Perth Music

With their debut album Eon out now, Sydney electronic-rock trio Grafton Primary announce a sequel to the stage-invading adventures of their national album launch tour!Happening throughout October/November, the ‘Eon Tour’ Part 2 will take in Fremantle, Mandurah, Perth, Newcastle, Ballarat, Moorooduc, Launceston, and Hobart. These cities and towns get the chance to rock out to the dance floor experience of a Grafton Primary live show in September, while lucky cities Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra get to party with these electro-maestros a second time. Indie-whiz The E.L.F. (aka Darren Cross from Gerling) will be supporting the band nationally.

Grafton Primary’s immense debut album Eon, which came out on September 13, debuted at #1 on the iTunes Dance/Electronic Chart and #7 iTunes on the main chart. Eon is an album that plays on the themes of time and timelessness. The album explores past, present and future love with stunning lyrics and commanding synth lines that build layers of aural bliss and showcase Grafton Primary at their compelling best.

The first single ‘She Knows It’ is now available on iTunes with three remixes by Swiss duo Cryptonites (Arctic Monkeys, Coldplay), New York programming wunderkind Kap10kurt (Dave Gahan, The Bravery, Moby) and Grafton Primary (Faker, Dukes Of Windsor) themselves!

Thur 16th October - Newport Hotel, Fremantle
Fri 17th October - Players Bar, Mandurah
Sat 18th October - Death Disco @ The Capitol, Perth
Sat 1st November - Mona Vale Hotel, Sydney
Sun 2nd November - Fat As Butter Festival, Newcastle
Thur 6th November - Karova Lounge, Ballarat
Fri 7th November - Peninsula Lounge, Moorooduc
Sat 8th November - WOW! Streetparty @ Inflation Nightclub, Melbourne
Fri 14th November - Republic Bar, Hobart
Sat 15th November - James Hotel, Launceston
Sat 22nd November - Trackside Festival, Canberra

After a very successful few years which has included ARIA nominations, national and international tours Holly Throsby has recently released her third album A Loud Call to the waiting public. She is also in the middle of The Loud Call Tour which started in Alice Springs and winds up in Cairns in mid-October, taking in 20 cities and towns along the way. Holly has been joined by her long time band Bree van Reyk and Jens Birchall. The three piece play eleven instruments between them. Holly is fresh from a string of solo shows in the UK & Ireland with the iconic Paul Kelly, as well as two dates in London supporting Australian sweetheart Tim Rogers. Holly spoke to Justin Middleton for this exclusive interview.

Click here to download the podcast of the entire interview. (13:55 - 1.6Mb)

A Loud Call was recorded in Nashville with engineer and producer Mark Nevers (Lambchop, Will Oldham). It includes guest performances by Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, and members of Lambchop and Silver Jews. It also includes Holly’s latest single ‘A Heart Divided’ and the title track from last years’ One of You for Me EP. I asked Holly if she was happy with the reception that A Loud Call has received so far. “I was really pleased, it’s always nice to get good reviews and things like that. We’ve been on tour and it’s been nice to play new songs to people and have people come buy the record after the show.”

“Most of the recording was done in the U.S. I was writing it when I was finishing up the touring for Under The Town and then in the month following that. By the time I had enough songs we went to the U.S and made the record with this guy called Mark Nevers in Nashville who I was very keen to work with. We made the whole album there and a few extra songs that didn’t make it to the record. After we finished that process I came back to Australia and I thought about it for a little while and when I was in Nashville I really missed Tony Dupe who made my first two albums. The only reason I left Tony was that both Tony and I felt that it was the right thing to do at the time because I had done everything I had ever done with him and I didn’t really know anything else. So I got Tony to do some arrangements when I got back to Australia…and he really completed some of the songs for me” Holly explained.

I asked Holly how she found Nashville and if she had ever been there before. “I had actually been there before for a couple of days when I was living in Texas a few years ago. I did a big drive up to Nashville with some friends and then we went back to New Orleans and this time I went back to Austin as well. It is a fun, kinda weird, scary, southern drive and we actually ran out of petrol on the side of the road. It’s an interesting city and quite pretty and doesn’t feel that big even though it is quite large. It’s circled by those big highways like those American cities are surrounded by on and off exits. It feels relatively small in terms of the scene there because I guess America is quite segregated, and I don’t mean racially I mean more stylistically, like if you are certain kind of person you go to certain places, the same kind of bars and the same cafes. So we kept running into the same type of people there and feeling like we were part of this cool little community which was nice.”

