ED KUEPPER – APR – JUN 14

ED KUEPPER – RETURN OF THE MAIL-ORDER BRIDEGROOM

The all singing all dancing Ed Kuepper returns to the live arena this May-June for a series of acoustic Solo and By Request shows in support of a brand new release Return Of The Mail-Order Bridegroom.

The new CD features acoustic rewordings of earlier Kuepper classics spanning material by The Saints, Laughing Clowns and of course Ed’s lengthy solo career. The CD was inspired in part by the success of 2013’s inaugural Solo and By Request show and also Ed’s first acoustic recording from the nineties.

Back in the mid 90’s I recorded what was in essence my first truly solo album…meaning just myself and a couple of acoustic guitars. It was called ”I was a Mail-order Bridegroom”. It came about after my first European and North American solo tour. I’d toured lots with some very talented people but doing a solo show that actually works was something special for me. The first Bridegroom album was an attempt to capture the nature of those shows. Last year, I decided to go out solo again …this time on a totally by request basis… meaning no set list… I’d just play what was requested. The tour went better than I expected and I wanted to capture how things had changed musically in what was essentially the same format. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

Return Of The Mail-Order Bridegroom is available now via mail-order only princemelonrecords.blogspot.com.au and will be released to retail on April 18th.

Meanwhile Ed brings his Solo and By Request show to parts new and old this winter performing upwards of 2 hrs each evening. That’ll keep you toastie. In addition Ed will perform solo at The Gumball Festival in the Hunter Valley on April 12th.

Tickets for all shows are on-sale now.

LLOYD COLE – JUN/JUL ’14

LLOYD COLE

Lloyd Cole is no stranger to Australian shores, from his time as front-man for The Commotions and their stadium tour of 1986, through to his Small Ensemble tour of 2011 and the many solo tours he has performed in between, Lloyd has proved a very welcome visitor regularly selling out shows right around the country. In 2014 Lloyd Cole returns for his most extensive Australian tour yet taking in all the major cities plus a host of regional centres too – Meeniyan, Castlemaine, Launceston, Lismore and the Gold Coast among them.

Opening with the triple punch of No Blue Skies, Why I Love Country Music and Perfect Skin, the crowd were transfixed. While many of the songs played tonight are well in their 20’s each sounds as vibrant as it did on release, some more so. Proof that Lloyds theory of ‘only making music when inspiration actually strikes’ has more than paid off. – Anotherlostshark.com

The 2014 tour comes on the back of a new album: Standards, recorded in late 2012 after Lloyd was inspired by the release of Bob Dylan’s latest album Tempest. “I took it as a kick up the backside. I’d been languishing. Some years I wouldn’t even write a song. But when I heard that record, I thought, Damn! I’ve got all these notebooks full of ideas. What would happen if I just worked on them bloody hard and made a record?”

Arguably the best album Lloyd has made since his debut 30 years ago with The Commotions, Standards is also his most rocking’ and features musical contributions from Matthew Sweet, ex-Lou Reed sideman Fred Maher, former Commotion Blair Cowan, Joan as Police Woman and Lloyds’ son Will. It will be released locally via The Planet Company on May 9th.

“‘Standards’ is the work of a bristling, alive and fresh-as-a-daisy master, drawing on all of his experience for a mid-life career high.” 4* Daily Mirror 21 June ‘13

For the 2104 Australian tour Lloyd Cole will perform works from Standards plus material from right across his catalogue: solo, and in intimate mode and playing for upwards of 90 minutes each night.

After delighting the crows for just over two hours, Lloyd leaves us with another triple play, closing the show with Forest Fire, before returning for an encore of Undressed and Lost Weekend. Even then the crowd aren’t going anywhere fast. That is the power of an artist at their peak: they take you somewhere and bring you back richer for the experience – Anotherlostshark.com

In addition Lloyd Cole will appear ‘In Conversation’ for shows at the University Of Adelaide and MONA in Hobart. Check with the respective venues for full details.

