Tour news - Darren Sylvester launches in Sydney

Sydneysiders will finally be treated to Darren Sylvester's one man show when he comes to launch his debut album next month.

Darren Sylvesters debut album was released after he wrote, produced and recorded an album on vinyl for exhibition. It was picked up by Unstable Ape and Remote Control records and released to critical acclaim.

The album takes its cues that drift from Avalon-era Roxy Music and Berlin-era Bowie with Sylvester’s live experience of the new-new-wave performed solo with guitars, drum machine and synthesizer.

Lyrically it delves in themes seldom touched in contemporary pop, like chemotherapy in the high octane strut of That’s a Nice Haircut; the malaise of factory work in Twenty Three and Phil Spector, a ballad about – and using – only Phil’s favourite chords.

“A ghostly collection of synthetic recordings for Karen Carpenter, Phil Spector, remembered authenticity and pure pop fiction. Roxy Music, Japan, The Pretenders and The Cars all feature musically.” ThreeThousand

“What he came up with just happens to be a contender for the slickest pop album of the year.” Inpress

“a mix of wit, homage and melodic brilliance… making this strange art-pop artefact an unqualified success.” EG, The Age

“There’s an early-career T.Rex swagger to Darren Sylvester’s debut album…
a finely pitched and accomplished record.” 4/5 stars. M Magazine, The Age

“Sylvester’s debut delivers an irrevocable sense of suave and sedate pop melodrama.” Beat

TWO SHOWS
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 11
GOODGOD SMALL CLUB
with Scott & Charlenes Wedding + Dominic Talarico
55 Liverpool Street, CBD. Entrance Through La Campana
Tickets $10 on the door. 8pm

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 13
THE COMMONS
with Jessica Says
32 Burton Street, Darlinghurst.
Tickets $50 includes Dinner, Dessert and Performance
$25 Performance Only.
Dinner 8pm. Bar and Music from 10pm
Tickets are strictly limited to 25 people
Please email rob@thecommons.com.au to register interest
Tickets can be picked up and paid for at The Commons

myspace.com/darrensylvesterband

Darren Sylvester's debut self-titled album is out now through Unstable Ape.

Darren Sylvester on RRR

Be sure to tune into RRR this arvo to hear Darren Sylvester have a chat with Clem Bastow
and guest programme on Transference at 5:30pm.

Those not living in Melbourne can stream it here.

Darren Sylvester Album Launch

Put it in your diaries:

Darren Sylvester launches his debut album on
Saturday the 10th of October at The Toff In Town,
Second Floor, Curtin House, 252 Swanston Street, Melbourne.

He will be joined by renowned folk-rock group,
Kes Band and super pop girls, The Icypoles.

Taking musical cues drifting from Roxy Music and Berlin-era Bowie to other current single-band performers such as LA’s Ariel Pink and John Maus, Sylvester’s live experience of the new-new-wave is performed with guitars, synths and a duplicate of New Orders 1983 drum kit.

Lyrically he encompasses themes seldom touched in contemporary pop, such as chemotherapy in the high octane strut of That’s a Nice Haircut; the malaise of factory work in Twenty Three and Phil Spector, a ballad about – and using – only Phil Spector’s favourite chords.

His debut album has been described as:

“a mix of wit, homage and melodic brilliance … making this strange art-pop artefact an unqualified success.”
Michael Dwyer (EG, THE AGE)

“What he came up with just happens to be a contender for the slickest pop album of the year.” (INPRESS)

“There’s an early-career T.Rex swagger to Darren Sylvester’s debut album…
a finely pitched and accomplished record.”
4/5 stars. (M Magazine, THE AGE)

“Sylvester’s debut delivers an irrevocable sense of suave and sedate pop melodrama.”
(BEAT)

8/10 (Vice Magazine)

+ INPRESS Single of the week for That’s a Nice Haircut

Tickets are $9 + booking fee presale or $12 on the door

On sale from Moshtix:
http://www.moshtix.com.au/event.aspx?id=30264&ref=moshtix
or phone: 1300 GET TIX (438 849)
or Moshtix outlets including Polyester (City)

Look out! Love Of Diagrams coming your way

Love Of Diagram's new album Nowhere Forever is out and has been causing quite the stir.

