Due to the amazing and awesome popular demand, Beach House will perform one final, special and all ages show on Tuesday August 26 in the beautiful surrounds of Northcote Uniting Church, 251 High Street, Northcote.

Supports are Pikelet and Kes. Doors open 7pm. Tickets $25 + booking fee available from Northcote Social Club box office open Monday - Saturday 2.00 - 6.00pm (301 High St, Northcote), phone 9486 1677 or our online store. Tickets very limited so be quick!

 

Mistletone proudly presents Lucky Dragons direct from Los Angeles on their first ever Australian tour.

Lucky Dragons will also join forces with another true American original, the likeminded but utterly unique Mount Eerie, for two intimate all ages shows in Sydney and Melbourne.

Lucky Dragons is the brainchild of Los Angeles savant Luke Fischbeck, who together with collaborator Sarah Rara will tour Australia for the first time. Mistletone has just released Dream Island Laughing Language, the 19th release by Lucky Dragons which details the continuing pursuit of a humble and ecstatic, drippy and explosive, smoldering and upset music. Lucky Dragons’ legendary live performances strive to create a space where community and memory and ritual and perspective all come together as a crystal and then vibrate and shatter. 

LUCKY DRAGONS NATIONAL TOUR DATES

SYDNEY Thu Oct 2 Paddington Uniting Church: Mistletone & Woody present MOUNT EERIE (USA) + + Lucky Dragons + Pikelet. All ages show. Tickets $30 + BF from Moshtix

BRISBANE Fri Oct 3 Open Frame Festival @ Brisbane Powerhouse. All ages show.

NEWCASTLE Sat Oct 4 Sound Summit

MELBOURNE Sun Oct 5 Spring Tones @ The Tote with Sly Hats, Hi God People, Aleks & the Ramps, The Motifs, Always, Kes, Super Melody + DJsTickets $20 +BF from The Tote front bar, Polyester, Missing Link, Greville, Corner Box Office tel: 9427 9198 or online

MELBOURNE Tue Oct 7 Mistletone + Woody present @ Triple R Live Performance Space with MOUNT EERIE (USA) + Lucky Dragons + Fabulous Diamonds. All ages show. Tickets $25 +BF from www.mistletone.net & Polyester (city & Fitzroy) 

Tickets on sale Monday August 25. 

Winter Tones is gonna be a B-I-G night starting at 7.30pm. This is a “no headliner” show with awesome bands playing throughout the night so make sure you come early & stay late!

ONSTAGE TIMES

Back Stage:
PANEL OF JUDGES 8:20 - 8:50
CRAYON FIELDS 9:10 TO 9:50
LOVE OF DIAGRAMS 10:10 TO 10:50
BEACH HOUSE 11:20 TO 12:20
KES BAND 12:40 to 1:20
BEACHES 1:40 to 2:20

Front Stage:
LOST ANIMAL 8:00 TO 8:30
PIKELET 8:50 TO 9:30
MARK BARRAGE 9:45 TO 10:15
BACHELORETTE 10:35 T0 11:15
ACTOR/MODEL 11:35 TO 12:15
QUA 12:35 to 1:15
TALKSHOW BOY 1:30 to 2:00

DJs:

Snowflake Room
9.15-10.15pm DJ Ticketts
10.15-11.15pm Nervous Jerk Sound System
12am-1am Mark Nelson Nelson
1.15am-2.15am DJ People

Front Room
2am-3am Down Pat

Read on for our Winter Tones form guide…

Beach House are the Baltimore duo of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally, accompanied on their first ever Australian tour by drummer extraordinaire Dave Bergander from another awesome Baltimore band, Celebration. Live, Beach House are glorious, intense and just totally great. We are thrilled that they are headlining Winter Tones and will be down the front with all the other adoring longtime fans.

Winter Tones is the only Melbourne show for Bachelorette, aka Annabel Alpers, from over the Tasman Sea. Annabel has been touring the US with the likes of Scout Niblett and working on her new album. Have a listen to her rad new tune I Want To Be Your Girlfriend on her artist page. The Bachelorette Winter Tones show will feature mind expanding visuals and new songs as well as all our faves from Isolation Loops.

Love of Diagrams (Antonia Sellbach, Luke Horton & Monika Fikerle) are about to head to the US to record their new album. With an arsenal of ace new songs they are sounding awesomer than ever!

Pikelet (Evelyn Morris and her band) are in top form with some festival performances cominh up including The Great Escape and Melbourne Festival. Evelyn has been home recording some cracking new tunes and releasing them on individually handmade EPs so make sure you indulge at the Winter Tones merch desk.

