Mistletone

Now available from the mail order Mistlemart…

The very first Beach House seven inch single is here! It’s a limited edition single featuring the divine new song “Used To Be” (as heard on the Beach House Australian tour!). The b-side is a four-track demo version of “Apple Orchard”.

The brilliant High Places debut is now available on vinyl! It comes in a deluxe old-style tip-on gatefold jacket. This first run limited edition of the LP is pressed on grey vinyl (all future pressings will be black) and comes with gorgeous extra artwork including hand-illustrated lyrics sheet.

Also available…

A Sewing Circle CD by Lucky Dragons

A Sewing Circle compiles 47 (count em!) Lucky Dragons songs from their hard to find limited vinyl and cdr releases. This beautiful cd comes in gold-printed chipboard Arigato Pak with a gorgeous double sided poster featuring art from Sarah and Luke’s Sumi Ink Club.

Kes Band digipak reissue

The brilliant Kes Band album has gone into its second pressing and is now available in full digipak glory with deluxe matte booklet. Just $20 including postage worldwide.Get ye to the olde Mistletone shoppe

We can’t wait til summer, too much going on in the spring… there are four new Mistletone releases & a bunch of tours on the way… read on!

DELAYS by MARK BARRAGE (release date: Nov 1)

Melbourne’s favourite cracked pop fuzzbox Mark Barrage makes a nervy sound tonic, equal parts pop music EQd to breaking point and midnight crucifix synth-kraut. Three years in the making, Delays by Mark Barrage finds the dissonant electronic songster shift from the overtly lyrical, heartbreak-obsessed territory of his debut into realms of hard sound, dance timings, band-ish arrangements and bleary- eyed nighttime sensation. Delays is a skittery, blunt mix of DIY electronic/minimal synth with a marked New Romantic sense of melody and melancholy.

“One of Melbourne’s finest fuzzy pop electronic wizards… reveals a dense, complicated album that is a few steps ahead of his American contemporaries like YACHT, Dan Deacon, and Panther”
– THREE THOUSAND

MARK BARRAGE LAUNCH DATES:

MELBOURNE: Wed Nov 26 @ The Toff In Town w/- Panel of Judges + Pompey + DJ AOI.
SYDNEY: Wed Dec 3 @ Consolador de dos Caras, La Campana, 53-55 Liverpool Street.
BRISBANE: Fri Dec 19 @ Decline of Modern Civilisation w/- Talkshow Boy + Dot.AY.

BEACHES by BEACHES (release date: Nov 15)

The debut self titled album by Beaches is a journey into the sublime: twelve songs born out of sprawling jams, chiselled into rough-diamond perfection, laden with cosmic guitar stretches, vast textures, conjuring voices and phantom frequencies. Their stylistic shades reflect their shared musical loves, from 1960s hit parades to 1970s psychedelia, shoegaze to prog, southern boogie to krautrock; yet Beaches transcend their influences to create something wholly new. Recorded by Jack Farley in Melbourne and mastered by Bob Weston in Chicago.

“Ascend/transcend-ent acid-rock quintet of the moment”
– THREE THOUSAND

BEACHES LAUNCH DATES:

MELBOURNE: Sat Nov 29 @ Northcote Social Club w/- Circle Pit & Lindsey Lowhand.
SYDNEY: Thu Dec 4 @ Hopetoun Hotel w/- Circle Pit & The Garbage and the Flowers.
Also playing MEREDITH MUSIC FESTIVAL: Fri Dec 12

BAD VIBRATIONS by PANEL OF JUDGES (release date: Nov 22)

The inimitably hep Panel of Judges have made the modest masterpiece of their 10 year career. Bad Vibrations crystallises everything that is great about these beloved bastions of the Melbourne underground: restless imagination, lazily catchy melodies, epic rhythms, and heavenly riffs. Bad Vibrations was recorded live in the studio with producer Jack Farley (Beaches, Spider Vomit) and guests including Julian Patterson (Kes Band, Minimum Chips), Jarrod Quarrell (St Helens, New Season), Justin K Fuller (Zond, Mum Smokes) and Antonia Sellbach (Love of Diagrams).