ALBUM OF THE WEEK at

RRR Melbourne

SYN Melbourne

RTR Perth

FBI Sydney

Edge Radio Hobart

MX Newspaper

Fasterlouder

And now Love Of Diagrams set about taking their album to the punters live.

The band will be launching their album around the country from next week in
MELBOURNE Fri Sep 11 - Northcote Social Club [tickets on sale]
SYDNEY Thu 17 Sep - The Annandale [tickets on sale]
ADELAIDE Fri Oct 2 - The Jade Monkey
with dates in BRISBANE, PERTH and HOBART to be announced shortly

If you can't get enough
- the band talk us through the album track by track on Mess & Noise.
- perform a live to air set on Rebellious Jukebox on PBSFM Melbourne this Saturday 5th Sep, stream it live from 10.30pm AEST
- and Luke and Antonia have a chat and guest programme on RRR's Transference next Tue 8th Sep, stream it live from 5.30pm AEST

Nowhere Forever is out now through Unstable Ape/ Remote Control.

New Jessica Says video and Melbourne show

I'll Set The Night Upon You is the debut video from Melbourne wunderkind Jessica Says. Filmed in stark black and white the video is a homage to the classic film If. Jessica revisits her past as a waitress, in a charming piece of kitchen sink melodrama. I’ll Set The Night Upon You, features cameo vocals by Sally Seltmann (New Buffalo) and is a keynote track from the acclaimed album We Need To Talk.

Watch it and weep indie-lings:


Jessica Says also has a show coming up in Melbourne this Friday. August 28 at Bella Union Bar at Trades Hall, supported by Kid Sam and Tragic/ Athletic. Jessica Says will include Geoff O'Connor (Crayon Fields, Sly Hats) on guitar, Ollie Browne (Art Of FIghting) on drums and Jessica's brother Nick Venables on violin. What a treat!

Jessica Says plays
Bella Union at Trades Hall, Melbourne
Friday August 28
w/ Kid Sam and Tragic/ Athletic
Doors open 8pm
Tickets available $12 bellaunion.com.au or phone 03 9650 5600
or $15 at the door if still available

We Need To Talk has evoked a strong response from radio and critics, including being featured as Album Of The Week on ABC Radio National, and named Album Of The Week by MX, Beat Magazine and The Brag.

We Need To Talk is out now through Unstable Ape.

New Love Of Diagrams mp3 - Look Out

“Recalls the early work of British shoegazers Ride, Swervedriver and other luminaries from Creation Records circa early ’90s… Simultaneously urgent and laid-back, which is quite a feat to pull off.”
Mess & Noise

“The new album is due out soon… and is sure to be a monster of biblical proportions”
Inpress

“An explosion of guitars, resurrecting the dense sounds of American indie-pop circa 90-94”
Beat

“Highly recommended listening”
Rave

So we can all safely say that everyone has fallen in love with Love Of Diagrams' track Forever, the first single taken from the upcoming Nowhere Forever

You can grab a copy of the album on August 21, but for those still salivating for some fresh LOD in the meantime, we bring you Look Out.

Staying true to form, the track has all the fuzzed out guitars, feedback and pummeling drums that you would expect from this much loved Melbourne three piece.

Look Out [mp3]

Love of Diagrams launch 7" in Melbourne and Sydney

Last month we blogged a taster of Love Of Diagrams forthcoming album Nowhere Forever.

The track Forever will be launched as a 7" in Melbourne this weekend, and Sydney next weekend.

Be sure to catch the shows to hear more from the band's forthcoming new record Nowhere Forever.

Melbourne: Sat July 4th at The Tote w. The Twerps and Chris Smith
Sydney: Fri July 10th at Spectrum w. Songs

VulgarGrad hit NSW and QLD!

