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At looong last, we announce the debut long-playing compact disc release for YellowFever, the compelling Texan combo we fell in love with a few years back at a dive bar in Austin. Instantly caught in their headlights, we were struck by their straight-to-the-heart simplicity and no-frills delivery. Reminding us (vaguely) of a stripped-down 60s girl group cross-bred with some early-Flying Nun and Go-Betweens, their tunes could be called "art pop" or "twee punk" or "garagey something or other" but none of these descriptions really do them justice. With a minimal approach to instrumentation and production, the band's shambling rhythms are juxtaposed perfectly by Jennifer's arresting vocal delivery, evoking comparisons to Stereolab, Young Marble Giants and The Aislers Set. YellowFever compiles the band's early EPs and single, from when they were doing the rounds as a three-piece, and show a definite progression from their short and simple bass and drums sing-a-long beginnings to their more complex and "realised" later work. Nowadays YellowFever are a duo, and even more captivating live; with their new album currently in production, we look forward to hearing the fruits of their brilliant minds early in the new year.
YellowFever is available to order right now from L&L and in all good Australian record stores from August 20 through MGM distribution. This is a co-release with Wild World in the US. Please support your lovely local label.
This news just in — Still Flyin' are back with an awesome 12" vinyl EP! On A Party in Motion, our favourite San Franciscan indiepop crusaders have pulled the ultimate smoke-bomb and reappeared with a brand-neu bag of kraut-flavoured pop hits! Eschewing their earlier rocksteady stylings, they've locked down the groove, cranked the synth bass, and reserved a corner of the dancefloor for the 3am till dawn bracket for when the real magic happens. Brimming with catchy melody lines and vocal interplay, it's strictly bliss-out and lose control of your inhibitions on these four songs (including a couple of woolly mammoth mega-jams!), produced by Haima Marriott of Architecture in Helsinki fame. Handsomely packaged by the band's Guru, as ever, the big bold impressive 12" record comes with a FREE download code, so you can get portable on your favorite tiny listening device while jamming a mellow rollerblade session or something. Not bad for just 15 bucks, right!
But wait — it gets even better… Any orders we ship for A Party in Motion before July 31 will also contain FREE OF CHARGE a copy of Still Flyin's fantastic Runaway Train II 7" single from April this year! Yeah, I know, we're silly like that. I think it's this whole vinyl thing that makes us impulsive and dangerously generous. But be quick — July 31 is a mere four days away… So get ordering!
Of course, you can also find yourself a copy of A Party in Motion at Polyester Records (Melbourne), Red Eye (Sydney), and Rocking Horse (Brisbane), or if you're in America please check out the fabulous Ernest Jenning record label!
As the winter sun bashfully struggles to warm your cosy nook, let The Bank Holidays provide the soundtrack! Their new album Sail Becomes a Kite is brimming with gorgeous harmonies and misty-eyed melancholia in the tradition of bands like The Zombies and The Mamas & the Papas. Just as easily as slipping on a well-worn pair of Wallabee moccasins, all four members of The Bank Holidays gleefully roll out the vocals, creating a complex, mesmerising world within each song, while never losing sight of the perfect pop hook. Recorded in the band's hometown of Perth, Western Australia, the commodious surrounds of the ABC Studios provide the ideal ambience to let the sprawling arrangements and melodies truly breathe. The result is The Bank Holidays' most absolute, well-rounded work to date. On songs like 'His Majesty's Voice' and the beautiful, arresting 'Save Silence' we are reminded of why The Bank Holidays are regarded by many as among today's finest practitioners of the well-crafted pop song.
"If this doesn't expose them to a wider audience, the band is all invited around to my house for a tea party where I will summarily eat my hat" — Drum Media
The Bank Holidays' Sail Becomes a Kite is available to pre-order from us now! Orders will be lovingly dropped in the mail box this coming Monday, July 12. If you prefer to do things the good ol' fashioned way, drop in to your local record store anytime from July 17. Distributed in Australia by MGM and in the USA by Darla.