“Panel of Judges. They wouldn’t be out of place playing a sixties surf party or a slightly wild debutant ball, but just as everyone was getting into the good clean fun a bunch of bikers or local street toughs would turn up, because there is something in there for them too. Panel would probably not be sure who to party with after the show but under the influence of their music its possible that the two sides could get along just as they do in Panel’s music.”
– JON MICHELL

PANEL OF JUDGES LAUNCH DATES:

MELBOURNE: Sat Dec 6 @ Curtin Bandroom (29 Lygon St, Carlton) w/ The Twerps & St Helens
SYDNEY: Fri Jan 16 @ Hopetoun Hotel

COSA ASTRAL by COCONOT (release date: Nov 15)

Long before his solo project El Guincho took flight, Pablo Díaz-Reixa’s psych-tropicalia-rock band, Coconot (with Cristian Subirà and Jens Neumaier) had established themselves as leaders of Barcelona’s thriving underground music scene. Coconot’s dazzling new album Cosa Astral twists the limits of pop music into a new sphere by cloaking it in the rhythms and melodies of Latin America, the Caribbean and Spain. Here is a place where beauty flows and joy shines forth in a riot of colorful, swirling tropicalismo-psychedelics. The soundtrack to a heady, sunshiney summer!

KES BAND on tour

Kes Band hit the road with The Drones next week for the Havila national tour, and are playing a plethora of shows around Melbourne this summer, so catch them if you can. Kes Band are in top form; the Kes Band cd has gone into its second pressing and the new edition comes in a digipak. Limited edition Kes Band cassettes are also available on mail order.

“One of Melbourne’s best live bets, a powerful folk-rock revue in the vein of late ’60s Bob Dylan or English oddballs the Incredible String Band… one of 2008’s best.”
– THE AGE

ROSS MCLENNAN @ Melbourne Festival

Ross McLennan‘s post-Snout solo masterpiece Sympathy For The New World has been one of the year’s most acclaimed Australian independent releases. On Tuesday October 21, the Melbourne Festival presents a spectacularly symphonic performance by the Ross McLennan Sympathy Orchestra in Becks Bar at the Meat Market, North Melbourne. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see a songwriting visionary in full orchestral flight. Tickets on sale now from Ticketmaster.

“The music of Ross McLennan is like that melancholic folk that you listen to while spreading butter on toast, when the morning sun is leaking through your kitchen window. In other words, it’s kind of soft. But it has something else. The layer of eerie guitar and looped vocals turns twee crumpet folk into a palatable concoction of psychedelic blues.”
– THREE THOUSAND

HOLY FUCK Australian tour

Mistletone proudly presents Holy Fuck, direct from Toronto on their first Australian tour. Holy Fuck are a celebration of sci-fi noise and casio rock — part experimental noise-fest, part free-for-all dance party. Their reputation as a killer live band is wholly deserved. Holy Fuck bring their punk rock background to electronic music, steering their songs into epic, kraut-rockish climaxes; something stirring and infectious, yet danceable and fun.

“Electo-pop perverts Holy Fuck make a noise as abrasive as it is awesome … these dark disco droogs thread every sound under the sun through their electric playground of wires. They come on like the nastiest electronic band since Suicide, or like the The Fall reworking their brains with screwdrivers, or Add N to (X) playing speed metal.”
– NME

HOLY FUCK TOUR DATES:

MELBOURNE: Wed Dec 10: 3RRR Presents Holy Fuck @ The Corner w/ Love Of Diagrams + Mountains In The Sky. Tickets $38+BF on sale from The Corner.
SYDNEY: Thu Dec 11: FBi Presents Holy Fuck @ The Annandale Hotel w/ Mountains In The Sky + WOW. Tickets $38+BF on sale from The Annandale.
MEREDITH MUSIC FESTIVAL: Fri Dec 12
BRISBANE: Sat Dec 13 @ The Zoo w/ Taste Of Teeth + Toy Balloon. Tickets $38+BF on sale from The Zoo.

LUCKY DRAGONS

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Lucky Dragons shows and helped make their Australian tour so amazing. Luke & Sarah sold out all their merch, so if you missed out, check our mail order in a couple of weeks ‘cos they are sending some goodies for you to buy online.

“Lucky Dragons shows branch into both the art world and the music world, but mostly the human world, where they run free and hold hands sans hackney and plus total realist euphoria.”
– RAVE

HIGH PLACES

Mistletone has just released the incredible High Places debut album and are thrilled to announce that the dynamic duo will be touring Australia in Feb/March. We have some gorgeous limited edition vinyl available for all you High Places fans: the LP is on grey vinyl and comes in a deluxe old-style tip-on gatefold jacket with extra artwork including hand-illustrated lyrics sheet. Just 25 bucks including postage from the mail order Mistlemart.