Kes Band are fresh from their packed-out winter residency at the Edinburgh Castle, a month long of inspiring shows that will surely enter the “I was there” category in years to come. Kes Band have recently been recording their next all instrumental album and are brimming with new music and ideas. No two Kes Band performances are ever the same and this is why we love them so.

Crayon Fields have also been prepping a new album due on Chapter Music next year. Pitchfork described our beloved Crayon Fields as “grasping the Beach Boys’ ocean-flecked harmonies, the Zombies’ dreamy eloquence, and the Association’s gentle melodies, then making them sound even younger” and rumour has it that they are now venturing into some dreamy tropical discotheque territory…

Qua is nothing short of a beat based, electronic, danceable, ecstatic frenzy created by Cornel Wilczek with fellow adventurer James Cecil on percussion. The new Qua album is due soon on Mush Records and locally thru Love & Mercy. EXCITEMENT!

The righteous wenches of Beaches bring the wall of sound riffs, southern rock jams and psychedelic good times. With a debut album in the cans and an after-midnight slot, there’s no stopping the Fab 5.

Cracked pop fuzzbox Mark Barrage makes a nervy sound tonic, equal parts pop music EQd to breaking point and midnight crucifix synth-kraut. Witness this dissonant electronic songster shift from the overtly lyrical, heartbreak-obsessed territory into realms of hard sound, dance timings, band-ish arrangements and bleary-eyed nighttime sensation; a taste of what’s to come on his forthcoming Mistletone debut.

Talkshow Boy’s real name is sort of Adrian K-Sahara. He plays intense and complicated electronic new pop songs about love, being tuff, and how people act towards one another. He is terrific to listen to, and you will probably feel better about being alive if one of his songs comes on the radio when bad things are happening. Hallmark ingredients of his ’sound’ include very fast tempos, sweet/wise lyrics, and twinkling avant-pop arrangements.

The inimitably hep Panel of Judges have commanded a dedicated underground audience in Melbourne since their inception in the late 1990s. Their sound is a heavenly mix of jangle-guitar riffing, driving trap-set rhythms, misty lyricisms and a reflective performance style.

Like most Actor/Models, Ricky French and Karen Anson are extremely talented and can walk and talk at the same time. A Melbourne band with a lo-fi, high energy philosophy, Actor/Model utilise cheap toy keyboards and synths, old beat-up guitars and inventive, pounding drums to construct simple, beat-driven pop songs with fabulistic melodies and pleasuristic soundscapes.

Lost Animal is the solo project for Jarrod Quarrell, currently of St Helens and formerly of cult rock and roll band The New Season. Lost Animal sings and plays over the top of pre recorded material. Equal parts early Hip Hop, Soul, Kraut Rock and Trance, Lost Animal has been descibed as a punk Justin Timberlake.

Barrage on Myspace

Barrage website

MP3: Hindsight

Video: Poisoned 

Cracked pop fuzzbox MARK BARRAGE makes a nervy sound tonic, equal parts pop music EQd to breaking point and midnight crucifix synth-kraut.

Three years in the making, Delays by Mark Barrage (release date October 2008) finds the dissonant electronic songster shift from the overtly lyrical, heartbreak-obsessed territory of his debut into realms of hard sound, dance timings, band-ish arrangements and bleary-eyed nighttime sensation. The haunting melodies and pop song format remain, but the production is more gassy and art damaged - with lyrics oftentimes obscured by batteries of electronic layers, or treated simply as concrete sound.

The album’s mix of direct-pop intent, darkened electronic palette and woozy, pepped-up rhythms belies interests in punk performance as well as headphone electronics. Short and immediate vocal tunes intersperse with heavy instrumental, mood-laden vignettes, giving the record an overall, private/public tension, and the weird, compelling sound of labored programming destined for the band-room. DIY-produced at home with synthesizer, tapes, sampler, drum set, guitars and basic timeline-edit audio software, Delays’ accelerated, natural pace breathes new life into electronics’ artifice; working backwards to an affectation of life like vampiric possession, or experience felt in hindsight.

Mark Barrage has played over one hundred shows in Melbourne since 2003, many times alongside local indie highlights Panel of Judges, Love of Diagrams, Spider Vomit, ii, Hi God People, The Emergency, Always, Pets with Pets and Mistletone recording artists Francis Plagne, Kes and Beaches, among many more. Recent international supports include Dan Deacon, YACHT, Telepathe (all USA), El Guincho (Spain) and The Renderers (NZ).

Straddling the twin influences of electronic music and underground rock, Delays is a Morphean album in the spirit of Australia’s Severed Heads, the classic Komische groups and hard-art overseas labels Human Ear Music and Sacred Bones.

