Mistletone

Very psyched to announce that Beach House will release Become, a new five-song EP, as a Record Store Day crystal-clear vinyl exclusive via Sub Pop. The EP will be released into the streamiverse by Mistletone on Friday, April 28.
 
Alex and Victoria/Beach House said;
“The Become EP is a collection of 5 songs from the Once Twice Melody sessions. We didn’t think they fit in the world of OTM, but later realized they all fit in a little world of their own. To us, they are all kind of scuzzy and spacious, and live in the spirit realm. It’s not really where we are currently going, but it’s definitely somewhere we have been. We hope you enjoy these tunes.”
 
Become, which features the songs “American Daughter,” “Devil’s Pool,” “Holiday House,” “Black Magic” and the title track, was produced by Beach House, with mixing by Alan Moulder (track 1), Trevor Spencer (tracks 2, 3, 5), and Caesar Edmunds (track 4), and mastering by Greg Calbi and Steve Fallone at Sterling Sound.

In 2022, Beach House released Once Twice Melody, the duo’s acclaimed, eighteen-track, double album on Mistletone Records, presented in 4 chapters with lyric animations for each song.
 
Once Twice Melody earned “Best Albums of 2022” placement from the likes of The New Yorker, Variety, The Ringer, Under the Radar, Brooklyn Vegan, The AV Club, Stereogum, PAPER, PASTE, All Music, PopMatters, Pitchfork “Readers Poll,” Gorilla vs. Bear, Treble, Magnet, No Ripcord, Uncut, Uproxx “Critics Poll,” and more.
 
Once Twice Melody went #1 on Billboard’s Albums Sales Chart, the band’s first-ever record to do so. Beach House also performed Once Twice Melody standout “Superstar” on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert:

In 2022, Beach House’s ”Space Song,” from Depression Cherry (Mistletone, 2015) became the group’s first certified Platinum single. 
 
Once Twice Melody is available on mail order here, with just a few gold & silver limited editions remaining.
 
What people are saying about Beach House:
“Once Twice Melody is one of the best records of the year and a testament to the virtue of constancy” (“The Best Music of 2022”) – The New Yorker
 
“Once Twice Melody is their most definitive and probably best work — and even more remarkably in these ADD-addled times, they’ve done it with a sprawling, 18-song album that is around 80 minutes long (#5/”The Best Albums of 2022, Jem Aswad”) – Variety
 
“Melody is mesmerizing, and it raises exciting possibilities of how Beach House’s sound could evolve in the next decade-plus (#18/”The 33 Best Albums of 2022”) – The Ringer
 
“Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally doled out four perfectly sweeping segments for their eighth full-length; taken together, they represent the pinnacle of the band’s craft. There are far too many highlights to single just one or two out: Once Twice Melody is an album that keeps on giving, immersive and rewarding, a marvel to get lost in.” (#23/”The 50 Best Albums of 2022”) – Stereogum
 
“From the majestic opening notes of the title track to the last electronic flourish of closer “Modern Love Stories,” Once Twice Melody is the culmination of everything Beach House do best.” (#45/”The 50 Best Albums of 2022”) – PASTE

Beach House BecomeEP

Tracklisting:
1. American Daughter
2. Devil’s Pool
3. Holiday House
4. Black Magic
5. Become

Mistletone is proud to release the new album by Melbourne powerhouse Cash Savage and the Last Drinks So This Is Love, out April 28 by Mistletone Records via Inertia (Australia/NZ) and Glitterhouse Records (Europe). Pre-orders now open here.

The band has shared the first single, “Keep Working At Your Job”, a wiry post-punk elegy to the grind of late stage capitalism that’s blunt, yet deeply compassionate. “I think you’re just like me”, Cash Savage sings/speaks, “Broken like the rest of us. Keep it all inside, keep working at your job”.

A pillar of Melbourne’s music and queer communities, Cash Savage has spent the past decade making tough and tender rock’n’roll with her colossal band, The Last Drinks: Joe White (guitar), Rene Mancuso (drums), Kat Mear (violin), Nick Finch (bass), Roshan Khozouei (keyboards), Dougal Shaw (guitar) and Ed Fraser (guitar). The Last Drinks have toured internationally with sound engineer Nao Anzai, who co-produced the album with Cash Savage and Nick Finch.

Their legendary live shows are an overwhelming cacophony of emotion and sound, with magnetic frontwoman Cash Savage at the centre of the storm, exhorting the energies of The Last Drinks with mastery and panache. A cathartic, communal experience that refuses to give the audience an easy ethical bypass, but challenges listeners to ask themselves the hard questions and step up.