I also asked Holly if she tried a different approach to songwriting on this album compared to he previous two albums. “Nope. I never really approach song writing differently, I certainly approach the recording and arrangements differently but the song writing always seems to come from the same spot for me. Actually in one way I did because the drummer in my band actually wrote a couple of the guitar parts and the introductory guitar riff to A Heart Divided which I ended up making a song out of. So that was kinda co-written, I got a little piece of music and added a chorus and the words and that was actually nice to do that and gave me an idea about the possibility of collaboration. I’ve always been a very solitary songwriter in the alone in the bedroom way, sitting on my own in the light of a candle, listening for people that aren’t there.”

With many of Holly’s songs sounding part beautiful song, part poem I asked her if she sometimes writes poems that don’t become songs. “I doubt if I write any poetry separate to music but I do certainly think a lot about words and I am very interested in words and how they go together and how they sound together. I am a big fan of poetry and I do read quite a lot of it but although I feel that I write quite quickly sometimes, it is something that is quite considered for me. I always write the music first but I do tend to find that with most of the songs I write they come out with words attached to the music for some reason. As soon as I start humming a melody I find that words and sometimes whole phrases come out and the song is always based around those initial words.”

Holly was also just announced as an ARIA nominee for 2008 in the Best Female Artist category. “It was actually a really big surprise this year. I was very pleasantly surprised. This year there were lots of big stars and stuff and I thought I was a little on the small scale. It was very nice to get nominated.”

A Loud Call is out now.

Bob Evans has returned from recording in Nashville filled with inspiration to hit the road for a national tour this November and December ahead of the April/May release of his third album ‘Goodnight, Bull Creek!’.

The Blind Faith Tour will showcase songs from the new album giving you an insight into what they to expect when ‘Goodnight, Bull Creek!’ comes out next year.

Joining Bob on stage to help perform the songs in intimate duo mode will be Malcolm Clark (ex The Sleepy Jackson). Lucky Melbourne and Perth fans at the Northcote gig and the Kings Park gig will also get to hear the dynamic new band play the first of many gigs to come.

Bob says, “Blind faith - I know it well. It’s driven me to recording a new album that does not attempt to recreate the songs of my past and it will be the magic potion I drink as I present these new songs to live audiences for the first time in a format that I’ve never toured before. How many instruments can two men play at the same time? Will members of the audience, upon being given instruments of percussion, be able to play in time with the music? Will any celebrity musician friends agree to join us onstage? These are just some of the questions we will be seeking answers to as we wind our way around the country throughout November on the “Blind Faith Tour” of 2008.”

For tickets visit www.bobevans.com.au
Get in fast before they’re gone!

It is with great pleasure to announce the return of the modern day psychedelic, pop/rock icons The Dandy Warhols. Visiting Australia this October in support of their recently released album ‘…Earth To Dandy Warhols…’, this, the band’s first visit in over three years, sees the infamous act delighted to be bringing over a decade’s worth of material to our shores.

After skyrocketing to success in the late ‘90s with their hits “Not if You Were The Last Junkie on Earth” and “Bohemian Like You” The Dandy’s became a force to be reckoned with on the touring scene. Internationally renowned for their live performances, both sonically & visually, the band have not only gained, but sustained, a reputation for sell-out shows across the globe. With Australia being one of their largest and most devoted fan bases and October 2008 marking the band’s tenth year since they first set foot on Australian soil, there’s little doubt tickets will sell fast…

Tickets for The Dandy Warhols shows will go on sale 9am Thursday 14th August

Tour Dates:
Tue 28th October - Metro City, Perth
Fri 31st October - Enmore Theatre, Sydney (All Ages)
Sat 1st November - Stonefest, University of Canberra
Mon 3rd November – Venue TBC, Hobart
Wed 5th November - The Tivoli, Brisbane
Thur 6th November - The Palace Theatre, Melbourne

With a week to go before the release of her third album ‘A Loud Call’, Holly Throsby is very pleased to announce her most extensive Australian tour ever.  The Loud Call Tour starts in Alice Springs on August 22nd and winds up in Cairns in mid-October, taking in 20 cities and towns along the way.  Holly will be joined by her long time band Bree van Reyk and Jens Birchall. The three piece play eleven instruments between them. It is sure to be a musical adventure.

Holly will start this tour fresh from a string of solo shows in the UK & Ireland with the iconic Paul Kelly, as well as two dates in London supporting Australian sweetheart Tim Rogers.