Tickets for all shows are on-sale Monday March 3rd.

MICK TURNER – JAN ’14

MICK TURNER

As a former member of Melbourne post-punk bands Fungus Brains, Venom P.Stinger and The Moodists Mick Turner provided menace and a unique anti-rock approach to guitar playing, As the third cog in the Dirty Three wheel Mick provides the rolling rhythms and washes of sound for drummer Jim White and violinist Warren Ellis to explore and dance around to. As a solo artist Mick uses his brush not only for the cover art that inherits his and the Dirty Three album covers but to provide a canvas for himself and his invited artists to add their own colour too. He is like no other. Really.

Mick’s new solo-album, Don’t Tell The Driver, was four years in the making and features guest appearances from Jeffrey Wegener, Caroline Kennedy, Oliver Mann, Ian Wadley, Peggy Frew and others. He has nailed it.

See Mick Turner on tour both solo and in band mode headlining as as special guest to Cat Power.

Tickets on sale Friday 29 November @ 9am.

CAT POWER: SOLO, INTIMATE AND UP CLOSE – JAN ’14

CAT POWER

The enigmatic Chan Marshall a/k/a Cat Power returns to Australia this January to perform in solo mode, intimate and up close.

Cat Power will perform two shows in the Circus Ronaldo Tent for Sydney Festival and will also appear as a guest vocalist at SF’s Big Star’s Third, a live orchestrated performance of the classic album. Cat Power will also perform shows in Melbourne, Fremantle, Canberra (her first show in our nation’s capital in over 10 years), a debut performance at the Meeniyan Town Hall in Victoria’s Gippsland, and two very special shows in beautiful downtown Milton on the NSW south coast.

Her setlist dug deep into her catalogue, rotating between guitar and piano acts. Opening with her stunning take of “House of the Rising Sun”, she included old favourites and obvious crowd pleasers like “The Greatest” and “What Would the Community Think”. The heartbreaking “Names” recalled troubled childhood friends and acquaintances and herring “Colours” and “Kids” again was a true delight. – brightestyoungthings.com November 2013

Mick Turner: Dirty Three guitarist, sometime collaborator with Cat Power and Chan’s very good friend will join the tour for many of the shows performing solo or in band mode presenting material from his brand new album Don’t Tell the Driver, his first to feature vocals.

Don’t Tell The Driver is a masterpiece of immersion, and like the greatest artworks, is made to get lost in – The Music November 2013

Cat Power’s own album of last year, Sun, featuring the singles Ruin & Cherokee, was the most successful of Cat Power’s career, debuting at #10 on the US mainstream Billboard charts (a first for her US label Matador too) and #2 in Billboard’s Alternative and Independent charts. In Australia Cat Power’s full band tour of Feb / March 2013 saw sold out shows at Perth International Arts Festival and Melbourne’s Forum in addition to a headline spot Meredith’s Golden Plains Festival and a double bill with George Clinton for MONA in Hobart. This time though, Cat Power is going it alone.

SUNNYBOYS – MAR ’14

SUNNYBOYS

The phoenix-like rise of eighties alternative-rock group Sunnyboys (1980 – 1984) continues with the announcement today of a brand new best-of collection and a headline tour, the band’s first since their one-off reformation in 1991.

Sunnyboys Our Best Of is comprised of 16 tracks all remastered and hand-picked by the band and features the hits; fan faves and previously unreleased material including a pre-debut album demo; recently unearthed alternative mixes from their 1982 albun, Individuals, and a bonus live-track taken from Sunnyboys recent Vivid Live performance.

Our Best Of will be released digitally and to CD via Warners reissue imprint Festival Records on December 6th 2013 with the CD package also including a 14 page booklet detailing the band’s rise, mysterious disappearance, and eventual return plus, for the first time, Jeremy Oxley explains the meaning behind those songs.