“Part of a rich vein of psychedelia now coming out of America, along with Animal Collective, Panda Bear and kindred LA spirits Lucky Dragons… High Places’ debut glimmers with fragmented and unfixed beauty.”
– THE BIG ISSUE (four stars)

BACHELORETTE

Mistletone presents much loved Kiwi space pop exponent Bachelorette, back in Melbourne for one show only at the Curtin Bandroom on Friday, October 24. Bachelorette (aka Annabel Alpers) and her trusty computer minions will lavish your eyes and ears with trippy visuals and deliciously skewed home made tunes that evokes Gary Numan, Broadcast and Panda Bear (sometimes all in one song!). Joining Bachelorette for this special show are two fantastic Melbourne bands, The Sun Blindness and Teeth & Tongue. Tickets $15 on the door at the Curtin Bandroom, 29 Lygon St, Carlton.

“Bachelorette almost steals the night with the latest installment of her love affair with electricity. Just as tight and as well executed as Love of Diagrams, she is compelling to watch, hypnotising to the ear and never at any stage buys into the detached irony that so often comes with the field of electronic music. The scene-setting On The Four seems to defy age and My Electric Husband brings the inherent humanity through loud and clear in a way so few acts do; perhaps she invests more than others? Whatever it is she does, right through to the cut-up cassette recordings of acoustic guitar that close her set, its spot on.”
– INPRESS review of Bachelorette @ Winter Tones
MISTLETONE XMAS

Draw a big red circle round Saturday, December 20 in your diary ‘cos Mistletone will be holding a Xmas party spectacular with all our fave Mistletone bands at a beautiful new venue in Melbourne. Stay tuned for invites!

and don’t forget you can pick up any Mistletone release on mail order for just 20 bucks including postage!

spring feverishly yours,

ash & sophie

A Rick Milovanovic & Alex Fregon production – thank you guys!

Spring Tones will soon be upon us so here is a rundown of all the excellent artistes who will be gracing the Tote stage on the day/night of Sunday, October 5.

Tickets on sale now, just $20 + booking fee from The Tote front bar, Polyester, Missing Link, Greville, Corner Box Office tel: 9427 9198 or online.

The famous and free Mistletone vegan BBQ will ride again, in the Tote beer garden from 3pm so come early! the usual meaty Tote BBQ options will also be available.

SPRING TONES PLAYING TIMES:

3pm Doors open
3.45pm Kes (solo)
4.35pm Hi God People
5.20pm The Motifs
6.10 Aleks & the Ramps
7pm Sly Hats
7.50pm Super Melody
8.40pm Always
9.30pm Lucky Dragons

Lucky Dragons are Luke Fischbeck and Sarah Rara from Los Angeles. Their participatory live shows have been known to result in unbridled communal freak-outs. Mistletone loves Lucky Dragons and recently released their new album Dream Island Laughing Language, described in The Australian thus: “Little gems suddenly catch your ear and provide engaging moments of genuine beauty”… expect many such moments at Spring Tones, along with frenzied pop, trippy digital dreams, handmade and primitive sounds, ecstatic language and folk melodies.

Always is the ever evolving project of Alex Vivian. Wholly based on the element of chance, improvisation, fragments of ideas (wether they be original or stolen from white label techno, ye olde raga, pop songs, cavemen sound effect downloads), Always creates a mess of thoughts that cancel eachother out, compliment and flatten while also serving as a somewhat vocal imitation of electronic and dance music.

Super Melody

Sir, i beg of you –
Unshackle those
Poor, shrunken
Eyes, which
Reflect like twin grey
Mirrors the
Electric coalmine.
Love fast
Or
Die
Yellow!

Sly Hats is the project of Kamerah ‘Hats’ Darling. He has released a string of one-off EPs since forming in mid 2004, followed by debut album ‘Liquorice Night’ on Nervous Jerk. Sly Hats have/has been lucky enough to play with some favourites such as Little Wings (US), Calvin Johnson (US), Jens Lekman (Swe), Mt Eerie (US), Kath Bloom (US), Camera Obscura (SCO) The Brunettes (NZ), Micah P. Hinson (US), New Buffalo and Dear Nora (US).

Aleks & the Ramps accidentally formed in 2005.
They perform a hyperactive brand of indie rock with vigour that oscillates between razor sharp proficiency and haphazard fervour.
Sometimes they present themselves in ill-fitting uniforms of suburban sports teams or kitten-worshipping cults, sometimes they just wear whatever.
Regardless of attire, an aleks & the ramps performance is an experience that can be at times psychedelic, frightening, hilarious or primal.
Kinda like a beach boys/sonic youth tribute band from a hypothetical Todd Solondz film, but then again, kinda not…

The Motifs (featuring members of the Crayon Fields, Low-Rise Estate and Summer Cats) play lo-fi pop songs embellished with toy percussion, nostalgic casiotone and sixties girl-group harmonies.

