Mistletone

Zing! here comes spring, and our first Mistletone notes in a long while. We’ve just announced summer tours by The Men, Perfume Genius, Julia Holter, Nite Jewel, Beach House, Sharon Van Etten + Toro Y Moi; read on! + scroll down for Mistletone Records news, including recent releases by TEEN and Daughn Gibson, as well as forthcoming albums from Toro Y Moi, Ross McLennan, HTRK, Montero and Wintercoats. Sunshiney times ahead!

THE MEN

• AUCKLAND LANEWAY FESTIVAL: MONDAY JANUARY 28th @ Silo Park. Tickets + lineup info here.
• ** just announced! SYDNEY: WEDNESDAY JANUARY 30 @ Goodgod Small Club w/- Royal Headache + Raw Prawn. Tickets on sale now from Moshtix.
• ** just announced! WOLLONGONG: THURSDAY JANUARY 31 @ Beaches Thirroul w/- Royal Headache + Mother and Son. Tickets $26+BF on sale now from Moshtix or in person from Music Farmers (5 Crown Lane, Wollongong), or $30 at the door if still available.
• ** just announced! MELBOURNE: WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 6 @ Northcote Social Club w/- White Walls + Nun. Tickets on sale now from the venue.
• BRISBANE LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Friday 1st February @ RNA, Fortitude Valley. Tickets + lineup info here.
• SYDNEY LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Saturday 2nd February @ Sydney College Of The Arts, Rozelle. Tickets + lineup info here.
• MELBOURNE LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Sunday 3rd February Footscray Community Arts Centre. Tickets + lineup info here.
• ADELAIDE LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Friday 8th February Fowler’s Live and Uni SA City West Campus. Tickets + lineup info here.
• PERTH LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Saturday 9th February Perth Cultural Centre. Tickets + lineup info here.

Mistletone, Maggot Music, Triple R, Spunk Records + Music Farmers present Brooklyn’s The Men on their first visit to Australasia. Ironically referred to by Time Out New York as “Thurston Moore & the E Street Band”, The Men bring their incendiary live set to Laneway Festival plus sideshows in Sydney, Melbourne and Wollongong. With a love of scuzzy guitars, The Men don’t play by categorical punk sub-genre rules, but dabble in everything from hardcore punk to psych to shoegaze to black metal and country. The quartet began in 2008 with a hand-dubbed self-released demo cassette, and most recently their on-point third album, 2012’s Open Your Heart (out locally on Spunk Records), which won hearts with its goofy blues explosions, country-lovin’ dirges and straight-up indie punk anthems (cue the triple j playlisted title track). This year they’ve criss-crossed Europe, played shows with Ty Segall, the Thee Oh Sees and Redd Kross, and performed at festivals such as Pitchfork Festival, FYF Fest Los Angeles and Primavera Sound, Barcelona. Ever prolific, a new album by The Men is due in early 2013. Having four songwriters in the band lends itself to a truly unpredictable and thrilling live experience which has seen The Men grow a following of die hard fans, from living rooms and basements throughout New York’s five boroughs to across the United States and Europe. Catch The Men on their debut Australasian tour for a truly blistering and distorted live punk experience.

• “Open Your Heart is both tremendously physical and friendly, knocking you on your ass one second, then immediately helping you back up to put a beer in your hand… (It’s) like a tribute to the pure rejuvenating powers of rock’n’roll itself by going nuts with all the things that got you hooked the first time: breakneck Zep riffs! Duel-guitar leads! Drum solos! It’s essentially a teenager’s highlight reel” – PITCHFORK BEST NEW MUSIC (Rating 8.5)

NITE JEWEL

• SYDNEY FESTIVAL: KRAFTWERK’S COMPUTER WORLD PERFORMED BY NITE JEWEL & PEANUT BUTTER WOLF. Sunday 27th January @ The Famous Spiegeltent, 11:30pm. Tickets on sale now from Ticketmaster.
• ** just announced! SYDNEY: THURSDAY JANUARY 31 @ Goodgod Small Club w/- Holy Balm + Buzz Kull + Astral DJs. Tickets on sale now from Moshtix.
• BRISBANE LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Friday 1st February @ RNA, Fortitude Valley. Tickets + lineup info here.
• SYDNEY LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Saturday 2nd February @ Sydney College Of The Arts, Rozelle. Tickets + lineup info here. Presented by Mistletone + FBi Radio.
• MELBOURNE LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Sunday 3rd February Footscray Community Arts Centre. Tickets + lineup info here.
• ** just announced! MELBOURNE: MONDAY FEBRUARY 4 @ Workers Club w/- Fox + Sui + LA Nites DJs. Presented by Mistletone + LA Nights. Tickets on sale now from the venue. Doors open 7:30pm.

Led by Ramona Gonzalez, a glimmering LA four-piece will bring Nite Jewel‘s sophisticated, playful jams to Melbourne & Sydney dancefloors for two delectable club nights and a gaggle of festival shows. Ramona Gonzalez first began her transcendent minimalist dance-pop escapades in the privacy of her own home. With the aid of her multitrack cassette recorder and whatever keyboards, drum machines, and other instruments that were available to her, Ramona very quickly developed her own unique sound and began performing as Nite Jewel. Later teaming up with Cole Marsden Greif Neill (co-producer of Mature Themes by Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti and current engineer for Beck), Nite Jewel became a four-piece live act, touring with Little Dragon, DaM FunK and James Blake. In 2009 Nite Jewel moved from Ramona’s bedroom to stages worldwide, thanks to the nonchalantly good debut Good Evening. This year’s One Second Of Love (out locally via Inertia) is a re-imagination of golden era R&B pop, positing future-classic sounds alongside vocal sultriness. If Nite Jewel’s earlier work brought to mind the likes of Lisa Lisa or Debbie Deb on quaaludes, this new body of work conjures Sade, Eurythmics-era Annie Lennox and Tracy Thorn. It’s pure, confident, singular-but-intricate and delightfully sophisticated music, bringing Nite Jewel’s evolution of fidelity and nuance to a dizzy head.

