort. Built around a head-nodding motif, the song bobs and weaves its way through a tale which foregrounds the surprising joy that can come with a break – a deep sigh in the midst of an onrush, punctuated by the finest example of Gunn’s electric soloing to emerge yet. A song like “Conditions Wild” also rambles through strange clouds of roving. Interlocking strings, percussion, and vocals join in an irrepressible rush. This record is like that – the songs get lodged in one’s head because they’re catchy, but their atmosphere sends the mind reeling into memory and mystery.
These are songs you can take in quickly, but spend all the time in the world devouring. The very large and the very small are present in equal measure. The inability to categorize them within the avalanche of impotent diatribes that pass for categorization is a testament to their power.
Stories give us ways to discover meaning. They provide us with signposts – when we recognize our own lives within them, we clarify our existence. “Far from the world is the mystic fool,” Gunn sings on the opening track. The fool may be far from the world, but that doesn’t matter. The so-called fool is jacked in to the cosmos.
After clobbering Golden Plains with a multi-booted, rave-reviewed set, and conquering Sydney Festival, Cash Savage and the Last Drinks play their first Sydney headline show for 2017.
Experience the might of Cash Savage and the Last Drinks at the Factory Floor on Friday May 26. Tickets on sale now.