Back this month with their latest piece of pop silverware are The Pains of Being Pure At Heart! The new 3-track CD single Say No To Love is another benchmark for the irrepressible Brooklynites, who continue to traverse the globe whilst preparing the follow-up to last year's celebrated eponymous debut album. Recorded at Stratosphere Sound in NYC by dab hand James Brown (Foo Fighters, U2, Ash), the Pains have returned to the studio with aplomb and fashioned some of their most tender work yet. The Australian-only CD version of the single compiles the brilliant title track and the warm and moody b-side 'Lost Saint', both from the vinyl 7" (available in the US and UK, through Slumberland and Fortuna Pop! respectively), with an exclusive third track recently dug out from the vaults — a fuzzy dancefloor hit named 'I Wanna Go All the Way', recorded way back in 2007.
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart's Say No To Love CD single is available to pre-order now. Orders will be shipped from July 12. Or ask your friendly neighbourhood record vendor for a copy, distributed in Australia by MGM, from mid-July.
We're super excited to welcome Long Beach, California's Hellogoodbye to Lost And Lonesome!! When We First Met collects two great songs fans may know well and slaps them neatly onto one spectacularly handsome 7-inch single (on clear "beer-bottle" colour vinyl!). The title-track, a sugar-rush of effervescent powerpop, follows concurrently the growth of a relationship and a lover's hairstyle over the years. The song starts out with a summery piano and handclap accompaniment to the vocals, but by the first chorus, Hellogoodbye's playful pop charms have slipped into top gear and it's turned into a caffeinated Housemartins-style hoe-down, complete with swinging guitars, big drums, and bucketloads of wide-eyed melody! Flip the record, and you've got yourself the sleepy 'Not Ever Coming Home' — a gorgeous heart-string-tickler about the early days of a new romance.
Hellogoodbye's When We First Met 7" single (with free download code!) is available to pre-order from Lost And Lonesome right now. Orders will be shipped Friday, June 18. You may also have luck if you peruse the 7" section at Polyester Records (Melbourne), Redeye (Sydney) and Rocking Horse (Brisbane). Also, please check out the band's own Hella Good Buys online shoppe for all kinds of ace merch and gift ideas!
It's always exciting news when we have a new band join the label, but this time we're really whooping it up! Bart Cummings has reunited with his former Shapiros bandmate Pam Berry and enlisted Louis Richter, Mark Monnone and Stanley Paulzen (The Lucksmiths, Mid-State Orange, Fred Astereo) to fashion eight new songs for Make You Blush — his first recordings in almost a decade. As underground indiepop icons go, Bart is certainly one of Australia’s most enduring and best kept secrets. A founding member of The Cat's Miaow and later of Hydroplane and Pencil Tin, he has spent two decades warming the hearts of wistful bedsitters the world over. Intimate and conversational in style, Bart’s songs are something of a cross between Yo La Tengo, the Go-Betweens and Felt. And with his inclination for brevity and knack for spinning the most ordinary of situations into something to hold dear, he may also be the pop world’s closest link to Raymond Carver. Over the years, Bart has stayed true this formula; Make You Blush heralds his first new recordings since Bart & Friends' I Was Lonely ’Til I Found You mini-album of 2001, and (thankfully, to these ears) he is showing no discernible deviation from the music he was making in the mid-90s: dreamy, jangly and sublime.
Make You Blush is a limited CD pressing, available to order from us right now, and also available at the better independent Australian record stores, like Polyester (Melbourne), Red Eye (Sydney) and Rocking Horse (Brisbane).
Runaway Train II b/w All Lips Touch.
On their frenzied new single, the freewheeling San Francisco party ensemble known as Still Flyin' take one further step beyond their adopted Jamaican roots and embrace the perpetual pulse of krautrock. Die-hard fans should worry not, however, for the Still Flyin' modus operandi remains intact — the band's high-energy off-the-wall pop mastery sits high in the saddle, guaranteeing the lucky listener a toothy grin and a shaky rump.
Runaway Train II is a limited pressing only on 7" vinyl. Available to order from L&L now, and in good Australian record stores like Polyester (Melbourne), Red Eye (Sydney) and Rocking Horse (Brisbane). This is a co-release with Ernest Jenning (US) and Moshi Moshi (UK). Please support your local independent label!