• “Layered, smart headphone pop and meta-dance music that messes with the classic song structures of pop music… Ramona Gonzalez has created her own uniquely Nite Jewelian style” – LOS ANGELES TIMES
• “This is a kind of liminal music, fascinating because it’s so much closer to credible pop… intense (and) joyous, full of precision, engagement and life force” – NEW YORK TIMES

JULIA HOLTER

• ** just announced! MELBOURNE: WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 6 @ The Toff w/- The Orbweavers + Dear Time’s Waste (NZ) + DJ King Sim. Tickets on sale from Moshtix online, phone: 1300 GET TIX (438 849) or Moshtix outlets including Polyester (Fitzroy & City).
• ** just announced! SYDNEY: THURSDAY FEBRUARY 7 @ Paddington Uniting Church w/- Dear Time’s Waste (NZ) + special guest to be announced. Tickets on sale now from Moshtix. All ages. Doors open 7pm.
• BRISBANE LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Friday 1st February @ RNA, Fortitude Valley. Tickets + lineup info here.
• SYDNEY LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Saturday 2nd February @ Sydney College Of The Arts, Rozelle. Tickets + lineup info here.
• MELBOURNE LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Sunday 3rd February Footscray Community Arts Centre. Tickets + lineup info here.
• ADELAIDE LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Friday 8th February Fowler’s Live and Uni SA City West Campus. Tickets + lineup info here.
• PERTH LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Saturday 9th February Perth Cultural Centre. Tickets + lineup info here.

Los Angeles singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Julia Holter will tour Australia for the first time as a trio; her stately piano accompanied by cellist Christopher Votek and drummer Corey Fogel. Julia Holter’s lush, absorbing compositions juggle ideas from the pop and classical worlds, melding field recordings with baroque pop and hypnotic melodies; her songwriting stems from a mythological reverence of that which is incomprehensibly beautiful. Julia’s second album, Ekstasis (released locally this year by Spunk Records to glowing acclaim) steers along the experimental pop spectrum most commonly associated to New York’s Downtown music micro-universe of the 80s, specifically the works of Laurie Anderson and Arthur Russell. One of our personal favourite albums of the year, Ekstatis indulges in life’s beautiful, simple, unfolding mysteries; the word ekstasis from ancient Greek literally means “being outside oneself”– an ecstatic form of transcendence — and this is exactly how Julia’s music makes us feel. Fresh off a string of shows with Sigur Ros, playing the Andy Warhol Museum and appearing alongside Poland’s Sinfonietta Cracovia Orchestra at the Unsound festival in Krakow, Julia Holter’s live show is a swirl of ethereal beauty, exquisite songcraft and classical atmospherics which will take your breath away.

• “And at the center of all this time travel stands Julia Holter, pulling in references and sounds from everywhere and shaping them into a music that’s both haunting and life-affirming, something to make you dream and think” – PITCHFORK BEST NEW MUSIC (Rating 8.6)
  “Julia Holter has created a radically new world from a crystalline Venn diagram of sound” – NPR

PERFUME GENIUS

• SYDNEY FESTIVAL: Saturday 26th January + Sunday 27th January @ The Famous Spiegeltent. Tickets on sale now from Ticketmaster.
• ** just announced! MELBOURNE: Wednesday 30th January @ Northcote Social Club w/- special guest Wintercoats. Tickets on sale now from the venue.
• BRISBANE LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Friday 1st February @ RNA, Fortitude Valley. Tickets + lineup info here.
• SYDNEY LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Saturday 2nd February @ Sydney College Of The Arts, Rozelle. Tickets + lineup info here.
• MELBOURNE LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Sunday 3rd February Footscray Community Arts Centre. Tickets + lineup info here.
• ADELAIDE LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Friday 8th February Fowler’s Live and Uni SA City West Campus. Tickets + lineup info here.
• PERTH LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Saturday 9th February Perth Cultural Centre. Tickets + lineup info here.

Also travelling to Australia for the first time, Perfume Genius will play an intimate Melbourne headline show at NSC with special guest Wintercoats, as well as playing Laneway Festival nationally and two nights in The Famous Spiegeltent for Sydney Festival. The nom de musique of Seattle’s Mike Hadreas, Perfume Genius began when he moved from New York to his mum’s home in Everett, Washington. In these relatively isolated conditions, Mike felt a compulsion to make music and began composing fragile yet brutally honest songs on the piano. Perfume Genus’ second album, Put Your Back N 2 It, arrived early in 2012 (released locally by Remote Control Records) and has been feted by reviewers for its confessional intimacy, piano-led beauty and firm grasp of identity politics. The gorgeous, confessional single Hood gained notoriety after YouTube banned the clip (directed by Winston H. Case and featuring gay porn star Arpad Miklos), deeming it “unsuitable for families” . But this is no gimmick: emotionally intense, poetic and powerful, Perfume Genius’ hypnotic vision is truly one of a kind. Mike’s music uncovers what we all have in common by celebrating the differences that define us. Though stark and revealing, his songs are tender and tuneful, with a voice that bears comparison to Sufjan Stevens in its ability to be simultaneously sad and uplifting. Perfume Genius can make falsetto sound like a whispered secret, yet his live shows are renowned for their humour as much as their musical intensity.

• “A delicate collection of near-gospel songs for the brokenhearted” – FILTER

BEACH HOUSE

• FALLS FESTIVAL, LORNE: SUNDAY DECEMBER 30. Sold out!
• FALLS FESTIVAL, MARION BAY: MONDAY DECEMBER 31. Tickets on sale now from The Falls website.
• ENMORE THEATRE, SYDNEY: THURSDAY 3 JANUARY. Tickets on sale now from The Enmore website or Ticketek, phone 132 849.
• SOUTHBOUND, BUSSELTON WA: SATURDAY JANUARY 5. Tickets on sale now from the festival website.
• FORUM THEATRE, MELBOURNE: WEDNESDAY 9 JANUARY. Tickets on sale now from Ticketmaster or phone 136 100.
• TIVOLI THEATRE, BRISBANE: FRIDAY 11 JANUARY. Tickets on sale now from The Tivoli website or Ticketek, phone 132 849.

