Another Spring Tones poster by Alex Fregon

Artwork by Rick Milovanovic.

3RRR, Mess + Noise and Mistletone proudly present SPRING TONES at Roxanne Parlour  (Level 3 / 2 Coverlid Pl, Melbourne) on Saturday, 26 September.The Spring Tones lineup features Vivian Girls (USA), Bachelorette (NZ), Tiny Vipers (USA), Ducktails (USA), Hawnay Troof (USA), Love Of Diagrams, St Helens, Aleks & The Ramps, Songs (Syd), The Dacios, The UV Race, Mark Barrage, Super Wild Horses, Rat Vs Possum, The French, Children Of The Wave, Woollen Kits and Aoi (see band profiles below!), plus DJs theUniverse, Deformative, DJ Ka-Splosion and Panel of Judges DJs.Punters who attended Winter Tones at Roxanne last year will be pleased to know that we’ve taken some steps to ensure no-one will be kept out in the cold. The new and improved features of Spring Tones include hard tickets and stairwell access to keep queues to a minimum, plus a balcony to keep smokers close to the action. Spring Tones tickets are $35 + booking fee and are on sale now from Polyester (city & Fitzroy), Missing Link, Corner Hotel box office (57 Swan St Richmond, phone  9427 9198) or right here from the Mistletone website.Doors open 6.30pm. SPRING TONES ARTIST PROFILES…

Straight outta Brooklyn, Vivian Girls are bringing a bevy of garagey girl group goodness to headline Spring Tones as part of their first ever Australian tour. The trio — Cassie Ramone (guitar/vocals), Kickball Katy (bass/drums/vocals) and Ali Koehler (drums/bass/vocals) — burst on to the scene last year with a critics-favourite debut album and an ace sound combining 1960s girl-group vocals, fuzzy garage rock, punk and post-punk with blasts of shoegaze and skuzzy DIY charm. On their short road to “out of nowhere” status, the ‘Girls have blurred the lines of genres and come up with something aggressive yet beautiful; simple, gutsy music with a lot of class and melody. Their much anticipated new album Everything Goes Wrong is out soon on In-Fidelity through Inertia.

VIVIAN GIRLS AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES:

SYDNEY: Fri 25 Sep @ Spectrum w/ Hawnay Troof (USA), Circle Pit and Dead Farmers. Tickets on sale now from Moshtix outlets or phone 1300 GET TIX.MELBOURNE: Sat 26 Sep headlining Spring Tones @ Roxanne Parlour (Level 3, 2 Coverlid Pl, city) w/ Bachelorette (NZ), Ducktails (USA), Tiny Vipers (USA), Hawnay Troof (USA), Love Of Diagrams, St Helens, Aleks & The Ramps, Songs (Syd), The Dacios, UV Race, Mark Barrage, Super Wild Horses, Rat Vs Possum, Snawklor , Children Of The Wave, Woollen Kits And Aoi. Spring Tones tickets on sale now from Polyester, Missing Link, Corner Hotel box office (57 Swan St Richmond, phone  9427 9198) or Mistletone website.HOBART: Sun 27 Sep @ Brisbane Hotel w/ Native Cats, Moe Grizzly and Manchester Mourning. Licensed all ages show, starts 5pm. Tickets on sale now from Brisbane Hotel, Ruffcut Records and The Dwarf website.MELBOURNE: Wed 30 Sep @ Northcote Social Club w/ Panel of Judges and Miniature Submarines. Tickets on sale now from NSC box office, phone 9486 1677.ADELAIDE: Thu 1 Oct @ Metro Hotel w/ Hit The Jackpot and Rich Parents. Tickets on sale now from Oztix outlets or phone 1300 762 545. BRISBANE: Fri 2 Oct @ Step Inn w/ Nova Scotia, The Legend with the Deadnotes, and Feathers. Tickets on sale now from Oztix outlets or phone 1300 762 545.NEWCASTLE: Sat 3 Oct @ Sound Summit. More info here.

Annabel Alpers, the songwriter from New Zealand who’s behind the studio concoctions of Bachelorette, is fascinated by the way things work: cities, androids, relationships, life and death, “the neural pathways in my brain.” Her fascination with systems and mechanisms dovetails with her music, which loops and layers her voice and instruments into lofty pop edifices, pulsating and chiming in radiant major chords. The songs on her new Bachelorette album, “My Electric Family” (out now on Mistletone in Australia, and Drag City in the US), aren’t as entirely self-made as her previous work; they incorporate other musicians on guitars and drums, only enriching her reveries. Annabel will return to Melbourne for one of her mesmerising solo performan
ces at Spring Tones.

Love Of Diagrams have just unveiled Nowhere Forever, their awesome new album. Recorded at Bear Creek Studios in Seattle with producer Ryan Hadlock (Gossip, Blonde Redhead, Steve Malkmus among many others), Nowhere Forever is the guitar-drenched dream-pop record Love of Diagrams have always wanted to make. It’s a new exploration of maximalism – a heavy, guitar drenched layered sound featuring Love of Diagrams’ most sophisticated songwriting and most beautiful pop melodies to date. The dual vocals and harmonies of Antonia Sellbach and Luke Horton, and the hypnotic beats of Monika Fikerle on drums, have never sounded finer.

A cursory glance at the pre-history of the people involved in St Helens reveals one-degree-of separation from Spider Vomit, Bird Blobs, Minimum Chips, Alpha Males and Kes Band. Satelliting the core band are occasional contributors from Love Of Diagrams and Panel Of Judges. The gravity that pulls their energies into something tangible, into the distinct entity that is St Helens, is the songwriting skills of Jarrod Quarrell. Jarrod previously fronted The New Season and (when there’s a full moon) still prowls the night as Lost Animal, performing in minimalist solo electronic mode. Jarrod’s world weary but ultimately victorious songs, his bitter-sweet, intertwining vocals with Hannah Brooks, the band’s razor sharp guitar interplay, and the broken glass danger of their live performances have made St Helens a must on the Melbourne scene.