Hi God People

LIFE IN OUR LAND. THE SPIRIT FLOWS Hello fellow travelers of spaceship earth. My name is Feather Wilson. I started the spirit acres commune back in 82. It was a fine barmy spring when we started making the mud bricks for the main house. Northern New South Wales back then was a quiet hamlet for the old brothers and sisters. We built the place up from mother earth and we thank her for her bountiful delights. I guess you could call the hi-god people our resident groovers. Dion was born at the commune to Anna Spring Blossom and Brian North Star, back in 86. He was a peaceful and enquiring child. Dylan came here as a seven year old, and he and Dion started their music making with flutes in the woods, skipping gently to the seasons. Julian moved here as a twenty six year old ex heroin user. He’s done it tough, but his humour has always got him through. Greg was the last to join us, only eight years ago. He enabled us to enter the computer age with his know how. I remember the days we had playing music as the sun set, as if it was yesterday. The acoustic guitar and bongo marathons would go into the early hours. There we many people involved in these jams, but it was only Dylan, Dion, Greg and Julian that seriously melded with the sun. They’ve been at it ever since, spreading the word – of everlasting joy for all beings. We at the commune are proud of our brothers spreading the karmic mantra of love.

Kes will officially open Spring Tones with one of his magical, stream of musical consciousness solo sets. So make sure you get there early!

DJs on the day will be DJ Swahili and DJ Beaches.

Lots of discounted Mistletone swag on the merch table.

See you there!

xo

Hello and welcome to Mistletone’s Spring Notes with the latest happenings in Mistletone land.

Mistletone presents for the first time in Australia and direct from Toronto, Holy Fuck. Known for their interstellar live performances and chaotic yet precise recordings, Holy Fuck don’t hide behind laptop computers and walls of synthesisers – think of them as a celebration of lo-fi noise and weirdo casio-driven rock. One might say that if modern electronic music is a highly sophisticated robot operated by hi-tech computers, Holy Fuck are the evil counterpart. They are less of a modern indie rock band than they are an exploded diagram of an indie rock band, splitting open to reveal their organic guts, tangled wires and broken bits of drumsticks. Their reputation as a must-see live band is TOTALLY deserved.

HOLY FUCK NATIONAL TOUR DATES
Melbourne – Wednesday December 10: 3RRR presents Holy Fuck @ The Corner w/ Love Of Diagrams.
Tickets $38+BF on sale from The Corner.
Sydney – Thursday December 11: FBi presents Holy Fuck @ The Annandale Hotel w/ special guests.
Tickets $38+BF on sale from The Annandale.
Meredith – Friday December 12 @ Meredith Music Festival.
Holy Fuck onstage around 2am, Friday night/Saturday morning.
Brisbane – Saturday December 13 @ The Zoo w/ special guests.
Tickets $38+BF on sale from The Zoo.

Mistletone is very proud to announce the first ever Australian tour by Lucky Dragons. Lucky Dragons is the brainchild of Los Angeles savant Luke Fischbeck, who together with collaborator Sarah Rara will tour Australia for the first time. Mistletone has just released Dream Island Laughing Language, the 19th release by Lucky Dragons which details the continuing pursuit of a humble and ecstatic, drippy and explosive, smoldering and upset music. Lucky Dragons’ legendary live performances strive to create a space where community and memory and ritual and perspective all come together as a crystal and then vibrate and shatter. Dream Island Laughing Language by Lucky Dragons is out now on Mistletone.

LUCKY DRAGONS NATIONAL TOUR DATES:
SYDNEY Thu Oct 2 Paddington Uniting Church: Mistletone & Woody present MOUNT EERIE (USA) + + Lucky Dragons + Pikelet. All ages show.Tickets $30 + BF from Moshtix.
BRISBANE Fri Oct 3 Open Frame Festival @ Brisbane Powerhouse. All ages show.
NEWCASTLE Sat Oct 4 Sound Summit.
MELBOURNE Sun Oct 5 Spring Tones @ The Tote with Sly Hats, Hi God People, Aleks & the Ramps, The Motifs, Always, Kes, Super Melody + DJs. Tickets $20 +BF from The Tote front bar, Polyester, Missing Link, Greville, Corner Box Office tel: 9427 9198 or online.
MELBOURNE Tue Oct 7 Mistletone + Woody present @ Triple R Live Performance Space with MOUNT EERIE (USA) + Lucky Dragons + Fabulous Diamonds. All ages show. Tickets $25 +BF online or at Polyester (city & Fitzroy).