Mistletone, triple j and Street Press Australia present Beach House, returning to Australia in the wake of their majestic fourth album Bloom to play the east coast’s most beautiful art deco theatre spaces. The devotion of Beach House’s growing community of listeners has deepened with each album (Beach House: 2006, Devotion: 2008 and Teen Dream: 2010, all released locally on Mistletone). Already starring in many best albums of 2012 lists, Bloom is a sublime experience matched only by the intensity of Beach House’s stunning live show. The heady atmosphere of Beach House’s performance, coupled with the power of Victoria Legrand’s incredible voice, make every Beach House concert a swoon-inducing shared space, laden with romance and heightened emotions. Beach House’s Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally have personally chosen Melbourne’s Wintercoats, a/k/a one man chamber pop orchestra James Wallace, as sole support for their theatre shows. Having just returned from an extensive UK/European tour, playing Torstrassen Festival (Berlin) & Laboratorium festival (Heidelberg, Germany) showcasing for Cascine + The 405 in London, and with a debut album in the works, Wintercoats is a sublime match for Beach House’s stately and epic live show.

• “A band in command: The experience was seamless, billowing and stately. Many on the club’s packed main floor swayed with their eyes closed, mouthing lyrics as if singer/keyboardist Victoria Legrand were controlling their movements” – WASHINGTON POST

SHARON VAN ETTEN

• FALLS FESTIVAL, LORNE: SATURDAY DECEMBER 29. Sold out!
• THE CORNER, MELBOURNE: SUNDAY DECEMBER 30 with special guests Grand Salvo.
• Tickets on sale now from The Corner box office.
• FALLS FESTIVAL, MARION BAY: MONDAY DECEMBER 31. Tickets on sale now from The Falls website.
• THE ZOO, BRISBANE: WEDNESDAY JANUARY 2 with special guests Little Scout + Heather Woods Broderick. Tickets on sale now from The Zoo & all Oztix outlets.
• SOUTHBOUND, BUSSELTON WA: FRIDAY JANUARY 4. Tickets on sale now from the festival website.
• SYDNEY FESTIVAL: SUNDAY JANUARY 6 @ The Famous Spiegeltent. Starts 5pm. Tickets on sale now from Ticketmaster.
• SYDNEY FESTIVAL: TUESDAY JANUARY 8 @ The Famous Spiegeltent. Starts 7pm. Tickets on sale now from Ticketmaster.
• SYDNEY FESTIVAL: WEDNESDAY JANUARY 9 @ The Famous Spiegeltent. Starts 7pm. Tickets on sale now from Ticketmaster.

Singer, songwriter, collaborator and incredibly captivating performer: in three short years, Sharon Van Etten has solidified her reputation as one of America’s strongest new voices. Sharon’s debut album Because I Was In Love came in 2009, accompanied by the sound of critics fawning the world over, followed by Epic (2010) and this year’s Tramp (released locally through Inertia). Produced by The National’s Aaron Dessner, Tramp features guest appearances by Zach Condon (aka Beirut), Bryce Dessner (also of The National), Julianna Barwick and Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak, proving that the best and brightest of American indie rock are lining up to get their prints on a Sharon Van Etten record. Just as assured and compelling live as she is on record, Sharon delivers both power and charm in spades. Backed by her stunning three piece band, Sharon will showcase her bittersweet songs with all their raw intimacy and dramatic sweep when she brings her magic to our shores this summer – so make sure you’re there with us. As a special treat for Brisbane audiences, Heather Woods Broderick from Sharon’s band will perform an opening solo set at The Zoo. Heather is a disarming and resonant musician and composer who has recorded as a member of Efterklang, Horse Feathers and Loch Lomond; her solo album From The Ground (featuring Heather’s brother, Peter Broderick) was released on Sydney-based label, Preservation, and she also makes a guest appearance on Slay Me In My Sleep, the sixth album from Melbourne’s Grand Salvo.

• “Sublime” – MOJO
  “Americana’s best-kept secret… one of the must-hears of 2012” – The Guardian

TORO Y MOI

• SYDNEY: Thu Mar 7 @ The Standard w/- special guest Jonti. Tickets on sale now from Moshtix.
• MELBOURNE: Sat Mar 9 @ The Corner w/- special guest Jonti. Tickets on sale now from the venue.
• GOLDEN PLAINS: Sun Mar 10 @ Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre. Ticket ballot is open now.

Mistletone, Triple R, FBi Radio + Street Press Australia present the return of Toro Y Moi, whose Australian tour will coincide with the release of the supreme new Toro Y Moi album, Anything In Return, which will be released January 22 on Mistletone Records / Inertia. Now aged 25, Toro y Moi mastermind Chaz Bundick has been productive as ever, with a release under his Les Sins dancefloor alter ego on Caribou/Daphni main man Dan Snaith’s Jiaolong label, compiling a box set of early lo-fi recordings on Carpark Records and turning out an ’80s-tinged synth-funk banger, the Freaking Out EP — and that was after he’d tossed aside electronic samples for last year’s more organic-sounding sophomore stunner, Underneath The Pine, and produced one of Odd Future rapper Tyler, the Creator’s jams. Anything In Return, the latest Toro Y Moi creation, sees Chaz engaging in intuitive pop production, putting forth the impression of unmediated id. The producer’s hand is prominent—not least in the sampled yeahs and uhs that give the album a hip-hop-indebted confidence— and many of the songs feature the 4/4 beats and deftly employed effects usually associated with house music. Chaz and his band recently moved from South Carolina to San Francisco, and there’s a considerably Californian influence on the new album, a languid funk redolent of a decidedly West Coast temperament. Sounding quite assured in what some may call this songwriter’s return to producer-hood, Anything in Return sees Chaz uninhibited by issues of genre, an album that feels like the artist’s essence. The first single So Many Details will be released as a 7″ single on Record Store Day’s Back to Black Friday (November 23), with a B-side remix by Chaz himself, featuring Odd Future’s Hodgy Beats. In the meantime, you can stream it here.

• “I’m just trying to make sincere pop music that’s not all processed and bubblegum. Underground isn’t always relevant; I want to see what’s popular, then put my own spin on it”– CHAZ BUNDICK on Anything In Return by Toro Y Moi, out January 22 on Mistletone.

