Mistletone

Spring has sprung (well, kinda) and to celebrate, here’s all the album release and touring news from the wonderful world of Mistletone.

First up albums, albums and more albums!

KES TRIO: BLACK BROWN GREEN GREY WHITE (MIST041)

Another year, another awesome Kes record! Black Brown Green Grey White is the stunning new album by Kes Band’s latest incarnation as a trio featuring Kes (Karl Scullin), Lehmann B Smith and Julian Patterson. Recorded by Nao Anzai, Black Brown Green Grey White is a yin-yang dichotomy, juxtaposing contemplative, melodic beauty and inward-gazing ballads with jerky dischord, banshee yells and whirlwind anti-rock riffs. Available now on mail order and in all good record stores.

• “One of the most exciting, progressive pop-rock acts going around in this big brown dust bowl” – TWO THOUSAND
• “A chameleon whose every transformation somehow feels as perfect and true as the last” – CITYSEARCH

Melbourne people take note: Kes Trio will launch Black Brown Green Grey White this Saturday night, September 25 at East Brunswick Club. Special guests will be The Dirty Three’s Mick Turner and his band featuring Jeffrey Wegener and Ian Wadley plus Slow Hog featuring Liam Andrews and Rohan Rebeiro from My Disco. Tickets $10 + BF on sale now from the box office or $14 at the door if still available. Doors open 8.30pm.

PRINCE RAMA: SHADOW TEMPLE (MIST040)

Prince Rama are an exciting new addition to the Mistletone roster. When we saw them perform live in NYC this May, we were completely and utterly blown away! Fireworks! The trio were raised on a Hare Krishna commune in Florida, educated at art school in Boston, and now making noise and living in Brooklyn. Shadow Temple is an epic shrine of swirling synths, pulsing guitars, and thunder drums. Recorded in Kurt Vonnegut’s grandson’s cabin and a 135-year-old haunted church with the help of Rusty Santos and Animal Collective members Avey Tare and Deakin, Shadow Temple offers itself as a sincere porthole into a mysterious realm that defies material understanding. Available now on mail order and in stores soon; download some free MP3s here.

• “Prince Rama make psych music. Deep psych music. This isn’t folk with a few tribal drums, or plain old rock with some flanged triangle thrown in for no reason. There’s sanskrit chants. Zonked synths. And, yes, more than a few tribal drums.”
  – PITCHFORK RISING ARTIST FEATURE
• “These eight dense, swirling, droning songs — two of which are adaptations of traditional Indian chants — sound like they were recorded in a windy, unlit, holy place” – STEREOGUM BEST NEW BANDS OF 2010

ROBERT SCOTT: ENDS RUN TOGETHER (MIST039)

Mistletone is proud as punch to have released Ends Run Together, the brilliant new solo album from Bob Scott, who over the last three decades has written some of our favourite tunes as a member of kiwi indie heroes The Bats and The Clean. Ends Run Together (out now and available on mail order) is a top-shelf collection of 13 engaging songs, just as likely to appeal to any fan of great alternative pop as much as to those already familiar with The Bats and The Clean. Bob is the real deal. Check him out!

• “Surprisingly diverse, lush pop… Anyone who’s heard Scott’s contributions to another famed Flying Nun band, the Clean, knows he’s a versatile player and songwriter both, but Ends Run Together is proof positive.” – CITYSEARCH
• Scott does one thing and he does it well: writes beautifully crafted, folk-influenced pop songs.” – THREE THOUSAND
• “Introspection and nostalgia rendered through lush arrangements and glistening melodies” – MESS AND NOISE

BEACH HOUSE: iTUNES SESSION (AVAILABLE NOW FROM iTUNES)

Yes it’s true… Beach House will be touring Australia this summer! While you’re waiting for the super exciting announcement (believe us, we’re having trouble waiting too), please enjoy the new Beach House iTunes session featuring six new recordings, including a slow-core reworking of Norway plus epic live versions of faves Walk In The Park, Silver Soul, Gila and Take Care and a sweet new jam, White Moon.