“Skittery, blunt mix of DIY electronic/minimal synth solitude and a marked New Romantic sense of melody and melancholy… Melbourne’s Barrage working in a one-man mode in which a lot of his modern day counterparts (Glass Candy, Chromatics, Minimal Wave/Wierd Records acts, even Dan Deacon) are missing a bigger picture. Rapidly engaged in a pop core and an android shell… songs that will linger in your ears longer than you’d expect.” - DUSTED MAGAZINE

Greetings, salutations and welcome to the latest news from the wintry world of Mistletone.

First up, we are overjoyed to present the first ever Australian tour by Beach House, our favourite boy-girl duo from Baltimore. Tickets are already selling like hot cakes for Beach House’s intimate shows, so don’t dilly dally or you’ll miss out! Having recently seen the band play in Europe we can report that their live show is just about the greatest thing ever; intense, warm, enthralling and beautiful. For the Australian tour, Beach House will be the usual duo, Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally, plus special guest percussionist Dave Bergander of Celebration, whom Alex describes as his favourite drummer in the world.

BEACH HOUSE TOUR DATES
Wed Aug 20: Hopetoun Hotel, Sydney with Bachelorette (NZ) + Rand and Holland.
Tickets $25 + BF on sale through Moshtix - phone: 1300 438 849 and all Moshtix outlets
Thu Aug 21: Hopetoun Hotel, Sydney with Bachelorette (NZ) + Songs.
Tickets $25 + BF on sale through Moshtix - phone: 1300 438 849 and all Moshtix outlets
Fri Aug 22: Winter Tones @ Roxanne, Melbourne.
Tickets $26 + BF on sale through Moshtix - phone: 1300 438 849 and all Moshtix outlets
Sat Aug 23: The Troubadour, Brisbane with Bachelorette (NZ) + The Rational Academy.
Tickets $25 + BF on sale through Oztix.
Sun Aug 24: Mojos, Perth with Astral Travel, The Tigers + Fabulous Diamonds.
Tickets $25 + BF on sale through Moshtix - phone: 1300 438 849 and all Moshtix outlets
Wed Aug 27: The Toff In Town, Melbourne with Fabulous Diamonds + ii + DJ Scraps.
Tickets $22 + BF on sale through Moshtix - phone: 1300 438 849 and all Moshtix outlets including Polyester (City).
Fri Aug 29: Bar Bodega, Wellington, New Zealand with Bachelorette + Nikky Brinkman. Tickets $30 + BF on sale from Real Groovy.
Sat Aug 30: The Kings Arms, Auckland, New Zealand with Bachelorette + Noriko. Tickets $30 + BF on sale from Real Groovy.

Love of Diagrams

3RRR Presents Winter Tones - our seasonal Mistletone party in Melbourne, bringing together bands that we love. Winter Tones is set to blow all the winter blues away. It’s happening on Friday August 22 at the lovely Roxanne Parlour, up on the third floor of 2 Coverlid Place in Chinatown, and will feature a baker’s dozen of wonderful bands: Beach House, Bachelorette, Love of Diagrams, Pikelet, Kes Band, Crayon Fields, Qua, Beaches, Panel of Judges, Actor/Model, Barrage, Talkshow Boy, Lost Animal + DJs. Tickets are just $26 + booking fee from Moshtix, doors open 7.30pm; mark your diary ‘cos this one will be fun fun fun!

The latest release for the Mistletone label is Dream Island Laughing Language by Lucky Dragons. Lucky Dragons is the brainchild of brilliant young Los Angeleno Luke Fischbeck, together with his partner in crime Sarah Rara and other likeminded collaborators. Described by the ever-astute Mark Gomes in Three Thousand as “unrecognisable, alien and joyful”, Lucky Dragons create artistic and organic electronic music to thrill your soul. Look out for the debut Australian tour by Lucky Dragons in October this year; their participatory and joy-inducing live shows will take your breath away.

Everyone, meet High Places: our favourite boy-girl duo from Brooklyn. Dubbed by Pitchfork as “Intimate enough to sleep in, rhythmic enough to dance to; lo-fi and simple, but strange enough to get lost in”, the music of High Places is a unique and beautiful thing. Mistletone is chuffed to be releasing the High Places debut album in September, which will come out in the rest of the world on the esteemed Thrill Jockey label; meantime, to whet your appetite for all things High Places, we have a collection of singles previously only available in cyberland, titled 03/07-09-07 and in stores during July. It’s the perfect taster of the sweet pop layers of High Places: bells and bird calls over a wash of ocean waves; mallets hitting mixing bowls over treated guitar and glockenspiel; Mary’s reflective vocals over Rob’s homemade beats.