Mistletone is proud to release the debut album by High Places, aka Mary Pearson and Rob Barber from Brooklyn. High Places’ self-titled debut was recorded by Rob and Mary in their apartment in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood between January and May of 2008. They employed a wide variety of instruments to make this album ranging from the more traditional: 12 string guitar, banjo, shakers and rattles, bass, bells and Kalimba, to the inventive: plastic bags, mixing bowls, wood blocks and other common household objects. The album has a contemplative and organic lyrical tone emphasized by the themes of goodness manifested in nature, hardship and wonder as necessities to human existence and growth. Additionally, the idea of maturation and development is further accented through the recurring mention of trees and their extending, enveloping branches. Watch out for a High Places tour in early 2009! High Places release date is September 27 and vinyl will be available soon on our website.

The next Mistletone release is Delays by cracked pop fuzzbox Mark Barrage (release date October 4). Melbourne artiste Mark Barrage makes a nervy sound tonic, equal parts pop music EQd to breaking point and midnight crucifix synth-kraut. Three years in the making, Delays finds the dissonant electronic songster shift from the overtly lyrical, heartbreak-obsessed territory of his debut into realms of hard sound, dance timings, band-ish arrangements and bleary-eyed nighttime sensation. Straddling the twin influences of electronic music and underground rock, Delays is a Morphean album in the spirit of Australia’s Severed Heads, the classic Komische groups and hard-art overseas labels Human Ear Music and Sacred Bones.

Beaches are Antonia Sellbach, Alison Bolger, Ali McCann, Gill Tucker and Karla Way: a psychedelic overdrive wall-of-guitar supergroup par excellence. The debut self titled album by Beaches was recorded by Jack Farley in Melbourne and mastered by Bob Weston in Chicago and will be released by Mistletone on Nov 1. It is KILLER! Beaches have just been announced to play Meredith Music Festival and will be launching the album in November. Stay tuned!

Thanks to everyone who came to Beach House‘s sold out shows around Australia and helped make this tour so very special. They beguiled and enchanted their every audience and we will be bringing them back here as soon as possible! Look out for a Beach House 7″ single in October.

Kes Band have been recording an awesome instrumental album which will see the light of day early next year. Meantime, Kes Band and Kes solo have a bunch of live dates coming up around Australia in the next two months so watch this space for details and don’t miss one of this country’s most consistently awe inspiring live bands.

Mistletone is very excited to be releasing the super rad new album by most excellent indie pop Melbourne trio Panel of Judges in November. Launch details to follow!

Mistletone tours coming up in early 2009 include El Guincho, Dan Deacon and High Places… this makes us very happy.

fondly yours,

sophie & ash

3RRR, FBi and Mistletone present for the first time in Australia and direct from Toronto, Holy Fuck.

Known for their interstellar live performances and chaotic yet precise recordings, Holy Fuck don’t hide behind laptop computers and walls of synthesisers – think of them as a celebration of lo-fi noise and weirdo casio-driven rock. One might say that if modern electronic music is a highly sophisticated robot operated by hi-tech computers, Holy Fuck are the evil counterpart. They are less of a modern indie rock band than they are an exploded diagram of an indie rock band, splitting open to reveal their organic guts, tangled wires and broken bits of drumsticks. Their reputation as a must-see live band is TOTALLY deserved.

HOLY FUCK NATIONAL TOUR DATES

Melbourne – Wednesday December 10: 3RRR Presents Holy Fuck @ The Corner w/ Love Of Diagrams + Mountains In The Sky.
Tickets $38+BF on sale from The Corner.

Sydney – Thursday December 11: FBi Presents Holy Fuck @ The Annandale Hotel w/ Mountains In The Sky + WOW.
Tickets $38+BF on sale from The Annandale.

Meredith – Friday December 12 @ Meredith Music Festival.
Holy Fuck onstage around 2am, Friday night/Saturday morning.

Brisbane – Saturday December 13 @ The Zoo w/ Taste Of Teeth + Toy Balloon.
Tickets $38+BF on sale from The Zoo.

From The Age: The sound of now

There’s a buzz around this band, writes Kylie Northover.

FOR a band whose name can’t be printed in most publications, Holy F— manage to garner a lot of positive publicity.

The Canadian four-piece are variously described as “experimental” and “electronic” but rather than creating their chaotic sounds from high-end equipment and state-of-the-art laptops, Holy F— instead wring their music from retro toy radar guns, cheap keyboards and film synchronisers.

Despite the fact they rarely have a set list, improvise shows by feeding off their crowd and never rehearse, they’re famed for their live performances, and for the past year have been a fixture on the biggest festival bills around the world.

And unlike most buzz bands who coolly downplay sudden success, Holy F—‘s frontman Brian Borcherdt is endearingly enthusiastic about the band’s fortunes.

“We’ve been around for four years now, so it’s not that new, but it does feel sudden and it’s great,” he says.

“The band has felt constantly new to us because we didn’t have any expectations in the beginning for it, so it feels sudden constantly — if that makes sense?”