TEEN

Mistletone warmly welcomes TEEN to our family. Their new album In Limbo is out now on Mistletone / Inertia. You might have seen TEEN’s stunning clip for Electric, directed by Sam Fleischner (Panda Bear, MGMT, Santigold) on rage every Saturday morning for the past month; peep it here, and listen to the first single Better on Mistletone Soundcloud. TEEN came together when Brooklyn’s Teeny Lieberson, formerly of Here We Go Magic, left her post in the latter band in order to make music with her sisters Katherine and Lizzie and their longtime friend Jane Herships. TEEN’s debut long-player, In Limbo is a mix of beauty and grit. Raw songwriting meets droning keyboards and guitar, primal drumming, and swirling vocals to produce atmospheric, haunting songs set in genre-defying arrangements. In Limbo was mixed and produced in collaboration with Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3, Spectrum), and his influence & guidance is subtly evident throughout, adding sympathetic undertones and ambience to the band’s well defined and inspiring songs. Bringing together a multitude of influences in unexpected ways,TEEN is at once nostalgic and refreshingly original.

• “TEEN revel in euphoria and exploration that brims with joyous confidence… living in their psych and New Wave-inflected world is heavenly” – DRUM MEDIA
  “A dark, delay-draped sound indebted to cosmic synth music, psychedelia, and dream-pop; and taken to even more experimental ends by working with Pete ‘Sonic Boom’ Kember, that one-time Spacemen 3 reprobate and recent Panda Bear collaborateur” – THEMUSIC.COM.AU

DAUGHN GIBSON

Imagine if Nicolas Jaar edited together a cocaine-country album, with a crooner somewhere between Lee Hazelwood and Roy Orbison on the mic. You know how James Blake brought R&B into the post-techno age? That’s what Daughn Gibson is fixing to do with country. Recent Triple R Album of the Week, Daughn Gibson’s debut album All Hell is a spooky, atmospheric slice of electronically enhanced backwoods creepiness. Shades of Arthur Russell, Scott Walker, Magnetic Fields and Matthew Dear might pop up here or there, but this is a work unlike any other. Surrounded by echoed electric guitar, sinister rhythm patterns, and cutting synth, Daughn unfurls his unsettling, elliptical tales in a gritty baritone. Daughn Gibson has recently signed with Sub Pop worldwide, who will release his new album in 2013; until then, you can pick up All Hell on Mistletone / Inertia.

• “Philadelphia singer Daughn Gibson was once a truck driver. It’s a biographical detail that informs All Hell’s odd brew of country croon, plinking saloon piano, evangelist Christian interludes and tales of good families gone bad: a patchwork of influences you could probably only encounter zig-zagging across interstates from sea to shining sea, probably on the radio, probably late at night. Lookin’ Back on ’99 is a slinky slice of noir pop while Dandelions makes bedfellows of Johnny Cash’s croon with Dan Deacon’s deranged electronica. Gibson’s baritone steals the show, most often reminiscent of Stephin Merritt of Magnetic Fields or Sydney’s Jack Ladder but most beautiful when he channels Arthur Russell’s fey wonderment, as he does on the tear-streaked Tiffany Lou.” – SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (4 stars)

ROSS MCLENNAN

Ross McLennan‘s eagerly awaited third solo album, The Night’s Deeds Are Vapour, is set for release in January on Mistletone / Inertia. Aptly described as a “chamber rock auteur”, Ross has earned the highest accolades for his solo career since disbanding Snout, one of a few Australian indie pop bands from the 1990s who are remembered both for their popularity and their creative depth. A revered songwriter, Ross creates intriguing daydream sequences in his music whilst engaging deeply with the most vexed and heartbreaking issues of our time. We at Mistletone are intensely excited & proud to be working on this new album; it’s every bit as impressive as its predecessor, Sympathy For The New World, which was shortlisted in the 8 finalists for The AMP Australian Music Prize 2008. In the past few years Ross has performed a handful of times, at Melbourne Festival, Brisbane Festival, Queenscliff Music Festival, Brisbane Powerhouse and other discriminating venues. Accompanied by his ensemble of strings, woodwind and a choir, Ross McLennan’s rare live performances are richly orchestrated, lush, complex and simply breathtaking. You can preview Clarity, the first peek from the double A-side single b/w Get This! to be released on November 23, on Mistletone Soundcloud.

Looking into our crystal ball, Mistletone releases of the future we’re most excited about are the debuts by Wintercoats and Montero, and a new album from HTRK…. all of which glitter with promise on 2013’s horizon. More soon.

HTRK

HTRK are sojourning in Australia for a handful of festival performances this summer, unveiling new songs one by one. Nigel Yang and Jonnine Standish have been recording with Excepter’s Nathan Corbin in his Santa Fe studio and lining up guests, including Cosey Fanni Tutti (Throbbing Gristle / Chris & Cosey) and American novelist Blake Butler for their next album.

UPCOMING HTRK PERFORMANCES:

• OUTSIDEIN FESTIVAL, SYDNEY: SATURDAY NOVEMBER 10 @ Factory Theatre. A new boutique music festival brought to you by Astral People & Yes Please. Tickets + info here.
• THE GATE presents LIVE SOLUTION, BYRON BAY: SATURDAY DECEMBER 8 @ The Great Northern Hotel. Tickets + info here.
• MONA FOMA, HOBART: THURSDAY JANUARY 17 @ MOFO Faux Mo (festival club). Tickets + info here.
• SUGAR MOUNTAIN, MELBOURNE: SATURDAY JANUARY 19 @ The Forum Theatre. Tickets + info here.
• ATP I’LL BE YOUR MIRROR, MELBOURNE: SATURDAY FEBRUARY 16 @ Altona North. Tickets + info here.

