Mistletone

The new single from HTRK, Blue Sunshine, comes from Psychic 9-5 Club (due March 28 on Mistletone/Inertia) and marks the beginning of a new chapter for this esteemed Australian band. Listen below:

Psychic 9-5 Club is an album that looks back on a time of sadness and struggle, and within that struggle they find hope and humour and love. It’s Jonnine Standish and Nigel Yang’s first album recorded entirely as a duo—former band member Sean Stewart died halfway through the recording of their last LP, Work (Work Work) (Mistletone, 2011).

Though the record is instantly recognisable as HTRK — Standish’s vocal delivery remains central to the band’s sound, while the productions are typically lean and dubby — they’ve found ample room for exploration within this framework. Gone are the reverb-soaked guitar explorations of 2009′s Marry Me Tonight and the fuzzy growls that ran through Work (Work Work). They’ve been replaced with something tender, velvety and polished. This is HTRK, but the flesh has been stripped from their sound, throwing the focus on naked arrangements and minimalist sound design.

The album was recorded at Blazer Sound Studios in New Mexico with Excepter’s Nathan Corbin, who had previously directed the video clip for Work (Work Work) cut “Bendin.” Inviting a third party into their world was no easy decision, but in Corbin they found a kindred spirit. The LP was then refined and reworked in Australia at the turn of 2013, before the finishing touches were applied in New York during the summer.

Of all the themes that run through Psychic 9-5 Club, love is the most central. The word is laced throughout the album in lyrics and titles—love as a distraction, loving yourself, loving others. Standish’s lyrics explore the complexities of sexuality and the body’s reaction to personal loss, though there’s room for wry humour — a constant through much of the best experimental Australian music of the past few decades.

Standish explores her vocal range fully — her husky spoken-word drawl remains, but we also hear her laugh and sing. Equally, Yang’s exploratory production techniques — particularly his well-documented love of dub — are given room to shine. They dip headlong into some of the things that make humans tick — love, loss and desire — with the kind of integrity that has marked the band out from day one. Psychic 9-5 Club is truly an album for the body and for the soul.

TRACK LISTING: PSYCHIC 9-5 CLUB by HTRK (release date: April 1)

side A.

1    Give it Up
2    Blue Sunshine
3    Feels like Love
4    Soul Sleep

side B.

5    Wet Dream
6    Love is Distraction
7    Chinatown Style
8    The Body You Deserve

Mistletone is delighted to release Arcadia, the magical debut album by Ramona Lisa, alter ego of Caroline Polachek (Chairlift). Arcadia is out April 25 on Mistletone Records / Inertia.

Over the past year, Caroline Polachek has been performing as Ramona Lisa in New York unannounced, incognito, with fully choreographed and costumed sets. Arcadia is Polachek’s first self­-produced solo record. Completely composed in MIDI, it is a concept album of love songs that are nature allegories, and vice versa, which Polachek calls “Pastoral Electronic Music”.

The making of Arcadia was a year­-long process that began and ended in an empty studio in Rome’s Villa Medici and while on tour with her band, Chairlift. The record was made entirely on a laptop without instruments or external microphones — all vocals were sung directly into the computer, making use of hotel closets, quiet airport gates, and spare dressing rooms.

Although the album was created on a laptop, the result is a lush and uncannily tangible world of warm textures, reminiscent of analog tape processes rather than a hard drive. Virtual oboes and organs interweave with synthetic insects and quivering sine waves, animated by Polachek’s vocal at its most delirious and intimate yet.

Artwork by Carl Breitkreuz

Mistletone is overjoyed to announce the return of Holy Fuck for Groovin The Moo‘s 2014 lineup, plus headline shows in Brisbane, Melbourne, Hobart, Sydney and Western Australia. Tickets for all shows on sale now!

HOLY FUCK TOUR DATES:

• Thu 24 April – The Zoo, Brisbane with Blank Realm. Co-presented with Consume + 4ZZZ. Tickets on sale now from Oztix.
• Fri 25 April – GTM Oakbank, SA @ Oakbank Racecourse. Tickets on sale now.
• Sat 26 April – GTM Maitland NSW@ Maitland Showground. Tickets on sale now.
• Sun 27 April – GTM Canberra @ University of Canberra. Tickets on sale now.
• Wed 30 April – Northcote Social Club, Melbourne with Parking Lot Experiments + DJ Ash Buscombe. Tickets on sale now from Corner Presents. * SELLING FAST!
• Thu May 1 – Brisbane Hotel with Tiger Choir, Kowl and Corney. Tickets on sale now from Moshtix.
• Sat 3 May – GTM Bendigo VIC @ Prince Of Wales Showground, 42 – 72 Holmes Rd, Bendigo. Tickets on sale now.
• Sun 4 May – GTM Townsville QLD @ Murray Sports Complex – Townsville Cricket Grounds, Mervyn Crossman Dr & Murray Lyons Cres, Idalia QLD. Tickets on sale now.
• Wed 7 May – Goodgod Small Club, Sydney with Buzz Kull and Seating Plan. Presented by FBi. Tickets on sale now from Moshtix.
• Thu 8 May – Rosemount Hotel, Perth with Usurper of Modern Medicine and Sacred Flower Union.  Co-presented with Life Is Noise. Tickets on sale now from Tickets on sale from Life Is Noise, oztix, heatseeker and the venue.
• Fri 9 May – The Odd Fellow (formerly The Norfolk Basement), Fremantle with Naik and Antelope.  Co-presented with Life Is Noise. Tickets on sale now from Tickets on sale from Life Is Noise, oztix, heatseeker and the venue.
• Sat 10 May – GTM Bunbury WA @ Hay Park, (off) Parade Rd Bunbury WA. Tickets on sale now.

Holy Fuck photo by Alison McCann (shot in Melbourne, 2011)

HOLY FUCK planned to take a break.  They needed it, having toured steady from 2006 to 2011.  Instead they had babies, adopted pets, and produced records for other artists (such as METZ and Lights, earning their first gold record); they stole away to play international festivals whilst writing new material and playing small venues under secret names; they even started new bands that also went out and toured the world.

So much for the break. Now they are ready to come out of this pseudo-retirement, playing their first actual tour since 2011, in Australia.

The back story of this enigmatic Canadian band, who prefer to be called Holy Fuck but often get censored in the weirdest and most convoluted way, goes sort of like this:

In a time of polished indie-dance Holy Fuck emerged with broken casios and piles of noise-making ‘stuff’ to play sweaty frenetic shows that followed less a set-list than a spontaneous energy.  They caught the attention of Brooklyn dance punks !!! (chk chk chk) and former Antipop Consortium MC, Beans, as well as Montreal’s burgeoning buzz band Wolf Parade.  After touring with the aforementioned acts they signed with the then-brand-new XL offshoot, Young Turks.

From there it turns into a smeared blur: Coachella, Glastonbury, Lollapalooza, plane tickets and endless summers playing European festivals, a tour with MIA, shout-outs from Lou Reed, Radiohead, Michael Stipe, shows in Japan, China, Australia & New Zealand (touring for Meredith Music Festival, Laneway Festival and Harvest), a stage-invasion by hundreds of fans at Barcelona’s Primavera (destroying everything in their path), more plane tickets, more endless summers, Coachella and Glastonbury again, and another shout out from Lou Reed (RIP).

