Mistletone

Artwork by Carl Breitkreuz

KURT VILE & THE VIOLATORS TOUR DATES:

Sydney Festival: Wednesday, January 22 – Kurt Vile & the Violators @ Paradiso at Town Hall. Tickets on sale here. Doors open 8pm. * SELLING FAST!
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. * SOLD OUT
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 + Pearls. Tickets on sale now from The Corner Box Office.
MELBOURNE: Thursday, February 6 @ The Corner w/- Montero + Vishnu Keys. * SOLD OUT
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.

Mistletone proudly 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 continues his ascendant career with these two Laneway side shows in Melbourne over two epic nights at The Corner, with special guests Early Woman (Wednesday February 5) and Montero (Thursday February 6).

Kurt plays Sydney Festival’s Paradiso at Town Hall venue with the Violators on Wednesday, January 22, as well as an all-too-rare solo show in the Festival Village at midnight on Thursday, January 23. Kurt is also one of the guest vocalists for Big Star’s Third, an Australian exclusive for Sydney Festival at the Enmore Theatre on Thursday, January 23.

Kurt recorded his fifth album Wakin On A Pretty Daze with producer John Agnello at a multitude of different studios throughout Northeast America in the second half of 2012. Five and a half minutes into ‘Was All Talk’, Kurt murmurs in his beatific, laconic burr: “Makin’ music is easy / Watch me”.

If that sounds like an empty boast, it’s likely you’ve just not listened to enough of Kurt’s music yet, as the way his songs fall into place suggests that his art is entirely and convincingly effortless. That these songs zero in on a hazy perfection with such laser-guided precision shows that behind this veneer of lackadaisical creativity, beavers a songwriter toiling hard to make music so beguilingly laid-back.

Kurt Vile (his real name) is one of ten children, born in 1980 and raised in the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia. As a teenager, his bluegrass-lovin’ father gifted him a banjo, when what Kurt truly craved was a guitar. So, with a ‘can do’ spirit that’s a boon to any independent musician, he simply played it as if it were a guitar. Along with his passion for the 4-track-toting titans of early 90’s indie-rock, Kurt also harboured a love for classic rock of substance – Creedence, Tom Petty, Neil Young, artists with their roots in ‘Roots’, but with enough vision to carve out an Americana of their own. Within the footprints he was following, Kurt began carving a path of his own, making an art of dipping from introspective mellow rambles, to sky-scraping anthems; eager to rock out, equally unafraid to sing low and sweet.

Fast-forward some years and with The Violators in tow (the Heartbreakers to his Tom Petty, if you will) barnstormers like ‘Freak Train’ from the full-length Childish Prodigy (2009) were contrasted with more reflective and sun-dappled tunes from his break-through album Smoke Ring For My Halo (2011), as Kurt quietly became one of the great American guitarists and songwriters of our time. Wakin On A Pretty Daze built on all Kurt has done before & made sense of the supposedly contrary impulses of his previous work. Learning whilst ascending, he crafted an album that would have sounded great 30 years ago, sounds great today and will still sound great 30 years from now.

Realising he’s in no rush to prove anything to anyone, Kurt’s songs on Wakin On A Pretty Daze unfurl at their own extended and unhurried pace, but not a second of this loveliness is wasted or surplus. The likes of ‘Air Bud’, ‘Was All Talk’ and ‘Gold Tone’ could keep on ringing out, exploring every possible wrinkle in its chord sequences and expounding with wisdom on the simple pleasures of a beautiful day, for as long as Kurt could stand to play them. These aren’t jams; these are songs that glide as they unwind, with a natural charm that’s enough to convince you that, yes, for Kurt, Makin’ music is easy. So, seriously: watch him.