And finally, a diary date for Melbourne listeners; we’re throwing a Mistletone Xmas party on Sunday December 23 at Northcote Social Club. This will be a matinee (or as we prefer to call it, manatee) show with doors opening at a civilised 1:30pm, and will be the official single launch for Ross McLennan with a full ensemble performance. Joining the languid Sunday afternoon lineup will be The Orbweavers duo + Wintercoats, plus Mistletone DJs, and we’ll be celebrating our favourite season with a limited edition Xmas CD available only at the show. More will be revealed!

peace ‘n’ love,

TEAM MISTLETONE x

Artwork by Alex Fregon

NITE JEWEL TOUR DATES:

SYDNEY FESTIVAL: KRAFTWERK’S COMPUTER WORLD PERFORMED BY NITE JEWEL & PEANUT BUTTER WOLF. Sunday 27th January @ The Famous Spiegeltent, 11:30pm. Tickets on sale now from Ticketmaster.
** just announced! SYDNEY: THURSDAY JANUARY 31 @ Goodgod Small Club w/- Holy Balm + Buzz Kull + Astral DJs. Tickets on sale now from Moshtix.
BRISBANE LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Friday 1st February @ RNA, Fortitude Valley. Tickets + lineup info here.
SYDNEY LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Saturday 2nd February @ Sydney College Of The Arts, Rozelle. Tickets + lineup info here. Presented by Mistletone + FBi Radio.
MELBOURNE LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Sunday 3rd February Footscray Community Arts Centre. Tickets + lineup info here.
** just announced! MELBOURNE: MONDAY FEBRUARY 4 @ Workers Club w/- Fox + Sui + LA Nites DJs. Presented by Mistletone + LA Nights. Tickets on sale now from the venue. Doors open 7:30pm.

Mistletone, Street Press Australia, FBi and LA Nights present the first Australian tour by Nite Jewel. Led by Ramona Gonzalez, a glimmering LA four-piece will bring Nite Jewel’s sophisticated, playful jams to Melbourne & Sydney dancefloors for two delectable club nights (see above), as well as joining Laneway Festival‘s east coast run and teaming up with Stones Throw’s Peanut Butter Wolf to interpret Kraftwerk’s Computer World for a Krautrock Classics at Sydney Festival.

California native Ramona Gonzalez first began her transcendent minimalist dance-pop escapades in the privacy of her own home in Los Angeles. With the aid of her multitrack cassette recorder and whatever keyboards, drum machines, and other instruments that were available to her, she very quickly developed her own unique sound and began performing live in the L.A. area under the moniker Nite Jewel. Later teaming up with Cole Marsden Greif Neill (co-producer of Mature Themes by Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti and current engineer for Beck), Nite Jewel became a four-piece live act, touring with Little Dragon, DaM FunK and James Blake.

Nite Jewel moved from Ramona’s bedroom to stages worldwide in 2009, thanks to the nonchalantly good debut Good Evening. Since then, Ramona’s airy voice has found new gravitas and charisma, the synth lines have gotten more agile and the bass pops tighter and tighter, the stuttered 80s synth R&B melodies unfolding into one another in ways both giddy and deceivingly nonchalant.

This year’s polished sophomore LP One Second Of Love (out locally via Inertia), is even more impressive, featuring tracks like the angelic, washed out “Clive”, later remixed by Jimmy Tamborello (aka Dntel). One Second Of Love is a re-imagination of Golden-era R&B pop, positing future-classic sounds alongside vocal sultriness. If Nite Jewel’s earlier work brought to mind the likes of Lisa Lisa or Debbie Deb on quaaludes, this new body of work may conjure up clearer images of Sade, Eurythmics-era Annie Lennox and Tracy Thorn. Produced with Cole MGN, the entire affair is pure, confident, singular-but-intricate and delightfully sophisticated, bringing Nite Jewel’s evolution of fidelity and nuance to a dizzy head.

Nite Jewel’s collaborative credits are many… from remixing Caribou and HEALTH, to interpreting Kraftwerk’s Computer World with Stones Throw’s Peanut Butter Wolf, to covering Frank Ocean… Nite Jewel is both indelible and sublime.

• “Layered, smart headphone pop and meta-dance music that messes with the classic song structures of pop music… Ramona Gonzalez has created her own uniquely Nite Jewelian style” – LOS ANGELES TIMES
• “This is a kind of liminal music, fascinating because it’s so much closer to credible pop… intense (and) joyous, full of precision, engagement and life force” – NEW YORK TIMES

Artwork by Ben Montero / layout by Alicia Saye

THE MEN TOUR DATES:

• AUCKLAND LANEWAY FESTIVAL: MONDAY JANUARY 28th @ Silo Park. Tickets + lineup info here.
• SYDNEY: WEDNESDAY JANUARY 30 @ Goodgod Small Club w/- Royal Headache + Raw Prawn. Tickets on sale now from Moshtix.
• MELBOURNE: WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 6 @ Northcote Social Club w/- White Walls + Nun. Tickets on sale now from the venue.
• BRISBANE LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Friday 1st February @ RNA, Fortitude Valley. Tickets + lineup info here.
• SYDNEY LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Saturday 2nd February @ Sydney College Of The Arts, Rozelle. Tickets + lineup info here.
• MELBOURNE LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Sunday 3rd February Footscray Community Arts Centre. Tickets + lineup info here.
• ADELAIDE LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Friday 8th February Fowler’s Live and Uni SA City West Campus. Tickets + lineup info here.
• PERTH LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Saturday 9th February Perth Cultural Centre. Tickets + lineup info here.

Mistletone, Maggot Music and Triple R present Brooklyn’s The Men on their first visit to Australasia. Ironically referred to by Time Out New York as “Thurston Moore & the E Street Band”, The Men bring their incendiary live set to Laneway Festival NZ + Australia, as well as sideshows in Sydney +  Melbourne.

With a love of scuzzy guitars, The Men don’t play by categorical punk sub-genre rules, but dabble in everything from hardcore punk to psych to shoegaze to black metal and country. The quartet’s catalogue began in 2008 with a hand-dubbed self-released demo cassette, and grew to include more tapes and LPs including their on-point third album, 2012’s Open Your Heart (out locally on Spunk Records), which won new fans’ hearts with its goofy blues explosions, country-lovin’ dirges and straight-up indie punk anthems (cue the triple j playlisted title track). This year they’ve criss-crossed Europe, played shows with Ty Segall, the Thee Oh Sees and Redd Kross and performed at festivals such as Pitchfork Festival, FYF Fest Los Angeles and Primavera Sound, Barcelona. A new album on Sacred Bones is expected in early 2013.