Somewhere in there is a hit-and-run on a Ohio highway, whiplash, a destroyed van, an ousting from the Canadian government surrounding the controversy of their name (saying they aren’t Canadian enough for arts funding), and swine flu.  They were voted Canada’s best live band by the CBC and were nominated for both a Polaris prize and a Juno (which we know may not mean anything to anyone not living in Canada… but all in all, not too shabby).

Psychic 9-5 Club (due April 1 on Mistletone / Inertia) marks the beginning of a new chapter for HTRK. It’s an album that looks back on a time of sadness and struggle, and within that struggle they find hope and humour and love. It’s Jonnine Standish and Nigel Yang’s first album recorded entirely as a duo—former band member Sean Stewart died halfway through the recording of their last LP, Work (Work Work) (Mistletone, 2011).

Though the record is instantly recognisable as HTRK — Standish’s vocal delivery remains central to the band’s sound, while the productions are typically lean and dubby — they’ve found ample room for exploration within this framework. Gone are the reverb-soaked guitar explorations of 2009’s Marry Me Tonight and the fuzzy growls that ran through Work (Work Work). They’ve been replaced with something tender, velvety and polished. This is HTRK, but the flesh has been stripped from their sound, throwing the focus on naked arrangements and minimalist sound design.

The album was recorded at Blazer Sound Studios in New Mexico with Excepter’s Nathan Corbin, who had previously directed the video clip for Work (Work Work) cut “Bendin.” Inviting a third party into their world was no easy decision, but in Corbin they found a kindred spirit. The LP was then refined and reworked in Australia at the turn of 2013, before the finishing touches were applied in New York during the summer.

Of all the themes that run through Psychic 9-5 Club, love is the most central. The word is laced throughout the album in lyrics and titles—love as a distraction, loving yourself, loving others. Standish’s lyrics explore the complexities of sexuality and the body’s reaction to personal loss, though there’s room for wry humour — a constant through much of the best experimental Australian music of the past few decades.

Standish explores her vocal range fully — her husky spoken-word drawl remains, but we also hear her laugh and sing. Equally, Yang’s exploratory production techniques — particularly his well-documented love of dub — are given room to shine. They dip headlong into some of the things that make humans tick — love, loss and desire — with the kind of integrity that has marked the band out from day one. Psychic 9-5 Club is truly an album for the body and for the soul.

TRACK LISTING: PSYCHIC 9-5 CLUB by HTRK (release date: April 1)

side A.

1    Give it Up
2    Blue Sunshine
3    Feels like Love
4    Soul Sleep

side B.

5    Wet Dream
6    Love is Distraction
7    Chinatown Style
8    The Body You Deserve

HTRK photo by Robert Bellamy

HTRK’s music is not a quick-fix for restless, impatient minds; it needs to absorbed, contemplated and revisited. Listen to one of their records and you’ll find yourself slipping deep into their sound world, where the cavernous reverberations of dub techno are mixed with frosted post-punk motifs and the gravelly imperfections of industrial, reimagined in the setting of a dingy basement.

Their music is layered with enough subtle cultural reference points to attract critical dissection, raw enough to appeal to beer-swilling live crowds, and visceral enough to make sense throbbing out of a club soundsystem. Throw together the core influences of HTRK and you’ll find David Lynch’s unsettling surrealism next to Bill Henson’s industrial landscapes, with Mika Vainio’s minimal compositions alongside the malfunctioning synth-pop of Suicide. It’s a potent concoction.

Formed in 2003 as the duo of Nigel Yang and Sean Stewart in Melbourne’s north-western suburbs, the band soon welcomed vocalist Jonnine Standish into the fold, before self-releasing their debut EP, Nostalgia, in 2005 (re-released by Fire Records in 2007). From the off their sound was raw and visceral, with distorted guitar pedals caking Standish’s vocals in sonic grit. The band swapped Melbourne for Berlin in 2006, arriving in the German capital unsigned. There they remained for a year, rehearsing in the next room to Einstrzende Neubauten, hungrily soaking up the city’s revolutionary musical heritage that can be traced from cabaret through to the birth of krautrock, and Tresor and Berghain.

Jonnine and Nigel moved to London in 2007 – Sean adopted the city as a part-time home along with Berlin – and soon the band began to develop a reputation for incendiary live shows. They performed a memorable set at Corsica Studios in 2008, and appeared at the legendary Optimo club night in Glasgow back when it was a weekly Sunday night affair, perhaps the ultimate seal of approval in underground musical esoterica (Optimo’s JD Twitch recalls the gig being “rapturously received”).

The band followed up Nostalgia with 2009’s Marry Me Tonight, an LP co-produced by Rowland S. Howard, founding member of The Birthday Party and a towering figure in the Australian music scene. Marry Me Tonight was in many respects a neo-pop opus, with the band’s homespun sound now developed into something more spacious and immersive; tracks like “Disco,” which sounded like a club anthem anaesthetised and played at 33rpm, and the narcotic, shamanistic rhythms of “HA” cemented the band as a formidable outfit. In 2009 Howard died of liver cancer, but not before he had left a deep and lasting impression on the band, as both a mentor and a friend.

It was around this time Sean met Mika Vainio: Stewart, along with Yang and Standish, greatly admired the revered Finnish producer, and the rugged electronics dabbled with on Marry Me Tonight seeped further into the band’s sound as they continued to experiment with synthesisers and drum machines. Recording sessions at Netil House in London Fields led to the third HTRK album, Work (Work Work), released on Mistletone in 2011, a gloomy masterpiece whose resonance only becomes truly apparent after repeated listens.

The band’s world was turned upside down when Stewart committed suicide halfway through the album’s recording. Standish and Yang finished the album as a duo, locking themselves away from the world and finding the ultimate catharsis in the studio. Work (Work Work) is intense and leaden with texture, a sonic monument to Sean that stands as one of the most underrated LPs of recent years. Thematically it explores the body’s reaction to personal loss, using humour and sex drive as lyrical themes, with Standish’s vocal delivery remaining strangely detached, her emotions severed and numb. It remains the band’s strongest work to date, the pools of murky noise suffocating the guitar and bass, with an overwhelming atmosphere that is at once malevolent yet seductive, drawing you further down the HTRK wormhole.

Both Standish and Yang returned to Australia in 2012, the former to Melbourne and the latter to Sydney. They decamped to the Blazer Sound Studios in New Mexico to begin work on their new record Psychic 9 to 5 Club, with Excepter’s Nathan Corbin called on to produce; the American struck up an immediate kinship with HTRK during their time together. Psychic 9-5 Club will be released in April 2014 on Mistletone/Inertia (Australia/NZ) + Ghostly International (USA).

PRAISE FOR WORK (WORK, WORK) (Mistletone, 2011):

Artwork by Greedy Hen

JULIA HOLTER TOUR DATES:

PERTH FESTIVAL: Chevron Festival Gardens, Monday February 10. Tickets and info here.
SYDNEY: The Standard, Wednesday February 12 with special guest Ducktails + Caitlin Park. Tickets on sale now from Moshtix. Presented by FBi.
MELBOURNE: Northcote Social Club, Friday February 14 with special guests Ducktails + Evelyn Ida Morris (Pikelet) + DJ Dan Lewis (Special Award Records). Tickets on sale now from The Corner Box Office. Presented by Triple R.