Good news, Europesians! Still Flyin' bring their new-wave-via-rocksteady party jams to Europe with the direct intention to defrost even the most icy of booties. With their wild shows already a thing of legend, the ever-evolving Still Flyin' now introduce a swag of brand-new thunderkraut jams to the setlist. This tour coincides with the release of the Runaway Train II 7" single, out soon in Europe on Moshi Moshi, and in Australia through L&L. Check back in here soon for full release details! The band have also been invited to play All Tomorrow's Parties in May by festival curators Pavement.
Meanwhile, perpetual nomads The Pains of Being Pure at Heart are set to begin their first Australian tour! Hailing from Brooklyn, the Pains have created all kinds of commotion in the US and Europe in the past year, and look forward to giving Australian audiences a taste of their noisy indiepop brilliance. Their self-titled album of last year and follow up EP, Higher Than the Stars, topped many year-end lists, and their shows are selling fast, with their first Melbourne show completely sold out! So drop by Mistletone for details on how to grab yourself a ticket.
All details are on our Gigs page.
It seems the dew has barely had time to settle on our anoraks and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart are already back with a brand-new bunch of songs! Higher Than the Stars contains four gems from our favourite noisy indiepoppers, plus a great remix by Saint Etienne. Hailing from Brooklyn, NY, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart released one of the best and most praiseworthy albums of the year, and now return to slap a little icing on the cake. Overflowing with exuberance, charm and advanced songcraft, the Pains continue to breathe new life into indiepop.
Stepping out of the noisy-pop box momentarily, the EPs title track careers along blissfully; an arpeggiated rush of dreampop, "Higher Than the Stars" sketches out an adolescent upbringing all too common in the suburbs, complete with chemical abuse and sexual misadventure. The trademark fuzz returns on "103" and "Twins", the latter sporting a genius guitar hook that would have Teenage Fanclub tripping over their Hot Cakes whilst reaching for their Big Star records! Meanwhile, "Falling Over" takes it to the dancefloor with a casual nod to Orange Juice and Aztec Camera. Rounded out with an inspired remix of the title track by indie aristocrats Saint Etienne, this EP makes good on the band's early promise, and confirms they are one of the most exciting bands around today.
And adding to our joy is the recent news of a Pains of Being Pure at Heart Australian tour, confirmed for February 2010! We'll keep you posted on dates as they materialise.
Underground pop battlers The Lucksmiths are serving notice. Yes, sadly, it’s true. Times change, people move on, and like many of their songs — redolent with ordinary minutiae — The Lucksmiths have finally been conquered by everyday life.
Formed in 1993, and having since transcended musical fashions and movements, the Melbourne band have long been seen as refreshingly unique amongst the musical landscape; their live shows, often hilariously haphazard, continue to captivate audiences at home and around the world, while they remain fond favourites of many who came across the band in their formative years.
However, after sixteen lengthy years as purveyors of the well-crafted pop song, saddle-rash has finally set in, and sights are being set upon new horizons. Tali White, the band’s lead singer and drummer, has decided to further pursue his career as a primary school teacher, while Marty Donald, Mark Monnone and Louis Richter intend to head forth into new musical terrain whilst juggling parenthood, study and the fun-park ride that is casual employment.
The band wish to extend enormous gratitude to all their fans and supporters, and especially to all those who lent a hand navigating the uncharted wilderness of the independent music world.
The Lucksmiths leave behind a wondrous back catalogue of eight studio albums, three b-sides-and-rarities collections, and three mini-albums — more than 170 songs in all.
After one last visit to Europe next month, The Lucksmiths will celebrate their farewell this August with a string of Australian shows that will traverse a broad selection of their recorded works. Don’t miss the chance to say a final goodbye to the boys at these shows! Details in our gig guide.
If, like us, you're partial to the odd perfectly crafted pop song, delivered in bite-sized fuzzy chunks, then the eponymous debut album from Brooklyn, NY kids The Pains of Being Pure at Heart may be exactly what you've been looking for all these years! There's no wonder everyone's yackin' it up about these guys — their brand of noisy pop music is instilled with a real spirited playfulness, whether it be the tender adolescent yearning behind the lyrics, the distinct, unaffected vocals, or the shimmering keyboard sparkles, drifting off into the vortex of guitar mess and calamitous drums. These songs just have so much personality seeping from their pores, it's almost impossible to not press play again once the album's done!
