Mistletone

Hey, welcome to spring, and news of the Mistletone summer to come…

We’ve recently announced tours by The Julie Ruin, led by Riot Grrrl pioneer Katheen Hanna (Bikini Kill, Le Tigre), Cass McCombs, Kurt Vile & The Violators, Parquet Courts, METZ, Sonny & the Sunsets and Matmos – please read on for tour dates & ticketing links.

Our new releases on Mistletone Records include the stellar debut LP by Montero (3RRR + 2SER Album of the Week), the magical debut 7″ by Early Woman, and a split 7″ vinyl release by The Bats x Boomgates, a label collaboration between Mistletone + Bedroom Suck to celebrate Melbourne Music Week 2013. All available on Mistletone mail order now.

And most excitingly — our Melbourne Music Week Opening Night party draws near. We’ve assembled a glittering lineup to launch the stunning new pop-up venue The Residence on the banks of the Yarra River, starring The Bats, Boomgates, Montero, Sonny & the Sunsets + Vishnu Keys + DJs Higher Power + LA Pocock. Just a gentle reminder to get your tickets before they vanish…

Artwork by Ben Montero

WITH A VISION to celebrate the depth of Melbourne’s indie scene, Mistletone will be opening Melbourne Music Week 2013 by shining a light on the connections between our city’s music community and like-minded international artists. Our dream-team lineup for MMW Opening Night (Friday, November 15 at stunning pop-up venue, The Residence), features The Bats, Boomgates, Montero, Sonny & the Sunsets, Vishnu Keys + DJs Higher Power + LA Pocock. Early bird tickets sold out in one hour; general admission tickets on sale now & selling fast! Doors open 7:30pm. We at Mistletone are so proud to have curated this concert for Melbourne Music Week, which will also be a celebration of our 7 years as an independent label. Party times! Read more about our lineup here.

Mistletone also has three lunchtime shows happening during MMW as part of the Mess+Noise Lunchbox Series, returning this year with a full working week of free lunchtime gigs at MMW’s flagship venue, The Residence. Since 2010 this renowned series has been brightening city lunch-breaks with a host of Australia’s finest artists. Grab some grub at the People’s Garden, and take a healthy bite outta some sweet midday music. The Lunchbox shows are free events starting 1pm.

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 20, 1pm – ROSS MCLENNAN
Songwriter of uncanny depths, Ross McLennan is a quiet achiever on the indie-rock landscape. The former front-man of Australian 90s indie-pop band Snout brings his soft, drawly, breathy vocals and clever melodic hooks to create and intriguing daydream of sound sequences. Delving into the most vexed and heartbreaking issues of our time, Ross McLennan delivers live performances that are both rare and riveting.

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 21, 1pm – WINTERCOATS
A glorious yet unmistakeably poignant artistic vision, fortified by haunting and cavernous vocals, and a chameleonic approach to composition and arrangement combine to create fragile and grandeur dream-pop bliss. Having toured with the likes of Beach House and Sarah Blasko, Wintercoats (AKA James Wallace) is a master of ethereal delicacies, weaving his way through violin, glockenspiel, piano and a plethora of other instruments.

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 22, 1pm – EARLY WOMAN
A near-new collaboration between musical heavy-weights Hannah Brooks (from Young Professionals, St Helens and Spider Vomit) and Ben Montero (of Montero, Treetops and Geoffery O’Connor Band), backed by Bobby Bravington on bass and Caitlin Perry on drums. Early Woman are making a distinctive raw attack on classic pop by way of big choruses, Bjorn and Agnetha harmonies, glam stomp and pleading funk.

More info about the Lunchbox Series here.

HTRK SYDNEY SHOW.

This Friday night, November 1, HTRK play an intimate show in Sydney to celebrate the release of the Mika Vanio Poison remix 10″ (out November 5 on vinyl & digital via Ghostly International).  HTRK will be performing a selection of unreleased material from their new album before embarking for Russia and the UK to perform at Electro-mechanica festival in St Petersburg and the British Film Institute in a tribute to Rowland S. Howard with Savages. Joining HTRK for the evening will be Sydney-based electronic music producer Gareth Psaltis, who recently released his debut EP Voriulk through Sydney label Hunter Gatherer. Between the live sets, Spiral Sounds (2SER) spins fine electronic music all night. The remix 10″ and special lilac edition t-shirts will be available to purchase on the night. Tickets on sale via Moshtix. Doors open 8pm, finishes 11pm.

