BRISBANE: FRI NOV 22 @ QAG: California Design Up Late. See the Queensland Art Gallery in a different light when San Francisco’s rollicking garage-rock raconteurs, 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).

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.

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.

Chow down on great music at 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 mid-day music.

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 22 – 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.

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

Chow down on great music at 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.

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 21 – 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.

More info here.

Chow down on great music at 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.

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 20 – 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.

More info here.

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 16: Sonny & the Sunsets + Early Woman + Zone Out + DJ Mikey Young @ Kelvin Club (Melbourne Place, city). Tickets $12 + booking fee on sale now or $15 at the door if still available. Doors open 8pm.

By popular demand! San Franciscan garage-pop cut-ups Sonny & the Sunsets play an extra Melbourne show; following up their grand opening night for Melbourne Music Week with an impromptu party at the Kelvin Club on Saturday night. They’ll be joined by their good buddies Early Woman, who recently released their debut 7″ single, I’m A Peach b/w Feathers, on Mistletone Records. Opening lovebirds Zone Out bring their wintry pop gems to herald in the spring-time good-times, and bona fide connoisseur of the San Francisco garage scene, DJ Mikey Young, will keep the bangers comin’ between bands. Come early to score a limited edition Sonny & the Sunsets Australian tour t-shirt sporting a comic jam between Ben Montero and Sonny Smith, as well as some collectible comics by Ben and Sonny to celebrate the return of the Sunsets to their spiritual homeland of Melbourne.

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!

THE BATS.

From across the ditch, long-time indie-poppers The Bats have had a profound influence on Melbourne’s scene. Often acknowledged as the inspiration behind the current crop of jangly, indie-pop and ‘dole-wave’ bands, The Bats formed in Christchurch in 1982 and are regarded as one of the foremost exponents of NZ’s iconic ‘Flying Nun’ sound. Still in their original line-up, and more than 30 years in the making, The Bats remain one of the most influential bands of indie-pop worldwide.

As part of the celebrations for Melbourne Music Week 2013, Mistletone is honoured to present a brand new song by The Bats. December Ice is the A-side of a split 7″ vinyl release with Boomgates, a label collaboration between Mistletone + Bedroom Suck Records. December Ice is now available on digital release (click above to order on iTunes), with limited edition 7″ vinyl in stores from November 1. Avoid disappointment & pre-order your vinyl now via mail order.

BOOMGATES.

There’s no questioning the pedigree of local act, Boomgates. With band members heralding from Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Dick Diver, Trial Kennedy, Teen Archer and Twerps, this is one band who perfectly encapsulates the spirit of Melbourne’s music scene – in all its laconic excellence. Check out Widow Maker by Boomgates, the rad B-side to the split 7″ with The Bats, below:

MONTERO.

Local magnets Montero bring a sensory overload of old-fashioned showmanship, with Gibb-brothers style harmonies, soaring melodies, lush instrumentation and dreamy glam pomp. 70s Beach Boys meets Burt Bacharach, while Californian sunshine pop, and 80s power ballads. Montero’s debut LP, The Loving Gaze, has won the admiration of contemporaries such as Ariel Pink & Kurt Vile, and can be heard coming over the airwaves (Album Of The Week – 3RRR-FM, 2SER-FM + SYN Radio).

SONNY & THE SUNSETS.

San Francisco’s rollicking garage-rock raconteurs, Sonny & the Sunsets, are no strangers to Melbourne’s audiences, with a cool three 3RRR Albums of the Week nods to their name already. The musical brainchild of playwright, novelist, filmmaker, and comic book artist Sonny Smith, the Sunsets swoons out to 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.

Stream a new Sonny & the Sunsets song below, “Those Drawings I told you About”; their contribution to the San Francisco garage rock compilation curated by Sonny Smith, I Need You Bad (to be released on November 26).

VISHNU KEYS.

Vishnu Keys is the new solo project of Gerald Wells, a classically trained multi-instrumentalist, former opera singer and synth wizard who has played in Melbourne bands such as Baptism of Uzi, Treetops, TM Band and now Montero. Deploying his collection of vintage synthesisers to explore the possibilities of cosmic enlightenment, Vishnu Keys creates a synaesthetic blend of musical and visual frequencies. With a dedicated nod to the to the nuts and bolts philosophy of analogue sound production, Vishnu Keys is the six-armed love child of electronic music pioneers such as Klaus Schultze, Jean Michel Jarre and Delia Derbyshire. Prepare for a sensory wash of visual and audio goodness when Vishnu Keys offers up a holy union of colour and sound in a celestial welcome to MMW Opening Night.

DJ HIGHER POWER.

DJ Higher Power, a/k/a Hannah Brooks (Early Woman), glam siren razor blade and inscrutable aestheticist, sparks ecstatic moments between sets, playing the finest in Witchy Poo, Bleeding Ballads and Adventure Rock.

DJ LA POCOCK.

Host of Triple R’s drive time program Set It Out, LA Pocock is a man of many flavours. LA Pocock will bring Opening Night home, traversing the realms of subterranean synths, psychedelic rhythms & outsider pop.

For more info about Melbourne Music Week, and the brand new, pop-up flagship venue and entertainment precinct: The Residence, visit the website.

The Orbweavers are showcasing at AWME 2013 (Australasian World Music Expo) with an intimate show at The Toff. Tickets on sale now.

Marita Dyson and Stuart Flanagan formed The Orbweavers in 2006, drawing on a love of history, natural sciences, museums and archives. They have charmed audiences with evocative songs of creeks & quarries (Merri), greyhounds (You Can Run – Fern’s Theme), volcanoes (Japanese Mountains), textile mills, historic sewerage pumping stations (Spotswood) and the passing of time (The Hook). Dark and dulcet melodies, deft chiming guitar, violin and mournful trumpet meld to hypnotic effect, recalling reverberant ghosts of places past.

Sweet Jean is Sime Nugent and Alice Keath. Their music brings together their darker folk influences with clap-your-hands, old-school pop sensibilities. Since forming in late 2010, Sweet Jean has built a reputation for their evocative songwriting, razor-sharp harmonies, and stirring live performances as a duo and with their band. As the AU Review put it, Sweet Jean “can break your heart one minute and mend it the next. The duo has a natural ability to transport their audience to the heart of their songs.”

A young artist from Reunion Island, Maya Kamaty composes and performs folk music – a tender mixture between maloya and French songs carried by a melodious voice. Born on Reunion Island, Maya comes from a family of artists, musicians and storytellers bringing tales from Africa, India and the islands of the Indian Ocean.

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 1: HTRK @ Goodgod (SYDNEY) w/- Gareth Psaltis (live) + DJs Spiral Sounds. Tickets on sale via Moshtix. Doors open 8pm, finishes 11pm.

Just announced: HTRK play an intimate show in Sydney on Friday, November 1, to celebrate the release of the Mika Vainio Poison remix 10″ (to be released 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.

This will be HTRK’s final show in Australia for 2013, and tickets are expected to sell rapidly. Presales $20 + booking fee will be on sale from 9am Friday, October 18 via Moshtix.

SATURDAY OCTOBER 26: The Orbweavers + special guest @ The Grand Poobah, Hobart.

The Orbweavers journey to Hobart to launch their new single, ‘Match Factory’/’Ceiling Rose’.

Click here to listen to the new ‘Match Factory’ single by The Orbweavers.

Click here to stream ‘The Hook’, the 2012 single by The Orbweavers.

Click here to watch the video for a song about Melbourne’s historic sewerage pumping station, ‘Spotswood’, by The Orbweavers.