But, please... don't take our word for it. Pitchfork reckon, "The Pains of Being Pure at Heart simply made a slyly confident debut that mixes sparkling melodies with an undercurrent of sad bastard mopery". And then they slapped 'em with a big 8.4 for their troubles!
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart is available to order from us right now. It's also available now in quality record stores like Polyester (Melbourne), Red Eye (Sydney), and Rocking Horse (Brisbane), distributed by MGM, with other stores to follow on March 7. This album is a co-release, so if you're in the US or UK/Europe, please visit our buddies at Slumberland and Fortuna Pop!, respectively.
Still Flyin’ at last make good on the promise of their spectacular live show by releasing the highly anticipated début album Never Gonna Touch the Ground! Having recently offered up a sneak whiff in the form of "Good Thing It’s a Ghost Town Around Here" — the anthemic, highly-rotated ode to workplace hangovers — we finally get a looksee at the band’s entire hand. What we discover within is the high-energy craftiness of the likes of "Ghost Town" combined with mind-zapped slower jams built around some extremely deep bass grooves. Across this bountiful yet concise collection, Still Flyin’ make certain the party never flops; the floating horns and jagged, reggae-infused guitar stabs are underpinned by a sugar-rushed choir of Flyinettes chanting their hearts out behind lead singer Sean Rawls. Keep your ear to the wireless for the insanely catchy world-pop clap-fest of second single "The Hott Chord is Struck".
Never Gonna Touch the Ground hits Australian shelves on Saturday, December 6, distributed by the almighty muscle of MGM. In early-09, the album will be released in the US by Ernest Jenning and in Europe by Moshi Moshi, with vinyl copies through Antenna Farm (US). In the meantime, why not shove one in your Santa sack right here!
The Lucksmiths are back with their beguiling new album First Frost: fourteen songs of town vs country contemplation, amongst other things… like, for instance, where lost mittens go… or finding enlightenment with a snorkel and mask. And fifteen years in, the band’s characteristic breezy pop has broadened in scope; First Frost heralds the band’s brave first steps into new sonic realms, from gently caressed fingerpicked folk to fuzzy dreampop.
The band this time around followed the wisdom behind many of the songs here, ditching their hometown of Melbourne for the country, and heading way south to the rugged foothills of Tasmania’s Mt Wellington. Working with ace producer Chris Townend in his falling-down shack, The Lucksmiths played music and cooked soup, keeping warm by the wood-fired stove as snow fell outside and Bear the aging German shepherd scratched and yawned. Throughout, Tali’s hushed vocals (delivered thusly so as to not trouble the bush mice playing canasta in the ceiling) are unmistakably warm and right at home amongst Marty and Louis’ guitar interplay and Mark’s bubbly basslines. This is the sound of The Lucksmiths doing what they do best, and then a little more just for good measure!
First Frost is available in Australian shops from November 1, distributed by the kindly folk at MGM. It’s also available RIGHT NOW to pre-order from us, the kindly folk at L&L! (Online orders will be mailed out mid-October. Please note, this means any multiple-release orders containing First Frost won’t be shipped till mid-October... apologies for any inconvenience!) First Frost is also available to order from Matinée (US) and Fortuna Pop! (UK).
After blowing the party wide open at Laneway this year, San Francisco fifteen-piece Still Flyin' return with the first taste — a "jample" if you will — of their forthcoming album Never Gonna Touch the Ground, due Dec '08. The single "Good Thing It’s a Ghost Town Around Here" employs juiced-up party rhythms, some frenzied Talking Heads guitar, and infectious singalong vocals to shape a rousing paean to stumbling into work hungover. Lead singer Sean Rawls (having paid his pen-pushing dues) is ready to tear the office a new cubicle, and to do this he needs five gallons of Hammjamm brew, some serious saxophone, and a phalanx of Flyinettes to get a good chant started!
Meanwhile, the mood darkens a little on b-side "Drac's House", as a nefarious vampire (aka Still Flyin' bassman "Hound") reworks the lead vocal on another album track, "Haunted Houses". This single is the perfect accompaniment to any pumpkin carving party!
Good Thing It’s a Ghost Town Around Here is available to order from us right now, and in shops Aus-wide from November 1, through MGM.
STOP PRESS! STILL FLYIN’ RETURN FOR LANEWAY ‘09!!!