From unintentional beginnings back in 2005, Aleks & The Ramps slowly morphed into a “real” band with performances featuring choreographed dance moves, ill-fitting basketball uniforms, injuries and equipment breakages due to wild stage behaviour accompanying their schizophrenic pop tunes. Their second album Midnight Believer is a fine demonstration of the Ramps’ peculiar and wondrous kind of haphazard indie rock, or experimental pop which is perhaps the result of short-attention-span-songwriting. Or something. Sometimes (if you play your cards right) they do sick dance routines. 

Tiny Vipers, aka Jesy Fortino, a musician living in Seattle, is bringing her sparse and haunting songs to Australia for the first time. Tiny Vipers has just released Life on Earth, her second album on Sub Pop/Stomp. Tiny Vipers’ complex yet minimal sound  of her bouyantly deep voice, accompanied by sparse yet deft acoustic guitar, offers mysterious windows into a fragile human soul with a beautiful and hollow vision of experiences beyond. Fortino simultaneously conveys the sadness of trauma and a tremendous natural beauty of untamed wilderness of the human heart and soul. Transcending the mere folk tag, Tiny Vipers leaves behind her contemporaries. Often compared to Joanna Newsom or Cat Power, the music has been deconstructed into an aether that floats beside the poignant lyrics. Drawing from disparate inspirational sources, from the avant-garde or from country musician Townes Van Zandt, Tiny Vipers’ playing is no imitation. Fortino stands on her own, giving a musical life to those themes that inhabit her lyricisms: love found and lost, places come and gone.

Ducktails is Matthew Mondanile, a New Jerseyian whose pop is drenched in a warm drone. There is a pretty amazingly realized aesthetic running through his stuff, with all its plastic nostalgias — like Ninja Turtles pizza, fake palm trees, sugary cereal — and the lo-fi tape fuzz that also permeates his other projects, Predator Vision, Real Estate, and Dreams In Mirror Field. It’s home recording with one of the comfiest feels you’ll find, reminiscent of Ariel Pink but with an exploratory nudge. Matthew prefers cassettes as scuffed-up homes for this stuff, but he’s just released a vinyl full-length on LA DIY label Not Not Fun. This might be the culmination of a point in time in music history, of the so-called “lo-fi tropical psych-drone” sound.

Hawnay Troof‘s story is one of great complexity. Leftfield prodigy Vice Cooler, a gifted small town reject, has redefined underground music with a strong work ethic, charm, and a smooth grace. The spark for HT was ignited while Cooler was attending high school in Alabama. From making humble tunes in his bedroom to inciting thousands internationally into a craze, Cooler quickly turned into one of the most respected southern “outsider” artists. Hawnay Troof created some of the strangest (and often difficult) electronic music of the first decade of the 21st Century, yet the songs resonate via turntables in Europe’s most prestigious dance clubs, raves, and basements. Managing to steal show after show with his unifying performances, he has made even the most reserved art galleries break into dance.

Songs are Steve Uren, Max Doyle, Ela Stiles and Jeff Burch: a fabulous, Sydney based four piece, 3/4 of whom originally hail from New Zealand. One of our fave Australian bands of this and any era, Songs are about to release their wildly anticipated debut album on Popfrenzy Records.  “Inspired by bands like the Clean and the Go-Betweens, Songs make
music that sounds like dancing around your kitchen.” – Dazed and Confused.  “Songs are four people who know a lot of stuff and who make music that sounds like they know a lot of stuff.” –  Vice Australia.

 The Dacios are a high-octane, lysergic, nitrous sucking rock n’ roll beast. Like a reprobate Phoenix exploding from the ashes of legendary Tasmanian band Little Ugly Girls, The Dacios initially tore onto local stages in 2005. Permanently stimulated by a synapse twisting brew of rock n’ roll sour mash, they are esteemed for their white-heat live performances. Linda J’s lyrical concoctions are a virulent antivenom which she expectorates in heaving torrents against the darkening forces of urban banality. Her unflinching psychic insights wrench the cancerous lesions of modern life into the glare and splay love’s ordeals on a dissection table like so many toads, their entrails pullulating with rheumy ooze. Monkeys Blood by The Dacios is available now via Tom Lyngcoln’s cochlear speakeasy, Solar/Sonar.

Proto punks The UV Race (featuring members of Straightjacket Nation, Dick Diver and various Latrobe Valley ne’er-do-wells) have been playing for a year and a half now. As the story goes, a bunch of them got together and decided they’d start a band that sounded like the Electric Eels, or at least a band that subscribed to their aesthetic. The UV Race specialise in “throwback punkaroo songs that are primitive and exuberantly discordant and juvenile, wheelbarrows full of enthusiasm hauling loads of muck and mire around these tunes, vocals get mumbled and howled like a dog, there’s some talk of blues, bleating keyboard shepherding underthunk-drumbeats and jabbed/strummed guitar…it’s Australia(2008)-via-Clevo(1978)“ – Terminal Boredom. The UV Race’s debut 7 inch (captured on tape by Eddy Current guitarist Mikey Young) is nearly sold out and they have a vinyl album is coming out in a couple of months and they also feature on an Aarght! Records compilation, The Real Worlds Lousy With Ideas vol 7. 