Mistletone proudly presents Julia Holter, one of the most singular artists to emerge from the groundswell of independent music in America. A Los Angeles composer who melds avant-pop and the art-song tradition, Julia Holter’s music is ambitious, yet intimate, described by Pitchfork as “bedroom pop made by somebody with pin-ups of Heidegger, Virginia Woolf and Laurie Anderson papering the walls”.

Julia’s lush new album for Domino, Loud City Song, is one of the most universally critically acclaimed records this year. It’s her third full length release in as many years – following 2011’s groundbreaking debut Tragedy and last year’s follow-up, the critically lauded Ekstasis. Loud City Song is both a continuation and a furthering of the fiercely singular and focused vision displayed by its predecessors, taking as it does Julia’s rare gift for merging high concept, compositional prowess and experimentation with pop sensibility and applying it to a set of even more daringly beautiful arrangements and emotionally resonant songs. Julia Holter first toured Australia as a trio for Laneway Festival 2013 and now returns as a five piece, her extraordinary vocals and keyboards accompanied by cello, violin, sax and drums.

Very special guest for Julia Holter’s return Australian tour is Ducktails, aka Brooklyn-based Matthew Mondanile, in exquisite solo performance mode. Ducktails traffics in the spaced-out pop songs one might discover in out-of-the-way thrift stores or deep in bins of 1970s private-press records—a casually sophisticated, genre-eluding pop ambience that contrasts with, yet echoes, the music Matt plays in the indie group Real Estate.

Ducktails recently released Wish Hotel, a 12″ EP to follow up to this year’s acclaimed album The Flower Lane, both on Domino Records. The five songs, recorded by Matt at his home in Ridgewood, New Jersey, engage with themes of travel, love, and longings. Having performed in hallowed spaces around the world such as the Whitney Museum of American Art and MoMA PS1, the woozy, mellow psychedelia of Ducktails is a treat to behold.

PRAISE FOR LOUD CITY SONG by JULIA HOLTER (Domino Records, 2013)

• “Loud City Song is one of those records so full of un-jaded wonder and attuned to the secret music of ordinary things that the world looks a little bit different while it’s playing” – Pitchfork (Best New Music, 8.6)
• “A beautiful reminder that we’re all doomed” – The Guardian (4 stars)
• “A bona fide musical magician” – MOJO (4 stars)
• “One of the most ambitious, unusual, and engaging albums of the year” – Spin (4 stars)

Hey, welcome to spring, and news of the Mistletone summer to come…

We’ve recently announced tours by The Julie Ruin, led by Riot Grrrl pioneer Katheen Hanna (Bikini Kill, Le Tigre), Cass McCombs, Kurt Vile & The Violators, Parquet Courts, METZ, Sonny & the Sunsets and Matmos – please read on for tour dates & ticketing links.

Our new releases on Mistletone Records include the stellar debut LP by Montero (3RRR + 2SER Album of the Week), the magical debut 7″ by Early Woman, and a split 7″ vinyl release by The Bats x Boomgates, a label collaboration between Mistletone + Bedroom Suck to celebrate Melbourne Music Week 2013. All available on Mistletone mail order now.

And most excitingly — our Melbourne Music Week Opening Night party draws near. We’ve assembled a glittering lineup to launch the stunning new pop-up venue The Residence on the banks of the Yarra River, starring The Bats, Boomgates, Montero, Sonny & the Sunsets + Vishnu Keys + DJs Higher Power + LA Pocock. Just a gentle reminder to get your tickets before they vanish…

Artwork by Ben Montero

WITH A VISION to celebrate the depth of Melbourne’s indie scene, Mistletone will be opening Melbourne Music Week 2013 by shining a light on the connections between our city’s music community and like-minded international artists. Our dream-team lineup for MMW Opening Night (Friday, November 15 at stunning pop-up venue, The Residence), features The Bats, Boomgates, Montero, Sonny & the Sunsets, Vishnu Keys + DJs Higher Power + LA Pocock. Early bird tickets sold out in one hour; general admission tickets on sale now & selling fast! Doors open 7:30pm. We at Mistletone are so proud to have curated this concert for Melbourne Music Week, which will also be a celebration of our 7 years as an independent label. Party times! Read more about our lineup here.

Mistletone also has three lunchtime shows happening during MMW as part of the Mess+Noise Lunchbox Series, returning this year with a full working week of free lunchtime gigs at MMW’s flagship venue, The Residence. Since 2010 this renowned series has been brightening city lunch-breaks with a host of Australia’s finest artists. Grab some grub at the People’s Garden, and take a healthy bite outta some sweet midday music. The Lunchbox shows are free events starting 1pm.

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 20, 1pm – ROSS MCLENNAN
Songwriter of uncanny depths, Ross McLennan is a quiet achiever on the indie-rock landscape. The former front-man of Australian 90s indie-pop band Snout brings his soft, drawly, breathy vocals and clever melodic hooks to create and intriguing daydream of sound sequences. Delving into the most vexed and heartbreaking issues of our time, Ross McLennan delivers live performances that are both rare and riveting.

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 21, 1pm – WINTERCOATS
A glorious yet unmistakeably poignant artistic vision, fortified by haunting and cavernous vocals, and a chameleonic approach to composition and arrangement combine to create fragile and grandeur dream-pop bliss. Having toured with the likes of Beach House and Sarah Blasko, Wintercoats (AKA James Wallace) is a master of ethereal delicacies, weaving his way through violin, glockenspiel, piano and a plethora of other instruments.

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 22, 1pm – EARLY WOMAN
A near-new collaboration between musical heavy-weights Hannah Brooks (from Young Professionals, St Helens and Spider Vomit) and Ben Montero (of Montero, Treetops and Geoffery O’Connor Band), backed by Bobby Bravington on bass and Caitlin Perry on drums. Early Woman are making a distinctive raw attack on classic pop by way of big choruses, Bjorn and Agnetha harmonies, glam stomp and pleading funk.

More info about the Lunchbox Series here.

HTRK SYDNEY SHOW.

This Friday night, November 1, HTRK play an intimate show in Sydney to celebrate the release of the Mika Vanio Poison remix 10″ (out November 5 on vinyl & digital via Ghostly International).  HTRK will be performing a selection of unreleased material from their new album before embarking for Russia and the UK to perform at Electro-mechanica festival in St Petersburg and the British Film Institute in a tribute to Rowland S. Howard with Savages. Joining HTRK for the evening will be Sydney-based electronic music producer Gareth Psaltis, who recently released his debut EP Voriulk through Sydney label Hunter Gatherer. Between the live sets, Spiral Sounds (2SER) spins fine electronic music all night. The remix 10″ and special lilac edition t-shirts will be available to purchase on the night. Tickets on sale via Moshtix. Doors open 8pm, finishes 11pm.