And they’re more than happy being a hyped “act of the moment”.

“Hey, if it takes us to Australia, then that’s cool,” Borcherdt says. “We’re just happy with all these opportunities to tour places we’ve never been. I mean, we’ve played Glastonbury. It’s amazing!”

Holy F— — Borcherdt, Graham Walsh, Matt McQuaid and Matt Schulz — were formed, says Borcherdt, with a view to experimenting with organic sounds.

“Initially we were thinking about the way we inevitably date our styles the more we embrace a synthetic sound; there’s always a subconscious aesthetic to what’s going on at certain times and whether someone’s reacting against it or adhering to it, I think, therefore things get a little bit dated,” he explains of the band’s lo-fi musical approach.

“You listen five years back and you can pinpoint certain stylised things. I think that happens more and more as things become more man-made, as opposed to organic; an acoustic guitar is always going to sound like an acoustic guitar, or a piano is always going to sound like a piano. But when you start using synths and digital effects, then those things become dated.”

Borcherdt and his bandmates instead strip things back, leaving them less options with which to be creative.

“We had to embrace compromise so that you can’t, ultimately, ever do what you want to do; you can’t do what you want to do if you’re playing a Casio. Suddenly you don’t have a laptop with a million and one options. Instead, you’re reduced to having a battery-operated kids’ toy that’s not meant to be a proper instrument, but it’s fun and creative to try and make it sound dope.

“Hopefully, in the end, not only are you not using laptops, but more interestingly, you end up with a compromised sound that’s different and that will be out of phase with what other people are doing.”

Holy F—‘s sound is certainly different from what other people are doing now — but what if it’s their sound that “dates” and subsequently launches a hundred other bands?

“Exactly — it will probably sound in five years like it’s squarely out of the mid 2000s. We might actually just end up defining the sound of the era instead,” Borcherdt says

So how does Borcherdt describe the Holy F— sound?

“I usually describe it by just making noises with my mouth — but I’ll spare you the guttural, lewd sounds. I like to say noisy, fun, cathartic and all those things … I don’t have one snappy answer though,” he says, before making a guttural, blurpy noise with his mouth down the phone.

HOLY FUCK BIOGRAPHY

Formed in Toronto a little over three years ago and consisting of two full time members Brian Borcherdt and Graham Walsh (effects/synths), Holy Fuck have graced the stages at some of the largest music festivals in the world including Glastonbury (NME named them in the Top Three new bands at this year’s festival), Coachella, All Tomorrow’s Parties, Vegoose, and are balanced somewhere between an experimental noise-out and a free-for-all dance party. They have also been invited to perform and tour with some of the most innovative artists around including Mouse On Mars, Wolf Parade, and !!!

Afraid that electronic presets and affectations will inevitably date the sound of today’s dance and rock music, Holy Fuck decided to strip away hi-tech gear in favour of the nearly unmanageable lo-tech battery operated keyboards. The often cheesy beats, like rhumba, disco and techno emitted by these half-broken kid’s toys are then manipulated with guitar peddles and distorting cheapo mixers. Holy Fuck‘s drummer and bassist then kick in, accompanied by other outlandish sounds such as 35 mm film being scratched over tape heads. The end result is not childish like the keyboard beats might have originally suggested. Holy Fuck, hailing from a more punk rock background, steer the songs into an epic, kraut-rockish climax, something stirring and infectious, yet danceable and fun.

Without rehearsing or arranging parts prior to hitting the stage, Holy Fuck wrote the songs for their debut album live on tour. Each time they’d return from tour they’d check into a studio and cathartically capture the energy of the live show, recording the songs that had now taken shape. Drawing from different recording sessions the album maintains a unique feel from song to song. While the material was recorded for the most part in a studio environment, Holy Fuck recorded it live, as if on stage. Therefore the songs still breathe a live frenetic energy. It’s a mass of tribal drums sounds and hypnotic, pulsing synth lines and shows the full force that Holy Fuck possess as a live band. A subtle introduction to the band this ain’t – it’s not the Holy Fuck way.

“Holy Fuck blasted out opulent streams of saturated melody, clouds of glitter and confetti, nitrous-boosted dance dynamics…Holy Fuck set the bar awfully high.”
– PITCHFORK

“This Canadian mega-group ply an interesting trade of organic electronica where they shun all usage of laptops, pre-programmed backing tracks in favour of Real Instruments with Real Soul creating experimental improvised songs where not even they know what will happen.”
– DROWNED IN SOUND

From Beat magazine:

Mistletone proudly presents Lucky Dragons direct from Los Angeles on their first ever Australian tour.