Having four songwriters in the band lends itself to a truly unpredictable and thrilling live experience which has seen The Men grow a following of die hard fans, from living rooms and basements throughout New York’s five boroughs to across the United States and Europe. Catch The Men on their debut Australasian tour for a truly blistering and distorted live punk experience.

“Open Your Heart is both tremendously physical and friendly, knocking you on your ass one second, then immediately helping you back up to put a beer in your hand… (It’s) like a tribute to the pure rejuvenating powers of rock’n’roll itself by going nuts with all the things that got you hooked the first time: breakneck Zep riffs! Duel-guitar leads! Drum solos!  It’s essentially a teenager’s highlight reel” – PITCHFORK BEST NEW MUSIC (Rating 8.5)

Artwork by Rick Milovanovic

JULIA HOLTER TOUR DATES:

• MELBOURNE: WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 6 @ The Toff w/- The Orbweavers + Dear Time’s Waste (NZ) + DJ King Sim. Tickets on sale from Moshtix online, phone: 1300 GET TIX (438 849) or Moshtix outlets including Polyester (Fitzroy & City). Presented by Triple R.
• SYDNEY: THURSDAY FEBRUARY 7 @ York St Church w/- Kieran Ryan + Dear Time’s Waste (NZ). *Please note venue change. All tickets purchase for Paddington Uniting Church are valid for (the even more beautiful) York St Church, located in the heart of Sydney at 3 York Street (right above Wynyard Station). Tickets on sale now from Moshtix. All ages. Doors open 7pm. Presented by Mistletone, The Gate, Spunk Records and FBi Radio.
• BRISBANE LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Friday 1st February @ RNA, Fortitude Valley. Tickets + lineup info here.
• SYDNEY LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Saturday 2nd February @ Sydney College Of The Arts, Rozelle. Tickets + lineup info here.
• MELBOURNE LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Sunday 3rd February Footscray Community Arts Centre. Tickets + lineup info here.
• ADELAIDE LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Friday 8th February Fowler’s Live and Uni SA City West Campus. Tickets + lineup info here.
• PERTH LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Saturday 9th February Perth Cultural Centre. Tickets + lineup info here.

Mistletone, Triple R and FBi proudly present Los Angeles singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Julia Holter, touring Australia for the first time. Julia Holter’s lush, absorbing compositions juggle ideas from the pop and classical worlds, melding field recordings with baroque pop and hypnotic melodies. Julia will perform her exquisite songs as a trio, her stately piano accompanied by cellist Christopher Votek and drummer Corey Fogel. Fresh off a string of shows with Sigur Ros, playing the Andy Warhol Museum and appearing alongside Poland’s Sinfonietta Cracovia Orchestra at the Unsound festival in Krakow, Julia Holter’s live show is a swirl of ethereal beauty and classical atmospherics which will take your breath away.

Julia Holter’s songwriting stems from a mythological reverence of that which is incomprehensibly beautiful. Her Eating the Stars EP (2007) was a first attempt at musically transcribing this beauty, while discovering the honest enjoyment of unadulterated creativity. The anonymous authorship and shimmering gold detail of medieval illuminated manuscripts particularly inspired the ornately-orchestrated pop song mystery of Stars. Her debut album Tragedy (Leaving Records, 2011) embraced similar strains of shimmer, but used sparser textures in a narrative context.

Julia’s second album, Ekstasis (released locally by Spunk Records to glowing acclaim across the board) marked a return to the playful searching of Stars, but guided by newly-learned disciplines, slightly better technology, and nearly limitless home recording time. Formative experiences at Cal Arts studying with Michael Pisaro and in India singing with harmonium under guru Pashupati nath Mishra marked a slight detour in what started as a more traditional composition route. The trajectory leading to the creation of Ekstasis suggests her thirst for knowledge and experience.

While Ekstasis reflects the conventions of her classical training, the album is also uncannily, if unknowingly, poppy. Julia’s approach to crafting the songs of Ekstasis centered around what she describes as, “open ear decisions: what seemed to sound best for that moment.” This blindness to reference unintentionally steers Ekstasis along the experimental pop spectrum most commonly associated to New York’s Downtown music micro-universe of the 80s, specifically the works of Laurie Anderson and Arthur Russell.

With the blindness that leads Ekstasis, there are also many compositional methods at play. “Marienbad” was built while playing around on a Fender Rhodes with imagined imagery of topiary gardens and scenes from the song’s film namesake in mind. The entirety of “Boy in the Moon” – the Casio SK-1 noodles, melody, and lyrics – was improvised over a seven minute catharsis. The melody and lyrics for “Four Gardens” were written spontaneously while rearranging an older song on a loop pedal for a live performance. “This is Ekstasis” contains a bass line built from a medieval isorhythm technique, allowing it to maintain a sense of repetition, but shift slightly with every turn.

With each song, there is a unique story and approach, but all are united by the magnetism of the medieval manuscripts and Julia’s “desire to get outside of my body and find what I can’t define.” It took Julia stepping outside of her solely self-written and recorded body of music to engage fellow Los Angeles musician and friend Cole M. Greif-Neill (Nite Jewel, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti) in the final phase of Ekstasis.

Cole’s input added perspective and brought out the greatest sonic potential that each song secretly contained. Julia says, “The first time I heard his mix of ‘Marienband” the garden became so rich. Suddenly there were bright greens, the statues’ edges defined, the fountains pouring…”

Ekstasis is an album indulged in these beautiful, simple, unfolding life mysteries. “All of these fleeting images and muses are so important,” says Julia. “As with the manuscripts, when I see them, I hear voices. I am continually following the voices in the gold leaf. I can’t know them, but I will follow their beautiful song.”