 

A Mistletone party would not be complete without a performance by Mark Barrage. It’s been a wee while since Mark Barrage released his brilliant Mistletone debut Delays, which was bestowed with four stars by the Music Australia Guide and declared it “raw, bedroom-produced brilliance.” Mark Barrage is the moniker adopted by Melbourne-based sound maker Mark Gomes, formerly known as Barrage. His sound is that of obfuscated, broken electronica – blunted samples and bent, buzzing synths playing against one another between the walls of his out-pop compositions.

Amy Franz and Hayley McKee formed Super Wild Horses in 2008 in a car whilst shouting bratty rhymes at each other.  Beer was involved. Earlier this year, Aarght! Records released their eponymous 45 rpm EP, featuring 6 excellent bursts of skeletal pop evoking Phil Spector & The Ronettes on a budget in a No Wave tin shed.  Super Wild Horses’ songs are stripped to the very backbone and clad in distorted call and response Fall-esque yelps, cavernous big beats, and primal twangs. Their raucous performances gleefully prove that all it takes to be a kick-arse band is to get up there and do it. If there is a game plan it’s to have fun – loud, primitive fun.

Rat Vs Possum is made up of four friends that like floor toms, vocal harmonies, pop music, experimental music, drum samplers, casio keyboards, jangly guitars, loop pedals, glitter, healthy food promoting, hugging, dancing, collaborating and celebrating. Their live shows have been said to create “a joyous, harmonious atmosphere amongst the audience that you kind of feel that instead of playing their whacked-out, tom-heavy psychedelic anthems, these four misfits are actually the good witches of Brunswick casting blissful spells on us all, intent on converting the world to their doctrine of love for heroic apes, glitter, and communal fruit.” – Deformative 

The French is a completely new project featuring Nathan Gray, Julie Burleigh (occasional sitarist in the Hi God People and recorder player in Beaches) and Bianca Hester (Paeces). More details as they come to hand!

Children Of The Wave came together in Melbourne in 2006, the union of a folk/pop songwriter (Major Chord) and music writer and member of wrong rock/ noise outfit Front of Van. Carapace slowly evolved from studio experimentation, from half starte
d musical sentences, from uncomfortable silences and curious sonic experiments and have developed a unique sound with elements of pastoral pop, field recordings and musique concrete imbedded in textural loops, harmonies, and conventional instruments such as organs, melodica and clarinet. blissful debut album Carapace (out now on Sensory Projects) is filled with experiments in pop, ethnic-melds, near-country, acoustics, found sounds, field recordings, and cinematic abstractions of the most textural, yet strangely melodic inclination.

Woollen Kits play a kind of washed-out punk rock that slides a line between Bratmobile, Jonathan Richman and Scratch Acid and have released three home-recorded and handmade EPs on their own Periodic Collective label over the past two years, including a split with Wonderful Fellowship. In 2009 they became a three piece, and continue to play short and catchy pop tunes, shorter and catchier than ever.

From the beyond comes Aoi, dropping jewels of hand-stitched experimental hip hop. Tracing an arc of dusty chopped samples and lo-fi synth splatters into a texta mess of headnod drum patterns, Aoi has been producing primitive abstract instrumentals and playing live around Melbourne since late 2007.

Mistletone proudly presents Vivian Girls, direct from New York City on their first Australian tour.

MISTLETONE PRESENTS VIVIAN GIRLS AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2009

SYDNEY: Fri 25 Sep @ Spectrum w/ Hawnay Troof (USA), Circle Pit and Dead Farmers. Tickets on sale now from Moshtix outlets or phone 1300 GET TIX.

MELBOURNE: Sat 26 Sep headlining Spring Tones @ Roxanne Parlour (Level 3, 2 Coverlid Pl, city) w/ Bachelorette (NZ), Ducktails (USA), Tiny Vipers (USA), Hawnay Troof (USA), Love Of Diagrams, St Helens, Aleks & The Ramps, Songs (Syd), The Dacios, UV Race, Mark Barrage, Super Wild Horses, Rat Vs Possum, Snawklor , Children Of The Wave, Woollen Kits And Aoi. Spring Tones tickets on sale now from Polyester, Missing Link, Corner Hotel box office (57 Swan St Richmond, phone  9427 9198) or Mistletone website.

HOBART: Sun 27 Sep @ Brisbane Hotel w/ Native Cats, Moe Grizzly and Manchester Mourning. Licensed all ages show, starts 5pm. Tickets on sale now from Brisbane Hotel, Ruffcut Records and The Dwarf website.

MELBOURNE: Wed 30 Sep @ Northcote Social Club w/ Panel of Judges and Miniature Submarines. Tickets on sale now from NSC box office, phone 9486 1677.

ADELAIDE: Thu 1 Oct @ Metro Hotel w/ Hit The Jackpot and Rich Parents. Tickets on sale now from Oztix outlets or phone 1300 762 545.

BRISBANE: Fri 2 Oct @ Step Inn w/ Nova Scotia, The Legend with the Deadnotes, and Feathers. Tickets on sale now from Oztix outlets or phone 1300 762 545.

NEWCASTLE: Sat 3 Oct @ Sound Summit. More info here.

Brooklyn trio Vivian Girls burst on to the scene last year with a critics-favourite debut album and an ace sound combining 1960s girl-group vocals, fuzzy garage rock, punk and post-punk with blasts of shoegaze and skuzzy DIY charm. On their short road to “out of nowhere” status, the ‘Girls have mastered blurring the lines of genres and come up with something aggressive yet beautiful; simple, gutsy music with a lot of class and melody.