Lucky Dragons will also join forces with another true American original, the likeminded but utterly unique Mount Eerie, for two intimate all ages shows in Sydney and Melbourne.

Lucky Dragons is the brainchild of Los Angeles savant Luke Fischbeck, who together with collaborator Sarah Rara will tour Australia for the first time. Mistletone has just released Dream Island Laughing Language, the 19th release by Lucky Dragons which details the continuing pursuit of a humble and ecstatic, drippy and explosive, smoldering and upset music. Lucky Dragons’ legendary live performances strive to create a space where community and memory and ritual and perspective all come together as a crystal and then vibrate and shatter.

LUCKY DRAGONS NATIONAL TOUR DATES

SYDNEY Thu Oct 2 Paddington Uniting Church
Mistletone & Woody present MOUNT EERIE (USA) + + Lucky Dragons + Pikelet. All ages show. Tickets $30 + BF from Moshtix

BRISBANE Fri Oct 3 Open Frame Festival @ Brisbane Powerhouse
Lucky Dragons + kk Null + Birchville Cat Motel + Spartak. All ages show. Tickets $15 from Brisbane Powerhouse.

NEWCASTLE Sat Oct 4 Sound Summit @ The Glasshouse
Lucky Dragons + Birchville Cat Motel + Maruosa + KK Null + Cotti + Curse ov Dialect + Ben Byrne + Western Synthetics + Rose Turtle Urtler + Hosebeast + Evil Moisture.
Tickets $12 +bf presale / $15 at the door /$20 for 2-night TINA show pass available from Moshtix.

MELBOURNE Sun Oct 5 Spring Tones @ The Tote
Lucky Dragons, Sly Hats, Hi God People, Aleks & the Ramps, The Motifs, Always, Kes, Super Melody + DJs Swahili & Beaches.
Tickets $20 +BF from The Tote front bar, Polyester, Missing Link, Greville, Corner Box Office tel: 9427 9198 or online

MELBOURNE Tue Oct 7 @ Triple R Live Performance Space
Mistletone + Woody present MOUNT EERIE (USA) + Lucky Dragons + Fabulous Diamonds. All ages show.
Tickets $25 +BF online or at Polyester (city & Fitzroy).

Thank you Alex Fregon for the brilliant artwork.

artwork by Rick Milovanovic

Greetings, salutations and welcome to the latest news from the wintry world of Mistletone.

First up, we are overjoyed to present the first ever Australian tour by Beach House, our favourite boy-girl duo from Baltimore. Tickets are already selling like hot cakes for Beach House’s intimate shows, so don’t dilly dally or you’ll miss out! Having recently seen the band play in Europe we can report that their live show is just about the greatest thing ever; intense, warm, enthralling and beautiful. For the Australian tour, Beach House will be the usual duo, Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally, plus special guest percussionist Dave Bergander of Celebration, whom Alex describes as his favourite drummer in the world.

BEACH HOUSE TOUR DATES
Wed Aug 20: Hopetoun Hotel, Sydney with Bachelorette (NZ) + Rand and Holland.
Tickets $25 + BF on sale through Moshtix – phone: 1300 438 849 and all Moshtix outlets
Thu Aug 21: Hopetoun Hotel, Sydney with Bachelorette (NZ) + Songs.
Tickets $25 + BF on sale through Moshtix – phone: 1300 438 849 and all Moshtix outlets
Fri Aug 22: Winter Tones @ Roxanne, Melbourne.
Tickets $26 + BF on sale through Moshtix – phone: 1300 438 849 and all Moshtix outlets
Sat Aug 23: The Troubadour, Brisbane with Bachelorette (NZ) + The Rational Academy.
Tickets $25 + BF on sale through Oztix.
Sun Aug 24: Mojos, Perth with Astral Travel, The Tigers + Fabulous Diamonds.
Tickets $25 + BF on sale through Moshtix – phone: 1300 438 849 and all Moshtix outlets
Wed Aug 27: The Toff In Town, Melbourne with Fabulous Diamonds + ii + DJ Scraps.
Tickets $22 + BF on sale through Moshtix – phone: 1300 438 849 and all Moshtix outlets including Polyester (City).
Fri Aug 29: Bar Bodega, Wellington, New Zealand with Bachelorette + Nikky Brinkman. Tickets $30 + BF on sale from Real Groovy.
Sat Aug 30: The Kings Arms, Auckland, New Zealand with Bachelorette + Noriko. Tickets $30 + BF on sale from Real Groovy.

