XYLOURIS WHITE – MAR ’16

XYLOURIS WHITE

Xylouris White, the unlikely collaboration between Dirty Three drummer Jim White and Cretan lute player George Xylouris, follow-up their Sydney Festival, MOFO and sold-out Melbourne club show appearances of earlier this year with a return tour this coming March. The return tour sees the duo appearing at festivals and art galleries, zoos, clubs and universities ahead of a new album release in early 2016.

“This transcendental folk, deconstructed by the volatile rhythms of rock demands to be danced to, and when the music hit the loud and fast end of the spectrum – an all out head-banging mosh” – Sydney Festival / The Guardian Jan 16th 2015

The former residents of Melbourne have spent the better part of the last 12 months touring the globe in support of GOATS their debut release and No.1 album on Billboard’s World Music Chart; a first for an Australian band. An album that has also found friends and favour from the New York Times to Uncut Magazine, Swans to the Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and fans of traditional and progressive musics alike. Truly there is no other like Xylouris White.

“At only 36 minutes, Goats is dizzying, a sometimes chaotic smear of styles, tempos, tones, and harmonics woven through musical history. It sounds and feels live, like the duo is just getting started when it ends. Yet it is long enough to reveal something not only new, but previously unfathomable with each listen” – Allmusic.com

Don’t miss Xylouris White LIVE this March. Tickets for all shows are on-sale now.

MIREL WAGNER – JAN ’16

MIREL WAGNER

“Ghostly and erotic Delta blues” – MOJO.

Finnish singer-songwriter and Subpop recording artist Mirel Wagner makes her Australian debut this January appearing at Sydney Festival, Hobart’s MOFO Festival and for a headline slot at Melbourne’s Toff In Town.

Drawing on the Appalachian murder ballad tradition and haunting early Delta blues, Wagner is a storyteller like no other, accompanying her rich, velvet voice with a delicate acoustic fingerpicking. Its little wonder she topped the Finnish national album charts for her 2014 release When the Cellar Children See the Light of Day, an album that also won her the coveted 2014 Nordic Music Prize.

“The likes of Mark Lanegan and Nick Cave have a new rival in the practising of dark musical arts.” – Record Collector

“Simply put, When The Cellar Children See The Light Of Day is one of the best albums of the year” – musicOMH.com

“Mirel is a wonderful story-teller while stories themselves are terrifying.” – Lodz

Don’t miss the unique stylings of Mirel Wagner, live in Australia this January.

BUZZCOCKS – MAR ’16

BUZZCOCKS

Original UK punk-act the Buzzcocks kick-off their 40th birthday celebrations this March with a tour of Australia and New Zealand. The stars of Dig it Up! 2013 return for the Golden Plains Festival plus headline shows across most capitals. Guests include HITS and Ausmuteants

…. from “Boredom” to “Orgasm Addict” the energy doesn’t abate. The Buzzcocks are a clear standout on the day. Dig It Up! 2013 / AU Review

…. Shelley’s shirt bears the slogan “I want to give myself to you completely.” This?they proceed to do, banging out favourites like ‘I Don’t Mind’, ‘Noise Annoys’, ‘Autonomy’, ‘Harmony in My Head’, ‘Ever Fallen in Love’ and ‘What Do I Get?’ in rapid succession – with the audience gleefully pogoing and singing along in unison. Definitely a candidate for best party band ever. – Dig It Up! 2013 review / MessandNoise

Pete Shelley and Howard Devoto formed Buzzcocks in Bolton in February 1976. The band, completed by the addition of Steve Diggle and John Maher, opened for the Sex Pistols in Manchester on July 20th, a follow up to the now (in)famous Lesser Free Trade Hall gig which Devoto and Shelley had organised the month before.

Gigs in Manchester and London followed, and by the end of 1976, Buzzcocks became one of the first groups to form their own independent record label – New Hormones – on which they released the now-legendary and seminal ‘Spiral Scratch’ EP.

The following year saw the departure of Devoto and the recruitment of bassist Steve Garvey. In August 1977, the band signed a recording contract with United Artists Records and released the landmark ‘Orgasm Addict’ single. This was swiftly followed by ‘What Do I Get?’, the band’s first entry into the UK top 40 singles chart and the first of a string of chart singles. Over the next three years, Buzzcocks toured extensively and released a trilogy of outstanding albums: Another Music in a Different Kitchen, Love Bites and A Different Kind of Tension, as well as the hugely influential and popular Singles Going Steady compilation. In 1981, the band went their separate ways to undertake new projects.

1989 saw the reconvened Shelley/Diggle/Garvey/Maher line-up tour the world again by popular demand. Since then, the Shelley/Diggle partnership has been the core of sustained and successful activity without pause, punctuating the years of high profile gigging to date with six successful and well-received studio albums, culminating in 2015’s The Way.