Artwork by Greedy Hen

“Hanna is one of America’s greatest living rock performers” – THE NEW YORKER

Mistletone presents the first ever Australian tour by The Julie Ruin. Led by Riot Grrrl pioneer Katheen Hanna (Bikini Kill, Le Tigre) and backed by her hand-picked, dream-come-true band (including former Bikini Kill bandmate, Kathi Wilcox), The Julie Ruin is an energetic dance-punk whirlwind, the live band providing a tight musical backbone to Hanna’s iconic vocal style. A fresh and fierce expression of Hanna’s whip-smart wit and danceable, raw punk licks, The Julie Ruin will thrill long time fans and newcomers in the wake of the legacy-building documentary film, The Punk Singer. A celebrated, outspoken figure at the forefront of feminist punk, Kathleen Hanna is as vital and relevant as ever, and set to deliver a powerful punch of dance punk to Australian audiences. The Julie Ruin’s debut album Run Fast is out now via Fuse Music Group.

THE JULIE RUIN AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES:

MELBOURNE: Wednesday, January 15 @ The Corner. Tickets on sale now from The Corner box office.
SYDNEY: Friday, January 17 @ The Factory Theatre. Tickets on sale now from The Factory box office.
HOBART: Saturday, January 18 @ MONA FOMA. Tickets & info here.

Artwork by Albert Herter

“One of America’s finest chroniclers of fringe characters, a writer of heart-rending love songs and psychedelic odes to the natural world, a teller of tall-tales with a sense of humor dry as desert wood, and that rare folksinger who actually sings about the folk. Over the last decade, McCombs has been a remarkably consistent, if not publicity-averse, singer-songwriter, comparable to Bill Callahan and Will Oldham as our foremost translators of Old, Weird America into modern terms” – PITCHFORK

Golden singer/songwriter of our time, CASS McCOMBS has traversed many borders, literally and figuratively, since his great debut Not The Way in 2003. Americana, bedroom pop, folk and chamber music have variously held the interest of the Baltimore native, but compelling storytelling and occasional flashes of humor are the common thread here. Cass’s 2011’s twin releases, Humour Risk and Wit’s End (Domino), highlights amongst a catalogue peppered with brilliance. His new double album for Domino Records, Big Wheel and Others, is a sprawling, visionary album that may just be his best yet. Big Wheel and Others is further proof of Cass’s status as one of his generation’s most visionary songwriters – as uncompromising, radical and counter-cultural as any other artist working today.

CASS MCCOMBS TOUR DATES:

MELBOURNE: Thursday, January 30 @ Northcote Social Club w/- Ross McLennan. Tickets on sale now from The Corner Box Office. Presented by Mistletone & Triple R.
Laneway Brisbane: Friday, January 31 – RNA, Fortitude Valley. Tickets & info here.
Laneway Melbourne: Saturday, February 1 – Footscray Community Arts Centre/River’s Edge. Tickets & info here.
Laneway Sydney: Sunday, February 2 – Sydney College Of The Arts, Rozelle. Tickets & info here.
SYDNEY: Thursday, February 6 @ Oxford Art Factory w/- Melodie Nelson. Tickets on sale now from Moshtix. Presented by Mistletone & 2SER.
Laneway Adelaide: Friday, February 7 – Harts Mill, Port Adelaide. Tickets & info here.
Laneway Perth: Saturday, February 8 – Esplanade Park and West End, Fremantle. Tickets & info here.

