Mistletone

Artwork by Greedy Hen

We are overjoyed to announce a lineup to sizzle your heartstrings for our SUMMER TONES party at The Shadow Electric, Abbotsford Convent on Tuesday, January 26. Tickets $55 + booking fee on sale now from The Shadow Electric. Proudly presented by Mistletone and Triple R.

Summer Tones will be headlined by KURT VILE (USA) and also features guest of honour VIC SIMMS (La Perouse, NSW), plus MICHAEL HURLEY (USA), MEG BAIRD (USA), RYLEY WALKER (USA), and local champions MONTERO, TOTALLY MILD, THE ORBWEAVERS, TERRY and WINTERCOATS, plus courtyard DJs JONNY (HTRK) and KATE REID; and a few surprises to be announced. A smouldering Summer Tones lineup curated with love to induce deep heat and joyous states on a summer day.

Headlining the outdoor stage at Summer Tones will be Philadelphia’s own KURT VILE, in his first ever solo Melbourne performance. Kurt Vile‘s solo performances are a beauty to behold; as the Sydney Morning Herald wrote of his Sydney Festival solo performance last year, “Yes, tonight’s show ends too early. That would have been my complaint had it gone ’til dawn”. Summer Tones guest of honour is the legendary VIC SIMMS, one of this country’s most entertaining of entertainers; a Bidjigal man from La Perouse, NSW who made the long-lost classic album The Loner, an Australian masterpiece recorded in Bathurst jail in 1973. The Summer Tones lineup features three more esteemed North American guests; much-loved rollicking folk troubadour MICHAEL HURLEY; rising Chicago psych-folk guitar great RYLEY WALKER, hailed by Uncut and The Guardian as a worthy successor to Nick Drake and Tim Buckley; and the illustrious MEG BAIRD, a master of deep psych-folk vibrations whose collaborators include Will Oldham, Kurt Vile, Steve Gunn and Sharon Van Etten; Meg Baird is revered as a solo artist as well as a founder of thunderous doom-folk outfit Heron Oblivion (recently signed to Sub Pop Records). Local champions on the Summer Tones lineup include the eagerly-awaited return of MONTERO, led by travelling stargazer and celebrated comic book artist Ben Montero, who’s been recording a new album in London with Jay Watson (Tame Impala/Pond/Gum) in Mark Ronson’s Tileyard Studio; indie popstarz TOTALLY MILD, who ruled the Meredith ‘Sup with their melancholic masterpiece Down Time, one of the best Australian albums released this year or any year; treasures of Melbourne THE ORBWEAVERS, deep in the process of creating their visionary new album Deep Leads, drawing on stories from Melbourne’s natural and industrial history and exploring themes of mining, botany, poisons, working life and folklore; the misshapen glam pop glory of TERRY — divide Terry into four and you get Al Montfort (UV Race, Total Control, Dick Diver etc.), Amy Hill (Constant Mongrel, School Of Radiant Living), Xanthe Waite (Mick Harvey Band) and Zephyr Pavey (Eastlink, Total Control, Russell Street Bombings); the sumptuous one-man symphony who is WINTERCOATS, soon to unveil a debut album of much wonderment; plus cosmic courtyard DJ action from DJs JONNY (HTRK) and KATE REID (Psychedelic Coven / It Records).

In announcing this event, Mistletone’s founders — husband and wife team Ash and Sophie Miles — made the following statement: “Summer Tones is a celebration of summer and beautiful music. We are very conscious that our event falls on Survival Day / Invasion Day, and we acknowledge the deep cultural pain of this day. We pay our respects to the Wurundjeri people on whose land we are holding our event. Always was, Always will be, Aboriginal land. We hope that in the future, Australia can find the maturity and sensivity to nominate a more inclusive date to celebrate a true national holiday and will be donating $1 per ticket sold to a local Aboriginal community organisation.”