AVEY TARE: DOWN THERE (MIST042)

We’re beyond excited to be releasing the new solo album from Animal Collective member Dave Portner a/k/a Avey Tare. This album is truly amazing and we can’t wait to share it with y’all. Down There is a world of nine new songs which will carry you through a murky world of sound, an alien death world of soul grooves that is both honest and otherworldly. Down There was recorded in the month of June by old friend Josh Dibb (Deakin) at the Good House, an old church in upstate New York, surrounded by The Great Swamp and visited regularly by monks, white widows, and groan toads. Wait for sundown and turn it up loud. Take a ride on this haunted boat and let yourself be guided through deep sloshy rhythms, waterlogged bass, and moonlit breaks in the canopy that reveal a crisp crystalline pop buzz. Release date: October 23.

LOOKING AHEAD: PANDA BEAR

Tomboy, the fourth full-length album by Panda Bear (a/k/a Noah Lennox of Animal Collective) is on its way and to say the disc is highly-anticipated would be a slight understatement. After the crowning glory of his previous solo album, 2007’s Person Pitch (which not only topped Pitchfork’s Album of the Year charts but also ranked in the top ten of their Albums of the Decade), Panda Bear reconvened his Animal Collective brethren and followed it up with 2009’s Merriwether Post Pavilion, which also found its rightful place atop innumerable magazine and blog polls come year’s end. Through it all, Noah has remained resilient in following his singular vision and voice. Underground and experimental in his approach to sound, he also strives to craft gorgeous pop for the widest audience possible. With Tomboy, he’s attained his greatest balance between the two extremes yet.

LOOKING AHEAD: TORO Y MOI

Currently out on tour with Phoenix, Toro Y Moi a/k/a South Carolina’s Chaz Bundick and his band are set to tour Australia this summer. Details real soon! Meantime, check out the awesome new video for Toro Y Moi’s Low Shoulder from Causers Of This and download the recent Daytrotter session featuring some minty fresh full band instrumentation. Look out for a new full length Toro Y Moi album on Mistletone early next year.

MISTLETONE TONES…

Before we turn our attention to upcoming Mistletone tours, we just want to make mention of our seasonal parties (or lack thereof). We get asked all the time when we are going to do our next “Tones” show? Honestly, we don’t quite know. We do want to do them again in the future, although not every three months; only when we can do something super special. So in short, there will be another Tones party someday — don’t know where, don’t know when — sometime when everything feels right. And we hope that time is soon.

… and MISTLETONE TOURS

Okay, back to tours! This summer is going to be by faaaaaaaar our busiest yet with a bunch of tours to be announced in the next few months. We’re thrilled about them all and can’t wait to let you all know about them.

These are the tasty treats we’ve already announced and are on sale right now:

MIRAH (& band)

We’re extremely psyched to present Mirah on her first ever Australian tour. Having waited to see Mirah live for such a long time, this tour is a dream for us. A dearly treasured artist of indie folk devotees, Mirah will tour Australia as a trio, accompanied by multi-instrumentalist Dave Depper (Norfolk & Western, Jolie Holland) and acclaimed Portland artist Rachel Blumberg, who has drummed for The Decemberists, Bright Eyes and M. Ward. Don’t miss the long awaited chance to hear this prodigiously talented and endlessly creative lady breathe life into her resonant songs of love, loss and magic.

• “One of my favourite songwriters, Mirah hails from that goldmine of good music, the Pacific North-west of the United States. A lot of creative types come from these shores… there must be something in the water. For years Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn has been making intensely personal, sweet, and musically adventurous songs. Sometimes folk, sometimes gypsy, sometimes electronic, sometimes noise. She rarely repeats herself and always hits that place in your chest where it just kills you to listen to her stories” – ZAN ROWE, TRIPLE J

MIRAH TOUR DATES + special guests The Smallgoods

SYDNEY: THURSDAY 21 OCTOBER @ RED RATTLER w/- The Smallgoods + Shiver Like Timber. Tickets on sale from Moshtix.
BRISBANE: FRIDAY 22 OCTOBER @ LOFLY HANGAR w/- The Smallgoods + Joel Edmondson + Epithets. Tickets on sale from Mistletone.
MELBOURNE: SATURDAY 23 OCTOBER @ NORTHCOTE SOCIAL CLUB w/- The Smallgoods + Wintercoats. Tickets on sale from the venue.
SUNDAY 24 OCTOBER @ NORTHCOTE SOCIAL CLUB w/ The Ancients + MSG (Mia Schoen Group). Tickets on sale from the venue.

THE FIELD

Ever since The Field released their debut album in 2007 (the stellar From Here We Go Sublime), they have been front and centre on our stereo. Then we saw them live overseas and we decided we needed to tour them asap! The Field’s live show brings to life the music of Stockholm native and blissed-out futurist Axel Willner with a live rhythm section. Launched unto the world by renowned German label Kompakt in 2005, The Field expounded a new fusion of ambient and techno which was informed as much by the shoegazer rock of Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine as by the aesthetics of Kompakt and 1990s techno (post-pop ambient, anyone?). As Pitchfork declared whilst bestowing The Field with a mighty 9.0 rating: “If Willner doesn’t hit at least some of your pleasure centres, your nerve endings might actually be dead.”

THE FIELD TOUR DATES

MELBOURNE: THURSDAY 9 DECEMBER @ EAST BRUNSWICK CLUB w/ Qua, Kharkov and DJ Tim Shiel. Presented by Triple R. Tickets on sale now from the box office.
MEREDITH MUSIC FESTIVAL: FRIDAY 10 DECEMBER. Sold out!
SYDNEY: SATURDAY 11 DECEMBER @ THE GAELIC w/ Mark Pritchard – Harmonic 313 + Domeyko/Gonzalez. Presented by FBi Radio. Tickets on sale now through Moshtix.

EL GUINCHO

Mistletone is happy as Larry to tour our long time friends El Guincho! Hailing from Barcelona, this will be El Guincho’s third visit to our shores: this time around as a three piece, led as always by one-man, space-age exotica party machine, Pablo Diaz-Reixa. El Guincho’s  infectious, ecstatic tribal beats and Spanish language chants make it literally impossible to feel sad! The syncopated beats and eternal pop sunshine hits are the aural equivalent of warm beach breezes from Pablo’s native Canary Islands. Having charmed the socks off Australian audiences on previous touring jaunts here (with Laneway Festival and Architecture in Helsinki), El Guincho returns hot on the heels of Pop Negro, the new album out now through Remote Control, currently Album of the Week on 3RRR and last week on FBi Radio. You can download the super spicey new El Guincho track, FM Tan Sexy, from Stereogum right now too. Rejoice, sun-seekers: here comes El Guincho and here comes summer, just when we need them the most!

EL GUINCHO TOUR DATES

SYDNEY: FRIDAY 10 DECEMBER @  THE GAELIC w/ Catcall + Megastick Fanfare. Tickets on sale now through Moshtix.
MEREDITH MUSIC FESTIVAL: SATURDAY 11 DECEMBER. Sold out!
MELBOURNE: WEDNESDAY 15 DECEMBER @ EAST BRUNSWICK CLUB w/ Rat vs Possum + Mark Barrage. Presented by Triple R. Tickets on sale now from the box office.
BRISBANE: THURSDAY 16 DECEMBER @ THE CLUBHOUSE (downstairs at Tempo Hotel). Co-presented by Fans Club Night. Tickets on sale now through Oztix.
PERTH: FRIDAY 17 DECEMBER @ THE BAKERY w/- smRts, Naik vs Kit Pop and DJ Rex Monsoon. Co-presented by Life is Noise and RTRFM. Tickets on sale next Monday, 27 September from Life is Noise, 78s, Mills and Planet.

Yours,

TEAM MISTLETONE x