That’s right kids, it’s all happening again!! And anyone who saw the band this year will know that’s a show not to be missed… The dates:
Brisbane — Sat, Jan 31
Melbourne — Sun, Feb 1
Perth — Fri, Feb 6
Adelaide — Sat, Feb 7
Sydney — Sun, Feb 8
Lovers of noisy pop rejoice! and toss your parkas to the breeze, for out of Brooklyn, NY come The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, a fetching four-piece set to launch their début album in early- 2009. But right now we have one scrumptious slice of the Pains pie to serve up in the form of the Everything With You 7” — infinite youthful exuberance and winsome melody, all steeped in reverb and fuzz!
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart formed in early 2007 to play at keyboardist Peggy’s birthday party and you’d be hard pressed to find a better birthday present — the band have gone on to release a bunch of amazing singles and EPs, and recently found themselves thrilling the pop kids of Sweden. And soon, lucky UK fans will have the chance to catch them as they open for the Wedding Present on their December tour!
The Everything With You 7” (on enchanting blue vinyl!) is available to order from us right now, and can also be found in select Australian shops including Polyester (Melbourne), Rocking Horse (Brisbane), and Redeye (Sydney) . This is a co-release with Slumberland (US) and Fortuna Pop! (UK), so why not support your local independent label?
Following their second visit to Europe, The Zebras are back in Melbourne with their magnificent new five-song EP entitled New Ways of Risking Our Lives. Since the release of their much-treasured sophomore album Worry a Lot, Jeremy Cole and his mercurial posse of willing cohorts have been relatively quiet these past couple of years; members have joined and unjoined, but the current line-up of the band (featuring Lachlan Franklin of The Smallgoods) is sounding better than ever, and the New Ways… EP is evidence of this. All the Zebras hallmarks are here — layers of jangling guitars, emphatic rhythms, hushed harmonies, and a unique sense of melody — all emblazoned with a real urban Australianess akin to that of, say, The Triffids, Go-Betweens and The Cannanes.
New Ways of Risking Our Lives is happily adorning the Z shelf in your fave Australian record store, distributed by MGM. Or, of course, you can add a copy to your collection by simply clicking the clever link below….
For our 50th L&L release, we couldn't possibly be more enraptured, for here it is: the totally breathtakingly incredible début album from Norway's Je Suis Animal entitled Self-Taught Magic From a Book! Somehow back in late-07, the rough mixes of these songs ended up on the office nano-pod, and since then, have rarely left the little nano-screen, filling our nano-hearts to overflowing. This album rolls effortlessly from bouncy and jangly to mysterious and dewy to psychedelic and sparse; to these ears, it's pretty much perfect. A collection of great short tales, proverbially bound in a dust-jacket covered in VU, MBV, and Stereolab stickers, with a pencil sketch of Nico on the inner back flap, and borrowed from the C-86 library (long-overdue, no less!). Snuggle up with Je Suis Animal this winter, and feel the radiant glow of a great pop band with more depth than the deep end at Brunswick Pool!
Self-Taught Magic From a Book is available to order from us right now, and in shops Aus-wide from June 14, distributed by MGM. Visit Je Suis Animal on Myspace!
For anyone scouring secondhand bins for a copy of The Lucksmiths’ Staring at the Sky EP, we’ve stumbled across a dusty boxful that Candle Records left us when they shut up shop. So we now have some copies in stock. Also in the works are repressings of classic Lucksmiths titles A Good Kind of Nervous, Why That Doesn’t Surprise Me, and the band’s most recent studio album Warmer Corners. We’ll also soon have a repressing of The Zebras’ amazing eponymous début, which has been long out-of-print!
Dig That Treasure is the debut album from the wondrous new Californian music troupe Cryptacize. With a minimum of instruments and a refreshing abundance of space, the trio of Chris Cohen (Curtains, Deerhoof), Nedelle Torrisi (Nedelle) and Michael Carreira find themselves circumnavigating melodic roundabouts and negotiating complex emotional left-turns on their way to some dreamy yesteryear stage musical. Nedelle and Chris share the singing whilst trading cosmic garage-y and plonky guitars with golden autoharp strums and acoustic pickin’. Meanwhile, Michael Carreira is to be heard tinkering away on every imaginable percussion instrument, perhaps discovered in the long-forgotten milk crate in your school’s music room.