Artwork by Greedy Hen

“Hanna is one of America’s greatest living rock performers” – THE NEW YORKER

Mistletone presents the first ever Australian tour by The Julie Ruin. Led by Riot Grrrl pioneer Katheen Hanna (Bikini Kill, Le Tigre) and backed by her hand-picked, dream-come-true band (including former Bikini Kill bandmate, Kathi Wilcox), The Julie Ruin is an energetic dance-punk whirlwind, the live band providing a tight musical backbone to Hanna’s iconic vocal style. A fresh and fierce expression of Hanna’s whip-smart wit and danceable, raw punk licks, The Julie Ruin will thrill long time fans and newcomers in the wake of the legacy-building documentary film, The Punk Singer. A celebrated, outspoken figure at the forefront of feminist punk, Kathleen Hanna is as vital and relevant as ever, and set to deliver a powerful punch of dance punk to Australian audiences. The Julie Ruin’s debut album Run Fast is out now via Fuse Music Group.

THE JULIE RUIN AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES:

MELBOURNE: Wednesday, January 15 @ The Corner. Tickets on sale now from The Corner box office.
SYDNEY: Friday, January 17 @ The Factory Theatre. Tickets on sale now from The Factory box office.
HOBART: Saturday, January 18 @ MONA FOMA. Tickets & info here.

Artwork by Albert Herter

“One of America’s finest chroniclers of fringe characters, a writer of heart-rending love songs and psychedelic odes to the natural world, a teller of tall-tales with a sense of humor dry as desert wood, and that rare folksinger who actually sings about the folk. Over the last decade, McCombs has been a remarkably consistent, if not publicity-averse, singer-songwriter, comparable to Bill Callahan and Will Oldham as our foremost translators of Old, Weird America into modern terms” – PITCHFORK

Golden singer/songwriter of our time, CASS McCOMBS has traversed many borders, literally and figuratively, since his great debut Not The Way in 2003. Americana, bedroom pop, folk and chamber music have variously held the interest of the Baltimore native, but compelling storytelling and occasional flashes of humor are the common thread here. Cass’s 2011’s twin releases, Humour Risk and Wit’s End (Domino), highlights amongst a catalogue peppered with brilliance. His new double album for Domino Records, Big Wheel and Others, is a sprawling, visionary album that may just be his best yet. Big Wheel and Others is further proof of Cass’s status as one of his generation’s most visionary songwriters – as uncompromising, radical and counter-cultural as any other artist working today.

CASS MCCOMBS TOUR DATES:

MELBOURNE: Thursday, January 30 @ Northcote Social Club w/- Ross McLennan. Tickets on sale now from The Corner Box Office. Presented by Mistletone & Triple R.
Laneway Brisbane: Friday, January 31 – RNA, Fortitude Valley. Tickets & info here.
Laneway Melbourne: Saturday, February 1 – Footscray Community Arts Centre/River’s Edge. Tickets & info here.
Laneway Sydney: Sunday, February 2 – Sydney College Of The Arts, Rozelle. Tickets & info here.
SYDNEY: Thursday, February 6 @ Oxford Art Factory w/- Melodie Nelson. Tickets on sale now from Moshtix. Presented by Mistletone & 2SER.
Laneway Adelaide: Friday, February 7 – Harts Mill, Port Adelaide. Tickets & info here.
Laneway Perth: Saturday, February 8 – Esplanade Park and West End, Fremantle. Tickets & info here.

Artwork by Carl Breitkreuz

Mistletone presents the return of the mighty Kurt Vile & The Violators. The Philadelphia hair throb and his band (including new drummer Kyle Spence – ex-Dinosaur Jr / Harvey Milk), return to our shores to continue the love affair that began with their sold-out debut Australian tour for Meredith Music Festival 2012. Kurt has been rightly celebrated everywhere for much of 2013, since the release of Wakin On A Pretty Daze (out locally on Remote Control Records), which was widely hailed as album of the year. One of the most captivating guitarists and singer-songwriters of our time, Kurt Vile’s ascendant career continues down under with a swag of epic performances at Laneway Festival, Sydney Festival plus two Laneway side shows in Melbourne at The Corner. Tickets for all shows on sale now.

KURT VILE & THE VIOLATORS TOUR DATES:

Sydney Festival: Wednesday, January 22 – Kurt Vile & the Violators @ Paradiso at Town Hall. Tickets on sale October 28, info here. Doors open 8pm.
Sydney Festival: Thursday, January 23 – Kurt Vile sings Big Star’s Third, Enmore Theatre. Big Star’s imperfect masterpiece is performed with its original string and wind orchestrations by Jody Stephens, Mike Mills (R.E.M.), Ken Stringfellow (The Posies), Mitch Easter (Let’s Active) and Chris Stamey (the dB’s) with guest vocalists Kurt Vile and more to be announced. Tickets on sale October 28, info here. Doors open 8pm.
Sydney Festival: Thursday, January 23 – Kurt Vile solo show @ Festival Village. Tickets on sale October 28, info here. Midnight performance.
Laneway Auckland: Monday, January 27 – Silo Park. Tickets & info here.
Laneway Brisbane: Friday, January 31 – RNA, Fortitude Valley. Tickets & info here.
Laneway Melbourne: Saturday, February 1 – Footscray Community Arts Centre/River’s Edge. Tickets & info here.
Laneway Sydney: Sunday, February 2 – Sydney College Of The Arts, Rozelle. Tickets & info here.
MELBOURNE: Wednesday, February 5 @ The Corner w/- Early Woman. Tickets on sale now from The Corner Box Office. Presented by Mistletone and Triple R.
MELBOURNE: Thursday, February 6 @ The Corner w/- Montero. Tickets on sale now from The Corner Box Office. Presented by Mistletone and Triple R.
Laneway Adelaide: Friday, February 7 – Harts Mill, Port Adelaide. Tickets & info here.
Laneway Perth: Saturday, February 8 – Esplanade Park and West End, Fremantle. Tickets & info here.

Artwork by Rick Milovanovic

“Parquet Courts channel Pavement’s collapsible spirit better than any band I’ve seen or heard in a long time… (but) there’s plenty more going on in these songs than mere homage to one band. Their wiry ramalams fall into a tradition that began with The Velvet Underground, rattled on through early ’80s Fall, and manifested itself most recently in the brilliant Australian garage band, Eddy Current Suppression Ring” – UNCUT

Mistletone, RRR, FBi & The Music present, from Texas via New York and for the very first time in Australia, Parquet Courts. Reigniting the joy of American punk rock, Parquet Courts are a no-nonsense, four-man explosion of up-all-night energy, a whip-smart collision of ideas designed to put brains (and mosh pits) in motion. To quote Uncut: “Parquet Courts channel Pavement’s collapsible spirit better than any band I’ve seen or heard in a long time… (but) there’s plenty more going on in these songs than mere homage to one band. Their wiry ramalams fall into a tradition that began with The Velvet Underground (with “Loaded”, more specifically), rattled on through early ’80s Fall, and manifested itself most recently in the brilliant Australian garage band, Eddy Current Suppression Ring.”  Expect delirious scenes when Parquet Courts take the stage along with their special guests, hand-picked for their Laneway sideshows, Total Control plus Constant Mongrel (Melbourne) and Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys (Sydney). Tickets on sale now.