‘A Loud Call’ was recorded in Nashville with engineer and producer Mark Nevers (Lambchop, Will Oldham). It includes guest performances by Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, and members of Lambchop and Silver Jews. It also includes Holly’s latest single ‘A Heart Divided’ and the title track from last years’ ‘One of You For Me’ EP.

Tour Dates:
Fri 19th September - Altitude Bar, Dunsborough
With guests The Lonely Brothers

Sat 20th September - The Bakery, Northbridge
With guests Apricot Rail & Benedict Moleta Five Piece

Sun 21st September - Mojo’s, Nth Fremantle
With guests Schvendes

Upon its release, The Grates debut album Gravity Won’t Get You High immediately shot to the ARIA top-ten, was nominated for awards, and sold over 50,000 copies. The trio slogged it out for two years straight, with sold-out Australian tours, shows in the UK, US and Canada, and garnered gushing press coverage. With their new album Teeth Lost, Hearts Won, The Grates faced a new challenge in the studios: being their own co-producers for the very first time. While sound engineer/producer Peter Katis (Interpol, Mates of State, The National) joined the ride again, this time, The Grates were also alongside him closely at the producer’s desk at Tarquin Studios, a gutted-out attic in Connecticut, USA. Initially, taking the production helm - occasionally by themselves - scared them. Needless to say, the band’s newfound musical smarts have paid off. This batch of songs is more sophisticated and punch-in-the-guts catchy than anything they’ve done before. Hand-clapping, foot-stomping first single ‘Burn Bridges’ is a good indicator of The Grates’ new musical direction, but also provides a handy manifesto. Guitarist John Patterson spoke to Justin Middleton for this exclusive interview.

Click here to download the podcast of the entire interview. (9:00 - 2.1Mb)

“We are super happy. In the US we were in this house in Conneticut which was this huge stately mansion on a main road in a dirty area. We all lived in this house and it was half winter, half spring and we barely left. We worked upstairs and slept downstairs and that’s kind of how I like to work, just put everything into it and have nothing else to focus on. It was great. Peter Katis lives in Conneticut and the studio is in his house so we just went to his house. There was nothing special about the place except he was there.”

I asked John what it was like being away from Australia to record the album. “We’ve done both of our albums away from home and I would have a lot of trouble trying to work on something at home. There are so many distractions when you have to go home to your house and you have your family there or you pick someone up or drop someone off or you have bills to pay and stuff. When you are away you don’t have any distractions, even with the timezones no one can really call you up. It’s a great way to get away from everything.”

Second albums can sometimes cause problems with bands especially trying to live up to expectations and writing new songs. I asked John if this was the case with Teeth Lost, Hearts Won. “It was harder to write songs because when you first start writing songs it’s so easy because you’ve never done anything before. You feel so super original for writing your first 20 songs because you’ve never written songs before. The more you write the harder it is to feel you are doing something original and feel like you are doing something new. So it takes a lot longer to write songs and we had to put a lot of effort into making things feel organic. Even though it took a long time to arrange the songs and stuff a lot of thought was put into making it feel like they grew organically instead of just having that organic feel just because you wrote it really quickly.”

Asked what the songwriting process of the band was, John replied “The only way we have been able to get it to work is Patience and I start writing something at exactly the same time pretty much. I might write something on guitar and she sings something in the next 30 seconds or something. Otherwise we all get quite anxious and feel a lot of stress. If I write a guitar riff and leave it with Patience for a day or something, there’s no way she will be able to write anything for it because she will feel too much pressure. We have to do it both together at exactly the same time. It seems like that is the only way we can do it at the moment. I don’t know what it will be like for the third record but that was the only way we could it.”

“I think this one has much more of a theme than our last record. We tried to treat every song separately on the last one and this one was all written within a year and lyrically there are similar themes and musically I tried to bring in little melodies. We always try anything that is hanging around the studio. I played bass guitar and somebody else played bass guitar and we hadn’t done that before so I think there is bass guitar on six or seven songs this time. I think Patience can credit herself with handclapping as an instrument so she can sound like she can play an instrument. She does a bit of tamborine at the moment as well.”