Dig That Treasure is available now in all half-decent Australian record stores through MGM, and of course, you can order it straight from us, right here, in your computer!
A few more reasons why we’re celebrating daily in the L&L offices:
1) Still Flyin' jammin' the proverbial hamm out of the Laneway Festival!
2) The Bank Holidays "Cheating Cheating" on Triple J rotation!*
3) The Smallgoods "Driving Song" on Triple J rotation!*
*Please take a moment and request these quality songs get a little more air-time.
Yes by jingos, it’s happening! Australian fans of Still Flyin's unique, chaotically joyous, reggae-influenced party sounds will soon have the chance to thrill at the group in full flight on their "Auzzie Brew Groove Tour" this February. Visiting Australia for the first time as guests of the Laneway Festival, the dozen-member-plus Still Flyin' will also be playing some special extra dates in both Melbourne and Brisbane. Check our gig page for details, and prepare to be "jammed to the bone"!
As they prepare their new album for readiness, Mid-State Orange have handed us the remaining copies of their incredible Odds album, released in 2006 by Candle Records. As anyone who’s seen them play recently will know, the Mid-State Orange of today is quite different to the one who recorded Odds, but the things we’ve always loved about them remain the same — driving rhythms, big guitars, great melodies, and a deep awareness of all that’s great about pop music. For more details, have a look at our catalogue page.
What a fine ol’ time we have here in the L&L offices! How could life not be grand with these mountains of boxes to keep us company. Each box containing nothing but pure gold. And by gold, we do mean the amazing Nedelle CD The Locksmith Cometh! Above the arid plains of steel-string picking and the quirky bass and drums that spring up mesa-like occasionally (courtesy of Chris Cohen of The Curtains), Nedelle’s voice glides effortlessly through the breeze, bringing a goofy smile to the face of any hapless desert stroller in search of pure gold. This is Nedelle’s fourth album (third solo), and the first on Lost And Lonesome; also the first on Nedelle and friends’ US label Tangram 7s, following releases on Kill Rock Stars and Kimchee Records.
Nedelle’s The Locksmith Cometh is available in all extremely good Australian record stores from December 1, and online from Lost And Lonesome from November 17. And if you needed any further persuasion to pick up this amazing album, any pre-Christmas online order containing The Locksmith Cometh will receive a free copy of the L&L sampler CD!
The Lucksmiths! The Bank Holidays! The Smallgoods! Fred Astereo! The Zebras! Mid-State Orange! Cheap L&L goodies! Mistletoe! Tasty brews! High-fives! Low-tens! Ecstatic faces! Goodwill! Time to reflect!
To celebrate a rather dizzying and dazzling year here at Lost And Lonesome, we have put our formidable skills in band-wrangling to work and lassoed our entire local line-up of bands together for one big night at Melbourne’s Corner Hotel. And as it’s a pre-Christmas party of sorts, we’ll be extending the love with a whole sackload of cheap CDs and things!
Tickets are available at the door for $20 or beforehand for $16 (plus booking fee) from Polyester Records (387 Brunswick St, Fitzroy), or online at www.cornerhotel.com. Doors will be open from 7pm with bands on soon after, so be early. See you there!
Having previously tripped us up with their two absurdly fetching EPs, The Bank Holidays now decide to completely flip us out with their highly anticipated debut long-player As a Film. The wily Western Australian foursome packed their concise pop hooks into their hobo sacks and headed eastward-ho to the verdant countryside of Victorian Gippsland to work with skewed studio maverick J. Walker. The resulting document is a wild cascade of guitars, drums and strings, and layers of masterful vocal harmonies, recalling the breezy effortlessness of Free Design all hupped-up on Shins pills. On As a Film, The Bank Holidays have managed to liberate Catchy and then recapture it, to prove it’s theirs to keep. Tread Easy and Folded in Half (both Triple J faves from the Good Looks to Camera EP, the latter also featuring on the 48 Shades soundtrack) receive a fresh reworking amongst new masterworks like Oh Daylight and the acoustic guitar-driven Pits & Gravel.