PARQUET COURTS TOUR DATES:

Laneway Auckland: Monday, January 27 – Silo Park. Tickets & info here.
Laneway Brisbane: Friday, January 31 – RNA, Fortitude Valley. Tickets & info here.
Laneway Melbourne: Saturday, February 1 – Footscray Community Arts Centre/River’s Edge. Tickets & info here.
Laneway Sydney: Sunday, February 2 – Sydney College Of The Arts, Rozelle. Tickets & info here.
MELBOURNE: Wednesday January 29 @ The Corner w/- Total Control + Constant Mongrel. Tickets on sale now from The Corner box office. Presented by Mistletone, Triple R and The Music.
SYDNEY: Wednesday February 5 @ The Standard w/- Total Control + Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys. Tickets on sale now from Moshtix. Presented by Mistletone, FBi Radio and The Music.
Laneway Adelaide: Friday, February 7 – Harts Mill, Port Adelaide. Tickets & info here.
Perth: Saturday, February 8 – Esplanade Park and West End, Fremantle. Tickets & info here.

Artwork by Alex Fregon

Mistletone presents avant-garde electronic duo Matmos, bringing their live sonic experimentation and boundary-pushing sonic invention to Australia for the first time in their 15-year career. Performing with joy and humour, Matmos experiment with noise to push the boundaries of pop music. Mining non-conventional sound sources and exploring bold ideas, Baltimore-based Drew Daniel and MC Schmidt have been producing music together since the mid-90s, delivering nine albums to date. Since forming in 1997, Matmos have released a dozen influential albums and have collaborated with Björk, Antony and the Johnsons, Liars, David Pajo, Oneohtrix Point Never, Terry Riley, & many others. Their live show features stunning visuals and uses the live stage as a looking glass for an audience into their current sonic palette. Their latest release The Marriage of True Minds,  The most recent Matmos album, The Marriage of True Minds (2013) was based on experiments in telepathy; an art object, a scientific report, a practical joke and a daring pop record, it was released on Thrill Jockey Records and is available locally via Rocket Music.

MATMOS TOUR DATES:

SYDNEY FESTIVAL: Wednesday January 15 – Matmos @ City Recital Hall, Angel Place. Doors 8pm. Tickets on sale October 28 from Ticketmaster. More info here.
SYDNEY FESTIVAL: Thursday, January 16 – The Soft Pink Truth DJ set @ Paradiso Lates, Paradiso Terrace Bar. The Soft Pink Truth is Drew Daniel (one half of Matmos)’s experimental house music side-project. Visit the festival website for up-to-date information. Free entry, starts 11.30pm.
MELBOURNE: Sunday, January 19 @ Howler w/- special guests to be announced. Tickets on sale now.

Artwork by Carl Breitkreuz

“The technology to crank your guitar up to huge, ear-busting levels can be purchased over the counter, but bands that can pull off volume while inducing claustrophobia are something special. Metz are such a band. The Toronto-based trio’s Sub Pop debut is pure pummel and ugliness in the best sense. The drums thunder away like they’re being bludgeoned at the bottom of an elevator shaft. The bass and guitar pound minimalist patterns through a curtain of fuzz and grit. The songs sound live– not in the sense that they were recorded as-performed, but in the way that represents what loud bands actually sound like when they turn up at a grimy club with cement walls. High frequencies bounce through the stereo field. The vocals seem feedback-baked and half-strangled. There are moments when Metz betray a minor debt to grunge, but most of the time, they’re out on their own bizzaro wavelength, singing about rats, mental instability, or whatever else conjures up appropriate levels of anxiety” – PITCHFORK Top 50 Albums of 2012

With their debut album, released last year on Sub Pop via Inertia, Stellar Toronto trio METZ articulated with deafening clarity, that a new power trio is just what the world of good music needs. It’s a hell of an experience, listening to this band; stand back, and watch jaws drop within the first four measures of their set. This is post-hardcore sludge-punk, distilled into pure, but artfully rendered chaos by one of the most brutalising bands in the world today. METZ have now announced supports for their upcoming headline shows in Sydney and Melbourne. Handpicked by METZ themselves, Sydney guests are 90s-nostalgic, cinematic punk rocker TV Colours and three-headed Melbourne punk/sludge/stoner/ hardcore/doom beast Batpiss, making the trip up the Hume to Goodgod on Wednesday December 4. Batpiss are also main support for the Melbourne show at Howler on Thursday December 5, along with amped-up Melbourne quartet Deep Heat. Both lineups perfectly set the scene for METZ’s visceral live show as the Sub Pop shredders get set to pummel Australian audiences with all the raucously artful force at their disposal. Tickets on sale now.

METZ AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES:

SYDNEY: WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 4 @ Goodgod Small Club with TV Colours + Batpiss. Tickets on sale now from Moshtix. Presented by FBi.
MELBOURNE: THURSDAY DECEMBER 5 @ Howler with Batpiss + Deep Heat. Tickets & info here. Presented by 3RRR.
PERTH: SATURDAY DECEMBER 7 @ Slanted & Enchanted. Tickets & info here. Presented by Life Is Noise.

“Smith and the gang have some garage rock fun: Smith whoops like an ape, claps his hands to match his vocals, and then a delighted Tahlia Harbour playfully sings along with the instrumental outro. Both musically and lyrically, the album presents some of the Sunsets’ best work yet” – PITCHFORK

Mistletone is proud to present the return of San Francisco’s rollicking garage-rock raconteurs, Sonny & the Sunsets. Sonny & the Sunsets are no strangers to Oz audiences; they opened Golden Plains 2011, were special guests on The Clean’s Australian tour, and headlined Mistletone’s sold out “Sonny Tones” party in Melbourne, where they are a firm favourite with three 3RRR Albums of the Week to their name. Sonny & The Sunsets are the energetic accompaniment to the dynamic workings of Sonny Smith: playwright, novelist, filmmaker, comic book artist and all-round awesome human. Swooning out to Sonny’s sardonic, laid-back style, The Sunsets provide the perfect ensemble for Sonny’s vintage callbacks; a bubbling pot of 50s and 60s pop, country and folk, doo wop, garage rock and RnB, delivered with all the nonsense and energy of a midnight beach party.  The latest and greatest Sonny & the Sunsets album, Antenna to the World, is out now on Popfrenzy.

SONNY & THE SUNSETS TOUR DATES:

MELBOURNE: FRI NOV 15 @ MELBOURNE MUSIC WEEK OPENING NIGHT at The Residence w/- The Bats, Boomgates, Montero,Vishnu Keys + DJ Higher Power. Tickets on sale now & selling fast! Doors open 7:30pm.

SYDNEY: THU NOV 21 @ Pop-Friendzzzy w/- Surf City, Community Radio + Adults @ Goodgod. Presented by Popfrenzy. Tickets on sale now.

BRISBANE: FRI NOV 22 @ California Design Up Late. See the Queensland Art Gallery in a different light when Sonny & the Sunsets play an Up Late Friday night event during California Design 1930–1965: Living in a Modern Way, an exhibition of more than 250 iconic designs from mid-20th century California organised by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Up Late offers a unique opportunity to see the ‘California Design’ exhibition after hours, enjoy live music in the Gallery’s beautiful Watermall and sample from a Californian inspired menu in the surrounds of QAG’s Sculpture Courtyard. Tickets and details here.