Tour Dates:
Thur 2nd October - Sands Tavern, Sunshine Coast QLD
Fri 3rd October - The Arena, Brisbane QLD
Sat 4th October - Coolangatta Hotel, Gold Coast QLD
Sun 5th October - Great Northern, Byron Bay QLD
Wed 8th October - 21 Arms, Ballarat VIC
Thur 9th October - Peninsula Lounge, Moorooduc VIC
Fri 10th October - Hi Fi Bar, Melbourne VIC
Sun 12th October - Govenor Hindmarsh, Adelaide SA
Wed 15th October - Uni Bar, Wollongong NSW
Fri 17th October - Metro, Sydney NSW
Sat 18th October - Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle NSW
Thur 23rd October - Prince Of Wales, Bunbury QLD
Fri 24th October - Settlers Tavern, Margaret River WA
Sat 25th October - Capitol, Perth WA

For more info visit www.thegrates.com

The Grates - Burn Bridges

End of Fashion are pleased to announce they are doing what they love best and heading back out on the road on a national headline tour in September/October to support the release of their new album ‘Book Of Lies’ which is released on September 27.

‘Book Of Lies’ was recorded at home in Perth, with producer Magoo (Regurgitator, Midnight Oil, Powderfinger) and Andy Lawson (The Avenues), and finished off by Tim Palmer (U2, The Cure, Robert Plant) who mixed the album in Los Angeles.  A new spirit and energy are reflected in the songs and while the pop nous and melodic attentiveness the band displayed on their debut LP makes a signature return, End Of Fashion have crafted an album that is more brutal and angular than the last.

‘Fussy’, the first single lifted from the album, hit the radio airwaves this week causing a rippling effect across the country with the track being added immediately across the board at commercial radio. Be on the lookout for the non-traditional music video directed by Natasha Pincus (Inside Film Award winner, Best Music Video 2007 for Paul Kelly’s ‘God Told Me To’) which is bound to cause a stir as the first installment of a two part video series.

New album ‘Book of Lies’ in stores September 27
New single ‘Fussy’ available digitally August 23 and in stores August 30

Tour Dates:
Tue 2nd September – Barwon Club, Geelong
Thur 4th September – Karova Lounge, Ballarat
Fri 5th September – Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Sat 6th September – Peninsula Lounge, Moorooduc
Sun 7th September – Governor Hindmarsh, Adelaide
Wed 10th September – Great Northern Hotel, Byron Bay
Thur 11th September – Sound Lounge, Currumbin
Fri 12th September – Sol Bar, Coolum
Wed 17th September – ANU Bar, Canberra
Thur 18th September – Wollongong University
Fri 19th September – Gaelic Club, Sydney
Sat 20th September – Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle
Thur 2nd October – Players Bar, Mandurah
Fri 3rd October – Prince Of Wales, Bunbury
Sat 4th October – Capitol Bar, Perth

One of the less orthodox bands spawned by the post-Libertines London music scene, the Mystery Jets started at the end of the last century when Blaine Harrison and his dad, Henry, formed a band together. Soon joined by Blaine’s school friends Kai and Will, the band recruited drummer Kapil and started staging gigs in a crumbling hotel ballroom on Eel Pie Island. Their second album Twenty One has just been released in Australia and frontman Blaine Harrison caught up with Justin Middleton for this exclusive interview.

Click here to download the podcast of the entire interview. (13:12 - 3.0Mb)

I asked Blaine if he is looking forward to see how the Australian public will accept the bands second album given many have not heard of the band too much before now.  “Yeah I am excited. We’ve been going for a long, long time. I started the band with William, my dad, when I was eight years old so it was a long, long, long time ago. I can’t work out exactly how many years, I’m not very good at math. I’d say things got more serious and focused when we left school and did a couple of tours off our own back. We eventually got the line up that we have today and we started putting on our own parties really as a response to not wanting to go down the traditional pub circuit. That seems to be the route that most bands don’t really have a choice but to go down and that essentially involved charging your friends money to see you at shitty pubs with shitty sound and overpriced alcohol. That seemed like the exact opposite of what we wanted to do at the time. Instead we put on our own parties and eventually they picked up and lots of friends bands that played eventually established themselves and a lot of them got signed. We kind of decided that our work was done and we signed ourselves to 679 Records and got our first album, Making Dens, out in 2006.”

“Twenty One is our second album and we wrote it across the course of about 18 months, maybe a year and put it out early this year in England. With the first album the songs you end up releasing are generally the songs that you have got people’s attention with and it’s really just a case of rounding the album off. But definitely with the second album we had to think a little bit harder and think about what we wanted to say. We toured the hell out of the first album and really went for it on the road so by the end of touring we all felt creatively starved. Henry, my dad, wrote a lot of the lyrics for the first album and William wrote a lot of the music but after touring we all felt like there were things we wanted to say and things we were learning and that kind of resulted in Twenty One.”

