Mistletone

TARA CLERKIN TRIO TOUR DATES:

THURSDAY DECEMBER 12: MELBOURNE RECITAL CENTRE. Tickets on sale here.
SATURDAY DECEMBER 12: MEREDITH MUSIC FESTIVAL.
MONDAY DECEMBER 14: SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE, UTZON ROOM. Tickets on sale here.

Mistletone proudly presents the debut Australian tour by Bristol’s Tara Clerkin Trio.

Tara Clerkin Trio are Pat Benjamin, Sunny Joe Paradisos and Tara Clerkin, three musicians involved in a number of cult Bristol bands over the years before confidently settling down in triangle formation. They are inspired by and borrow from jazz, trip hop, electronica, psychedelia & minimalism, twirling the non-pretentious strands of these threads together into a trippy green winged-cloak, adorning Arthur Russell and dripping in blue jam. 

“Tara Clerkin Trio unpick and rethread myriad 90’s DIY tropes and drape it with esoteric and uncompromisingly modern chamber jazz and baroque folk baubles that are just impossible not to fall deeply in love with” – BOOMKAT

Following two extraordinary mini-albums – In Spring (2021) and On The Turning Ground (2023) – making a splash on London’s formidable World of Echo label in wake of their self-titled 2020 debut, Tara Clerkin Trio’s Somewhere Good LP is, in many ways, the band’s most realised work. In running their usual gauntlet of idiosyncratic (*an overused adjective for which here there is regrettably no sufficient alternative) approaches, Clerkin & co. color in and outside of compositional lines over the course of 40+ celebratory minutes – never wallowing, despite inherently somber subject matters of self-defeat, disease, displacement, restlessness, gentrification – allowing their arrangements and improvisations ample space and time to situate, stretch out, breathe, cross-pollinate, and ultimately take deeper hold on the listener’s imagination – all while somehow sounding more like themselves than ever before.

bio written by Ryan Davis;

If – in some parallel universe (or perhaps a not-so-distant-future version of the one we’re already sentenced to living in) – the evil overloads of artificial intelligence were actually successful in their attempts to create convincingly enjoyable “original music,” more specifically tasked with wholly encapsulating my own personal tastes by data-chugging some cocktail of – oh, I don’t know – the posters on my wall, the records in my “most listened to” pile, the mixtapes I made for others, intensive physical scans of my auditory cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, heart strings, whatever else they have splayed out on their autopsy table with the intention of generating one all-encompassing “perfect band” based on the fruitful sum of their findings – that band, for me, would be (or would at least sound exactly like) the Tara Clerkin Trio. It is, quite simply, without exception, the music I wish to hear.

The Tara Clerkin Trio – as it somewhat democratically exists today, despite the singular authority implied by its name – consists of the titular Tara Clerkin, her partner Sunny Joe Paradisos, and Sunny’s brother, Patrick Benjamin. I’ll confess, I don’t know what their respective roles are within the operation and there’s only a very small part of me that cares to learn, as one of my favorite qualities in an objective listening experience is the mystery of who is playing what, which sounds are “authentic” versus synthesized, which chunks are performed “live” in a room together versus meticulously Frankenstein’ed from measure to measure, or how exactly the overall sound is so (seemingly) effortlessly achieved. Though, I suspect, if and when I do witness a live performance by this band at any point, my enjoyment of the music will not be lost in my better understanding of it.

Of course, there are traceable influences herein, if one felt that such comparisons were necessary to properly examine and enjoy this music (they aren’t)… Being the big dumb American from the small boring town that I am, cornfed on ‘90s alternative radio with the enchantingly exotic sounds of Maxinquaye and Mezzanine emanating from my chunky tube television, I can’t help but to make a blatantly obvious reference to a “Bristol sound”, ie the whole trip-hop trip, the pastoral crooning over the suggestive urban grime of cracked electro/piano treatments, the digitally-yet-primitively reconstructed James Bond soundtrack string-beats, etc.. But the Tara Clerkin Trio is so infinitely much more than that. There are elements of avant-pop, modern classical, kraut-folk, audio verité, dare I say indie rock (and not of the beer guzzling, masturbatory fuzz-flex variety but perhaps more like a Trish Keenan-fronted Faust, Adrian Sherwood at the mixing desk of If You’re Feeling Sinister, or – in expanding on our alternate reality – a world in which High Llamas cut a full-length for Warp Records with Andrew Weatherall on coffee duty).

