JASON LYTLE (GRANDADDY) – AUSTRALIAN TOUR

Former Grandaddy frontman Jason Lytle, returns to Australia this February for the first time since 2004 and Grandaddy’s sole Australian tour.

The man responsible for such melancholic classics as The Crystal Lake, Hewlett’s Daughter and Now it’s On, and albums Under the Western Freeway and The Sophtware Slump (recently re-released in deluxe 2CD format) has kept a low profile since Grandaddy’s split in 2006 releasing just two albums: Yours Truly, the Commuter, on Epitaph records offshoot Anti in 2009 and Merry Xmas 2009.

Yours Truly occasionally provides pummeling feedback rock (‘It’s the Weekend’), but when Lytle’s lullaby vocals suggest, “You should hold my hand / While everything blows away / And we’ll run to a brand-new sun,” it’s like Bruce Springsteen’s open highway finally reached a melancholy kid from Modesto. – SPIN

Despite the low album output, Jason Lytle has continued to perform live in solo mode and next February will take on a road trip of the east coast of Australia and amongst the usual sight-seeing, fishing and skateboarding has offered to drop in for a few shows along the way.

Whether fronting Grandaddy or standing alone on the stage Jason Lytle is consistently a class live act. He has an uncanny power to render you gooey eyed with dreamy nostalgia and no matter what torrent of noise he raises up around his vocals his words are always crystal clear, shining out with dazzling clarity through perfect sound production. – Chimpomatic.com

Expect new classics and old treasures as your favourite Grandad, Jason Lylte, drops by for a visit next February.

Tickets for all shows are on-sale now!

Earlier this year, Australian guitarist, vocalist and songwriter, Ed Kuepper reunited with former sparring partner drummer Mark Dawson to re-imagine the Kuepper classics Electrical Storm and Today Wonder in their entirety.

Those shows proved so popular , selling out all Spiegeltent performances in Melbourne, Brisbane and Darwin as well as further headline shows in Newcastle, Sydney and the Gold Coast, that Ed and Mark decided to continue with the reformation and expand on that original idea.

Loosely described as “ambient-rockabilly”, the new two-piece show sees Kuepper (acoustic guitar and vocals) and Mark Dawson (drums) presenting selections not only from those two albums but also from material from right across Ed’s lengthy career.

“Evocative would be the catchphrase of this collection of Ed’s music. This is music to drive long distances to, the thrumming rhythms like tyres on the open road, the lyrics the kind of things your mind might wander to when your surroundings become numbing; desperate tales of love and longing.” www.i94bar.com

Ed Kuepper and Mark Dawson will present this show over two sets with no support. Don’t miss this rare opportunity.

PERHAPS YOU KNOW A.A BONDY BETTER THAN YOU THINK…

Making his maiden voyage to our shores this January, A.A. Bondy. (the initials stand for August Arthur), hails from Birmingham, Alabama.

A grunge disciple originally via the critically adored alt-rock outfit Verbena, Bondy chose the solo route once Verbena disbanded in 2003 and in 2007 released his debut solo album ‘American Hearts’ which showed a marked change of musical direction mixing folk, Americana and swampy blues into a lethal concoction all of his own.
A second album, ‘When the Devils Loose’, followed in 2009 cementing Bondy’s abilities as a songwriter and featured the tracks ‘A Slow Parade’, ‘Mightiest of Guns’, ‘False River’ and the title track, which appeared in major TV shows Bones, One Tree Hill, House and Packed To The Rafters.  

Most recently, A.A. Bondy has been spotted on the Triple J Hit-List with ‘The Heart Is Willing’, the first single from his new album ‘Believers’.

http://soundcloud.com/fatpossum/aa-bondy-the-heart-is-willing

And now we here in Australia get to experience what all the fuss has been about when A.A.Bondy visits (in full three piece band mode) for Sydney Festival (at The Famous Spiegeltent) and for club shows in Melbourne.

“It seems like there’s a certain quality that you have to have to be a singer-songwriter in the ilk of A.A. Bondy and be able to pull it off, especially live. It’s something that doesn’t come from merely being a good songwriter, but from life experience. It’s what some might call “authenticity,” and Bondy certainly has it” – onethirtybpm.com

Don’t miss the Australian debut of A.A. Bondy live this January.

TICKETS ON SALE MONDAY 14TH NOVEMBER

LEWIS FLOYD HENRY

For the past few years, one man band Lewis Floyd Henry has pitched up on street corners around London gradually spreading the word of the blues and rock to passers by and the oddly curious. He arrives armed with a pram carrying a battery-operated amplifier and a custom-made drum kit bashing out covers of Jimi Hendrix, T-Rex, The Stooges and has accrued 100,000 YouTube hits for a performance of the The Wu-Tang Clan’s Protect Ya Neck performed outside Tottenham Court Road tube station.