The theme of fragility runs through the album like a faultline. Fragile mental health, a fragile economy, the fragility of the environment and our personal relationships, all on the brink of collapse, threatening to crack under pressure; this is the fraught territory So This Is Love inhabits, and fearlessly explores.

The opening three songs of the album flow into each other with increasing urgency, declaring the gravity of the situation. True to the album title, Cash Savage delves deep and with ferocious honesty into what love means to her, as a queer woman coming to terms with a marriage breakup and a mental breakdown.

“All love will end, all love will change form”, Cash observes. “If you experience deep love, you don’t judge it as a failure if it doesn’t last. You can love someone after they die, you can love someone in a different way.”

Romantic love, family love, the bonds of friendship, self-love and the affectionate intimacy of spending the night with someone are some of the forms that love takes, as the stories of So This Is Love unfold.

The shattering experience of depression is at the raw and tender heart of this album. Cash reflects on the bleak daily battles of mental health, and the struggles of a songwriter to be creative and “productive” amidst a backdrop of turmoil and despair.

“I had to come to terms with the reality of mental fragility”, Cash recalls, “feeling the pressure to be there for my family, to create music and exist as I did before, and not coping at all. Depression is a human experience, but having not experienced it before, I had no idea how it infiltrates everything – your relationships, your self worth, your capacity to work and create. It’s definitely given me a new level of understanding about mental health and compassion for what people go through.”

The album was made in Melbourne with additional recording in a French château, Gîte St Nicolas à Verdelot, where the band bunked down at the end of last year’s European tour. “One of the greatest joys of my life”, Cash avows, “ is taking these songs that are incredibly personal to me and bringing them to The Last Drinks. I am so proud of this collection of creative humans I have brought together, who have so much love and respect for each other.”

CORNELIUS TOUR DATES:

FRIDAY JUNE 16: RISING MELBOURNE @ THE FORUM. Tickets on sale here.
SATURDAY JUNE 17: VIVID SYDNEY @ TUMBALONG NIGHTS. Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour, free outdoor event. More info here.

Cornelius is the brainchild of Japanese multi-instrumentalist Keigo Oyamada, one of the pillars of electronic music with a dazzling career spanning four decades. A performing musician since his teens, Oyamada created his creative alter-ego (the name is an homage to Planet of the Apes), in the early 1990s from the ashes of his previous project, Flipper’s Guitar, a duo that arose as part of the influential Shibuya-kei movement. 

With the 1997 release of Fantasma, Cornelius gained international recognition for his cut and paste style, reminiscent of American counterparts Beck and The Beastie Boys. Fantasma, often considered Cornelius’ magnum opus, was released internationally by Matador Records. Dubbed as the “modern-day Brian Wilson” and “Japanese Beck” for his orchestral-style arrangements and production techniques, Cornelius subsequently became one of the most sought after producer/remixers in the world, working with a wide range of artists including Blur, Beck, Bloc Party, MGMT, and James Brown.

With 2002’s Point, Cornelius’ music took a quantum shift, going from sampling “found sounds” to looping organic elements and creating lush soundscapes. Using water drops as the rhythmic backbone of “Drop” on his vocoder-infused cover of “Brazil”, the album dazed and amazed fans and set the path for the next phase of his career. 2007 brought this philosophy to an even higher level with the release of Sensuous.

The companion piece to the album Sensurround + B Sides, earned the nomination for “Best Surround Sound Album” at the 2009 GRAMMY Awards. The summer of 2016 saw the release of Fantasma Remastered, on Lefse Records. The package, a 2LP reissue of his classic album, also included 4 additional outtakes and earned Pitchfork’s “Best New Reissue”.

Cornelius has recorded music for Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, scored the anime mega-film Ghost in the Shell Arise, performed as the backbone of Yoko Ono’s reformed Plastic Ono Band, played the Hollywood Bowl with Yellow Magic Orchestra, and co-wrote and produced the Japanese artist salyu x salyu. He has continued his extensive remix series along with production work for Takeshi Kobayashi and Yoko Ono, amongst others.

Cornelius’ live shows are known around the world for spectacular visuals (all perfectly synchronized to the performance), custom lighting that doesn’t simply augment the performance, but becomes another instrument within it, and a full band of equally talented and diverse players.

 

WEYES BLOOD “IN HOLY FLUX TOUR: NEW DAWN” TOUR DATES:

Thursday  June 1 – Sydney: Vivid LIVE @ Sydney Opera House. SOLD OUT
Saturday June 3 – Brisbane: Princess Theatre with special guest Jack Ladder. Presented by Jet Black Cat Music.  TICKETS
Sunday June 4 – Sydney: Vivid LIVE @ Sydney Opera House. TICKETS
Wednesday June 7 – Melbourne: RISING @ The Forum with special guest Lost Animal. TICKETS
Thursday June 8 – Melbourne: RISING @ The Forum with special guest Lost Animal. TICKETS
Friday June 9 – Perth: The Rechabite with special guest Nicholas Allbrook. TICKETS

Mistletone proudly presents the return of Weyes Blood (American singer-songwriter Natalie Mering), touring in the wake of her overwhelmingly-acclaimed new album And In the Darkness, Hearts Aglow. Having sold out her first Sydney Opera House show for Vivid LIVE, and added a second Vivid show as well as an additional RISING show at The Forum Melbourne, Weyes Blood will play headline shows in Brisbane and Perth on her tour title “In Holy Flux Tour: New Dawn“. Tickets on sale now.

“The singer-songwriter’s secular hymnals and eerie psych-folk songs have an almost sacred quality when played live, leaving the crowd in a state of spellbound rapture” – THE GUARDIAN ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

A galaxy of isolation, narcissism fatigue, technological agitation. These are the new norms that keep Natalie Mering up at night, and the themes at the heart of the celestial new Weyes Blood album, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow. 

Weyes Blood’s dreamy torch songs of doom have never been more revealing of the present moment. If Titanic Rising was an observation of doom to come, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow is in the thick of it, searching for an escape hatch from algorithms and ideological chaos.

“We’re in a fully functional shit show,” said Mering. “My heart is a glow stick that’s been cracked, lighting up my chest in an explosion of earnestness.”

The “In Holy Flux Tour: New Dawn” shows will begin on June 1st at the Sydney Opera House as a part of Vivid LIVE and on June 7th at RISING Melbourne, with more to be announced.

And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow has earned Weyes Blood praise from outlets across the globe, including album of the year honors from SPIN and Sunday Times Culture, and featuring in over 50 “Best of 2022” albums and singles lists, including MOJO, NME, Pitchfork, Stereogum, New York Times, and more. Weyes Blood was no. 5 on Sunday Times Culture’s “20 Best Singers of This Century” (alongside Sam Smith, Beyonce, Adele, and Amy Winehouse).  

And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow’s ten tracks were written by Natalie Mering, with album production from Mering along with Jonathan Rado on all songs except for “A Given Thing,” produced by Mering and Rodaidh McDonald. And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow was mixed by Kenny Gilmore at 101 Studio, mastered by Emily Lazar and Chris Allgood at The Lodge, and features guest appearances from Meg Duffy (Hand Habits) and Mary Lattimore.

What people are saying about And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow:

“A masterpiece.” ★★★★★ Sunday Times Culture

“Stunning…” New York Times

“One of the year’s most breathtaking records”.” ★★★★★ NME

“Natalie Mering, SPIN’s 2022 “Artist of the Year,” made an album of our time, embracing the connections, the isolations, the breakups, the coming-togethers, the hopes and the dreads with focus intimately personal and vision expansively communal (Album of the Year).” SPIN

“An urgent and gorgeous ode to human connection that washes over the listener like a revelation (#2/30 Best Albums of 2022).” The AV Club

“Her voice alone is worth preserving humanity for…(9/10).” Uncut

“And In the Darkness, Hearts Aglow is intricately put together, with Mering mirroring the sentiments of in head-bending arrangements.” ★★★★  Rolling Stone

“One fantastic tune after another (Album of the Week).” ★★★★ The Guardian

“…Through stark truths and dreamy poetry, brushes against big ideas about our broken world and quiet apocalypses of her own: it’s an ecosystem of intimacy, in its power to redeem and to destroy.” NPR Music

“Utterly contemporary and original (9/10).” Loud & Quiet

“Natalie Mering’s magisterial new record as Weyes Blood is her continued homage to love songs beyond the 1970s and into the 2020s (#2/The Best Albums of 2022).” – FLOOD

“…A record of remarkable consideration. Magnificently composed. Feeling like a timeless classic (9/10).” The Line of Best Fit

“...Her grandest, most elegant work to date (9/10).” Under the Radar

“An idiosyncratic set of love songs and secular hymns with lushly orchestral arrangements (8.4/10, “Best New Music”).” Pitchfork

“Never before have songs that portend certain doom for mankind sounded so sweet and catchy (The Best Albums of 2022).” UPROXX

“It’s a true gem.” ★★★★½ The Forty Five

“Gorgeous, sprawling soundscapes (8/10).” CRACK

“Even as Weyes Blood sings of isolation, societal collapse, and disastrous heartbreak, there’s a glimmer of optimism, relayed in her vivid lyricism and atmospheric, chamber-pop melodies (“The 55 Best Albums of 2022”).” Alternative Press

Mistletone proudly presents the début Australian tour by rising dream-folk singer-songwriter,  Ichiko Aoba. 

Having quickly sold out her RISING Melbourne performance at The Forum, Ichiko Aoba makes her Sydney début at City Recital Hall with special guest, Laura Jean.

ICHIKO AOBA AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES:
SYDNEY: Tuesday June 6 at City Recital Hall with special guest, Laura Jean. Tickets on sale here. * selling fast!
MELBOURNE: Wednesday June 7 at RISING, The Toff * sold out
MELBOURNE: Thursday June 8 at RISING, The Forum * sold out

“A tone so potent and pure that it suggests the subtle command of magic” — Jenn Pelly, THE NEW YORKER

“Ichiko Aoba’s greatest strength is her ability to create pockets of intimacy. The Japanese singer-songwriter’s breathy vocals and placid guitar playing, often the only sounds you’d hear on her records, create a hypnotizing shroud that makes you feel like she’s performing for you alone” – PITCHFORK

Ichiko Aoba recently release a live album, presented by The Barbican and recorded live at London’s Milton Court with a 12 piece ensemble.  Stream here and watch the mesmerising performance below:

Japanese singer and songwriter Ichiko Aoba has steadily attracted listeners in her homeland since she released her first album back in 2010, but it took more than a decade for her gorgeous sounds to start making serious international inroads. It all changed when she dropped the stunning Windswept Adan in 2020, which was reissued by US label Ba Da Bing a year later. Suddenly, Ichiko has achieved global fame — all it took was giving listeners access to her work — and has been touring the world, making even more converts.

Ichiko designed Windswept Adan as the soundtrack to an imaginary film that existed only in her own mind, set on a pair of fictional islands. For the most part Ichiko complements her beautifully soft singing with deceptively simple patterns plucked on an acoustic guitar, although at times those elements are complemented by soothing harmonium, field recordings of water lapping at a shoreline, and ultra-spare percussion (when beats are present at all).

Within those basic parameters, Ichiko delivers something transcendent, a levitating sound world embroidered with wispy melodies masterfully intoned in a voice that evokes emotions and atmospheres far more elastic and powerful than her hushed delivery initially suggests. The same can be said for the guitar playing, where every arpeggio and translucent fingerpicked phrase not only casts a meditative spell, but produces a sparkling lattice of cycling tones that expertly glides along with her exquisite vocal lines.

Born on January 28th, 1990, Ichiko Aoba has released 6 solo albums and has taken her talent to another level, taking on roles in narration, advertisement, theatre music, and installation art. She continues to create a world of fantasy where the heart warmly beats.

KURT VILE & THE VIOLATORS TOUR DATES:

TUESDAY MARCH 28: FREMANTLE ARTS CENTRE with special guests Erasers. * SOLD OUT!
THURSDAY MARCH 30: KAMBRI @ ANU CANBERRA with special guest John Sharkey III. Tickets on sale here.
FRIDAY MARCH 31: SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE CONCERT HALL. * SOLD OUT!
SATURDAY APRIL 1: MEADOW FESTIVAL VICTORIA. Tickets on sale now.
MONDAY APRIL 3: THE PRINCESS THEATRE BRISBANE with special guest Mess Esque. * SOLD OUT!
WEDNESDAY APRIL 5: NORTHCOTE THEATRE MELBOURNE with special guest Mick Turner. * SOLD OUT!
THURSDAY APRIL 6: NORTHCOTE THEATRE MELBOURNE with special guests Martin Frawley + DJ Tony Pepperoni. Extra show by popular demand. Tickets on sale here.
FRIDAY APRIL 7: CASTLEMAINE STATE FESTIVAL. Tickets on sale here.

Mistletone proudly presents the return of Kurt Vile & the Violators. Over a couple of decades, Kurt Vile has perfected his own strand of blissed-out guitar rock, balancing catchiness with being “fried,” as he likes to put it. Fresh from an acclaimed new album (watch my moves) via Verve Records / Virgin Music Australia, and a whirlwind Australian trip which saw him share the stage with long-time pal and collaborator Courtney Barnett, opening for Nick Cave and Warren Ellis at Hanging Rock, Kurt Vile brings his slow-burnin’, free-wheelin’ jams back to Australia for a full band tour.

“He’s one of the last examples of a rock‘n’roll frontiersman who’s going to be famous. He’s like the Mars 1 mission” – SEAN YEATON (PARQUET COURTS), 2016

Kurt recorded (watch my moves) in his home studio in Philly’s Mount Airy neighbourhood of Philadelphia, with help from longtime collaborator Rob Schnapf (Richard Thompson, Elliott Smith). Across the record, which includes 14 originals as well as a version of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Wages of Sin’, Vile pulls his talents in unexpected directions, resulting in a vibrant, yet meditative album propelled by his trademark laid-back charm and curious spirit. The album’s artwork features Kurt’s daughters Delphine and Awilda, who recently joined their dad for a festive version of Bob Dylan’s “Must Be Santa”.

Reflecting on the record, Vile shared: “When Waylon Jennings became an outlaw country artist, he liked to record at Hillbilly Central, which was Tompall Glaser’s studio. OKV Central is my version of that in Mount Airy. I’ve come into my own here, and at the same time I’m getting back to my home-recording roots,” and continues, “It’s about songwriting. It’s about lyrics. It’s about being the master of all domains in the music. I’m always thinking about catchy music, even though it’s fried, or sizzled, out. It’s my own version of a classic thing—it’s moving forward and backward at the same time.”

In addition to Schnapf, Vile’s longtime band, The Violators and James Stewart, the album features special guests Chastity Belt, Cate Le Bon and percussionists Stella Mozgawa (Warpaint, Courtney Barnett) and Sarah Jones (Hot Chip, Harry Styles). 

(watch my moves) is Kurt’s ninth solo full-length studio album and first since 2018’s Bottle It In, which Rolling Stone named #9 on their 50 Best Albums of 2018: “The long-haired poet-king of Philadelphia surveys his realm in high style on this 78-minute whopper…virtually no one else was making rock records like this.” 

The New York Times calls him “indie rock’s charming riddle,” while The Guardian adds: “such an instinctive facility for melodic logic that behind the shaggy locks and purple haze, there’s a clear-headed, big-hearted songwriter at work.”

In addition to his solo work, Kurt has collaborated with numerous artists including John Prine, Courtney Barnett, The War on Drugs, The Sadies and more, and is featured on 2021 compilation I’ll Be Your Mirror: A Tribute to The Velvet Underground & Nico.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Kurt Vile lives in the Mount Airy neighbourhood with his wife and two daughters.

CRITICAL KURTY ACCLAIM: “Kurt Vile is an ambling, amiable presence; gently psychedelic, in no particular hurry” —The New York Times   “You’re treated to the surrealistic, psychedelic mind and sounds of his trippy universe…It’s magical and meditative.”— NPR Music “(watch my moves) is damn near transcendent” —Rolling Stone “Vile’s limitless charm and languid drawl have a way of making even the heaviest affliction seem bearable, if not a low-key hoot.” —Pitchfork “..a reminder of what makes his music so seemingly effortlessly affecting”—AV Club “(watch my moves) gives Vile another opportunity to create the blissed-out guitar rock he’s perfected over the last several decades”—Consequence “the sort of easy groove that Vile does so well”—Stereogum “…serene in mood, with lo-fi folk elements that transcend the typical conventions of the genre to incorporate elements of psychedelia.”—Spin “a sprawling, psychedelic meditation”—Paste

artwork by Carl Breitkreuz

Legendary New Zealand band and innovators of the Dunedin sound, The Chills tour Australia for the first time in six years with a setlist packed with timeless gems like ‘Heavenly Pop Hit’, ‘Pink Frost’, ‘Doledrums’ and ‘I Love My Leather Jacket’. Tickets on sale now!

THE CHILLS AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES:

WED FEB 15: BRISBANE POWERHOUSE with special guests PRIMITIVE MOTION. Tickets on sale here.
THU FEB 16: CITY RECITAL HALL, SYDNEY with special guests MERE WOMEN. Tickets on sale here.
FRI FEB 17: MONA FOMA, LAUNCESTON. Tickets on sale here.
SAT FEB 18: MELBOURNE RECITAL CENTRE with special guests PARSNIP. Tickets on sale here.

Mistletone proudly presents the return of The Chills, one of the most storied and accomplished bands of our times. Fronted by Martin Phillipps, The Chills have garnered a large and loyal cult following on the strength of their diverse sound — melding jangle-pop with punk rock ethics. 

The songwriting skills, vision and conviction of Phillipps have carried The Chills across the decades, and since last visiting Australia six years ago, The Chills have released their highly acclaimed seventh studio album Scatterbrain, another peerless collection of pure pop. The Chills bring a three-decade, career-spanning setlist to swoon for, packed with timeless gems like ‘Heavenly Pop Hit’, ‘Pink Frost’, ‘Doledrums’ and ‘I Love My Leather Jacket’.

“The fact that the New Zealand legends at the peak of their powers, radiating health and good cheer while weaving their way through a set from their 40+ year career, is enough to reaffirm your faith in the goodness of the universe” – Spectrum Culture USA

The Chills circa 1990

“I can see now where we were in the history of things,” Martin Phillipps told a recent US interviewer. “With the success of R.E.M., the major studios were looking for other indie bands that might have crossover potential. And we were obviously seen as a kind of New Zealand possibility for that.”

History has indeed been kind to The Chills, and has made them one of the most loved New Zealand groups of all time. Torchbearers of the legendary Flying Nun sound, The Chills reign triumphant after 40 tumultuous years. Helmed by the enigmatic Martin Phillipps, creator of endless jangle-pop wonders, The Chills are in a buoyant new phase of creative vigour and consistently brilliant showmanship that has wowed fans the world over.

Martin’s determination has carried The Chills across the decades, through a series of lineup changes and tragedies, building a large and loyal cult following on the strength of their albums and live shows in over 40 countries worldwide. Inspired by the punk scene, Martin formed The Chills with Peter Gutteridge in 1980. Peter soon departed, precipitating a series of lineups, with Martin the only constant. A significant loss for the band was Martyn Bull, whose death in 1983 inspired ‘I Love My Leather Jacket’, the jacket being a bequest Martyn Bull had left to Martin. In the past decade The Chills have solidified, with the same lineup of impressive and devoted musicians, who enable Martin to build on the legacy of his ever-growing collection of timeless songs.

The Chills were riding high in the 1980s: touring the world extensively, recording three John Peel BBC sessions, releasing two major label albums (Submarine Bells and Soft Bomb), and returning to a hero’s welcome, with Submarine Bells going to #1 in New Zealand. College radio favourites in the US, The Chills were predicted to follow in the footsteps of major successes like The Pixies and R.E.M. An upheaval in the musical landscape and Martin’s poor health during the late 1990s slowed him down, yet the band released a three-CD boxed set, EPs, an album of home recordings and a tribute to NZ music legend, Chris Knox.

Through a fortuitous meeting in 2011, the band was offered a new path forward, signing with London’s Fire Records. A very productive period ensued with a live double album, three new singles, and the John Peel BBC Sessions released in short order. The band travelled to Thailand to begin recording their first full length album in 20 years, 2015’s highly acclaimed Silver Bullets. Steady touring throughout NZ, UK, Europe and US followed, along with a short film, The Curse of The Chills. In 2018, the band went back into the studio to record Snow Bound, which they performed at a sold-out Sydney Festival, along with a 22-date US tour, culminating in eight performances at SXSW, where the band was awarded The Grulke Prize for International Career Act.

The Chills’ history, and Martin’s life story, were poignantly documented by filmmaker Julia Parnell for 2019’s acclaimed The Chills: The triumph and tragedy of Martin Phillipps. Martin gives a candid account of his rollercoaster musical career and his demons, a testament to the power of the creative urge in overcoming adversity. Martin’s health having improved markedly, the band again went into the studio to record Scatterbrain (2021), a mature and honest reflection on life, destiny and the fate of our times. Like all Martin’s offerings, Scatterbrain is pure pop for the new normal, from one of the living greats. Martin’s determination stems from the punk rock ethics of his musical awakening, and proximity to people like Chris Knox who drove home how crucial it was to deliver music always with intensity and conviction. It’s the live energy and the consistent quality of their songs which have established The Chills as one of indie music’s all-timers.

The Chills are:

Martin Phillipps (Guitar and Vocals)
Callum Hampton (Bass and Backing Vocals)
Todd Knudson (Drums and Backing Vocals)
Erica Scally (Guitar, Keyboards, Violin and Backing Vocals) Oli Wilson (Keyboards and Backing Vocals)

 

artwork by George Gillies

London based, South African-born powerhouse Nakhane — musician, novelist, actor and queer activist — has announced their return to Australia next March. Fresh from collaborations with Nile Rodgers, Perfume Genius and Moonchild Sanelly, Nakhane is a star in the making, who makes the dancefloor a place of tenderness. Tickets on sale now!