But it’s not so out-of-nowhere as it seems. Cassie Ramone and Kickball Katy were longtime friends from high school, so when former member Frankie Rose and Cassie decided to start a band, Katy seemed the obvious choice to complete the lineup. Spurred on by sharing common (and uncommon) influences, the girls started writing material and playing live in their adopted hometown of Brooklyn. The trio first came to prominence in 2007 supporting indie heavyweights Jay Reatard, Japanther and Crystal Stilts. Their debut limited edition vinyl LP sold out within a matter of weeks, inspiring much-loved label In The Red to sign the band for the US, and Melbourne’s In-Fidelity to snap them up for Australia. Since then, Vivian Girls have had an extremely eventful couple of years as a band, from turning heads at SXSW and other major festivals in the US and Europe, to having their own question on Jeopardy.

The band cites The Gun Club and Neil Young as influences for their eagerly anticipated new full-length album, Everything Goes Wrong (due September 8 on In-Fidelity through Inertia).

Vivian Girls are: Cassie Ramone (guitar / vocals), Kickball Katy (bass / drums / vocals) and Ali Koehler (drums / bass / vocals).

“Three rad chicks rocking out with the canon on their side.” – PITCHFORK #16 BEST ALBUM OF 2008

“One of the year’s biggest buzzes emanating from the indie hotbed of Brooklyn, and in the case of this all-girl power trio it was richly deserved hype.”  – ROUGH TRADE #9 BEST ALBUM OF 2008

“They just make you want to sing, freak-out, and play beach-blanket bingo in a basement.” – PREFIX MAGAZINE 9/10

A Fine Line interview:

Mistletone took over the entire Edinburgh Castle for a crisp winter’s day and night full of unfailingly impressive local luminaries and guest headliners, the incredibly charming Je Suis Animal from Norway (who declared themselves enamoured of Melbourne’s indie music scene).

Thanks to the lovely people at the Edinburgh Castle, all the punters, everyone who brought a mix CD or cassette, the DJs who made the beer garden heaps of fun, and especially all the bands.

Mess + Noise were there to document the day in pictures, check out their photo gallery here.

Inpress review:

From The Vine:

Photos, review – Castletones, Melbourne 2009

Posted in MUSIC by thawking on Jul 01, 11:00AM
Castle Tones
Edinburgh Castle, Melbourne
Saturday 27th June

It’s over a year since most excellent local label Mistletone held the first of its “Tones” parties. Autumn Tones was a modest affair at the Tote, but since then there’s been the logistically challenged but musically triumphant Winter Tones, the understated Spring Tones and the Espy-spanning extravaganza of Summer Tones. The evolution of these events has mirrored the growth of the label, which in barely three years – yes, it’s hard to believe – has grown into one of Melbourne’s most respected imprints.

It’s difficult to identify a Mistletone “sound” in the same way you can with some labels – if anything, the label is characterised by its diversity. If you had to specify one overarching genre it’d be left-of-centre, hypercolour pop music – Dan Deacon, Lucky Dragons, Evangelicals et al – but their roster also includes everything from the crashing psychedelia of Beaches to the world-weary acoustica of Ross McLennan.

The line-up for this event reflects that diversity, with appearances from a variety of the label’s own artists plus like-minded souls drawn from across the Australian indie scene (and, in the case of the headliners, from Norway). Kes Band are taking the stage in the bar – which makes for a remarkably spacious area considering how many people are inside (the show is sold out) – when we score a decisive but hard-fought victory in its battle against Connex and arrive at the venue. Like any music that involves mention of elves, Kes’s oddball psych-folk is always going to polarize opinions. Given that the bar is more packed for his set than anyone else who plays this evening, the verdict tonight is very much in his favour, and his trio’s set tonight is surprisingly raucous, the music less wistful and more muscular than it is on record.

Next door, the dining room has been converted into a second stage and works surprisingly well, with Lynchian red curtains providing the stage with a suitably luxurious backdrop and an air of even greater intimacy than in the bar. It’s a setting that suits Jessica Says. Jessica Venables’ debut album attracted plenty of interest when it was released earlier this year, and she’s a charismatic and engaging performer. Her songs are harder to warm to – anyone who can take as calculating a view of a relationship as to be able to write lyrics like “He thought he read me but he only skimmed / Still I got one or two songs out of him” is one to handle with caution, you’d think – but she’s clearly a talent.

More easy to appreciate is Laura Jean. She’s taking this appearance as an opportunity to try out a bunch of new songs, and they bode well for whatever else she’s got in the pipeline. Her voice is as alluring as ever, and once the mixing that makes her electric guitar way louder than that voice is remedied, her gentle folk tunes are a fine soundtrack to a couple of quiet drinks and a chance to catch up with friends, even if the largely downbeat mood sends more than one punter perilously close to the land of nod.

The first really exciting moment of the night is provided by Miniature Submarines, a new project featuring Love Of Diagrams’ Monica Fikerle. They sound kinda post-grunge, in that they take cues from the raw, unadorned guitar thrash of 1990s Seattle and build on them to develop a sound of their own – full of thick distortion and fuzz, but also with surprisingly delicate melodic interludes. In short, they tick all the right boxes, and they sound great – or, at least, they will do once they’ve rehearsed some more. Their set tonight walks the perilous line between the endearingly shambolic and the just plain shambolic, threatening to tip the wrong way when guitarist/vocalist Mark Nelson forgets the intro to the same song twice over. When they do get it together, they’re really impressive, and given that they’re a fairly new project they promise a great deal once the creases are ironed out.

Either way, they put some of their more well-known contemporaries on this bill in the shade, and keep us firmly planted in the dining room for the duration of their set. By the time we wander back into the bar, Ned Collette & Wirewalker are well into their set, and although the crowd watching seem to be enjoying every minute, Collette’s solo work lacks the epic, evocative grandeur of his finest moments with City City City. It’s singer/songwriter-y, really, and even the extended freak-out that closes the set can’t summon sufficient interest to keep me watching, not when Scott & Charlene’s Wedding are about to take the stage next door.