Sonny Smith will also be a guest speaker at Melbourne’s Face The Music conference, details below:

MUSIC = ART: Saturday 16 November, 12.20 – 1.10pm @ Arts Centre Melbourne. Sonny Smith joins panelists Caroline Kennedy and Darren Sylvester and moderators Simon Winkler & Lauren Taylor to discuss the work of musicians who create art and artists that create music. As a vehicle for expression, can the microphone be replaced by a spray can, a tattoo gun, lasers, lump of clay or a camera?  We sometimes see these worlds collide, blur, cross-pollinate at art shows or in elaborate stage shows and sometimes two callings exist in isolation.  Presented by Melbourne Music Week and Face The Music. Bookings & further info here.

“With the radiance and benevolence suggested by the title, Montero’s debut album offers a generous and open-hearted collection of glam rock jams and triumphant, transcendental synth-psych nuggets. The project of multi-disciplinary artist Ben Montero, his band also features the talents of local music luminaries Guy Blackman, Geoffrey O’Connor, Cameron Potts, all united in a shared celebration of emotive pop and power balladry” – 3RRR ALBUM OF THE WEEK

Mistletone is honoured to release the debut album by Montero, The Loving Gaze. The masterwork of Melbourne comic book artist, frontman extraordinaire and Mistletone artist-in-residence Ben Montero, The Loving Gaze is an embracing of “bigger day” daydreams and sonic ambition, with a grasp on 1970s auteur rock classicism that’s rarely seen. The inspirations Montero drew upon include late 1970s Beach Boys and Dennis Wilson, The Carpenters, Burt Bacharach, Eric Carmen, The Association, California sunshine pop, power ballads, 1980s TV theme song melodies, obscure psychedelic pop discoveries and the Brill Building songwriters who started looking inwardly for inspiration, as well as contemporary kindred spirits such as Destroyer, Ariel Pink and John Maus. The Loving Gaze is out now on vinyl and digital release only via Inertia, and available on mail order.

“I’m A Peach is dreamy — as is its B-side, a raw yet classically pop tune called Feathers. While the former is a pleading, foot-stomping and swaying rock song, the latter is a Phil Spector-esque tender track with a Californian glam heart. They’re each other’s anti-thesis but they’re both really good” – OYSTER MAGAZINE

Early Woman is a collaboration between Ben Montero and journalist/documentary maker Hannah Brooks (ex-Young Professionals, Spider Vomit, St Helens). Raw, yet aspirational, Early Woman’s songs are carved from another time, roughly chiselling away at vintage forms and classic pop/rock’n’roll tropes. Sad, sensual and dreamy, the songs reverberate with a primal sincerity and an undeniable melodic authority. Early Woman’s debut 7″, I’m A Peach b/w Feathers were recorded at Bobby Brave Studios, where the band is currently recording their debut album. I’m A Peach is a supplication, alternating between hurt and hope, throbbing with raw rage and desperation, whilst yearning for salvation.With three part harmonies and cello by Jessica Venables (Jessica Says), Feathers is dreamy and tender; a drive-in make-out anthem recalling the loneliest echoes of sixties teen music. I’m A Peach b/w Feathers, is out now on 7″ vinyl and digital release via Inertia and on Mistletone mail order.

“The song is plaintive with a light jangle, paced and beautiful. The song’s poetic lyrics and guitar solos are both elegantly simple. ‘Let December ice take me away’, Robert Scott sings. As a one-off from a band with longevity on their side, December Ice is a nice surprise” – PITCHFORK

Mistletone is honoured to present a new song by The Bats. December Ice is the A-side of a split 7″ vinyl release with Melbourne band Boomgates, a label collaboration between Mistletone + Bedroom Suck to celebrate Melbourne Music Week 2013. Previously unreleased, December Ice was one of the tracks that didn’t make it on to The Bats’ most recent album Free All The Monsters. It was taken from the album recording sessions at Seacliffe Asylum — a 19th century psychiatric hospital in the small village of Seacliff, located to the north of Dunedin in the Otago region of New Zealand’s South Island) — and later mixed by Dale Cotton, the NZ engineer behind High Dependency Unit, Dimmer and several Bats albums. December Ice by The Bats b/w Widow Maker by Boomgates is now available on digital release and limited edition 7″ vinyl via Inertia and Mistletone mail order.

The Orbweavers delve into local urban history and deliver new material drawn from Melbourne’s built and natural environments with their new single, Ceiling Rose b/w Match Factory. Ceiling Rose is a song about secrets and dreams, waking and worrying in the night, drifting between states of consciousness. A symbol of secrecy and confidentiality since ancient times, the ceiling rose is an enduring decorative feature in Australian interior architecture, and forms the central motif of this new single. Match Factory is a dedication to Melbourne suburbs Cremorne, Richmond & Abbotsford, industrial and working life, and remnant buildings such as Dimmeys, the Bryant & May factory and Yorkshire Brewery silos. A song about loss and leaving, Match Factory was written walking through the northern river suburbs of Melbourne around the time of the ‘super moon’ in June 2013. Ceiling Rose b/w Match Factory is out now on digital release via Mistletone / Inertia.

The Orbweavers are showcasing in Melbourne at AWME 2013 (Australasian World Music Expo) with an intimate show at The Toff on Thursday, November 14 with Sweet Jean and Maya Kamaty (Reunion Island). Tickets on sale now, starts 7:30pm.

Look forward to sharing a magical summer with you!

And a final farewell to Lou Reed, via Ben Montero…

Artwork by Greedy Hen

THE JULIE RUIN AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES:

MELBOURNE: Wednesday, January 15 @ The Corner with New War + Grouse DJs. Tickets on sale now from The Corner box office.
SYDNEY: Friday, January 17 @ The Factory Theatre with Early Woman + DJ Sveta. Tickets on sale now from The Factory box office.
HOBART: Saturday, January 18 @ MONA FOMA. Tickets & info here.

“Hanna is one of America’s greatest living rock performers” – The New Yorker

Mistletone presents the first ever Australian tour by The Julie Ruin. Led by Riot Grrrl pioneer Katheen Hanna (Bikini Kill, Le Tigre) and backed by her hand-picked, dream-come-true band (including former Bikini Kill bandmate Kathi Wilcox and Kenny Mellman of Kiki and Herb fame), The Julie Ruin is an energetic dance-punk whirlwind, the live band providing a tight musical backbone to Hanna’s iconic vocal style. A fresh and fierce expression of Hanna’s whip-smart wit and danceable, raw punk licks, The Julie Ruin will thrill long time fans and newcomers in the wake of the legacy-building documentary film, The Punk Singer. A celebrated, outspoken figure at the forefront of feminist punk, Kathleen Hanna is as vital and relevant as ever, and set to deliver a powerful punch of dance punk to Australian audiences. The Julie Ruin’s debut album Run Fast is out now via Fuse Music Group.

“That girl she holds her head up so high, I think I wanna be her best friend, yeah.” So go the lyrics to Bikini Kill’s punk rock “Rebel Girl.” In 1990s Olympia, Washington, feminist activist Kathleen Hanna was the very girl she sang about-headstrong, seemingly self-confident, and a natural leader. A spoken word poet turned musician, she spearheaded the so-called “Riot grrrl” movement, igniting a revolution with feminist politics and DIY ‘zines that confronted sexism in the media representation of women. But Hanna, the famously outspoken icon that many looked to as a voice of third wave feminism stopped performing in 2005. Six years later she was diagnosed with an advanced case of Lyme disease.