Local heroines Beaches are about to hunker down with studio wiz Jack Farley to record their debut album for Mistletone. Featuring members of Love of Diagrams, Panel of Judges and Spider Vomit, Beaches (Antonia Sellbach, Alison Bolger, Ali McCann, Gill Tucker and Karla Way) are a super rocking jam band tour de force. Catch ‘em around town if you can! Upcoming Beaches shows: Friday July 18 @ Old Bar with old mates Spider Vomit, Zond and Darren Sylvester; Sunday July 27 supporting Menstruation Sisters at the Toff; and a late late night set at Winter Tones on August 22.

Kes Band play a corker lineup in Melbourne this Saturday night, June 28 @ the Evelyn, Fitzroy with Baseball, Actor/Model and Love Is Science Fiction. Doors 8.30pm, this will be a top night out! Kes Band are also set to commence a month-long residency at the Edinburgh Castle (681 Sydney Rd Brunswick). Kes Band will play two sets every Thursday night in July in the Edinburgh Castle front bar; expect some new instrumental jams and new vocal material, as well as all the gems from the Kes back catalogue. As the recent four-star Sydney Morning Herald feature review stated: “Kes Band is the work of a deeply idiosyncratic songwriter who is nonetheless maturing rapidly. There are moments of daft pleasure succeeded by passages of moving instrumentation. The album has a framework but it’s one that requires repeated listens to define and comprehend. Once you do, its appeal becomes tangible.” Also don’t miss Kes Band at Winter Tones after midnight.

The praise keeps pouring in for Ross McLennan’s post Snout masterpiece, Sympathy for the New World. “This is an album in the mould of Scott Walker but with its pop heart as valuable as its head”, said the Sydney Morning Herald, and The Age agreed: “Ross McLennan excels with this stream of musical consciousness, forging a new strain of languid psychedelia from off-kilter strings and spidery guitars, all spilling harmonic colours outside the lines”. Ross is currently dreaming up a truly symphonic presentation of Sympathy for the New World with some special shows to be announced soon. Meantime, catch Ross and his band when local flower punk icons The Sand Pebbles launch their new album Ceduna at Northcote Social Club on Saturday July 5.

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The new album by Dan Deacon, curiously titled Bromst, is coming in October… Dan describes it as “much darker,” “mature,” and “organic.” We can’t wait! Dan will be returning to Australia in the summertime so start limbering up now!

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For all you Ariel Pink fans out there, here is a new video for an old song: Gray Sunset from The Doldrums — check it out! According to Ariel’s website, he is hard at work on a new album; one can only fervently hope!

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We are busily working on some other very exciting Mistletone tours and releases, and you guys will be the first to know once they’re in the can, so watch this space.

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Don’t forget you can buy all your fave Mistletone CDs from our mail order shoppe for just $20 including postage anywhere in the world… and service with a smile.

cheers & good health to you,

ash & sophie

The Brutals opened up with much quirky harmonic sweetness ‘n twang

Ross was in fine form (performance and banter wise)

and Link chimed in for the obligatory Beatles cover (”I Feel Fine”)

We were devastated that Dan Deacon had cancelled from the festival but joy of joys, he was replaced by High Places! “It’s like being asked to fill Santa Claus’ shoes,” Rob quipped. This was a sit-down afternoon show with the first sunshine Paris had seen in a week and kids running round under a trellised garden… the most enchanting setting ever. High Places were wonderful… hadn’t seen them since their second-ever show at a Silent Barn party in Brooklyn over a year ago and things have come a long way since then! I loved the new songs.

El Guincho put on an awesome set. Some interesting remixes of Alegranza tracks and the continuation of the “rave” directions we heard in Australia. It was really cool to see Pablo performing in such a different context to the Australian tour; sold out club shows in dark bars compared to sunshine, greenery and an audience who had probably 90% not heard of El Guincho, but were quickly won over and dancing in the sun. So good!

After party: Felix, Rob, Mary, Sophie, Ash + Pablo

The day before, we saw Health and Chromatics. Health are certainly a spectacle; earnest, theatrical and LOUD!. I really liked Chromatics - slow weirded out disco, perfect hazy afternoon outdoors music.

We also saw Beach House at ATP which was wondrous… I didn’t bring my camera but one of the most memorable, heart-in-mouth gorgeous shows I have ever seen. Now that I’ve finally seen Beach House live after loving the songs so long, and having met Victoria and Alex (the loveliest folk you could hope to meet), I am more excited than ever for the Australian tour.