The dining room is emptying rapidly as Spider Vomit’s Craig Dermody and his indie all-star cohorts (St Helens’ Jarrod Quarrell, Panel Of Judges’ Dion Nania and Love Of Diagrams’ Luke Horton) set up, with most attendees heading next door to await the arrival of headliners Je Suis Animal. This is a shame, because this solo project is rapidly revealing Dermody to be a songwriter of no little talent. I’ve been playing his song ‘Footscray Station’ obsessively of late – it’s available in suitably raw live format on his MySpace – and it’s one of the best songs I’ve heard in ages.

Dermody’s music isn’t complicated or revolutionary in any respect – he’s a rudimentary guitarist at best, and his songs are constructed around simple open chord progressions. But the beauty of his music is in its directness, whether discussing the shitness of his job as a removalist or spitting out hilarious Ramones-esque lines like “I don’t wanna eat my fruit and veg / I just wanna sit around and smoke cigarettes”. It’s music that’s reminiscent of early punk, or early grunge, or any other music that’s arisen out of suburban boredom and alienation. Anyone who’s ever been bored or pissed off with their life and their job will doubtless relate to Dermody’s tunes, and most likely wonder why they never managed to express their frustration quite so eloquently.

After that, Je Suis Animal are a bit of a comedown – as with Kes, this sort of twee pop music really divides opinion, and it’s not really my bag. That said, the Norwegian/English group are clearly good at what they do, evoking the likes of Stereolab as they romp through a relentlessly upbeat set. And anyway, the variety on show tonight pretty much ensures that there’s gonna be something for everyone… and really, that’s the point. Another fine evening that confirms the rude health of Melbourne’s music scene, and one of its best labels.

Tom Hawking
(Pics: Leila Morrissey)

Poster design by Alex Fregon.

MISTLETONE PRESENTS THE BATS

MELBOURNE: FRIDAY 7 AUGUST @ Northcote Social Club w/- Crayon Fields + The Twerps. Tickets $25 +BF on sale now via the box office or phone 9486 1677.  SOLD OUT!
Doors 8.30pm
The Twerps 9.00-9.40
Crayon Fields 10.10-10.50
The Bats 11.20-

SYDNEY: SATURDAY 8 AUGUST @ Hopetoun Hotel w/- Crayon Fields + Songs (trio).
Tickets $25 +BF on sale now via Moshtix. * SELLING FAST!
Doors 7.30pm
Songs trio 8.30 – 9.10
Crayon Fields 9.30 – 10.10
The Bats 10:30 –

The Bats are set to release their wonderful new album The Guilty Office on Mistletone Records, and are coming to our shores for the first time in six years with the same brilliant line-up since the band’s conception in 1983:  Robert Scott, Kaye Woodward, Paul Kean and Malcolm Grant.

Let’s recap – it’s been well over 20 years so some might not know the background to The Bats ….

Often loosely referred to as an indie pop band, The Bats have amassed plenty of fans from their home base in Dunedin, New Zealand and offshore, notably in US where they  toured frequently from 1986 to 1993 with Radiohead and others, and won gushing reviews from every corner of the music press. From 1994 they were busy in New Zealand working on raising families, side projects of Minisnap (Kaye Woodward’s songs), The Clean and solo albums from Robert Scott. In 2000 they put together a Bats greatest almost hits CD, 1000’s of Tiny Luminous Spheres, followed by their 2005 studio album The Bats At The National Grid which was rapturously received by the critics and led to a US tour in 2006.

For The Guilty Office – their seventh studio album and their Mistletone debut – The Bats continue to refine and develop their own idiosyncratic path, whilst also adding fresh sparkle and new ideas. The strings and additional instruments come to the fore, such as on the first single Castle Lights, and Robert Scott’s songwriting has become particularly strong on tracks such as Countersign and Crimson Enemy. It could have been the pentagonal room they recorded in at  Christchurch music doyen John Kelcher’s studio, or the proximity to Christchurch’s beautiful Heathcote River, but either way, the band have come up with an album that shines among their best.

>>> Fun Bats fact: the music for the title sequence of the ABC-TV political-comedy series ‘The Hollowmen’ is The Bats’ North By North.

An article from Mess + Noise magazine. Embarrassing, but good…

Label Of Love: Part 1

From a bedroom in North Fitzroy, Ash Miles and Sophie Best have developed Mistletone into one of Melbourne’s most successful indies. Ahead of their Summer Tones series of gigs, DARREN LEVIN speaks to Best about Mistletone’s unique collectivist spirit.

Indie labels through the ages have always been painted, unfairly perhaps, with a unified sound. Flying Nun had jangle, Sub Pop grunge, early SST was synonymous with hardcore while K Records made its name with twee. But mention the “s” word around Sophie Best, former music journalist and co-founder of Melbourne indie Mistletone, and she gets noticeably uncomfortable.

“I’d hate for there to be a Mistletone sound,” she says from her North Fitzroy home, which also doubles as the label’s office. “Our last few records that we’ve put out have been all really diverse. That might be confusing, but that’s okay. I want people to judge each record on whether they like it. Not whether it’s a Mistletone thing.”

In just over two years, Mistletone – the brainchild of Best and her partner, former music retailer Ash Miles – have built one of the country’s finest emerging labels and touring companies. They began with an international release – House Arrest by US pop oddity Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – but Melbourne bands have come to define their roster.

Mistletone have released acclaimed records by Kes Band, Fabulous Diamonds, Actor/Model, Beaches, Panel of Judges, Ross McLennan and Mark Barrage. And while there’s little stylistically uniting those acts, there seems to be a shared ethos; the kind that comes from living in the same city, moving in the same social circles and being inspired by one another’s creative energy.