Love of Diagrams

3RRR Presents Winter Tones – our seasonal Mistletone party in Melbourne, bringing together bands that we love. Winter Tones is set to blow all the winter blues away. It’s happening on Friday August 22 at the lovely Roxanne Parlour, up on the third floor of 2 Coverlid Place in Chinatown, and will feature a baker’s dozen of wonderful bands: Beach House, Bachelorette, Love of Diagrams, Pikelet, Kes Band, Crayon Fields, Qua, Beaches, Panel of Judges, Actor/Model, Barrage, Talkshow Boy, Lost Animal + DJs. Tickets are just $26 + booking fee from Moshtix, doors open 7.30pm; mark your diary ‘cos this one will be fun fun fun!

The latest release for the Mistletone label is Dream Island Laughing Language by Lucky Dragons. Lucky Dragons is the brainchild of brilliant young Los Angeleno Luke Fischbeck, together with his partner in crime Sarah Rara and other likeminded collaborators. Described by the ever-astute Mark Gomes in Three Thousand as “unrecognisable, alien and joyful”, Lucky Dragons create artistic and organic electronic music to thrill your soul. Look out for the debut Australian tour by Lucky Dragons in October this year; their participatory and joy-inducing live shows will take your breath away.

Everyone, meet High Places: our favourite boy-girl duo from Brooklyn. Dubbed by Pitchfork as “Intimate enough to sleep in, rhythmic enough to dance to; lo-fi and simple, but strange enough to get lost in”, the music of High Places is a unique and beautiful thing. Mistletone is chuffed to be releasing the High Places debut album in September, which will come out in the rest of the world on the esteemed Thrill Jockey label; meantime, to whet your appetite for all things High Places, we have a collection of singles previously only available in cyberland, titled 03/07-09-07 and in stores during July. It’s the perfect taster of the sweet pop layers of High Places: bells and bird calls over a wash of ocean waves; mallets hitting mixing bowls over treated guitar and glockenspiel; Mary’s reflective vocals over Rob’s homemade beats.

Local heroines Beaches are about to hunker down with studio wiz Jack Farley to record their debut album for Mistletone. Featuring members of Love of Diagrams, Panel of Judges and Spider Vomit, Beaches (Antonia Sellbach, Alison Bolger, Ali McCann, Gill Tucker and Karla Way) are a super rocking jam band tour de force. Catch ’em around town if you can! Upcoming Beaches shows: Friday July 18 @ Old Bar with old mates Spider Vomit, Zond and Darren Sylvester; Sunday July 27 supporting Menstruation Sisters at the Toff; and a late late night set at Winter Tones on August 22.

Kes Band play a corker lineup in Melbourne this Saturday night, June 28 @ the Evelyn, Fitzroy with Baseball, Actor/Model and Love Is Science Fiction. Doors 8.30pm, this will be a top night out! Kes Band are also set to commence a month-long residency at the Edinburgh Castle (681 Sydney Rd Brunswick). Kes Band will play two sets every Thursday night in July in the Edinburgh Castle front bar; expect some new instrumental jams and new vocal material, as well as all the gems from the Kes back catalogue. As the recent four-star Sydney Morning Herald feature review stated: “Kes Band is the work of a deeply idiosyncratic songwriter who is nonetheless maturing rapidly. There are moments of daft pleasure succeeded by passages of moving instrumentation. The album has a framework but it’s one that requires repeated listens to define and comprehend. Once you do, its appeal becomes tangible.” Also don’t miss Kes Band at Winter Tones after midnight.

The praise keeps pouring in for Ross McLennan‘s post Snout masterpiece, Sympathy for the New World. “This is an album in the mould of Scott Walker but with its pop heart as valuable as its head”, said the Sydney Morning Herald, and The Age agreed: “Ross McLennan excels with this stream of musical consciousness, forging a new strain of languid psychedelia from off-kilter strings and spidery guitars, all spilling harmonic colours outside the lines”. Ross is currently dreaming up a truly symphonic presentation of Sympathy for the New World with some special shows to be announced soon. Meantime, catch Ross and his band when local flower punk icons The Sand Pebbles launch their new album Ceduna at Northcote Social Club on Saturday July 5.

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The new album by Dan Deacon, curiously titled Bromst, is coming in October… Dan describes it as “much darker,” “mature,” and “organic.” We can’t wait! Dan will be returning to Australia in the summertime so start limbering up now!

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For all you Ariel Pink fans out there, here is a new video for an old song: Gray Sunset from The Doldrums — check it out! According to Ariel’s website, he is hard at work on a new album; one can only fervently hope!

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We are busily working on some other very exciting Mistletone tours and releases, and you guys will be the first to know once they’re in the can, so watch this space.

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Don’t forget you can buy all your fave Mistletone CDs from our mail order shoppe for just $20 including postage anywhere in the world… and service with a smile.

cheers & good health to you,

ash & sophie