• “And at the center of all this time travel stands Julia Holter, pulling in references and sounds from everywhere and shaping them into a music that’s both haunting and life-affirming, something to make you dream and think.” – PITCHFORK BEST NEW MUSIC (Rating 8.6)
• “Julia Holter has created a radically new world from a crystalline Venn diagram of sound.” – NPR

PERFUME GENIUS TOUR DATES:

SYDNEY FESTIVAL: Saturday 26th January + Sunday 27th January @ The Famous Spiegeltent. Starts 5pm. Tickets on sale now from Ticketmaster.
** just announced! MELBOURNE: Wednesday 30th January @ Northcote Social Club w/- special guest Wintercoats. Tickets on sale now from the venue.
BRISBANE LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Friday 1st February @ RNA, Fortitude Valley. Tickets + lineup info here.
SYDNEY LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Saturday 2nd February @ Sydney College Of The Arts, Rozelle. Tickets + lineup info here.
MELBOURNE LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Sunday 3rd February Footscray Community Arts Centre. Tickets + lineup info here.
ADELAIDE LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Friday 8th February Fowler’s Live and Uni SA City West Campus. Tickets + lineup info here.
PERTH LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Saturday 9th February Perth Cultural Centre. Tickets + lineup info here.

Mistletone is proud to present the first Australian tour by Perfume Genius, playing Laneway Festival nationally plus two intimate Sydney Festival shows at The Famous Spiegeltent. Just announced!:: Perfume Genius will also play an intimate Melbourne headline show at Northcote Social Club on Wednesday January 31st, with special guest Wintercoats, presented by Mistletone and Triple R. Tickets on sale now!

The nom de musique of Seattle’s Mike Hadreas, Perfume Genius began when he moved from New York to his mother’s home in Everett, Washington. In these relatively isolated conditions, Mike felt a compulsion to make music and began composing fragile yet brutally honest songs on the piano.

By 2008 he had set up a MySpace page and began offering his music there, along with similarly spare and evocative homemade music videos. His work caught the attention of Los Campesinos!, who championed Perfume Genius and helped him get a deal with their label, Turnstile, which released the single Mr. Peterson in 2009. Perfume Genius’ full-length debut Learning arrived in 2010. After spending much of 2011 touring, including a set of dates with Beirut, Mike recorded in England and Washington. The results were Perfume Genus’ second album, Put Your Back N 2 It, which arrived early in 2012, released locally by Remote Control Records.

Put Your Back N 2 It has been feted by reviewers for its confessional intimacy, piano-led beauty and firm grasp of identity politics. The gorgeous, confessional single Hood gained notoriety after YouTube banned the clip (directed by Winston H. Case and featuring gay porn star Arpad Miklos), deeming it “unsuitable for families” . But this is no gimmick: emotionally intense, poetic and powerful, Perfume Genius’ hypnotic vision is truly one of a kind.

Mike’s music uncovers what we all have in common by celebrating the differences that define us. Though stark and revealing, his songs are tender and tuneful, with a voice that bears comparison to Sufjan Stevens in its ability to be simultaneously sad and uplifting. Perfume Genius can make falsetto sound like a whispered secret, yet his live shows are renowned for their humour as much as their musical intensity.

“A delicate collection of near-gospel songs for the brokenhearted” – FILTER

Wintercoats pic by Tonje Thilesen

Beach House have announced Wintercoats as the sole support for their hotly anticipated theatre shows in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Tickets are on sale now from the links below.

Melbourne’s Wintercoats, a/k/a one man chamber pop orchestra James Wallace, was personally chosen by Beach House’s Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally from a long list of worthy contenders. The loveliness of Wintercoats’ live performance is best expressed in an Inpress review, which noted that his “loop-driven contours and vocal-less passages of soundtrack-y beauty neatly encapsulate what manages to sound like an entire universe”.

Having just returned from an extensive UK/European tour, playing Torstrassen Festival (Berlin) & Laboratorium festival (Heidelberg, Germany) and playing a Cascine showcase for The 405 in London, and with a debut album in the works, Wintercoats is a sublime match for Beach House’s stately and epic live show.

BEACH HOUSE with special guest WINTERCOATS:

ENMORE THEATRE, SYDNEY: THURSDAY 3 JANUARY. Tickets on sale now from The Enmore website or Ticketek, phone 132 849.

FORUM THEATRE, MELBOURNE: WEDNESDAY 9 JANUARY. Tickets on sale now from Ticketmaster or phone 136 100.

TIVOLI THEATRE, BRISBANE: FRIDAY 11 JANUARY. Tickets on sale now from The Tivoli website or Ticketek, phone 132 849.

Mistletone is happy indeed to announce the return of Toro Y Moi for Golden Plains – Lucky Seven at the Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre, plus headline shows to be announced. The festival ticket ballot is open now.

The new Toro Y Moi album Anything In Return will be released January 22 on Mistletone Records / Inertia.

Since his first offerings began making the Internet rounds in 2009, Toro Y Moi’s Chaz Bundick has proven himself to be not just a prolific musician, but a diverse one as well, letting each successive release broaden the scope of the his oeuvre. The funky psych-pop of 2011’s Underneath the Pine evinced an artist who could create similar atmospheres even without the aid of source material and drum machines. His Freaking Out EP, a handful of singles and remixes, and a retrospective box-set plot points all along the producer-songwriter spectrum in which he’s worked since his debut, and his third full-length, Anything In Return, sees him poised directly in the middle of the two.

The product of a move to Berkeley, California and the subsequent extended separation from loved ones, Anything in Return shows a pervasive sense of peace with Chaz’s tendency to dabble in both sides of the modern music-making spectrum, and he sounds comfortable engaging in intuitive pop production, putting forth the impression of unmediated id. The producer’s hand is prominent—not least in the sampled “yeah”s and “uh”s that give the album a hip-hop-indebted confidence— and many of the songs feature the 4/4 beats and deftly employed effects usually associated with house music.

Tracks like “High Living” and “Day One” show a considerably Californian influence, their languid funk redolent of a decidedly West Coast temperament, and elsewhere—not least on lead single, “So Many Details”— the record plays with darker atmospheres than we’re used to hearing from Toro Y Moi. Sounding quite assured in what some may call this songwriter’s return to producer-hood, Anything in Return sees Chaz uninhibited by issues of genre, an album that feels like the artist’s essence.