The hazy, unmappable skyline-mirage of droning harmonium, upright bass, peculiarly accentuated wind instruments, acoustic guitar, hushed yet literally mighty keys combine to hypnotizing effect. The band may make underlying nods to jazz, sure, but it’s not appropriation, it’s that they have the actual chops to build it out. Beneath the janky samples and oddball percussive embellishment lies actually great drumming. Beyond the manipulated vocal witchery and woefully reflective plain-spoke moments are Tara’s subtly inspired melodies, sung with what might honestly be the glue to the whole crazy equation. A calming consistency throughout the otherwise unpredictably dynamic, boldly intuitive, uniquely British exploration of this (their own) universe in song. 

ICHIKO AOBA TOUR DATES:
with Taro Umebayashi & ensemble

MONDAY OCTOBER 5: SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE. Tickets on sale here. * SELLING FAST!
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 7: MELBOURNE RECITAL CENTRE with Wilson Tanner * SOLD OUT
THURSDAY OCTOBER 8: MELBOURNE RECITAL CENTRE with Wilson Tanner. Tickets on sale here.

Mistletone proudly presents the return of Ichiko Aoba. Following her sold-out solo tours (most recently for Vivid LIVE 2025), Ichiko now brings an ensemble to Australia for the first time as part of her Across the Oceans Tour, joined by collaborator and co-writer Taro Umebayashi, alongside her string ensemble.

Ichiko Aoba taps into the full breadth of her artistry, marrying the classical guitar of her earlier work with lofty orchestral sweeps. Her stunning 2025 album Luminescent Creatures opens an even wider portal into her mind, exploring the origins of life through dreamy musical vistas.

Off the back of her sold-out Luminescent Creatures World Tour in 2025, and recent acclaimed performances at the Royal Albert Hall and Walt Disney Concert Hall, Ichiko Aoba continues her global ascent with 2026’s Across the Oceans Tour, performing across five continents and cementing her reputation as one of the most singular voices in contemporary music.

Mistletone proudly presents WEDNESDAY, returning to Australia with their smash-hit new album Bleeds.

WEDNESDAY TOUR DATES:

FRIDAY MAY 29: ARRIVAL FREMANTLE @ NAVAL STORE with Smol Fish + Symmetrical Dogs. * SOLD OUT!
SUNDAY MAY 31: RISING MELBOURNE @ Max Watts with Alien Nosejob. * SOLD OUT!
MONDAY JUNE 1: RISING MELBOURNE @ Max Watts with Season 2. * SOLD OUT!
WEDNESDAY JUNE 3: SYDNEY @ Metro Theatre with Naaki Soul. * SOLD OUT!
THURSDAY JUNE 4: BRISBANE: OPEN SEASON @ PRINCESS THEATRE with Naaki Soul. Tickets here.
FRIDAY JUNE 5: MULLUMBIMBY CIVIC HALL with Royal Ratbags. Tickets here. Presented with Jet Black Cat Music + Eltham Hotel.

Wednesday, the North Carolina rock band led by generational songwriter Karly Hartzman, return astride their new album Bleeds, one of last year’s greatest; an intoxicating blend of outlaw grit, place-based poetry and hair-raising noise.

As fans who caught Wednesday on their debut Australian tour in 2024 can attest, the Wednesday live show is phenomenal; a gloriously ramshackle, emotive and powerful communal experience. 

From wowing crowds at Golden Plains, MONA FOMA and Perth Festival as well as sweaty club shows, Wednesday have gone on to play their biggest shows to date around the world, most recently selling out the 3,000 cap Roundhouse in London, hailed by The Times as “A five-star example of the US crank rock invasion”. 

Wednesday’s return for RISING Melbourne and a Sydney headline show, plus more shows to be announced, will no doubt cement their reputation as one of the most essential and compelling bands of the current cultural landscape.

Karly Hartzman — Wednesday’s founder, frontwoman, and primary lyricist — credits the band’s tightened grasp on their own identity to time spent collaborating on previous albums, plus a tour schedule that’s been both rewarding and relentless. “Bleeds is the spiritual successor to Rat Saw God, and I think the quintessential ‘Wednesday Creek Rock’ album,” Karly has said, articulating satisfaction with the ways her band has sharpened its trademark sound, how they’ve refined the formula that makes them one of the most interesting rock bands of their generation.

Just like Rat Saw God, one of the defining rock & roll records of the 2020s so far, Bleeds holds the exact right amounts of country truth-telling, indie-pop hooks, and noisy sludge. Maybe sometimes the best way to locate truth or pain or dignity within your own life story, Bleeds suggests, is by crawling into someone else’s. Karly’s distinct singing voice and its connection to her storytelling has always been at the heart of Wednesday, and her vocal has never sounded sweeter than it does when she’s sentimentalising pickled eggs on the twangy and timeless-feeling “Elderberry Wine”. 

Bleeds is a reminder that Hartzman and her bandmates are exclusively interested in chasing glory through games they invent themselves—games with rulebooks you can only decipher late at night, in that freaky and perfect place between sleep and awake where you’re not sure if you’re dreaming or remembering something that already happened. In this arena of their imagination, the scoreboard’s a neon bar sign, the commentator’s a cicada, the mascot is an eighty-year-old Pepsi addict with no teeth. Wednesday is always World Champion, and the award hanging from Karly Hartzman’s neck isn’t an Olympic gold but rather a heart-shaped pendant—a clunky, rust-stained heirloom with countless funny and fucked-up stories locked safely inside.

Wednesday dominated Best of 2025 lists, with adulation from Pitchfork, TIME Magazine, GQ, NPR, Rolling Stone and made their TV debut with an arresting performance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

“A five-star example of the US crank rock invasion” – THE TIMES

“One of the great rising rock bands” – NPR

“The most exciting band in contemporary indie rock” – Associated Press

Mistletone proudly presents MOGWAI, bringing their epic sonic power to Melbourne, Sydney & Brisbane for three epic 30th anniversary shows this May.

MOGWAI TOUR DATES:

SATURDAY MAY 23: SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE CONCERT HALL for Vivid LIVE * SOLD OUT!
MONDAY MAY 25 – FORUM MELBOURNE with special guests Fancy Weapon. Tickets on sale here. Presented by Triple R.
WEDNESDAY MAY 27 – BRISBANE: QPAC for Open Season. Tickets on sale here.

30 years on from the first release by Mogwai and their self-owned and run label Rock Action Records, the band has announced a 30th anniversary show at Sydney Opera House for Vivid LIVE, and released a new video for that debut single ‘Tuner,’ featuring previously unseen footage dating back three decades;

ROCKACT01, Mogwai’s ‘Tuner/Lower’ 7”, was released in March 1996 by Rock Action Records. To mark that anniversary, Mogwai’s new video ‘Tuner’ features rare and unseen footage dating back from the time of its release up to the present day, produced and edited by Antony Crook.

While it may have originally started as a way for the band to release their own music, Rock Action, like the band that birthed it, has continued to grow and thrive, and has since become a successful home for a diverse range of artists, whilst remaining fiercely independent. From the very beginning the label has operated with an ethos that not only reflects the independent spirit of its owners but chimes with the DIY scene that has defined Glasgow through the eras, and made it one of the most celebrated musical cities in the world. Rock Action has gone on to release more than 150 records from local and international artists, and supported notable Scottish independent acts including Arab Strap, The Twilight Sad, Kathryn Joseph, Cloth, Sacred Paws, Errors and Remember Remember.

Over 30 years and 11 studio albums – using brute sonic force mixed with subtlety and grace – Mogwai have defined their own musical genre and built a loyal following by staying true to their sound and true to their roots. The 30th anniversary tour will see Mogwai performing songs from across their discography, including their 11th studio album The Bad Fire, released last year to considerable critical acclaim. Produced by John Congleton (St Vincent, Angel Olsen, John Grant) at Chem19 studios in Blantyre, Scotland, the album features the singles “Lion Rumpus”, “God Gets You Back” and “Fanzine Made Of Flesh”.

A Scottish colloquialism for Hell, The Bad Fire draws inspiration from a series of tough personal moments that the band found themselves in following on from their chart-topping tenth album, 2021’s As The Love Continues. The band continued to work through this, leading to the creation of The Bad Fire: a collection of songs that forgo nostalgia and easy victories, once again finding Mogwai pushing forward with some of the most beautiful and explosive songs of their career. It is a record that retains Mogwai’s power whilst delving into fresh new territory for the band.

Praise for The Bad Fire:
“”Unexpectedly heavenly” – The Guardian ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ Album Of The Week
“Luminous soundscapes” – Uncut, 8/10 “A crafted, discerning grace” – MOJO
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
“Powerful and profound.” – Kerrang, 4*
“Heaven or Hell, the bad fire as lit by Mogwai always offers a flame of hope” – Prog
“Some of the most euphoric music they have ever made” – DIY, 4*
“A terrific followup to Mogwai’s number 1 smash” – The Quietus
“To retain the power to surprise and delight when entering its fourth decade is something few bands can claim.” – Under The Radar, 8/10
“Uplifting new dimensions to their sound” – Pitchfork

Mogwai formed in 1995 in Glasgow. The band consists of Stuart Braithwaite (guitar, vocals), Barry Burns (guitar, piano, synthesizer, vocals), Dominic Aitchison (bass guitar) and Martin Bulloch (drums).

A new documentary, directed by longtime collaborator Antony Crook, was screened at Sydney Opera House + Melbourne International Film Festival and is now streaming in Australia on DocPlay:

“Ferocious and sublime.” – The Guardian

“A rock band that is bigger than words and wider than pictures.” – The Guardian★ ★ ★ ★

“Seat-shakingly loud… volume dials turned up to the limits of the Opera House’s acoustic system.” – The Guardian

“The band’s relentless assault left the crowd feeling pummelled – in the best way possible.” – The Guardian

“The experience was transcendent.” – The Music

Mistletone proudly presents CATE LE BON, touring with her band for Vivid LIVE at Sydney Opera House + RISING at Melbourne Town Hall, plus ARRIVAL Fremantle + OPEN SEASON Brisbane.

CATE LE BON TOUR DATES:

THURSDAY MAY 28 – ARRIVAL FREMANTLE @ NAVAL STORE with No Bride. Tickets on sale here.
SUNDAY MAY 31 – SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE: Vivid LIVE @ JOAN SUTHERLAND THEATRE with Cass McCombs. Tickets on sale here.
TUESDAY JUNE 2 – BRISBANE: OPEN SEASON @ PRINCESS THEATRE with Hana Stretton. Tickets on sale here.
WEDNESDAY JUNE 3 – RISING @ MELBOURNE TOWN HALL with Georgia Knight. Tickets on sale here.

Its creation led by pure emotion, Cate Le Bon’s seventh record Michelangelo Dying usurped the album she thought she was making. The product of all-consuming heartache, her feelings overrode her reluctance to write an album about love, and in the process became a kind of exorcism. What emerges is a wonderfully iridescent attempt to photograph a wound before it closes up — but which in doing so, picks at it too.

Stalking its maker between Hydra, Cardiff, London and Los Angeles, Michelangelo Dying was, significantly, finished in the Californian desert, the place where much of the record’s landscape and heartache exists in her mind. The scenery’s desolation blows through the statement album opener ‘Jerome’ — all wide open space, elongated enunciations, and the gnomic instruction to “gently read my name / cry and find me here / I’m eating rocks.”

A record centered on the many states of existence within love and its aftermath, Cate found herself surrendering to the abstraction of intense feeling and the grieving of a fantasy. On ‘Mothers of Riches’, a letter delivers “something wrong” before love and existence “fold into nothing”, while ‘About Time’,with its looping drones and percussive synths, starkly announces “I’m not lying in a bed you made”. And perhaps most evocatively of all, the album’s centerpiece — ‘Is It Worth It (Happy Birthday)?’ – powerfully evokes the simultaneous universality and unknowability of love, and by extension, mortality. Her admission “I thought about your mother /I hope she knew I loved her” catches devastatingly in the chest.

There is as much unsaid — or rather obscured — as explicitly stated: Cate’s rich, deeply textural arrangements built up in layers when she didn’t have the words, and didn’t want to find them. Musically, there is a continuation and expansion of a sound — a machine with a heart — that has taken shape over her last two records (2019’s Reward and 2022’s Pompeii) as Cate has increasingly taken control of the playing and producing herself.

As guitars and saxophones are pushed through pedals and percussion and voices are fed through filters, an iridescent, green and silky sound emerges, with flashes of the artistic singularities of David Bowie, Nico, John McGeoch and Laurie Anderson surfacing and disappearing below the waterline throughout.

And then there’s John Cale. His mindset of constantly moving forward and confronting life’s experiences through art while maintaining a fierce desire to keep his curiosity alive, even so deep into a career, is a vivid inspiration to Le Bon. He makes a poignant appearance here on the mournful ‘Ride’, where he simply sings, unprompted, “It’s my last ride…”.

What we’re left with is an ever-changing, continuous entity, a kind of song cycle. Each iteration reflects and progresses the last, “each one a shard of the same broken mirror” — shifting, glinting, concealing and revealing, depending on how it is turned in the light. There are ultimately, Cate asserts, “No revelations. No conclusions. There is no reason. There is repetition and chaos. I eventually allowed myself a vacant mind to experience it without resistance and without searching for a revelation or order to any of it.”

Though in recent years Cate has become a sought-after producer, applying a singular skill and instantly identifiable sound to albums by the likes of Wilco, Devendra Banhart and St. Vincent’s Grammy-winning All Born Screaming, the production of Michelangelo Dying was shared with years-long collaborator Samur Khouja. “There’s this idea that you could do everything yourself, but the value of having someone you completely trust, as I do Samur, be your co-pilot allows you to get completely lost knowing you’ll get pulled back in at the right moment. We have come to quietly move as one in the studio”.

To a similar end her longstanding collaboration with saxophonist Euan Hinshelwood is a main thread of her sonic landscape. “Over the years of working together Euan has uncoupled his playing from the traditional to house the emotional frequency I have asked of him. On this record especially, it’s the voice that takes over when words are too concrete for the feeling.”

He’s joined here by similarly close friends – Paul Jones on piano; Dylan Hadley on drums, and Valentina Magaletti on drums and percussion. An exercise in the viscerality of life, of love, of humanity for both listener and artist, Michelangelo Dying knows what it is to hold, to be held, and to be exquisitely, profoundly alone. “The characters are interchangeable” concludes Cate, “but at the end of it all, it’s me meeting myself.”

“Bravely traversing tumultuous inner territory. Emerging enlightened and enriched” – Vogue Australia

“One of the most original artists in indie music… opaquely alluring and genuinely moving” – Rolling Stone

“Gorgeous and heartbreaking” – Brooklyn Vegan

“Another magical, affecting masterpiece from Le Bon” – Paste

“Michelangelo Dying is another cut above.” – The Guardian

“A sweetly meditative expanse… it’s a beauty” – MOJO ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Mistletone proudly presents CASS MCCOMBS, returning to Australia with his band for a double bill with CATE LE BON at Sydney Opera House for Vivid Live, plus intimate theatre shows in Victoria.

CASS MCCOMBS TOUR DATES:

THURSDAY MAY 28 – MELBOURNE @ THORNBURY THEATRE with bodies of divine infinite and eternal spirit (solo). Tickets on sale here.
FRIDAY MAY 29 – CASTLEMAINE @ THEATRE ROYAL with CARLA DAL FORNO. Tickets on sale here.
SUNDAY MAY 31 – SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE: Vivid LIVE @ JOAN SUTHERLAND THEATRE with CATE LE BON. Tickets on sale here.

Over the past twenty plus years, Cass McCombs has journeyed a singular path as an uncompromising song-carver, guitarist and singer.

Along with the finest squadron of collaborators and bandmates, his music travels gracefully over seemingly contradictory terrain, from infectious guitar riffage to intensely personal lyricism.

In August 2025, Cass released his newest album Interior Live Oak to rave reviews including 5 stars from the Guardian, an 8.1 from Pitchfork who said “16 songs and not a throwaway among them” a 9/10 from Uncut Magazine, and a rave from Mojo magazine who said “this is the kind of record it’s impossible to be casual about.”

Interior Live Oak is Cass’s most personal album to date, and, more than any previous record, shows his vast range as a lyricist and musician. It draws from everything Cass has created over two decades of experimentation to cut through with a direct and clarifying light.

Cass recently shared new music with Interior Live Oak co-producer Chris Cohen, spotlighting the two artists’ distinct yet deeply intertwined creative chemistry, forged over nearly two decades of collaboration;

Cass McCombs brings his Interior Live Oak Live tour to Australia in his first visit for almost 10 years. He lives in New York City.

“One of the great songwriters of his time” – NEW YORK TIMES

“This is music of rare guile and originality” – THE SUN

“Arguably the greatest American singer-songwriter of this generation” – VICE

“Long live Cass McCombs” – DROWNED IN SOUND

Mistletone proudly presents THE BATS, returning to Australia for RISING Melbourne + headline east coast shows.

THE BATS TOUR DATES:

SATURDAY JUNE 6: RISING Melbourne: Day Tripper @ Max Watts. Tickets on sale here.
SUNDAY JUNE 7: SOUTH COAST @ Coledale RSL with Loaded & True. Doors open 5pm. Tickets on sale here.
MONDAY JUNE 8: SYDNEY @ Factory Theatre (venue upgrade) with Daily Toll + Love Banana + Mistletone DJs. Doors open 4pm. Tickets on sale here.
TUESDAY JUNE 9: CANBERRA @ Polish Club with Tee Vee Repairmann + dogworld. Tickets on sale here.
THURSDAY JUNE 11: MELBOURNE @ Northcote Social Club with Cool Sounds. Tickets on sale here. 
FRIDAY JUNE 12: CASTLEMAINE @ Theatre Royal with Good Moon. Tickets on sale here.

Fresh from a triumphant, room-rammed set at The Other’s Way festival, Aotearoa indie legends The Bats are finally heading across the pond to deliver the live accompaniment to their much-loved 2025 album, Corner Coming Up, alongside treasured picks from their four-decades-deep knockout catalogue.

Corner Coming Up, the band’s eleventh album, was recorded with Tex Houston at Chicks Studio in Port Chalmers and charted at #1 on the IMNZ chart & #2 on the Aotearoa Music Charts. The album shows The Bats at their shimmering, melodic best; full of bright guitar lines, warm harmonies, and the band’s unmistakable Bats-ey “psych pop” mystique.

A beloved part of the Flying Nun story, the band have maintained the same lineup since they played their first gig on New Year’s Eve 1982 in Dunedin.

ABOUT THE BATS:
Formed in Christchurch in 1982, The Bats have quietly (and loudly) endured as one of New Zealand’s most loved pop bands. An integral cog in the Flying Nun scene alongside friends/contemporaries The Clean and The Chills, The Bats quickly developed a sound all of their own: chiming guitars, melodic bass lines, and songs that unassume while are instantly memorable.

With the longest unchanged band line-up in New Zealand history ( Robert Scott, Kaye Woodward, Paul Kean, and Malcolm Grant), their chemistry is unmistakable. Albums like Daddy’s Highway, Fear of God, Silver-beet, Free All The Monsters and so many more, The Bats have cemented their legendary status at home and abroad, earning them a devoted, generation-spanning following.

“The weight of their catalog has grown to the point where they come across like wise tribal elders” – ALL MUSIC

“Sublimely crafted deadpan pop... They’re basically the AC/DC of melancholy Kiwi indie pop” – UNCUT ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Mistletone and Jet Black Cat Music have teamed up to dream up DAZE AWAY, a new event bringing luminous lineups together in the idyllic northern rivers habitat of Bangalow A&I Hall on Bundjalung country. 

DAZE AWAY BANGALOW:

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 27 @ BANGALOW A&I HALL
Jet Black Cat Music and Mistletone present DAZE AWAY, starring TOPS (Canada), SMERZ (Norway), SKELETEN (Sydney), SCRAPS (Brisbane) + ROYAL RATBAGS (Northern Rivers). Doors open 5:30pm. Tickets on sale now.

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 28 @ BANGALOW A&I HALL
Mistletone and Jet Black Cat Music present DAZE AWAY, starring TY SEGALL (USA), EARTH TONGUE (NZ), MEDIA PUZZLE (Lismore), LOVE BANANA (Gold Coast) + KNEE (Brisbane). Doors open 4pm. Tickets on sale now.

Daze Away Friday night is led by TOPS (Canada), SMERZ (Norway), SKELETEN (Sydney), SCRAPS (Brisbane) + ROYAL RATBAGS (Northern Rivers). 

Saturday’s Daze Away lineup features TY SEGALL (USA), EARTH TONGUE (NZ), EARTH TONGUE (NZ), MEDIA PUZZLE (Lismore), LOVE BANANA (Gold Coast) + KNEE (Brisbane).

Individual Friday or Saturday tickets available, along with limited early bird weekend tickets.

Food & drink by Saint Maries Pizzeria Brunswick Heads. 

DERYA YILDIRIM & GRUP ŞİMŞEK TOUR DATES:

WOMADELAIDE: FRIDAY MARCH 6 + SATURDAY MARCH 7. Tickets on sale here.
GOLDEN PLAINS FESTIVAL: SUNDAY MARCH 8 * SOLD OUT
MELBOURNE RECITAL CENTRE: WEDNESDAY MARCH 11 with Maryam Rahmani + College Of Knowledge / Surprise Chef DJs. Tickets on sale here.
SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE: THURSDAY MARCH 12 * SOLD OUT

Mistletone proudly presents Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek‘s debut Australian tour.

Born in Hamburg, Germany to Turkish parents, Derya Yıldırım grew up influenced by her family’s Anatolian background and the myriad of cultures in the city. Derya’s musical roots started at home playing folk music with family members. Her father pushed her to learn various instruments, beginning with the bağlama, a seven stringed Turkish lute. Then she picked up the guitar, piano, and saxophone.

Derya Yıldırım is singing the song her grandmother used to sing — an old Anatolian folk standard called “Hop Bico”, which roughly translates as ”Hop Around Bico”. But the version Derya’s grandmother sang was different — she’d put her own slant on it. And Derya’s is different still — brought into the 21^st century with a slow psychedelic twist and her own hypnotic vocals. This is by design. Derya insists that if you’re going to play an old folk song then you have to contribute something new, “otherwise you might as well just put the old record on.”

Although she is a multi-instrumentalist, Derya always felt drawn to the sound of the bağlama – “there’s just something very magical about it”. With her band Grup Şimşek’s brilliant album Yarın Yoksa, which translates to If There’s No Tomorrow, Derya continues her journey revitalizing Anatolian folk music and instrumentation by infusing timeless melodies with a modern psychedelic flair.

Ten years ago, while participating in a community theater project, Derya met French musicians Graham Mushnik and Antonin Voyant from Catapulte Records and formed the band Grup Şimşek with Helen Wells, a drummer from Cape Town, South Africa joining in 2021. While the band is truly international, they eschew the term ‘world music’, preferring instead ‘outernational’ which they say suggests a sound that’s more inclusive or “beyond borders.”