“Contrary to popular belief, the song was not written as a “clue” to my mental health state at the time” – Jeremy re Trouble In My Brain

The tour comes after 12 months of spordic live activity for Sunnyboys initiated in April 2012 by the Hoodoo Gurus and their Dig It Up! Invitational and culminating in a triumphant sold-out performance in June 2013 at the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House.

“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 its audience, was reliving its glorious youth. It was a fantastic experience.” – Iain Sheddon / The Australian, Sydney Opera House 2013

More recently a documentary about the turbulent life of Sunnyboys singer / guitarist / songwriter Jeremy Oxley and his 30 year battle with schizophrenia toured around the country appearing at Palace Cinemas and airing nationally on ABC TV to a hugely emotional response. Kaye Harrison’s The Sunnyboy, tells a remarkable story of survival and the healing power of love as Jeremy finds his way out of the darkness (post-Sunnyboys) to reclaim his place with family and friends and ultimately the Sunnyboys.

But all that is now behind them now. For Jeremy and the Sunnyboys the future holds so much more.

“Of the hundreds of bands, and thousand of people that we knew at the time, we’re one of the few that can stand up and say “We were really good at what we did, and we’re really proud of what we did” and we’re lucky enough to still be able to get up and say to people ‘We’re really proud to be able to present this to you now'”. Richard Burgman Sunnyboys.

The 2014 tour will take in shows in Byron Bay, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide and will feature support spots from Perth power-pop icons The Stems (heirs to the Sunnyboys crown in the 80’s), ex-Died Pretty frontman Ron S.Peno & The Superstitions, Geelong garage-punks The Frowning Clouds and local natives The V-Rays and The Windy Hills.

Tickets for all venues will go on-sale Wednesday November 13th.
Sunnyboys: Our Best Of CD / iTunes – released December 6th.
The Sunnyboy DVD – released December 4th.

This is the Sunnyboys… alive and well in the 21st Century.

For up to the minute Sunnyboys details please check in at https://www.facebook.com/SunnyboysFanClub

But wait, that’s not all! Peter Oxley, bass-player for the Sunnyboys and a former Sydney restauranter with his own Wedgetail Woodfired Pizzeria, releases first ever cookbook this December. Entitled Teenage Kitchen Rampage, Pete’s cookbook is aimed at home leavers and the young and hopeless and hits all good book stores and online from early December. The book holds 45 recipes and is an easy guide for even the most inexperienced youth to develop a skill and love of home cooking.

Teenage Kitchen Rampage released December 11th via Love Police.

YO LA TENGO – MAR ’14

YO LA TENGO

American indie-rock icons Yo La Tengo return to Australia this March for an encore performance of their two set opus: An Evening With Yo La Tengo.

Performed around the world and most recently at Melbourne Festival, An Evening With Yo La Tengo highlights the New Jersey based trio’s huge musical range as explored across their 13 + studio albums and via a variety of nerdish fan-boy / fan-girl cover versions.

If the first set was about Yo La Tengo’s songs, the second bracket was an extended jam session. Sugarcube and an electric version of Ohm built to a crescendo as Kaplan elicited a vast array of freakish sounds from his battered electric guitar. Mr Tough provided a brief foray into bubblegum pop while a cover of the Velvet Underground’s I Heard Her Call My Name was homage to that band’s perennial relevance. – THE AUSTRALIAN 21.10.13

The tour will take in a debut performance at the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House plus intimate club shows in Brisbane and Melbourne and a one-shot one-set take at Meredith’s Golden Plains Festival – Yo La Tengo’s second appearance at that event.

The hushed beauty, rowdy distortion, and excellent cover material that has defined Yo La Tengo’s career came to life on Friday in one of the most outstanding live shows of the year. – International Pop Press May 2013

With over one hundred if not hundreds of songs to draw from no Yo La Tengo show is ever the same. See ’em once or maybe twice this March.

Tickets for all shows are on sale today (Friday 1st November).