With everyone in the band contributing to Twenty One I asked Blaine if it felt different and foreign in creating the album.  “It is kind of a thematic album really. A lot of the songs I think really fit together and they all kind of sit under that umbrella of first love and having your heart broken for the first time. We all bring different things to the table, a lot of the lyrics come from Henry and myself and musically William is still, in a way, the driving force but a lot of the other stuff is equally important: the arrangements, and the kind of clothes you put the songs in. A lot of the songs are pop songs at the bottom of them but they are in some kind of disguise and I think that is something we have learnt to manipulate on the second album.”

The band are still young so I asked Blaine if it was hard creating pop songs or if it felt quite natural and easy.  “I don’t think initially it was really. We didn’t really grow up with pop music, we are 90’s kids and although what was going on in England at the time was Brit-pop and all that kind of stuff, I think we kind of grew up in our own bubble. My dad plays a lot of prog, a lot of Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Genesis and that sort of stuff and we were teased a lot about it at school. But that was what we really wanted to do and growing up pop music was an unnatural ground for us to cover. With the second album we felt like we wanted to do that and we wanted to go out on a limb and try and do something we had never done before. Likewise with the next album, I think we will try and explore something that does feel completely new. That is the only way you can not trap yourself and not bury yourself in a hole.”

Young Love

Twenty One is out now. For more info on Mystery Jets visit www.mysteryjets.com

Since their inception in 2007, Harlequin League have wasted no time in forging a reputation as one of the most exciting new acts to come out of Perth in recent months. This August will see Harlequin League cement their progression through the ranks with the release of their highly anticipated, debut EP We Used To Be Gods, Now We’re So Plain.

To celebrate the impending release, Harlequin League will be showcasing tunes off their new EP at an all-ages and absolutely free event as part of Triple J’s live @ The Wireless this Sunday 3 August, at The Fly By Night in Fremantle with Birds Of Tokyo and Abbe May.

With the debut EP being recorded by respected Melbourne producer Woody Annison (Children Collide, Red Riders, Rocket Science, Dardanelles), Harlequin League’s first official recorded effort represents a melting pot of influences. Mixing gritty post-punk with ambient undertones and channeling the eclectic pop of the UK new wave, We Used To Be Gods, Now We’re So Plain represents the next phase in Harlequin League’s career.

Sun 3rd August - Triple J’s Live @ The Wireless at The Fly By Night, Fremantle - with Birds Of Tokyo and Abbe May
Thur 7th August - Deville’s Pad, Perth - with special guests TBA

For more info visit www.myspace.com/harlequinleague.  Harlequin League’s debut EP to be released August 2008, on Good Cop Bad Cop Records.

Mammal’s debut studio album The Majority is set for release on August 30 and they want you to participate in the explosive spectacle that is Mammal live as they launch the album around the country.

The Majority was recorded with Eric Sarafin (Ben Harper, Pharcyde) in the producer’s chair at Melbourne’s Sing Sing Studios, and was mixed and mastered in Los Angeles.

Mammal earned their stripes throughout 2007/08 on a never ending diet of pub gigs, local supports (Cog, The Butterfly Effect, Karnivool and Shihad), international supports (Kiss, Avenged Sevenfold, Hell Yeah, Sebastian Bach, Dry Kill Logic) as well as playing the cream of Australia’s rock festivals, taking fans at Big Day Out, Overcranked, Homebake, Bass in the Grass, Pyramid Rock, Groovin’ the Moo, Bass in the Dust and Off the Tracks festivals hostage with their infectious manifesto and unparalleled musical muscle.

In an industry typified by manufactured hype, management nepotism and the transparent agendas of major labels, Mammal is a rarity. Independent, loud, proud, and making a big noise. A visceral alloy of prog, punk and raw rock, Mammal are forward-thinking and forward moving.

See Mammal defy gravity at a venue near you:
Fri 12th September - Enigma Bar, Adelaide
Fri 19th September - The Corner Hotel, Richmond
Sat 20th September - The Zoo, Fortitude Valley
Fri 26th September - Annandale Hotel, Annandale
Sat 27th September - Prince of Wales, Bunbury
Sun 28th September - Amplifier Bar, Perth

Tickets for all shows go on sale as of Thursday 31st of July. Via OZTIX: www.oztix.com.au or via MAMMAL: www.mammal.oztix.com.au