NAKHANE AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES:

• FRI MAR 3: SYDNEY WORLDPRIDE @ CITY RECITAL HALL. Tickets on sale here.
• SAT MAR 4: BRISBANE POWERHOUSE. Tickets on sale here.
• SUN MAR 5: PERTH FESTIVAL. Tickets on sale here.
• MAR 10-13: WOMADelaide. Tickets on sale here.
• WED MAR 15: MELBOURNE RECITAL CENTRE. Tickets on sale here.

Mistletone proudly presents the return of Nakhane, the rapidly-rising South African polymath whose fans include Elton John and Madonna (who name-dropped Nakhane as one of the influences behind her 2019 album Madame X). Multi award winning singer, songwriter, actor, and novelist Nakhane has been hailed as “a real star in the making” (The Observer) who “makes the dancefloor a place of tenderness” (VICE).

Nakhane’s latest single, ‘Do You Well’, brings the funk in a sweaty, sensual collaboration with Perfume Genius, accompanied by a video with explores queer Black love and lust:

It followed hot on the heels of ‘Tell Me Your Politik’, featuring Nile Rodgers on guitar and a ferocious rap from fellow South African artist, Moonchild Sanelly. Mutually political and erotic, the song is a call to action, demanding that prospective lovers be ideogically aligned; a bold declaration that sex is a political act. With a polyrhythmic wall of sound echoing the sounds of South African Gqom and kwaito, these two striking singles are a stunning return to music for Nakhane after a four year break.

Nakhane’s previous album, You Will Not Die, garnered acclaim from Pitchfork, The New York Times, The Observer, MOJO and Noisey; Q magazine called it “remarkable; defiantly modern and unashamedly emotional” while Pitchfork wrote that the album was “an instant revelation on its own terms and strikingly intimate.” Madonna called Nakhane out as one of her two favourite artists, and Elton John interviewed Nakhane on his Beats 1 radio show.

In their many guises in music, film and literature, and as a non binary artist, Nakhane has been instrumental in challenging the status quo in conversations about gender and sexuality; steadily building a body of work of cultural importance that hits every dancefloor sweet spot.

media queries: Sophie Miles @ Mistletone – sophie@mistletone.net

artwork by George Gillies

KAITLYN AURELIA SMITH TOUR DATES:

SATURDAY JANUARY 7 – SYDNEY FESTIVAL: CALL TO THE MORNING. Dawn ambient performance, Sydney Harbour foreshore. Tickets & info here.
SUNDAY JANUARY 8 – SYDNEY FEST: THE WEARY TRAVELLER. Club show. Tickets & info here.
MONDAY JANUARY 23 – MELBOURNE RECITAL CENTRE with special guest COOL MARITIME. Tickets & info here.

“Art is awe, art is mystery expressed,” writes Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. “Art is somatic, even if it is experienced cerebrally. It is felt.”

The central mysteries of Smith’s ninth studio album, Let’s Turn it Into Sound, have to do with perception, expression, and communication: How can we communicate when spoken language is inadequate? How do we understand what it is we’re feeling? How do we translate our experience of the world into something that someone else can understand?

For Smith, a self-described “feeler,” the answers are inspired by compound words in non-English languages, translation, sculptural fashion, dance, butoh, wushu shaolin, and other forms of sensory and somatic experience. Just like fashion uses lines, shapes, colors, textures, and silhouettes to communicate on a sensual level separate from the conscious mind, Let’s Turn it Into Sound strives to use sound to communicate what words alone cannot.

“The album is a puzzle,” Smith says, “a symbol of receiving a compound of a ton of feelings from going out into a situation, and the song titles are instructions to breaking apart the feelings and understanding them.” The energized “Is it Me or Is it You” comes from traversing the gaps between how you see yourself and how another might see you, through a filter of their own projections. The hushed sense of revelation that brackets “There is Something” refers to the feeling of walking into a room and being subconsciously aware of the dynamic present. All the while, Smith interprets these feelings through sound.

This auditory interpretation process, driven by earnest curiosity, led Smith to record some thoughts and questions that popped up along the journey in Somatic Hearing — a booklet which accompanies the album.

Over three frenzied months, recording alone in her home studio, Smith allowed herself to pursue new experiments to accompany her usual toolkit of modular, analogue, and rare synthesizers (including her signature Buchla), orchestral sounds, and the voice. She created a new vocal processing technique, and gave herself permission to pursue a pacing that felt intuitive, rather one that followed typical song structures. She walked around in the windiest season with a subwoofer backpack and an umbrella, listening to the low end of the album amidst 60mph gusts. She listened to herself, and, in doing so, to an inner community which suddenly opened to her.