Few have had the longevity and sustained creative energy to produce the seemingly endless stream of truly original and fantastic pop songs that Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle have consistently delivered over the last four decades. Original and best.

Don’t miss one of the iconic bands of the original punk movement and one of the biggest influences on contemporary punk, live this March. Tickets for all shows on-sale Friday October 30th.

BUILT TO SPILL – MAR ’16

BUILT TO SPILL

In the five years since their last Australian visit Boise Idaho natives Built To Spill have released two albums, replaced two band members, created the synth-pop side project The Electronic Anthology Project, toured the U.S.A many times over, DJ’d both at radio and parties and taken an almost three year break from live activity; now however, with the inclusion of the indie-rock originals on the 2016 Golden Plains Festival, Australia finally receives another dose of that Built to Spill magic.

“Martsch formed BTS well over two decades ago, but the show last night proved Built to Spill aren’t so much indie survivors as they are rock and roll thrivers” – Dallas Observer May 2015

“With three lead guitarists radiating like a toxic plume, Built to Spill’s set felt like a giant wall of sound in lockstep with Doug Martschs’s wringing vocals.” Hey Reverb Sept 2015

Untethered Moon, their 8th and latest release is a triumph. An album that retains the spirit found on early fan favourites like 1997’s Perfect from Now On and 1999’s Keep It Like A Secret, whilst sonically taking the band one giant leap forward into as-yet-uncharted waters. It’s loud, it’s dirty and it’s very catchy.

“Untethered Moon is almost undeniably a classic slice of BTS” – Magnet April 2015

“Untethered Moon leaves no doubt these guys are in fine form again” – MOJO July 2015

Built To Spill sit firmly along their influences – Dinosaur Jr, Butthole Surfers, Neil Young, Blue Oyster Cult et al – as masters of uncompromising guitar-orientated rock, free of any of the usual rock trappings of grandeur and ego, focusing instead on the value of a good song, a good melody and an almighty noise!

Catch them live in the studio for Seattle radio station KEXP and then catch them live in Australia this March. Tickets for all shows on-sale October 30.

SUNNYBOYS – MAR ’16

SUNNYBOYS

SUNNYBOYS PLAY GEELONG!

The original Sunnyboys line-up of Jeremy Oxley, Peter Oxley, Richard Burgman and Bil Bilson will make just their second-ever appearance in the southern surf-city playing a host of classics from their three stand-out albums Sunnyboys, Individuals and Get Some Fun. Local no-goodniks The Living Eyes join the party and will double the fun with their spirited take on sixties-garage and seventies-punk. Tickets are on-sale Friday 5th November.

“Many acts make comebacks, more now than ever in fact, but I can’t remember feeling so much love in a room for an Australian band that, like it’s audience was reliving it’s glorious youth. It was a fantastic experience” – Iain Shedden / The Australian Newspaper Sydney Opera House Concert review June 2013

On April 22nd 2012, for the first time in 21 years, all four original members of Sydney band Sunnyboys, performed on-stage at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre. Appearing at the inaugural Dig It Up! Invitational the band played with the same intensity, verve and joy as they had all those years ago. It was emotional and inspired and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Fast forward to 2015 and the band have performed two sold-out tours of the country filling venues including the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, Melbourne’s Forum Theatre (multiple times), Perth’s International Arts Festival; they have co-headlined the Meredith Music Festival and set a venue record previously held by Noiseworks at the Coolangatta Hotel. Now its Geelong’s turn to experience the magic.

“There’s so much love and respect in the room its quite remarkable, and the four-piece return the favour with Love To Rule and the irrepressible Tunnel Of Love preceding the first true banger Happy Man, which prompts the euphoric crowd into a singalong frenzy from the very first note. The band seem genuinely touched by the positivity being willed at them by their ecstatic acolytes.” Steve Bell / The Music Brisbane Tivoli review 2014

Don’t miss Sunnyboys, live in Geelong. Sunnyboys are also appearing at A Day On The Green this March with fellow indie-rock veterans Hoodoo Gurus, Violent Femmes, Died Pretty and Ratcat.

DIRTY THREE – JAN ’16

DIRTY THREE

As enigmatic as they are extraordinary, Dirty Three have earned their place as one of the Australian underground’s most important bands of the past two decades. Each member’s musical voice is utterly essential to the dark, theatrical power of Dirty Three’s sound: Jim White’s elegant, balletic drumming, Warren Ellis’ burnished, questing violin, and Mick Turner’s outlaw guitar work. To hear the music alone is to be transported somewhere altogether more vast.

These shows brings the trio back together for the first time in three years. Audiences will discover the indisputable truth that seeing Dirty Three live – each musician moving with the music, like seaweed underwater – is to be captivated.