“A lot of it is home recorded and a lot of it is coming from a very individualistic place,” Best explains. “People are being true to themselves and doing whatever they want to do. If there’s a similarity in sound and aesthetic, I guess that’s where that comes from. A lot of the music on our label has come from people following their own creative spirit.”

Mistletone might not have a sound, but that’s probably because there isn’t a name for it yet.

I wanted to start off with The AMP nominations for Beaches and Ross McLennan. Did you ever imagine you’d get two?
We were quietly hoping that we’d get one, but we never in our wildest dreams imagined we were going to get two out of nine. It’s a really big thrill.

How do you rate your chances?
I don’t know, I don’t really want to think about it [laughs]. We are all going to go to the awards night because that’s probably the only chance we’d get to go to an awards night. So that’s really exciting. It’s such a strong field this year, so it’s hard to be overly confident really.

Were you surprised with the success of both those albums [McLennan’s Sympathy, For The New World and Beaches’ self-titled debut]?
Yeah, totally. It surprises me when people say that there’s hype around Beaches, because we’ve never really spent any money on advertising. We just got it out to the right people. A lot of journalists particularly fell in love with it. It’s really struck a chord with music writers. I think that Beaches are a really likeable band. A lot of people connect with them. The band haven’t even been feeding it [the hype] either. They haven’t played live that much.

Is that the philosophy at Mistletone, that you let things grow organically?
I think it’s the only way to go. Even if we had the big budget to spend, I don’t think we would. I don’t know if that sort of stuff [advertising] works anyway … Ash and I both believe that good music finds its audience. Our job is to facilitate it by doing practical things like giving it a release, sending it out to the media and having a website. That’s really the extent of it … You don’t have to force stuff.

Tell me about the label’s beginnings in 2006.
We decided to tour Ariel Pink, just because we were a really big fan of his. Ash and I had organised a few tours, and worked on other people’s tours before, but this was the first tour that we did ourselves. Then we realised that his albums didn’t have a release in Australia. We had an opportunity to start a label because a friend of ours works as a distributor, and so that was the catalyst really. We’ve both always dreamed of running a label. I guess all the stars aligned.

When you started out in 2006, the industry was in a real state of flux. Was that a concern at the time?
Not really, and it’s still not really. The industry is still in a state of flux, it remains to be seen what’s going to happen. Making money has never been a big motivator for us. We’d ideally like to make our income from Mistletone, but like a lot of people who work in entertainment/music that’s a dream, it’s not what really drives you.

It’s really just the opportunity to work with something that we both really believe in. From that point of view I think it’s a really exciting time for people like us, who don’t have any external funding support, to get in there, get involved and be part of all this exciting stuff happening. And it’s happening all over the world. People in their bedrooms are starting up labels and organising tours and shows. That’s the great thing about the breaking down of the music industry. Everything can happen at grassroots level.

It’s interesting because all the things that major labels perceive as negative things – downloads and MySpace – smaller labels like Mistletone actually embrace.
It’s only negative if you perceive it purely in terms of money. Money’s important but it’s a very small part of what makes all this happen. It’s easy to have a negative view of downloads, because it’s depriving you of income. But we totally encourage people to download. I mean, we download music. Pretending that downloading is the enemy seems really weird to me.

Are you guys still operating out of your home in North Fitzroy?
We are, but we’re reaching breaking point. I think we’re going to have to get an office. Ash and I can no longer handle the workload, so we’re going to need to get people to help us. And the only way we can do that is to get an office because we can’t really get people to hang out in our lounge room. I think we’re going to have to become a bit more professional this year. It’ll be a bit of a challenge [laughs]. When you’re working at home and when you’re a couple as well, it’s very easy to do things in your own ad hoc way. If we have to bring other people in, we’ll have to smarten up a bit I think.

Have your respective backgrounds played a role in the way you approach things?
I think so. I guess for me, having been involved in community radio for quite some time and then working as a music writer, I know a lot of people in that world. It probably gives you a bit of insight into how that world works, how to get music to people and how to send out press releases. And Ash, working his whole life in music retail, just knows a hell of a lot about music and also understands the whole retail side of things. So I guess in hindsight, our lives were leading up to this point.

Label Of Love: Part 2

In part two of our interview with Mistletone’s Sophie Best, we discuss the label’s unique collectivist spirit, trans-Hume expansionism and the state of the Melbourne music scene.

There seems to be a real collective atmosphere at Mistletone; a diverse line-up of like-minded bands. How important is that and how do you maintain it?
We don’t think about that when we sign people. But, especially with the Australian bands that we have, there are a lot of connections and friendships. That’s probably how we discovered those bands or fell in love with their music because of those circles of friendships. I love the fact that the bands on our roster are friends and they collaborate and organise shows together.

Did you initiate that or does that happen on its own steam?
Both. A lot of the people were friends before we came along. They’d been doing things together and continued doing things together. I think Melbourne is a pretty friendly place for people involved in music. There are strong social networks that make things happen. Most people in Melbourne are in three bands [laughs]. It’s just because people keep finding new ways to work together – and it comes down to friendship.

What’s your take on the Melbourne scene at the moment? It seems to be a particularly fruitful time.
It’s amazing. I keep discovering new bands and getting blown away by the creativity in the scene, and also the diversity of it. But also, there’s a kind of purity among Melbourne bands. The really good bands in Melbourne have received very little recognition outside and even within Melbourne. People are doing things without commercial expectations and that’s why there’s such good stuff coming out of this place.