Artwork by Carl Breitkreuz

Mistletone presents the return of the mighty Kurt Vile & The Violators. The Philadelphia hair throb and his band (including new drummer Kyle Spence – ex-Dinosaur Jr / Harvey Milk), return to our shores to continue the love affair that began with their sold-out debut Australian tour for Meredith Music Festival 2012. Kurt has been rightly celebrated everywhere for much of 2013, since the release of Wakin On A Pretty Daze (out locally on Remote Control Records), which was widely hailed as album of the year. One of the most captivating guitarists and singer-songwriters of our time, Kurt Vile’s ascendant career continues down under with a swag of epic performances at Laneway Festival, Sydney Festival plus two Laneway side shows in Melbourne at The Corner. Tickets for all shows on sale now.

KURT VILE & THE VIOLATORS TOUR DATES:

Sydney Festival: Wednesday, January 22 – Kurt Vile & the Violators @ Paradiso at Town Hall. Tickets on sale October 28, info here. Doors open 8pm.
Sydney Festival: Thursday, January 23 – Kurt Vile sings Big Star’s Third, Enmore Theatre. Big Star’s imperfect masterpiece is performed with its original string and wind orchestrations by Jody Stephens, Mike Mills (R.E.M.), Ken Stringfellow (The Posies), Mitch Easter (Let’s Active) and Chris Stamey (the dB’s) with guest vocalists Kurt Vile and more to be announced. Tickets on sale October 28, info here. Doors open 8pm.
Sydney Festival: Thursday, January 23 – Kurt Vile solo show @ Festival Village. Tickets on sale October 28, info here. Midnight performance.
Laneway Auckland: Monday, January 27 – Silo Park. Tickets & info here.
Laneway Brisbane: Friday, January 31 – RNA, Fortitude Valley. Tickets & info here.
Laneway Melbourne: Saturday, February 1 – Footscray Community Arts Centre/River’s Edge. Tickets & info here.
Laneway Sydney: Sunday, February 2 – Sydney College Of The Arts, Rozelle. Tickets & info here.
MELBOURNE: Wednesday, February 5 @ The Corner w/- Early Woman. Tickets on sale now from The Corner Box Office. Presented by Mistletone and Triple R.
MELBOURNE: Thursday, February 6 @ The Corner w/- Montero. Tickets on sale now from The Corner Box Office. Presented by Mistletone and Triple R.
Laneway Adelaide: Friday, February 7 – Harts Mill, Port Adelaide. Tickets & info here.
Laneway Perth: Saturday, February 8 – Esplanade Park and West End, Fremantle. Tickets & info here.

Artwork by Rick Milovanovic

“Parquet Courts channel Pavement’s collapsible spirit better than any band I’ve seen or heard in a long time… (but) there’s plenty more going on in these songs than mere homage to one band. Their wiry ramalams fall into a tradition that began with The Velvet Underground, rattled on through early ’80s Fall, and manifested itself most recently in the brilliant Australian garage band, Eddy Current Suppression Ring” – UNCUT

Mistletone, RRR, FBi & The Music present, from Texas via New York and for the very first time in Australia, Parquet Courts. Reigniting the joy of American punk rock, Parquet Courts are a no-nonsense, four-man explosion of up-all-night energy, a whip-smart collision of ideas designed to put brains (and mosh pits) in motion. To quote Uncut: “Parquet Courts channel Pavement’s collapsible spirit better than any band I’ve seen or heard in a long time… (but) there’s plenty more going on in these songs than mere homage to one band. Their wiry ramalams fall into a tradition that began with The Velvet Underground (with “Loaded”, more specifically), rattled on through early ’80s Fall, and manifested itself most recently in the brilliant Australian garage band, Eddy Current Suppression Ring.”  Expect delirious scenes when Parquet Courts take the stage along with their special guests, hand-picked for their Laneway sideshows, Total Control plus Constant Mongrel (Melbourne) and Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys (Sydney). Tickets on sale now.

PARQUET COURTS TOUR DATES:

Laneway Auckland: Monday, January 27 – Silo Park. Tickets & info here.
Laneway Brisbane: Friday, January 31 – RNA, Fortitude Valley. Tickets & info here.
Laneway Melbourne: Saturday, February 1 – Footscray Community Arts Centre/River’s Edge. Tickets & info here.
Laneway Sydney: Sunday, February 2 – Sydney College Of The Arts, Rozelle. Tickets & info here.
MELBOURNE: Wednesday January 29 @ The Corner w/- Total Control + Constant Mongrel. Tickets on sale now from The Corner box office. Presented by Mistletone, Triple R and The Music.
SYDNEY: Wednesday February 5 @ The Standard w/- Total Control + Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys. Tickets on sale now from Moshtix. Presented by Mistletone, FBi Radio and The Music.
Laneway Adelaide: Friday, February 7 – Harts Mill, Port Adelaide. Tickets & info here.
Perth: Saturday, February 8 – Esplanade Park and West End, Fremantle. Tickets & info here.