The Bank Holidays’ As a Film is available in all terrific Australian record stores from October 13, distributed by the handsome folks at MGM.
The wait is over — The Smallgoods’ wondrous third opus Down on the Farm is fresh in and eagerly anticipating the adoring smile on your face! The end product of a lengthy gestation, Down on the Farm’s seed was initially sewn two years back, the band working steadily ever since, alongside studio wiz Marcus Barczak. The good news is it’s every bit the transmogrifying masterpiece we’d imagined from these five Melbourne fellas: a harmony-rich pop delight, drifting semi-consciously in and out of misty-eyed campfire balladry, spacious psychedelic wig-outs, creepy folk rambles, and dark waltzy carnivalia. The Smallgoods are masters of their craft and Down on the Farm is the totality of the shared songwriting and adroit musical talents within the group.
The Smallgoods’ Down on the Farm is in all quality Australian record shops from August 11, distributed by MGM, and available to order right here!
Great Smallgoods interview at www.wirelessbollinger.com/general/insight/the_smallgoods_-_the_two_and_a_half_year_gestation/
After a notable two-year absence from the new-release racks, The Lucksmiths return with a mighty "don't argue" in the shape of Spring a Leak, their exhaustive new collection of lost treasures. Whilst certainly not a "best of", Spring a Leak is chockers with over a decade's worth of great recordings that have never made it onto a Lucksmiths full-length: b-sides, alternative versions (from 7" singles and demos), songs recorded especially for compilations, live, radio and TV sessions, cover versions, remixes, and general previously-unreleased miscellanea. Forty-five songs in all, packaged up in a deluxe double-CD digipak. For a full tracklisting, take a look in our catalogue. Spring a Leak is The Lucksmiths' first official release on Lost And Lonesome, and even better, our first co-release with Matinée Recordings of Santa Barbara, California!
The Lucksmiths' Spring a Leak is available in stores from September 1, distributed in Australia, as usual, by the lovely MGM. If you can’t wait till then, however, go ahead and pre-order from us now and we'll have it in the mail to you by August 27! But, please note: any online orders prior to this date that contain Spring a Leak may not be dispatched until August 27.
Last night I dreamt I was in hospital and Jonathan Richman was there singing funny songs to the kid in the next bed.. but his band wasn’t mid-period Modern Lovers, it was Depeche Mode.. and then some amazing old footage of Perry Como was on the TV.. and it seemed like he was singing something along the lines of "betty bought a bit of butter but the butter betty bought is still bitter"! And then he turned into a craggy eighty-six-year-old woman strumming a ukulele… and then I woke up. And I realised it wasn’t a dream at all! It all really happened (except for the eighty-six-year-old woman bit) — the strange Depeche/Jonathan/Perry thing strumming a uke was in fact a guy called Fred Astereo, and he’d broken into my hospital room as I was drifting off to sleep. There he was singing these sweet, tragically hilarious unrequited love ditties. And as he left through the window, he slipped a demo of all his latest tunes into my in-tray (right by the bed pan).
Fred Astereo’s second album Don’t Break My Heart, out now, Aus-wide through MGM. Or order right here!
Four years on from their critically acclaimed eponymous album, Can't Wait Another Day is set to confirm the Brooklyn-based Ladybug Transistor's standing as some of the finest purveyors of lush, formalist pop music this side of the East River. Shifting effortlessly between sanguine and melancholy, on their sixth album, The Ladybug Transistor continue their gradual shift away from their somewhat psychedelic beginnings to a more open, classic sound. On Can't Wait Another Day, long-serving Ladybugs Gary Olson, Jeff Baron, Julia Rydholm, and San Fadyl are joined by members of Great Lakes, The Aislers Set, Architecture in Helsinki, and Currituck Country among others, and have shaped a warm and wonderful sound that will certainly appeal to fans of Lambchop, The Zombies, Love, Tindersticks, and Kevin Ayers. Sadly, Can't Wait Another Day marks the final recordings for longtime Ladybug drummer San Fadyl, who died suddenly not long after the album was completed.