Was it always the intention for you to release records from your hometown?
Yeah, totally. We started off by licensing overseas stuff, and we’re going to continue doing that. But we wanted to target the local scene. We want to release bands not just from Melbourne as well. We definitely want to release some Sydney music because there are some really great bands in Sydney that we like. Ash is from Sydney so we spend a lot of time there. It’s kind of like our second home. We want to see more action in Sydney. We organise shows there, but now we want to get more involved.

If there is one criticism of the label, it’s that it’s pretty Melbourne-centric.
It’s natural when you live somewhere and you want to be part of your community. But we definitely want to start doing things in Sydney as well.

There’s a real New Zealand flavour about your roster as well with bands like Lawrence Arabia and Bachelorette.
There is. Lawrence Arabia, which is our latest New Zealand release, contacted us through mutual friends … He sent us the demos for his new album and we were completely infatuated with them. We also put out Bachelorette’s last album. Our label has distribution in New Zealand so we’re building a bit of a fanbase there.

Does the camaraderie in the local scene extend to rival labels as well?
Yeah, totally. We’ve been inspired by a lot of Australian labels, and continue to be inspired by them. People who run indie labels are a certain breed. We have a lot in common. We do share a lot of information, we go out for beers and talk about stuff. It’s really important to do that because knowledge is power. You have to share it.

Label-wise, who are your benchmarks?
I guess initially Spunk was our first role model. We always admired what Aaron [Curnow] did. Sensory Projects is another one of my favourite Australian labels, run by Steve Phillips. He goes about things in his own quiet way and completely follows his own tastes. That’s something that’s important to us. I really like Aarght! Records, their whole philosophy and the way they approach things is really cool. Alberts Basement is great as an up-and-coming label that are doing thing on a totally grassroots level. Also, all those small labels and CD-R labels that are around that are doing things in a really pure way. Lexicon Devil is another one that we really dig. We appreciate their aesthetic and their approach.

Moving on to Summer Tones. How did the concept start? Was the initial idea to bring Melbourne bands to other parts of Australia?
Even before we formed a label, Ash and I were organising shows in Melbourne mainly as a way of bringing different bands together. I guess sometimes Melbourne can kind of be, not cliquey, but bands can sometimes stay within their own circles. They’re reluctant to ask other bands to play with them who are outside of their normal circles. So we got a kick out of organising shows that bring together bands from different spectrums. Once we had a label we’d invite bands on our roster, but also curate the line-up, so there were other bands as well.

The last three Tones have also been vehicles for our own overseas artists. It means that if we’re touring relatively unknown artists like High Places, Lucky Dragons or Beach House, we can put them in front of a larger audience and in a more interesting context than just playing a show at The Tote [in Melbourne]. Booking shows is probably the most fun thing about our job. Thinking who you want to have on the bill and putting it altogether is really fun.

Is Mistletone a full-time thing for you now?
Pretty much. It is for Ash and I still do some external work for other people to pay the bills. We’re kind of hoping that it’ll get to the point where we can pay our rent from the work we do with Mistletone.

How far off is that? Are you seeing a profit for what you do?
We always break even, or make a small profit on what we do … But we’re not going to be settling into retirement anytime soon, put it that way [laughs].

From Mess + Noise:

Mistletone’s Summer Kiss

From Beat:

The appearance of a sterling bill of some of Melbourne’s finest independent bands, and some national, trans-Tasman and overseas blow-ins, all courtesy of the criminally excellent Mistletone label, was enough to vault over the St Kilda threshold. Domestic tasks safely discharged, we attempted to supplement the bike journey south-side with a couple of train rides.

Unfortunately, our planning was undermined by Connex being on time, and we were compelled to undertake the city-St Kilda leg of the journey solely under bicycle power. That only made the first, and succeeding cloudy ales taste even better, and we settled in downstairs to catch female power pop punk duo Super Wild Horses complete their second half of their set. From there it was out the back to the Gershwin Room to jostle for suitable position in the crowd basking in the fem-jamming psychedelic beauty of Beaches.

It was about this time that our posse took the advantage of a marginal lull in proceedings, and headed outside for some cool sea air and extra-curricular sustenance. Heading back inside, there was some choice pop courtesy of The Twerps, and the unheralded, unsolicited and freakishly wonderful lo-fi pop meets Bikini Kill of The Diamond Sea. If the sign of a good gig is being sent sprawling onto the floor with excitement at a previously unknown band, this was the moment that catapulted the night into the annals of gig legend.

In the Front Bar, Dan Deacon had somehow channelled Martin St James and orchestrated a conga line that explored the labyrinthine corridors of the Espy. Trading electronic for low frequency and abrogated fidelity, Panel of Judges did everything in the world that was good, and I thought I was crying with happiness, until I smelt the unmistakeable reek of spilt beer and reality hit home.

With events having started mid-afternoon, by midnight the crowd had thinned considerably, and understandably. That might have been disappointing for the bands, but it meant we were able to stake a prominent position right in front of The Stabs and take infinite pleasure in the incongruous juxtaposition of jarring chords and the band’s fetching feminine outfits (including a flattering Colleen McCulloch style tent dress, and Mark Stabs’ elegant pant suit).

We wore a path back out to the Gershwin Room to see what was left of Witch Hats –all of it good – before resuming the front and centre pole-position for the eagerly awaited return of Ground Components. Another couple of beers, the opportunity to see Joe shrieking and wailing like an indie-rock prince on commercial radio sponsored death row and some ill-considered intro-crowd conversational moments, and it was all over, save for the hour-plus journey back to the safety of the People’s Republic of Darebin. The next day was tough, but it was worth it. Mistletone, you’ve done it again.
PATRICK EMERY

Summer Tones Sydney review from Those Walls Your Ears blog:

Summer Tones Sydney review from Doubtful Sounds blog:

Mistletone had a big year in 2008 releasing a raft of indie albums from Beaches, High Places, El Guincho and Beach House. They’ve started off 2009 with a bang and should be commended for putting on the Summer Tones festival in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney,  which highlighted a nicely varied mix of the acts on their label.