You can stream the first single, So Many Details, below:

Toro Y Moi has announced a new album titled Anything In Return, to be released January 22 on Mistletone Records / Inertia. You can stream the first single, So Many Details, below:

From Interview magazine:

“I was trying to make a pop record,” explains Chaz Bundick of Anything In Return, his forthcoming third album under the name Toro Y Moi. That’s not so shocking a confession from the 25-year-old musician-producer—except for the fact that Toro Y Moi helped pioneer yesteryear’s indier-than-thou chillwave movement. But Anything In Return, due out in January, looks to be Toro Y Moi’s genre breakout—a slickly subversive masterstroke of pop art. Instead of obscuring ’80s-style synth lines under hazy psychedelic fuzz, it shamelessly transforms infectious melodies and plastic-fantastic beats via Bundick’s future-shocked, 21st-century lens, resulting in potential hits like the sci-fi R&B strut of “Cake.” “People will be like, ‘What is he doing?’ ” Bundick laughs. “I’m just trying to make sincere pop music that’s not all processed and bubblegum. Underground isn’t always relevant; I want to see what’s popular, then put my own spin on it.”

Track Listing:

1. Harm In Change
2. Say That
3. So Many Details
4. Rose Quartz
5. Touch
6. Cola
7. Studies
8. High Living
9. Grown Up Calls
10. Cake
11. Day One
12. Never Matter
13. How’s It Wrong

The product of a move from South Carolina to Berkeley, California and the subsequent extended separation from loved ones, Toro Y Moi’s third full-length Anything in Return puts Chaz Bundick right in the middle of the producer/songwriter dichotomy that his first two albums established.

There’s a pervasive sense of peace with his tendency to dabble in both sides of the modern music-making spectrum, and he sounds comfortable engaging in intuitive pop production and putting forth the impression of unmediated id. The producer’s hand is prominent—not least in the sampled “yeah”s and “uh”s that give the album a hip-hop-indebted confidence—and many of the songs feature the 4/4 beats and deftly employed effects usually associated with house music.

Tracks like “High Living” and “Day One” show a considerably Californian influence, their languid funk redolent of a West Coast temperament, and elsewhere—not least on lead single, “So Many Details”—the record plays with darker atmospheres than we’re used to hearing from Toro Y Moi. Sounding quite assured in what some may call this songwriter’s return to producer-hood, Anything in Return is Bundick uninhibited by issues of genre, an album that feels like the artist’s essence.

Born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina, Chaz Bundick has been toying with various musical projects since early adolescence. Having spent his formative years playing in punk and indie rock acts, his protean Toro Y Moi project has been his vessel for further musical exploration since 2001. During his time spent studying graphic design at the University of South Carolina, Chaz became increasingly focused on his solo work, incorporating electronics and allowing a wider range of influences—French house, Brian Wilson’s pop, 80s R&B, and Stones Throw hip-hop—to show up in his music.

By the time he graduated in spring 2009, Chaz had refined his sound to something all his own. Music journals across the board touted his hazy recordings as the sound of the summer, and he released his debut album, Causers of This in early 2010. Since then, Bundick has proven himself to be not just a prolific musician, but a diverse one as well, letting each successive release broaden the scope of the Toro Y Moi oeuvre.

The funky psych-pop of 2011’s Underneath the Pine evinced an artist who could create similar atmospheres even without the aid of source material and drum machines. His Freaking Out EP, a handful of singles and remixes, and a retrospective box-set plot points all along the producer/songwriter spectrum in which he’s worked since his debut, and Anything In Return is another exciting offering that shows he’s still not ready to settle into any one genre.

Artwork by Victoria Legrand, design by Rick Milovanovic.

BEACH HOUSE TOUR DATES:

FALLS FESTIVAL, LORNE: SUNDAY DECEMBER 30. Sold out!
FALLS FESTIVAL, MARION BAY: MONDAY DECEMBER 31. Tickets on sale now from The Falls website.
ENMORE THEATRE, SYDNEY: THURSDAY 3 JANUARY. Tickets on sale now from The Enmore website or Ticketek, phone 132 849.
SOUTHBOUND, BUSSELTON WA: SATURDAY JANUARY 5. Tickets on sale now from the festival website.
FORUM THEATRE, MELBOURNE: WEDNESDAY 9 JANUARY. Tickets on sale now from Ticketmaster or phone 136 100.
TIVOLI THEATRE, BRISBANE: FRIDAY 11 JANUARY. Tickets on sale now from The Tivoli website or Ticketek, phone 132 849.

Mistletone, triple j and Street Press Australia present Beach House, returning to Australia in the wake of their majestic fourth album Bloom. Beach House bring their epic live show to the art deco surrounds of The Enmore Theatre (Sydney), The Forum Theatre (Melbourne) and The Tivoli Theatre (Brisbane). Tickets on sale now.

Already starring in many “best albums of 2012” lists, Bloom is the fourth album by Beach House, a/k/a Baltimore duo Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand.  A sublime experience matched only by the intensity of Beach House’s stunning live show, Bloom offers a singular, unified vision of the world.  The album transcends the banality of simple emotions to arrive at a realm of honesty and complexity, and soberly reveals how frightening and temporary, yet beautiful, our existence is.

The devotion of Beach House’s growing community of listeners has deepened with each album (Beach House: 2006, Devotion: 2008 and Teen Dream: 2010, all released locally on Mistletone Records). The heady atmosphere of Beach House’s performance, coupled with the power of Victoria Legrand’s incredible voice, make every Beach House concert a swoon-inducing shared space, laden with romance and heightened emotions.

“When I stop finding things to be fascinating and beautiful, that’s when I’ll stop” – Victoria Legrand

Supported by triple j and Street Press Australia.

The Men debut Australian tour co-presented by Mistletone & Maggot.

Mistletone is bringing four stellar artists to this year’s fantastic Laneway Festival lineup! We are very proud to present Julia Holter, The Men (co-presented by Maggot), Nite Jewel and Perfume Genius, all touring Australia for the very first time. Read on for profiles or let Derrick (below) be your guide. Watch this space for side show announcements! Laneway tickets on sale from Friday 5th October, tickets + lineup info here.

MISTLETONE ARTISTS AT LANEWAY FESTIVAL 2013: