Mistletone

LONNIE HOLLEY + MOURNING [A] BLKSTAR TOUR DATES:

MELBOURNE: SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 23 @ MAX WATT’S, with special guest LEE BAINS (USA). Tickets on sale here.
SYDNEY: TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 26 @ VOLUME FESTIVAL, ART GALLERY OF NSW: LONNIE HOLLEY + MOURNING [A] BLKSTAR.  Tickets on sale here.
PAMBULA, NSW: SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 30: LONNIE HOLLEY + MOURNING [A] BLKSTAR @ WANDERER FESTIVAL.  Tickets on sale here.
MELBOURNE: MONDAY OCTOBER 2: LONNIE HOLLEY talk event, WHEELER CENTRE. Tickets on sale here.

Mistletone and Triple R proudly present the return of cosmic American musical and visual artist, Lonnie Holley, performing in a massive ensemble with Mourning [A] BLKstar, a multi-generational Black Culture collective who bring an emancipatory, rejoicing jazz / gospel choir energy to Lonnie’s mystic, soulful songs. Stirring in one moment and a balm the next, Lonnie Holley is a magical performer who weaves jazz, poetry, folk, blues and hard-won wisdom into a visionary sonic tapestry of pure joyousness.

Recent RRR Album of the Week, Lonnie Holley’s new release Oh Me Oh My was produced by Jacknife Lee (The Cure, REM, Modest Mouse) with collaborators Michael Stipe, Sharon Van Etten, Moor Mother and Bon Iver serving as choirs of angels for Lonnie’s message: Thumbs Up For Mother Universe. That’s also the title of a new documentary film about Lonnie’s life and work, a story of survival, endurance and triumph which has much to say about race, social class and culture in the American South.

Oh Me Oh My was named Best New Music on Pitchfork and has won universal acclaim. Both elegant and ferocious, stirring in one moment and a balm the next, Lonnie Holley is a magical performer who weaves jazz, poetry, folk, blues and hard-won wisdom into a visionary sonic tapestry of pure joyousness. 

• “At 73, the outsider artist has made his most ambitious and approachable album: an extraordinary aural memoir that tells a cosmic story of survival” – PITCHFORK – 8.5 BEST NEW MUSIC
• “Holley has an almost shamanistic quality, as if he possessed all the wisdom of the universe” – THE NEW YORKER
• “For Lonnie Holley, every performance is a spontaneous creation. Arriving late to fame, the Alabama-born artist has an almost childlike ability to make a song out of anything he imagines, like a freestyling MC crossed with a jazz improviser. Fusing on-the-spot poetry and cascading piano, he plunges us into deep pools of memory – his own and that of his ancestors in the American south – in order to emerge spiritually recharged” – THE GUARDIAN, 30 ARTISTS TO SEE LIVE BEFORE YOU DIE

Lonnie Holley‘s masterpiece to date, Oh Me Oh My, details histories both global and personal. Lonnie Holley’s harrowing youth and young manhood in the Jim Crow South are well-told at this point — his sale into a different home as a child for just a bottle of whiskey; his abuse at the infamous Mount Meigs correctional facility for boys; the destruction of his art environment by the Birmingham airport expansion. But Holley’s music is less a performance of pain endured and more a display of perseverance, of relentless hope. Intricately and lovingly produced by LA’s Jacknife Lee (The Cure, REM, Modest Mouse), there is both kinetic, shortwave funk that call to mind Brian Eno’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and the deep space satellite sounds of Eno’s ambient works. But it’s a tremendous achievement in sonics all its own. 

It’s also an achievement in the refinement of Holley’s impressionistic, stream-of-consciousness lyrics. On the title track, which deals with “mutual human understanding”, Holley is able to make a profound point as ever in far fewer phrases: “The deeper we go, the more chances there are, for us to understand the oh-me’s and understand the oh-my’s.” Illustrious collaborators like Michael Stipe, Sharon Van Etten, Moor Mother and Bon Iver are proof of Lonnie Holley as a galvanizing, iconoclastic force across the music community.

click below to watch/share the video for “Kindness Will Follow Your Tears (feat. Bon Iver)”, which depicts Lonnie’s wondrous visual art creative process;

Lonnie Holley was born on February 10, 1950 in Birmingham, Alabama. From the age of five, Holley worked various jobs: picking up trash at a drive-in movie theatre, washing dishes, and cooking. He lived in a whiskey house, on the state fairgrounds, and in several foster homes. His early life was chaotic and Holley was never afforded the pleasure of a real childhood.

Since 1979, Holley has devoted his life to the practice of improvisational creativity. His art and music, born out of struggle, hardship, but perhaps more importantly, out of furious curiosity and biological necessity, has manifested itself in drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, performance, and sound. Holley’s sculptures are constructed from found materials in the oldest tradition of African American sculpture. Objects, already imbued with cultural and artistic metaphor, are combined into narrative sculptures that commemorate places, people, and events. Lonnie Holley’s music and art distil a lifetime of struggle into a triumphant display of perseverance, of relentless hope, of Lonnie’s mantra, ‘Thumbs Up For Mother Universe’. As a visual artist, work is now in collections of major museums throughout the world, including  The Met, The Smithsonian, and Art Gallery of NSW.  His work is on permanent display in the United Nations, and has been displayed in the White House Rose Garden. Lonnie’s work features prominently in the 2023 exhibition, Called to Create: Black Artists of the American South at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. He has also experimented with film, photography, and video throughout his career. His directorial debut, the short narrative film I Snuck Off the Slave Ship, premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. The 2023 podcast, Unreformed: The Story of the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children, follows the history of the infamous reform school in Alabama (which many refer to as a “slave camp for kids”) and profiles Holley’s early life and the struggles he and so many others suffered at the hands of the state of Alabama. 

In 2022, Lonnie Holley was named a USA Artist Fellow. His visual art is represented by Blum & Poe Gallery (Los Angeles) and Edel Assanti Gallery (London). He continues to make art and music from his home and studio in Atlanta, Georgia.

Lonnie’s sublime music includes stream-of-consciousness lyrics delivered in his deeply expressive, world-worn yet beautiful voice. His debut album, 2012’s Just Before Music, was his first studio recording, following several years’ worth of home recordings unheard by the general public. Following its release, Holley began touring with musicians such as Bill Callahan, Deerhunter and Animal Collective, in addition to making more collaborative studio albums, including 2018’s politically charged MITH and 2021’s Broken Mirror: A Selfie Reflection, with Matthew E. White. 

To quote a review from Lonnie’s recent Big Ears Festival artist-in-residency performance:

“It was a joyous affair, filed with hard-won wisdom and alternate perspectives on race, social structures, and the odd bit of divinity. He was backed by genre-bending collective Mourning [A] Blkstar. More shaman than frontman, although he’d likely prefer to be called a preacher, Holley ‘s performance was a treatise on enlightenment through sound. He sang of hardship, revelation, and love — and he did so with a joy in his heart. That was evident from the moment he took the stage” – BEATS PER MINUTE

click below to watch/share the trailer for Thumbs Up For Mother Universe, thenew documentary film about Lonnie’s extraordinary life and work:

MOUNT EERIE TOUR DATES:

THURSDAY OCTOBER 5 – SYDNEY: VOLUME FESTIVAL @ ART GALLERY OF NSW with Black Belt Eagle Scout. Tickets on sale here.
FRIDAY OCTOBER 6 – CASTLEMAINE: THEATRE ROYAL with Black Belt Eagle Scout. Tickets on sale here.
SATURDAY OCTOBER 7 – MELBOURNE: MAX WATTS with Hana Stretton (solo show). Tickets on sale here.
SUNDAY OCTOBER 8: BRISBANE POWERHOUSE with Lydian Dunbar (solo show). Tickets on sale here.

Mistletone proudly presents the return of Mount Eerie (Phil Elverum), touring Australia for the first time in five years, with performances to include “new songs from an in-progress album”. Mount Eerie will perform as a band for the first time ever in Australia, with Black Belt Eagle Scout as his backing band in Sydney & Castlemaine. Black Belt Eagle Scout, the band led by Swinomish/Iñupiaq singer-songwriter Katherine Paul, will also perform an opening set at both shows. Phil Elverum will also perform solo Mount Eerie shows in Melbourne and Brisbane. Tickets for all shows on sale now!

Mount Eerie’s Phil Elverum is an artist and human being from the Pacific northwest town of Anacortes, Washington State. His recordings, released variously as The Microphones and Mount Eerie, represent just a portion of his artistic output, which has ranged from running a label to self-publishing books, photography, and painting. But it is for his stunningly original music that he is known best, from the earliest tape experiments of the ’90s to the immersive sound-diary of Microphones in 2020.

Phil Elverum has never shied from exploring the high mountain passes, finding new ways to sculpt with sound, and trying to communicate the momentary experience of being human as clearly as the water from freshly melted snows. As Phil explains, “It’s always just been autobiography. But mere memoir would be useless without penetrating beyond the surface of the reflecting pool, down to the bedrock stream bed, details washed downstream. I used to call my recordings a different name. A small clump of albums from 1997-2002 were called “the Microphones,” including some popular ones. But the essence of this project has never really changed: me exploring autobiographically in sound and words with occasional loose participation from friends. The name it has been called has never mattered much to me… We all crash through life prodded and diverted by our memories. There is a way through to disentanglement. Burn your old notebooks and jump through the smoke. Use the ashes to make a new thing.”

The old smell of air

coming faintly through the spring

crack in the snow above a hibernating bear’s winter den,

the smell of long self-absorption,

burrowing into one’s own chest, re-breathing the exhales of one’s own breath,

the smell of squinting in the dark

ruminating in dreams

beneath layering years, the snow still falling.

In the dark smoldering

slowly burning through all the old clothes, sifting through the ash,

wiping old shedded fur from the eyes

nosing out into the light.

In that brief moment when the airs of the past and present meet,

at the mouth of the open bed,

egoic solidity burns away in the spring wind, self becomes fuel,

there is only now

and the past is a dream burning off.

Fragments arranged along the trail, crumbs consumed, dust blown,

no route back.

Instead of shoring up the tilting walls of whoever I think I am, I push at the seams and try to tip it all over. I do not want to be well known by my name or an image or an idea that might trail me around. I do want to know well, and to share insights, about the workings of time and weather growing and eroding this one life.

It’s always just been autobiography. But mere memoir would be useless without penetrating beyond the surface of the reflecting pool, down to the bedrock stream bed, details washed downstream.

I used to call my recordings a different name. A small clump of albums from 1997-2002 were called “the Microphones,” including some popular ones. But the essence of this project has never really changed: me exploring autobiographically in sound and words with occasional loose participation from friends. The name it has been called has never mattered much to me.

In the summer of 2019 I played a little local concert under the old name for no big reason. The little flurry of weird attention around this announcement got me thinking about what it even means to step back into an old mode. Self commemoration would be embarrassing. I don’t want to go backwards ever. There is nothing to reunite. So I nudged into the future with these ideas and came up with this large song. It took almost a year to write and record, working constantly at home, digging through the archives, playing the same two chords forever on the same $5 first guitar. In it I have tried to get at the heart of what defined that time in my life, my late teens and early twenties, but even more importantly, I tried to break the spell of nostalgia and make something perennial and enduring. All past selves existing at once in this inferno present moment. The song doesn’t seem to end. That’s the point.

We all crash through life prodded and diverted by our memories. There is a way through to disentanglement. Burn your old notebooks and jump through the smoke. Use the ashes to make a new thing.

– Phil Elverum

For Black Belt Eagle Scout’s Katherine Paul, the land runs through her blood. And it called to her. In dreams she saw the river, her ancestors, and her home. When the land calls, you listen. And KP found herself far from her ancestral lands during a time of collective trauma, when the world was wounded and in need of healing.

There is a throughline of story in every song, a remembrance of knowledge and teachings, a gratitude of wisdom passed down and carried. When you stand on ancestral lands it is impossible to be alone. You feel the arms and hands that hold you up, unwilling to let you fall into sorrow or abandonment.

In her songs Katherine Paul has channeled that feeling of being held. In every note she has written a love letter to indigenous strength and healing. To quote She Shreds Magazine: “If you can imagine all of the best things that the Pacific Northwest has brought us—Mount Eerie, Grunge, Sleater-Kinney, The Girls Rock Camp, and lush mountain ranges—reimagined and told through the perspective of an Indigenous Swinomish/Iñupiaq woman; if you can imagine the magic that would bring to your life, then you can imagine Black Belt Eagle Scout.”

TENGGER TOUR DATES:

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 22 – MELBOURNE: THE CURTIN with special guests YL Hooi + DJ Noise In My Head. Tickets on sale here.
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 24 – SYDNEY: VOLUME FESTIVAL @ ART GALLERY OF NSW. Tickets on sale here.

Mistletone proudly presents the first Australian tour by travelling Pan-Asian musical family, TENGGER 텐거/天郷.

From their home base in Seoul, with regular pilgrimages to their studio in the highlands, TENGGER — itta, Marqido, and RAAI — create psychedelic new-age kosmische drone magic with harmonium, voice, and toy instruments (played by itta) and analogue synths (played by Marqido), with interpretative dancing by RAAI which brings a cosmic, life-affirming sense of wonder to this family’s magical performances.

TENGGER‘s tour coincides with their self-titled 13th album, to be released by We Are Busy Bodies on September 29th. The album represents an opportunity for the globetrotting family trio to explore their origins, and finds TENGGER accepting the mood of the world, using the motion of wind and waves as sonic inspiration. TENGGER’s interest in cosmology is reflected in their mystical outlook and lyrical approach.  In their words: “the album’s sound starts from the breaking dawn, and circulates around until it reaches the night sky and the milky way.”

Opening single “PANAPTU” offers a reverent respect to “the earth and the sky“, the band write. “The sun, the rain, and the things that grow on the ground make up our bodies and soul. Both can be compared to a mirror. Humanity (on the earth) looks up at the sky; the sky looks at us Illuminate each other and influence each other. Change is happening every moment.” “PANAPTU” refers to a traditional Tungusic Shamanic metal mirror, and also their ancient observatory. PANA translates to “shadow of the soul”, and PTU to “bowl to hold the shadow”. The relationship between the PANA and PTU is like that between a lamp or starlight, and a mirror. 

(lyrics and English translation)

무엇인가를 찾고 있다면 if you are looking for something

무언가 역시 우리를 찾고 something is also looking for us

서로를 비추는 Illuminate each other

“Music designed to induce enlightenment”– THE FADER
“Clear and bright, fed by the deep wells of feeling TENGGER have drawn from the natural world” – PITCHFORK
“From field recordings to krautrock to something they call ‘aural hang-gliding’, TENGGER have truly put their stamp on psychedelic music” – UNCUT
“Like stepping through a glowing portal and gasping at the wonders of another world” – STEREOGUM

Starting out as a duo with the moniker “10”, they adopted the name TENGGER when RAAI was born in 2012, to mark the expansion of the family. TENGGER means ‘unlimited expanse of sky’ in Mongolian, and also means ‘huge sea’ in Hungarian. Travel, as spiritual experience in real environments, and the sound between the space and the audience, has been a central theme of TENGGER’s works. The family’s yearly pilgrimages inform every aspect of their art. 

Having won global critical acclaim for their previous albums and appearing at international festivals such as Le Guess Who? curated by Moon Duo, TENGGER were scheduled to showcase at SXSW 2020. When the pandemic forced SXSW to cancel, Itta and RAII returned to Seoul and Marqido travelled to his homeland Japan, when sudden border restrictions between Japan and Korea forced his separation from Itta and RAAI for seven months. As The Wire magazine reported,

For young Raai the separation was particularly tough. “He was crying every night,” recalls Itta. “We talked every night by video link, but Raai wanted to hug his father. These days he’s working hard to express his emotions about this situation – actually he started composing when he was six – so he’s writing lyrics and melodies about what he wants to do. For example, he wants to watch the beautiful ocean with his father and mother.” RAII’s compositions resulted in his debut EP, which was released for his 9th birthday (!), listen here / read an article about RAII and TENGGER in the Korea Times.

For most of the year Marqido remained stuck on the large island of Shikoku in southern Japan. Shikoku is famous for pilgrimages around its 88 Buddhist temples. TENGGER have done this pilgrimage multiple times, and restored a rural house on the pilgrims’ route for artist residencies. Originally named Kumakogen (meaning far in the highlands), TENGGER rechristened it Studio Kyurt (a blend of Kumakogen and yurt).

Last year, TENGGER’s 7th studio album Earthing was released via Melbourne label Ramble Records. “Staying at Studio Kyurt, walking nearby, climbing mountains, gazing at waterfalls, or reaching the ocean, we observed a lot of things. And then we could receive the message from nature, There is nothing divided and we are connected all in the life circulation. and we could make it into this album in nature. Paying respect to “Now”, the time of living with sharing the message with you all audiences through music”, the family shared.

무엇인가를 찾고 있다면 if you are looking for something
무언가 역시 우리를 찾고 something is also looking for us

서로를 비추는 Illuminate each other

(* “PANAPTU” means Tungusic Shamanic metal mirror, and also their ancient observatory.  “PANA means shadow of the soul, and PTU means bowl to hold the shadow. The relationship between the PANA and PTU is like that between a lamp or starlight and a mirror.” – from a book called “Shaman Empire”)

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