Artwork by Alex Fregon

Mistletone presents avant-garde electronic duo Matmos, bringing their live sonic experimentation and boundary-pushing sonic invention to Australia for the first time in their 15-year career. Performing with joy and humour, Matmos experiment with noise to push the boundaries of pop music. Mining non-conventional sound sources and exploring bold ideas, Baltimore-based Drew Daniel and MC Schmidt have been producing music together since the mid-90s, delivering nine albums to date. Since forming in 1997, Matmos have released a dozen influential albums and have collaborated with Björk, Antony and the Johnsons, Liars, David Pajo, Oneohtrix Point Never, Terry Riley, & many others. Their live show features stunning visuals and uses the live stage as a looking glass for an audience into their current sonic palette. Their latest release The Marriage of True Minds,  The most recent Matmos album, The Marriage of True Minds (2013) was based on experiments in telepathy; an art object, a scientific report, a practical joke and a daring pop record, it was released on Thrill Jockey Records and is available locally via Rocket Music.

MATMOS TOUR DATES:

SYDNEY FESTIVAL: Wednesday January 15 – Matmos @ City Recital Hall, Angel Place. Doors 8pm. Tickets on sale October 28 from Ticketmaster. More info here.
SYDNEY FESTIVAL: Thursday, January 16 – The Soft Pink Truth DJ set @ Paradiso Lates, Paradiso Terrace Bar. The Soft Pink Truth is Drew Daniel (one half of Matmos)’s experimental house music side-project. Visit the festival website for up-to-date information. Free entry, starts 11.30pm.
MELBOURNE: Sunday, January 19 @ Howler w/- special guests to be announced. Tickets on sale now.

Artwork by Carl Breitkreuz

“The technology to crank your guitar up to huge, ear-busting levels can be purchased over the counter, but bands that can pull off volume while inducing claustrophobia are something special. Metz are such a band. The Toronto-based trio’s Sub Pop debut is pure pummel and ugliness in the best sense. The drums thunder away like they’re being bludgeoned at the bottom of an elevator shaft. The bass and guitar pound minimalist patterns through a curtain of fuzz and grit. The songs sound live– not in the sense that they were recorded as-performed, but in the way that represents what loud bands actually sound like when they turn up at a grimy club with cement walls. High frequencies bounce through the stereo field. The vocals seem feedback-baked and half-strangled. There are moments when Metz betray a minor debt to grunge, but most of the time, they’re out on their own bizzaro wavelength, singing about rats, mental instability, or whatever else conjures up appropriate levels of anxiety” – PITCHFORK Top 50 Albums of 2012

With their debut album, released last year on Sub Pop via Inertia, Stellar Toronto trio METZ articulated with deafening clarity, that a new power trio is just what the world of good music needs. It’s a hell of an experience, listening to this band; stand back, and watch jaws drop within the first four measures of their set. This is post-hardcore sludge-punk, distilled into pure, but artfully rendered chaos by one of the most brutalising bands in the world today. METZ have now announced supports for their upcoming headline shows in Sydney and Melbourne. Handpicked by METZ themselves, Sydney guests are 90s-nostalgic, cinematic punk rocker TV Colours and three-headed Melbourne punk/sludge/stoner/ hardcore/doom beast Batpiss, making the trip up the Hume to Goodgod on Wednesday December 4. Batpiss are also main support for the Melbourne show at Howler on Thursday December 5, along with amped-up Melbourne quartet Deep Heat. Both lineups perfectly set the scene for METZ’s visceral live show as the Sub Pop shredders get set to pummel Australian audiences with all the raucously artful force at their disposal. Tickets on sale now.

METZ AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES:

SYDNEY: WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 4 @ Goodgod Small Club with TV Colours + Batpiss. Tickets on sale now from Moshtix. Presented by FBi.
MELBOURNE: THURSDAY DECEMBER 5 @ Howler with Batpiss + Deep Heat. Tickets & info here. Presented by 3RRR.
PERTH: SATURDAY DECEMBER 7 @ Slanted & Enchanted. Tickets & info here. Presented by Life Is Noise.

“Smith and the gang have some garage rock fun: Smith whoops like an ape, claps his hands to match his vocals, and then a delighted Tahlia Harbour playfully sings along with the instrumental outro. Both musically and lyrically, the album presents some of the Sunsets’ best work yet” – PITCHFORK

Mistletone is proud to present the return of San Francisco’s rollicking garage-rock raconteurs, Sonny & the Sunsets. Sonny & the Sunsets are no strangers to Oz audiences; they opened Golden Plains 2011, were special guests on The Clean’s Australian tour, and headlined Mistletone’s sold out “Sonny Tones” party in Melbourne, where they are a firm favourite with three 3RRR Albums of the Week to their name. Sonny & The Sunsets are the energetic accompaniment to the dynamic workings of Sonny Smith: playwright, novelist, filmmaker, comic book artist and all-round awesome human. Swooning out to Sonny’s sardonic, laid-back style, The Sunsets provide the perfect ensemble for Sonny’s vintage callbacks; a bubbling pot of 50s and 60s pop, country and folk, doo wop, garage rock and RnB, delivered with all the nonsense and energy of a midnight beach party.  The latest and greatest Sonny & the Sunsets album, Antenna to the World, is out now on Popfrenzy.

SONNY & THE SUNSETS TOUR DATES:

MELBOURNE: FRI NOV 15 @ MELBOURNE MUSIC WEEK OPENING NIGHT at The Residence w/- The Bats, Boomgates, Montero,Vishnu Keys + DJ Higher Power. Tickets on sale now & selling fast! Doors open 7:30pm.

SYDNEY: THU NOV 21 @ Pop-Friendzzzy w/- Surf City, Community Radio + Adults @ Goodgod. Presented by Popfrenzy. Tickets on sale now.

BRISBANE: FRI NOV 22 @ California Design Up Late. See the Queensland Art Gallery in a different light when Sonny & the Sunsets play an Up Late Friday night event during California Design 1930–1965: Living in a Modern Way, an exhibition of more than 250 iconic designs from mid-20th century California organised by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Up Late offers a unique opportunity to see the ‘California Design’ exhibition after hours, enjoy live music in the Gallery’s beautiful Watermall and sample from a Californian inspired menu in the surrounds of QAG’s Sculpture Courtyard. Tickets and details here.

Sonny Smith will also be a guest speaker at Melbourne’s Face The Music conference, details below:

MUSIC = ART: Saturday 16 November, 12.20 – 1.10pm @ Arts Centre Melbourne. Sonny Smith joins panelists Caroline Kennedy and Darren Sylvester and moderators Simon Winkler & Lauren Taylor to discuss the work of musicians who create art and artists that create music. As a vehicle for expression, can the microphone be replaced by a spray can, a tattoo gun, lasers, lump of clay or a camera?  We sometimes see these worlds collide, blur, cross-pollinate at art shows or in elaborate stage shows and sometimes two callings exist in isolation.  Presented by Melbourne Music Week and Face The Music. Bookings & further info here.

“With the radiance and benevolence suggested by the title, Montero’s debut album offers a generous and open-hearted collection of glam rock jams and triumphant, transcendental synth-psych nuggets. The project of multi-disciplinary artist Ben Montero, his band also features the talents of local music luminaries Guy Blackman, Geoffrey O’Connor, Cameron Potts, all united in a shared celebration of emotive pop and power balladry” – 3RRR ALBUM OF THE WEEK

Mistletone is honoured to release the debut album by Montero, The Loving Gaze. The masterwork of Melbourne comic book artist, frontman extraordinaire and Mistletone artist-in-residence Ben Montero, The Loving Gaze is an embracing of “bigger day” daydreams and sonic ambition, with a grasp on 1970s auteur rock classicism that’s rarely seen. The inspirations Montero drew upon include late 1970s Beach Boys and Dennis Wilson, The Carpenters, Burt Bacharach, Eric Carmen, The Association, California sunshine pop, power ballads, 1980s TV theme song melodies, obscure psychedelic pop discoveries and the Brill Building songwriters who started looking inwardly for inspiration, as well as contemporary kindred spirits such as Destroyer, Ariel Pink and John Maus. The Loving Gaze is out now on vinyl and digital release only via Inertia, and available on mail order.

“I’m A Peach is dreamy — as is its B-side, a raw yet classically pop tune called Feathers. While the former is a pleading, foot-stomping and swaying rock song, the latter is a Phil Spector-esque tender track with a Californian glam heart. They’re each other’s anti-thesis but they’re both really good” – OYSTER MAGAZINE

Early Woman is a collaboration between Ben Montero and journalist/documentary maker Hannah Brooks (ex-Young Professionals, Spider Vomit, St Helens). Raw, yet aspirational, Early Woman’s songs are carved from another time, roughly chiselling away at vintage forms and classic pop/rock’n’roll tropes. Sad, sensual and dreamy, the songs reverberate with a primal sincerity and an undeniable melodic authority. Early Woman’s debut 7″, I’m A Peach b/w Feathers were recorded at Bobby Brave Studios, where the band is currently recording their debut album. I’m A Peach is a supplication, alternating between hurt and hope, throbbing with raw rage and desperation, whilst yearning for salvation.With three part harmonies and cello by Jessica Venables (Jessica Says), Feathers is dreamy and tender; a drive-in make-out anthem recalling the loneliest echoes of sixties teen music. I’m A Peach b/w Feathers, is out now on 7″ vinyl and digital release via Inertia and on Mistletone mail order.

“The song is plaintive with a light jangle, paced and beautiful. The song’s poetic lyrics and guitar solos are both elegantly simple. ‘Let December ice take me away’, Robert Scott sings. As a one-off from a band with longevity on their side, December Ice is a nice surprise” – PITCHFORK

Mistletone is honoured to present a new song by The Bats. December Ice is the A-side of a split 7″ vinyl release with Melbourne band Boomgates, a label collaboration between Mistletone + Bedroom Suck to celebrate Melbourne Music Week 2013. Previously unreleased, December Ice was one of the tracks that didn’t make it on to The Bats’ most recent album Free All The Monsters. It was taken from the album recording sessions at Seacliffe Asylum — a 19th century psychiatric hospital in the small village of Seacliff, located to the north of Dunedin in the Otago region of New Zealand’s South Island) — and later mixed by Dale Cotton, the NZ engineer behind High Dependency Unit, Dimmer and several Bats albums. December Ice by The Bats b/w Widow Maker by Boomgates is now available on digital release and limited edition 7″ vinyl via Inertia and Mistletone mail order.

The Orbweavers delve into local urban history and deliver new material drawn from Melbourne’s built and natural environments with their new single, Ceiling Rose b/w Match Factory. Ceiling Rose is a song about secrets and dreams, waking and worrying in the night, drifting between states of consciousness. A symbol of secrecy and confidentiality since ancient times, the ceiling rose is an enduring decorative feature in Australian interior architecture, and forms the central motif of this new single. Match Factory is a dedication to Melbourne suburbs Cremorne, Richmond & Abbotsford, industrial and working life, and remnant buildings such as Dimmeys, the Bryant & May factory and Yorkshire Brewery silos. A song about loss and leaving, Match Factory was written walking through the northern river suburbs of Melbourne around the time of the ‘super moon’ in June 2013. Ceiling Rose b/w Match Factory is out now on digital release via Mistletone / Inertia.

The Orbweavers are showcasing in Melbourne at AWME 2013 (Australasian World Music Expo) with an intimate show at The Toff on Thursday, November 14 with Sweet Jean and Maya Kamaty (Reunion Island). Tickets on sale now, starts 7:30pm.

Look forward to sharing a magical summer with you!

And a final farewell to Lou Reed, via Ben Montero…