Underlying the album is a dynamic relationship between what Smith describes as six distinct voices, each a multifaceted storyteller. By acknowledging these characters, she was acknowledging her whole being: the woven plurality of self, the complex process of noticing and resolving inner conflicts, and the joy of finding harmony in flux.

“I started to feel so embodied by all of these characters. This is all the felt, unsaid stuff [my inner community] wants to communicate but it doesn’t have the English language as its form of communication, and so this album was a form of giving space to let it talk and not judge it and just let it play.” By not adhering to expected song structures, each song feels even more like a conversation, with each character getting to express themselves in full. 

Smith has never fit neatly into the ambient genre conversation she’s most often associated with, and here she forges even further outside of it, traversing avant-garde pop, neoclassical, and the otherwise unclassifiable. The result is a playful, inquisitive, excitable work which appeals to us as social, sensitive animals, and invites listeners into a wholly idiosyncratic world that is both experimental, and, feels like the most human thing in the world. Proceeding through Let’s Turn it Into Sound is like peeking into a secret realm: one that delights both in the discovery of the magic hidden in the everyday, and the shimmer that lingers long after the portal itself shuts. 

Mistletone proudly presents BIKINI KILL, touring Australia for the first time since 1997.

BIKINI KILL TOUR DATES:

SUN FEB 26: MONA FOMA, HOBART Tickets on sale here.  TUE FEB 28: PERTH FESTIVAL @ THE RECHABITE with Cold Meat.Tickets on sale here. WED MAR 1: PERTH FESTIVAL @ RECHABITE with Cold Meat. * SOLD OUT Extra show added, see above. FRI MAR 3: BRISBANE @ THE TIVOLI with Queerbait  *all ages * SOLD OUT SUN MAR 5: ADELAIDE @ LION ARTS FACTORY  with Stabbitha & the Knifey Wifeys   * SOLD OUT * all ages * presented by PAK Music  TUE MAR 7:  MELBOURNE @ THE FORUM with Parsnip  * all ages * presented by Triple R * extra show added by popular demand Tickets on sale here. WED MAR 8:  MELBOURNE @ THE FORUM   with K5 * SOLD OUT * all ages * presented by Triple R Extra show added, see above. SAT MAR 11: GOLDEN PLAINS Ticket ballot now closed. https://goldenplains.com.au SUN MAR 12: BIKINI KILL SPEAKS – TALK EVENT AT SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE. Kathleen Hanna, Tobi Vail & Kathi Wilcox join Marieke Hardy for an exclusive conversation about activism, music, and women taking up space. Tickets on sale here. MON MAR 13: SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE, CONCERT HALL * all ages Tickets on sale here.

“We’re Bikini Kill and we want revolution Girl-style now! ”

Bikini Kill is the infamously fierce, riot grrrl band feminist punk band that was based in Olympia, Washington and Washington DC, forming in 1990 and breaking up in 1997. Kathleen Hanna sang, Tobi Vail played drums, Billy Karren (a.k.a. Billy Boredom) played guitar and Kathi Wilcox played bass. Sometimes they switched instruments. Bikini Kill is credited with instigating the Riot Grrrl movement in the early ’90s via their political lyrics, zines and confrontational live show.

The band started touring in June 1991. In addition to touring the US, Europe and Japan, they toured Australia in 1996 as part of the Summersault touring festival, followed by a headline tour in 1997. Bikini Kill recorded and released a demo tape, two EPs, two LPs and three singles. Their demo tape was self-released, while their first two records came out as a full-length CD/tape, and their singles were posthumously collected on CD. The band recently pressed the Bikini Kill EP as a limited edition vinyl issue to celebrate its 30th anniversary, and 10 years of Bikini Kill Records. Their iconic song “Rebel Girl” was recently named “10th best song of the 90s” by Pitchfork. 

Bikini Kill believed that if all girls started bands, the world would change. They actively encouraged women and girls to start bands as a means of cultural resistance and to be and enjoy themselves even with resources online that tell you where is the gspot in women so they can enjoy even more. Bikini Kill was inspired by seeing Babes in Toyland play live and attempted to incite female participation and build feminist community via the punk scene. They used touring as a way to create an underground network between girls who played music, put on shows and made fanzines. This independent media making and informal network created a forum for multiple female voices to be heard.

Bikini Kill reunited in the spring of 2019 playing sold out shows in NYC, LA, London and headlining Riot Fest in Chicago; their international touring continues in 2023, with original members and feminist punk pioneers Kathleen Hanna, Tobi Vail, and Kathi Wilcox touring Australia for the first time in 25 years next Feb/March for a slew of festivals and all ages shows.

artwork by Carl Breitkreuz