In the feature-length documentary The Punk Singer, director Sini Anderson documents Kathleen Hanna’s legacy using 20 years of archival footage. Interviews with Hanna, Le Tigre’s Johanna Fateman and JD Samson, Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, Joan Jett, Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney, Hanna’s husband (and Beastie Boy) Adam Horowitz, among others, bring an intimacy to the film and to this vital, influential artist. As Hanna tells the camera, “I lied when I said I was done. I knew I wasn’t done. Singing’s my life, and I have to do it or I’m gonna go totally bananas“. Thus proving she’s still the rebel girl who’s the queen of our hearts.

THE JULIE RUIN BIO:

In 1997, while on break from the iconic punk band, Bikini Kill, Kathleen Hanna wrote and produced a solo record under the pseudonym of Julie Ruin. The album is considered a classic of subversive pop and has been praised by artists ranging from Kim Gordon to Mykki Blanco. Kathleen had always planned to perform the songs live, so in 1998 she and her friend Johanna Fateman went down in a dingy East Village basement and tried to learn how to play the Julie Ruin record, but instead began writing the first Le Tigre record, a hugely influential album from a band who went on to release three full-length albums and tour extensively until 2006.

In 2010, with Le Tigre on hiatus, Kathleen tried again. She had heard that her Bikini Kill bandmate, Kathi Wilcox, was moving from Washington, D.C. to NYC and asked her if she would consider playing bass in the new project. To Kathleen’s delight, Kathi agreed.

Kathleen had seen the legendary punk cabaret act Kiki and Herb (Justin Vivian Bond and Kenny Mellman, respectively) shortly after she moved to NYC in 1998. In that act, she found solace and a sense that she wasn’t alone in her art-making. Like her take on feminism, Kiki and Herb took queer activism, mixed it with the traditions of cabaret, added in a punk sensibility, and created an enduring act that lasted the better part of 16 years, toured the world and was nominated for a Tony Award. Kenny once sent Kathleen a gushing fan letter only to be surprised when she wrote him one back. After Kiki and Herb ended, Kenny continued working in the downtown scene and was a co-creator of the cult show Our Hit Parade. As a solo artist he has opened for The Magnetic Fields and recorded with the Stephin Merritt side project, The 6ths. Kathleen emailed Kenny in 2010 and asked if he might want to try writing country songs together. They got together once, worked on a song, and even though the song never materialized Kathleen knew they would work well together. The next email Kathleen sent him was to ask if he would play keyboard in The Julie Ruin. He, of course, said yes!

Kathleen met Carmine Covelli when he joined the Le Tigre world tour in 2004 as the video and lighting tech guru. During that tour he filmed a chunk of live performance and behind-the-scenes footage that ended up in Who Took The Bomp?, the documentary about Le Tigre’s final tour. Carmine comes from a musical background of metal, hardcore and punk. He is also an actor, performer and sound artist in the experimental downtown theater scene, performing at such places at PS122, St. Marks Church, DTW, and The Kitchen. In 2007, Kathleen saw a solo show of his called “Are You There Galapagos? It’s Me, Carmine.” She found the show so smart and funny that she couldn’t stop thinking about it. She had also seen him play drums in a few acts around town, so one night during her birthday party she asked him to join the band.

Kathleen met Sara Landeau in 2006, when they taught and coached bands at The Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls in Brooklyn. Sara studied at the New School and Juilliard, and graduated from Columbia University. She now runs her own music school and teaches guitar and drums to young women all over NYC. She spends her days advocating for girls of all ages to learn to play rock music, form bands, and develop self-empowerment through music. Sara had been in a host of punk bands that played shows around NYC, and had a unique killer surfy guitar style that Kathleen loved and thought would enhance The Julie Ruin sound.

The group began practicing even before Kathi moved to NYC and was able to join them. They loved the challenge of taking the solo recordings from the Julie Ruin record and recrafting them for a full band. At the end of most rehearsals they would just jam. Those jams turned into the songs that now form Run Fast, the band’s debut album. From the raw opener, “Oh Come On,” to the soulful “Just My Kind” (produced by LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy), to the synth-heavy title track, “Run Fast,” the album captures the band’s many sides. Through it all, Kathleen’s vocals connect all the dots.

Besides the James Murphy track and a couple of songs that Kathleen mixed on her own, the album was mixed by Eli Crews, who tracked and mixed tUnE-yArDs album, whokill.

As to why Kathleen took so long to return to music, the answer is to be found in the documentary film The Punk Singer, that Sini Anderson and Tamra Davis made about her. A hit on the festival circuit, The Punk Singer follows Kathleen for a year, during which she discovers that she has Lyme Disease which had gone undiagnosed for years. After extensive treatment, Kathleen’s illness is now in remission, and she has become an advocate for Lyme Disease education.

The Julie Ruin is very excited to be touring Australia for the first time to support the release of Run Fast, out now via Fuse Music Group.

Artwork by Albert Herter

CASS MCCOMBS TOUR DATES:

MELBOURNE: Thursday, January 30 @ Northcote Social Club w/- Ross McLennan. Tickets on sale now from The Corner Box Office. Presented by Mistletone & Triple R.
Laneway Brisbane: Friday, January 31 – RNA, Fortitude Valley. Tickets & info here.
Laneway Melbourne: Saturday, February 1 – Footscray Community Arts Centre/River’s Edge. Tickets & info here.
Laneway Sydney: Sunday, February 2 – Sydney College Of The Arts, Rozelle. Tickets & info here.
SYDNEY: Thursday, February 6 @ Oxford Art Factory w/- Melodie Nelson. Tickets on sale now from Moshtix. Presented by Mistletone & 2SER.
Laneway Adelaide: Friday, February 7 – Harts Mill, Port Adelaide. Tickets & info here.
Laneway Perth: Saturday, February 8 – Esplanade Park and West End, Fremantle. Tickets & info here.

Golden singer/songwriter of our time, CASS McCOMBS has traversed many borders, literally and figuratively, since his great debut Not The Way in 2003. Americana, bedroom pop, folk and chamber music have variously held the interest of the Baltimore native, but compelling storytelling and occasional flashes of humor are the common thread here. Cass’s 2011’s twin releases, Humour Risk and Wit’s End (Domino), highlights amongst a catalogue peppered with brilliance. His new double album for Domino Records, Big Wheel and Others, is a sprawling, visionary album that may just be his best yet. Big Wheel and Others is further proof of Cass’s status as one of his generation’s most visionary songwriters – as uncompromising, radical and counter-cultural as any other artist working today.

As Pitchfork noted, “he’s quietly become one of America’s finest chroniclers of fringe characters, a writer of heart-rending love songs and psychedelic odes to the natural world, a teller of tall-tales with a sense of humor dry as desert wood, and that rare folksinger who actually sings about the folk. Over the last decade, McCombs has been a remarkably consistent, if not publicity-averse, singer-songwriter, comparable to Bill Callahan and Will Oldham as our foremost translators of Old, Weird America into modern terms (and vice-versa).”