"The Ladybug Transistor's best work equals the best pop music made at any time in the past 50 years" — allmusic.com
For the past few months the meandering, playfully mysterious sounds of The Curtains' album CALAMITY have been tickling at the sweet spot in our collective heart and have now all but taken up full-time residency there. So we’re very pleased to welcome The Curtains to L&L and announce the Australian release of CALAMITY! The Curtains, from Oakland, California, is the ongoing primary endeavour for Chris Cohen (formerly of Deerhoof and Natural Dreamers) with a fluctuating line-up of friends and collaborators. CALAMITY, the fourth Curtains album — in stores now, lovingly distributed by MGM. Or of course, available right here, lovingly stuffed into an envelope by us guys at L&L!
That’s right lovers of guitars and drums — Melbourne’s true awesome four… guys.. have packed up shop and relocated to a new Fitzroy PO box — ours! (By the way, call them a trio and Louis will set his hair on fire and shred a solo on your grave!) So after twelve years of perfect good times on the wonderful Candle Records, it’s time for new terrain. We are in the process of loading all the Lucksmiths past titles into our catalogue, so bear with us. If you haven’t joined our email list, please sign up and we can keep you updated as news comes to hand. By news, we mean shows, new releases, etc. The usual. Probably some gossip too.
And so to the other newsworthy development currently in the works at L&L… - Mar 2007
We’re finalising our online ordering facility! So no more printing out silly forms to fill out (though we do pride ourselves on being kinda Old School in that way). For a while we’ll be going with PayPal, but we’ll switch over to something fancier mid-year sometime. Once again, we’ll be keeping you up-to-date via our newsletter as word comes to hand.
Brand-new on L&L this month is the “Time Wrinkle” EEJ (extended-extended-jam) from the riotously tuneful San Franciscan rocksteady party band Still Flyin’.
Fronted by Sean Rawls (ex-Masters of the Hemisphere and Je Suis France), Still Flyin’ is a 15-piece rotating collective comprising members of the Aislers Set, Track Star, Poundsign, The Mosquitoes, Ladybug Transistor, Dear Nora, Bright Lights, and Red Pony Clock, and have featured live guests like Jens Lekman, and members of Architecture in Helsinki, Love Is All, The Lucksmiths, Hempstad, Pipas, and Mates of State amongst others.
This special deluxe Australian edition of the “Time Wrinkle EEJ” combines the six tracks from the original CD with the six dub remix b-sides from the vinyl release (both released in 2006 by the tasteful people at US label Antenna Farm). “Time Wrinkle” captures a snapshot of Still Flyin’s legendary and joyfully chaotic live show – a hybrid of rocksteady, roots reggae, and U-Roy style Dub. The result is an increasingly infectious listen – a Hammjamm, if you will – that’s sure to set even the most untweakable indie-rock-party-dial to Meltdown!
"Time Wrinkle" is available is shops in the next week or two through MGM, or order here.
The Zebras’ outstanding second album “Worry A Lot”, meanwhile, has been setting hearts a-flutter amongst fans and the media alike. Rolling Stone called the album “perfect pop the way it should be made”, while The Weekend Australian have boldly stated “the Zebras can lay claim to being, if not the heirs, then at least the love child of the Go-Betweens”. We guarantee* that “Worry A Lot” will greatly enhance any CD collection and most definitely find a special place deep in your heart.
*Figuratively speaking
Zebras fans in Europe and the US will soon have the opportunity to catch the
band live at these special performances…
Sat 17th Feb – Tallinn, Estonia @ Juuksur w/ Tolbiac
Wed 21st Feb – Hamburg, Germany @ Gruner Jager
Thurs 22nd Feb – Barcelona, Spain @ Sidecar Factory Club w/ Carlos Cros y Los 400 Golpes + Cristian Vogel Dj Set.
Fri 23rd Feb – Madrid, Spain @ Nasti (Barbarella Club) w/ Yeepee [France]
Sat 24th Feb – Trento, Italy @ Caribe Club
Sun 25th Feb – Maniago, Italy @ Teatro Ridotto
Fri 2nd March – London, UK @ The Luminaire w/ The Orchids [ex Sarah records] + Slipslide
Fri 8th March – Brooklyn, New York @ The Union Hall w/ The Hazy Janes [UK]
Fri 16th March – Austin, Texas @ South By Southwest Festival
Fri 23rd March – San Francisco, California @ Annie's Social Club w/ Still Flyin’
Standby for extra dates as they come to hand!