Protect Ya Neck

In addition to his cover versions, Lewis also crafts his own tunes diversifying beyond his initial folky-blues style into high-velocity rock grooves worthy of the mighty Jimi Hendrix Experience. His debut album ‘One Man & His 30W Pram‘ is testament to this fact.

An intoxicating mix of humdinger riffs and country-blues twangs, psychedelic-folk tunings and beats, it’s raw and honest and thrilling – **** MOJO February 2011

This uniqueness has also lead Lewis to festival performances around the UK and earlier this year Henry made his Australian festival debut at the Perth International Arts Festival and for a small series of headline east coast dates.

Lewis Floyd Henry returns this summer at the invitation of both The Falls Festival in Lorne and Sydney Festival. In addition, Lewis will perform a special new-years eve support to Regurgitator in Melbourne alongside some select headline appearances.

“Others were convinced that the unbilled Lewis Floyd Henry was the ultimate highlight, a busking one-man band who played Stooges’ songs by the lake and a 20-minute version of Free’s “All Right Now” with a fuzzbox, tiny practice amp, toddler-sized drum kit and guitar solos played with his teeth” – The Independent 12.8.09

Don’t miss the rattle and hum of Lewis Floyd Henry when he returns to Australia summer 2011-2012.

URGE OVERKILL – ROCK & ROLL SUBMARINE

They have no right to be this good, really they don’t. Fifteen years since their last release Chicago-born hep-cats Urge Overkill return with a brand new album Rock & Roll Submarine – and no better way to celebrate than a welcome return visit to Australia this coming March.

“From Mason Dixon’s struttin’ Southern boogie and the title track’s exhilarating echo of the Stones’ Soul Survivor, through to the adorably vulnerable Quiet Person–what a hoot”  – Mojo May 16th 2011

In the live setting, the band have effortlessly picked up from where they last left off. Stopping by for a brief visit to Australia in 2006 after initially reforming, the shows, including a performance at Canberra’s Stonefest reminded everybody of just what great presence Urge Overkill possess.

“Urge Overkill took the stage and launched into an incredibly loud and powerful set, blowing away any pre-conceptions of “Will they be any good, have they still got it?” They were quite simply, fucking amazing” –  Fasterlouder.com.au

And now here they are back in all their crushed velvet glory, fully armed with a back-catalogue of solid gold nuggets to launch at us – Sister Havana, Positive Bleeding, Bottle of Fur, The Break, Somebody Else’s Body, Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon as well as firing off some new tunes from Rock & Roll Submarine all guaranteed to have you stompin’ for more.

Witness: Effigy from Rock ‘n’ Roll Submarine.

Appearing at the invitation of the Golden Plains Festival and for a series of east coast headline shows, Urge Overkill are men on mission!

 BONNIE ‘PRINCE BILLY’ – STRANGE FORM OF LIFE

Six years, six albums and countless singles, eps and collaborations later, and finally this February – March, we are blessed with a return visit from our favourite royal, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy.

Born Will Oldham in Kentucky USA some 40 years ago, Oldham christened the Bonnie mantle after the dissolution of his previous outfit(s), the hugely influential alt-country outfits Palace Brothers and Palace Music. Since then Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy has amassed a catalogue of some twelve studio-albums, all weirdly inventive takes on the roots genre: country-western, bluegrass, Appalachian folk, and which has seen cover versions from the likes of Johnny Cash, Cat Power and Mark Lanegan while the list of renowned public admirers would fill a press release on its own.

His most recent release, Wolfroy Goes to Town, continues in his own unique tradition but in true maverick style moves ever sideways from expectation, this time with the addition of vocalist Angel Olsen – a solo performer in her own right – and guitarist Emmett Kelly; Billy’s most recent consistent collaborator and the one-man band known as the Cairo Gang. It is these performers plus drummer Van Campbell who will be joining the Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy on this Australian tour.

Aided by vocalist Angel Olsen, Wolfroy Goes to Town is perhaps his strongest and most consistent collection for years. In fact, the entire thing is an absolute, unerring joy. NME 8/10

Live one can never know what to expect from Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy other than to hugely entertained.

Oldham is made for this kind of gig, looking as he does like a pastor from the American South; he waves his arms theatrically as he delivers his lyrics, at times bending double as if the emotional weight of the song is a heavy cross to bear. – The Fly.Co.UK 

Safe to say those of us who have followed Oldham as he has toured shyly and quietly in support of his seven earlier BPB releases have never seen anything like the Oldham who was energetically bounding around the stage on Sunday like a little yoga Buddha-slash-monkeyman in blue leotard and bare feet. – heyreverb.com

Call it country, call it folk, call it what you Will… it’s safe to say that there is nothing out there quite like Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy.

Tickets for Melbourne & Castlemaine on sale Monday 21st November @ 9am. All other appearances on sale now.