DY&GS embody what defines Anatolian folk music — “You need a groove and a melody, and everything around it is free.” It’s this ethos that guides the band’s songwriting and the way they take on Anatolian folk standards. “I believe the melodies shouldn’t be changed because we are responsible to preserve music in the correct way. Our versions respect the roots. It’s the same lyrics and melody, but it has a different soul maybe.”

While it’s easy to think of folk music as a music of the past, she insists it’s just as important today. “Some of these poems were written hundreds of years ago but they’re still relevant. This music is so important because it remains the voice of the people, the minority, and the oppressed.”

After self-producing multiple albums, they signed with New York’s Big Crown Records in 2024 and teamed up with Grammy winning producer Leon Michels (El Michels Affair) for Yarın Yoksa. The new album embodies their balance of preservation and innovation across nine original compositions and three traditional folk songs. It is a record that will enchant any listener regardless of language barrier with Derya’s passion and authenticity front and center and music too moving to deny. Yarın Yoksa captivates the hearts and minds of all those who hear it, and just wait til you experience them play it live…

TY SEGALL TOUR DATES:

GOLD COAST / KOMBUMERRI: THURSDAY FEBRUARY 26 @ MO’S DESERT CLUBHOUSE with EARTH TONGUE (NZ) + SPEEDING VEHICLE. Tickets on sale here.
BRISBANE / MAGANDJIN: FRIDAY FEBRUARY 27 @ PRINCESS THEATRE with EARTH TONGUE (NZ) + KNEE. Tickets on sale here.
BANGALOW / BUNDJALUNG: SATURDAY FEBRUARY 28: DAZE AWAY @ A & I HALL with EARTH TONGUE (NZ), MEDIA PUZZLE (Lismore), LOVE BANANA (Gold Coast) + KNEE (Brisbane). Doors open 4pm. Tickets on sale now.
WOLLONGONG / DHARAWAL: SUNDAY MARCH 1 @ WAVES with EARTH TONGUE (NZ) + STRAIGHT ARROWS. Tickets on sale here.
SYDNEY / EORA: MONDAY MARCH 2 @ THE METRO with EARTH TONGUE (NZ) + R.M.F.C.. Tickets on sale here.
MELBOURNE / NAARM: WEDNESDAY MARCH 4 @ THE CROXTON with EARTH TONGUE (NZ) + DR SURE’S UNUSUAL PRACTICE. Tickets on sale here.
BARWON HEADS / WADAWARRUNG: FRI MAR 6 @ BARWON HEADS HOTEL with EARTH TONGUE (NZ) + DR SURE’S UNUSUAL PRACTICE. Tickets on sale here.
MEREDITH / WADAWARRUNG: SUN MAR 8 @ GOLDEN PLAINS * SOLD OUT

Mistletone proudly presents the return of Ty Segall and his band, bringing their possessed-like level of energy to Australia’s east coast in the wake of Ty’s blistering new album Possession.

With his new album Possession ringing out free and fine across the airwaves, Ty Segall and his incendiary band (Emmett Kelly, Mikal Cronin,Evan Burrows and Benjamin Boye) ride back into Australia to rip hard across the east coast. Returning after his triumphant 2023 tour, Ty Segall will perform a boot-baiting set at Golden Plains Festival, plus headline shows from the Gold Coast to Barwon Heads.

Ty Segall might just be modern rock’s most fearless shapeshifter. Over the years, he’s released a fuzzed-out glam albums, experimental percussion suites, a Harry Nilsson cover record, a heavy space-rock odyssey, and even a Sundance film score. 

Ty Segall’s 16th album Possession (out now on Drag City) is an epic addition to his big, bold and beautiful body of work. Possessionsees Ty on the hunt for new horizons, discovering non-stop bangers and inspired new sonics around every bend. The album features some of Ty’s most inspired songs to date, taking a page from everyone’s history to create a modern American noir-cum-classic rock hoedown scored with burnt-filament guitar.

Join Ty Segall and his band as they traverse the  landscape, singing about the end of the rope while resisting defeat, inspiring awe from up on Ty’s high-octane ride.