Mistletone

It’s been nearly six years since HTRK debuted with Marry Me Tonight, the first and only album written entirely by the band’s original lineup. The trio’s record is rife with breathy and caustic pop mutations, co-produced by Rowland S. Howard before his tragic death the same year it released. Originally available only on digital and CD formats, Marry Me Tonight will be issued on vinyl for the first time via Mistletone/Inertia on April 24 in Australia/NZ and on Ghostly International on April 28 in the USA. Pre-orders available here.

HTRK’s revitalized debut will be available on standard black and translucent magenta vinyl, with both versions featuring a 20-page booklet of photos and liner notes. Among the many contributors are Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner, Angus Andrew of Liars, producer Lindsay Gravina, Danielle de Picciotto, and Genevieve McGuckin, to name a few. Before this special vinyl pressing of Marry Me Tonight arrives on April 24, HTRK play two intimate shows with Finnish artist Mika Vainio:

• SYDNEY: Friday March 13 @ Goodgod. HTRK + Mika Vainio + Marcus Whale + DJ Conrad Standish. Tickets Tickets on sale now from Moshtix.
• MELBOURNE: Sunday March 15 @ The Shadow Electric, Abbotsford Convent. HTRK + Mika Vainio + Jonny Telafone + DJ Conrad Standish. Tickets on sale now from The Shadow Electric. Presented by Mistletone in association with the Adelaide Festival.

Like all three HTRK albums, Marry Me Tonight is singular in sound and circumstance. It’s the only album the outfit recorded from start to finish as a trio, and it’s the only HTRK record that bears the co-production stamp of Rowland S. Howard.  Breathy, caustic and rife with contradiction, Marry Me Tonight took the raw material recorded on 2005’s Nostalgia and transformed it into a pop record—pop that buckled and warped beneath the glare of Howard, fellow producer Lindsay Gravina and the HTRK trio: Jonnine Standish, Nigel Yang and Sean Stewart. Howard died at the end of 2009; Stewart died the year after. Things would never be the same.

Marry Me Tonight, which originally came out on Blast First Petite digitally and on CD, will receive its first full vinyl pressing accompanied by a 20-page booklet of photos and liner notes written by people who were around at the time of its recording and touring—Conrad Standish, producer Lindsay Gravina, Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner, Angus Andrew of Liars, Danielle De Picciotto, Genevieve McGuckin—and others for whom the record holds a special significance, like Jim Haynes and Regis (real name Karl O’Connor). There will be two versions, one pressed on translucent magenta vinyl and another in standard black.

“HTRK possess an originality and mystery worthy of obsession and scrutiny,” writes Zinner in his liner notes, “for their beautiful and damaged sound is truly, and thankfully, their own.”

Marry Me Tonight: Vinyl notes

• Standard weight transparent magenta vinyl is limited to 500 copies worldwide
• Standard weight vinyl inserted into black paper dust sleeves
• 2-panel art sleeve printed jacket with 5mm spine on glossy stock
• Features 20-page booklet with liner note essays and photos of the band