Mark Barrage was the unlucky person who had to kick off the proceedings to a virtually empty venue. It didn’t seem to bother him too much as he tweaked and sequenced his way through his vocal and electronic one man show. His is an interesting approach as he established a bed of cold and generally sparse digital sounds before applying his sombre dark vocals over the top. It is a mix of the more electronic end of krautrock mingled with a post punk voice, hinting at Cabaret Voltaire or a more industrial New Order in their earliest post Joy Division days. Barrage ensured the rhythm remained central to each song as he swaggered around his musical setup, giving the clinical music an imperfect human quality which served it well.

New Zealand’s Lawrence Arabia has a new album out and he was happy to introduce nearly every song they played and noted if it was on the newie Chant Darling. Backed by members of NZ band The Sneaks, renamed Broadsword, he injected the most indie pop of the evenings performances. Quirk vocals and immaculate harmonies stood out as highlights of an exceptionally tight and effortless sounding set. Song titles like ‘Auckland CBD pt 2’ were poetic takes on mundane places and like The Ruby Suns who mainman James Milne has been a member of, he knows how to write a simple pop song based on melody and a light musical touch. Many of the growing audience wouldn’t have heard of Lawrence Arabia but many seemed quite impressed.

High Places are yet another of those groups that incorporate live vocals over digital music (El Guincho, Ruby Suns, Barrage) but one thing they seemed to struggle with was how to project their songs strongly live. Each one blended into the next with the same similar percussive flavour from Robert Barber. The voice of Mary Pearson is a restrained instrument at the best of times and her sing song school girl incantations were begging to be louder in the mix, instead they bypassed everything and became a background nursery rhyme, not annoying but not contributing any great energy to the songs. Sandwiched between Lawrence Arabia and Beaches didn’t help their cause as there delicate tribal spells unfortunately felt like too much of a lull in the evening.

Beaches have had a busy summer with festival and solo gigs up and down the East Coast. Those shows have helped their songs to mature quickly in the live context and there is a drive and confidence that wasn’t as obvious in earlier performances. Playing songs from their fantastic debut Beaches album they worked the crowd into a mesmerized, swaying groove. Beaches have an ability to use their vocals to highlight and accentuate the rise and fall of the intensity of their songs. Their voices rarely take centre stage and when they do it is fairly irrelevant what they are saying. It is all in the mood and the way they lock the songs into mantra-like boogies. They’ve earned their support slot for Mogwai and the much deserved nomination for the 2009 Australian Music Prize.

Dan Deacon, musician or entertainer? That is the question I was left with after his headlining slot. Coming on a late (or early the next day) hour some of the crowd had dispersed but there were still a diehard mass there to partake in the Deacon madness. Wearing cutoff jeans and a Flintstones t-shirt he took his customary spot in the middle of the dancefloor and after a frustratingly long setup time he kicked things off with a couple of tracks from his forthcoming Bromst album. They revealed a density and restraint entering his music with less of the wacky Woody Woodpigeon vocals and a more mature electronic composition style. Before long the crowd interaction began and it culminated in a moving caterpillar of arched arms leading across the room, up the stairs and out onto Oxford St; leaving a few photographers and the more intoxicated punters who wondered where everyone had gone. A handful of tracks from Spiderman Of The Rings were played but it is clear why Deacon has said this is his last run of solo shows. The audience participation stunts do wear thin on the 2nd or 3rd time and there doesn’t seem to be anywhere to take the music, so the news that a full live band is his next incarnation is exciting to hear. His music is unique and standing back and just listening to it does deliver rewards but the talking point from the show would have been unfortunately focused more on the antics than the music.

Fasterlouder photo gallery: Summer Tones Sydney

Summer Tones Sydney review: from Fasterlouder

Summer Tones Brisbane review: from Rave magazine

The Zoo – Fri Mar 6

Turns out it’s still hot enough for this event’s name to be suitable. Kicking things off are The Ruby Suns, familiar with The Zoo stage after their Of Montreal support two nights earlier. Again they impress with their dynamic use of loops and live instruments, throwing in a cover of Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill.

Keeping with the New Zealander theme are more conventional indie rockers Lawrence Arabia. It’s a lively and enjoyable set but they fail to distinguish themselves from the many bands cut from the pleasant rock ballad cloth.

Next up are noise pop duo High Places, looking rather serious and business-like. Rob Barber plays electronic drums on one side of the desk, Mary Pearson sings and makes sounds both organic and electronic on the other. The Storm comes off beautifully, as does the gorgeous Head Spins.

Fresh off their Mogwai support slot are all-female Melbourne five-piece Beaches. There’s no doubting the quality of their dreamy, summery psych rock and a venue like The Zoo suits their reverb-soaked guitars perfectly.

His presence signified by a green plastic skull erected on a pole, Dan Deacon is set up on the floor in front of the stage. The set is half music, half Deacon giving instructions for some unconventional physical activity. Some early sound difficulties are overcome and the willing punters play the ‘run around in a circle really fast’ game, have an intense dance-off and form the Super Zoo Tunnel Of Awesome which goes down the stairs, out the back of the Zoo and back up and around to the stage. New track Red F features alongside older tracks Snake Mistakes and The Crystal Cat, and live staple Silence Like The Wind Overtakes Me. The set culminates in the hugely awesome Wham City, green skull flashing wildly as everybody gets some much-needed musical catharsis. Muchos kudos to Mistletone for putting on a super evening of music.

MICHAEL PINCOTT

Fasterlouder photo gallery: Summer Tones Melbourne