The most ambitious and stylistically diverse Cass McCombs release to date, the twenty-two song long Big Wheel and Others is a marvel of great beauty, insight, humour and mystery that sees Cass at the peak of his mercurial powers – his restless muse making stops at all the strangest roadsides of rock and roll, blues, jazz, country and more on its quest for truth and understanding. In equal parts bucolically gorgeous and roughshod, mischievously obtuse and direct, painfully personal and cosmically universal, Big Wheel… is the perfect distillation of over a decade’s worth of creation and chaos in the life of a true pillar of the American underground.

The depth of imagination and skill of execution on show throughout Big Wheel… sees Cass showing once again that he is a masterful manipulator of traditional forms – a writer capable of making the most care-worn conventions feel subversive and new by virtue of his spirit and perspective. Songs such as ‘Aeon of Aquarius Blues’, the yearningly romantic ‘Angel Blood’ and lead single ‘There Can Be Only One’ reaffirm Cass’s intimate relationship with the acoustic guitar as an eloquent and expressive instrument, while the likes of ‘Big Wheel’ and ‘Satan Is My Toy’ are two of the leanest, most visceral songs in his catalogue to date. Conversely, ‘The Burning Of The Temple’ and ‘Joe Murder’ are brittle and forlorn, haunted by melancholic jazz motifs and bursts of avant-garde noise. Elsewhere, 9-minute album centrepiece ‘Everything Has To Be Just So’ encapsulates Cass’s ability to imbue wry social commentary with an overarching humanity, as the song opens from rattlesnake tavern blues into emotive lament with deft sleight of hand.

Brimming with evocative storytelling, discerning introspection and heartrending melody, Big Wheel And Others is a bold new chapter in the fascinating Cass McCombs legend.

Cass McCombs “Morning Star” from Patrick O’Dell on Vimeo.

Artwork by Carl Breitkreuz

KURT VILE & THE VIOLATORS TOUR DATES:

Sydney Festival: Wednesday, January 22 – Kurt Vile & the Violators @ Paradiso at Town Hall. Tickets on sale here. Doors open 8pm. * SELLING FAST!
Sydney Festival: Thursday, January 23 – Kurt Vile sings Big Star’s Third, Enmore Theatre. Big Star’s imperfect masterpiece is performed with its original string and wind orchestrations by Jody Stephens, Mike Mills (R.E.M.), Ken Stringfellow (The Posies), Mitch Easter (Let’s Active) and Chris Stamey (the dB’s) with guest vocalists Kurt Vile and more to be announced. Tickets on sale October 28, info here. Doors open 8pm.
Sydney Festival: Thursday, January 23 – Kurt Vile solo show @ Festival Village. * SOLD OUT
Laneway Auckland: Monday, January 27 – Silo Park. Tickets & info here.
Laneway Brisbane: Friday, January 31 – RNA, Fortitude Valley. Tickets & info here.
Laneway Melbourne: Saturday, February 1 – Footscray Community Arts Centre/River’s Edge. Tickets & info here.
Laneway Sydney: Sunday, February 2 – Sydney College Of The Arts, Rozelle. Tickets & info here.
MELBOURNE: Wednesday, February 5 @ The Corner w/- Early Woman + Pearls. Tickets on sale now from The Corner Box Office.
MELBOURNE: Thursday, February 6 @ The Corner w/- Montero + Vishnu Keys. * SOLD OUT
Laneway Adelaide: Friday, February 7 – Harts Mill, Port Adelaide. Tickets & info here.
Laneway Perth: Saturday, February 8 – Esplanade Park and West End, Fremantle. Tickets & info here.

Mistletone proudly presents the return of the mighty Kurt Vile & The Violators. The Philadelphia hair throb and his band (including new drummer Kyle Spence – ex-Dinosaur Jr / Harvey Milk), return to our shores to continue the love affair that began with their sold-out debut Australian tour for Meredith Music Festival 2012.

Kurt has been rightly celebrated everywhere for much of 2013, since the release of Wakin On A Pretty Daze (out locally on Remote Control Records), which was widely hailed as album of the year. One of the most captivating guitarists and singer-songwriters of our time, Kurt Vile continues his ascendant career with these two Laneway side shows in Melbourne over two epic nights at The Corner, with special guests Early Woman (Wednesday February 5) and Montero (Thursday February 6).

Kurt plays Sydney Festival’s Paradiso at Town Hall venue with the Violators on Wednesday, January 22, as well as an all-too-rare solo show in the Festival Village at midnight on Thursday, January 23. Kurt is also one of the guest vocalists for Big Star’s Third, an Australian exclusive for Sydney Festival at the Enmore Theatre on Thursday, January 23.

Kurt recorded his fifth album Wakin On A Pretty Daze with producer John Agnello at a multitude of different studios throughout Northeast America in the second half of 2012. Five and a half minutes into ‘Was All Talk’, Kurt murmurs in his beatific, laconic burr: “Makin’ music is easy / Watch me”.

If that sounds like an empty boast, it’s likely you’ve just not listened to enough of Kurt’s music yet, as the way his songs fall into place suggests that his art is entirely and convincingly effortless. That these songs zero in on a hazy perfection with such laser-guided precision shows that behind this veneer of lackadaisical creativity, beavers a songwriter toiling hard to make music so beguilingly laid-back.

Kurt Vile (his real name) is one of ten children, born in 1980 and raised in the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia. As a teenager, his bluegrass-lovin’ father gifted him a banjo, when what Kurt truly craved was a guitar. So, with a ‘can do’ spirit that’s a boon to any independent musician, he simply played it as if it were a guitar. Along with his passion for the 4-track-toting titans of early 90’s indie-rock, Kurt also harboured a love for classic rock of substance – Creedence, Tom Petty, Neil Young, artists with their roots in ‘Roots’, but with enough vision to carve out an Americana of their own. Within the footprints he was following, Kurt began carving a path of his own, making an art of dipping from introspective mellow rambles, to sky-scraping anthems; eager to rock out, equally unafraid to sing low and sweet.

Fast-forward some years and with The Violators in tow (the Heartbreakers to his Tom Petty, if you will) barnstormers like ‘Freak Train’ from the full-length Childish Prodigy (2009) were contrasted with more reflective and sun-dappled tunes from his break-through album Smoke Ring For My Halo (2011), as Kurt quietly became one of the great American guitarists and songwriters of our time. Wakin On A Pretty Daze built on all Kurt has done before & made sense of the supposedly contrary impulses of his previous work. Learning whilst ascending, he crafted an album that would have sounded great 30 years ago, sounds great today and will still sound great 30 years from now.

Realising he’s in no rush to prove anything to anyone, Kurt’s songs on Wakin On A Pretty Daze unfurl at their own extended and unhurried pace, but not a second of this loveliness is wasted or surplus. The likes of ‘Air Bud’, ‘Was All Talk’ and ‘Gold Tone’ could keep on ringing out, exploring every possible wrinkle in its chord sequences and expounding with wisdom on the simple pleasures of a beautiful day, for as long as Kurt could stand to play them. These aren’t jams; these are songs that glide as they unwind, with a natural charm that’s enough to convince you that, yes, for Kurt, Makin’ music is easy. So, seriously: watch him.