King Of Crooks is out now through Unstable Ape.

New Love Of Diagrams mp3 - Forever

(Photo by Lauren Bamford)

After much anticipation, LOVE OF DIAGRAMS finally unleash the first taste of their new album NOWHERE FOREVER, in the form of a limited edition 7” vinyl single.

The A-side of the single is Forever, a guitar-heaven explosion that hints at the pleasures to come on the new album.

Recorded in November ‘08 at Bear Creek Studios in Seattle with producer Ryan Hadlock (Gossip, Blonde Redhead, Steve Malkmus among many more), NOWHERE FOREVER, is the guitar-drenched dream-pop record LOVE OF DIAGRAMS have always wanted to make.

The 7” perfectly captures Love Of Diagrams’ transition from the pared-back minimalism and live-as-possible aesthetic of their 2007 album MOSAIC, (captured on the B-side of the vinyl by the exclusive older live favourite ‘With your Instinct’) to their new experimentation with warmer textures and layered sounds on the new album

Forever is a perfect little slice of the sonic textures, pop hooks, and guitar heavy sounds that LOVE OF DIAGRAMS have dreamed up on the new album.

The 7” is out July 1st on the band’s own Free Field Records.

The album NOWHERE FOREVER is released later in the winter on Unstable Ape/Remote Control.

7” Launches:

Melbourne: Sat July 4th at The Tote w. The Twerps and Chris Smith
Sydney: Fri July 10th at Spectrum w. Songs

Forever [mp3]<

Looking for mp3s?
Check out our free mp3 download page here!

VulgarGrad at The Tote tomorrow night

Vulgargrad & Clinkerfield
…the russian criminals attempt to smash the drunken pirate convicts, and vice versa…

Saturday 16 May, The Tote Hotel
Corner Johnston & Wellington St, Collingwood VIC, Ph 03 9419 5320
Doors 8:30 pm, $15 entry.

Finally, after more than a year of evil-eyeing each other from across the way, with many snide remarks and rude retorts tossed provocatively at each other from across the bar-room, the Russian criminals and the drunken pirate convicts assemble for a showdown on the same stage. Vulgargrad was heard to say, “That’s not a pirate ship – it’s a bathtub, you half-baked bunch of babies!” to which Clinkerfield shot back, “You’re nothing but an overstocked shop-window full of striped candies”. The knives are out and they’re smashing bottles over each others heads at the Tote, Saturday 16th May, when Clinkerfield and Vulgargrad rush headlong at each other, with support from Pete & The Tar Gang.

This be Vulgargrad’s first show back after packing the Old Bar to the roof on Anzac Day when they danced with Clinkerfield’s alter-ego The Miserable Little Bastards, and last before touring nationally to pervert minds across the country with their new CD King of Crooks. It’s also Clinkerfield’s final local show for two months before their riotous ringleader Jimmy Stewart vanishes to the USA for a solo musical misadventure. So it’s just gonna be extra special and crazee emotionally charged with the possibility for brawling and blood.

www.myspace.com/vulgargrad
www.clinkerfield.com
http://www.myspace.com/peteandthetargang

VulgarGrad's King Of Crooks is out now through Unstable Ape.

Jessica Says launches in Sydney this weekend

"an intelligent and affecting soundscape" **** The Age

Sydney-siders! Jessica Says is heading east this weekend to launch her album in your city. The entire country has been won over by Jessica's debut so be sure to catch one of her shows:

WE NEED TO TALK’ SYDNEY ALBUM LAUNCH
Fri 15 May - Sydney, Hopetoun w/ Hugo Race (official launch)
Sat 16 May - Sydney, Bar Me w/ Caitlin Park

"eloquent, affecting and downright gorgeous" - ****1/2 Album Of The Week, Beat & The Brag
"a compelling figure... a phenomenal debut" Inpress
"a guilt-free musical indulgence" J Mag
"a disarming debut... an elegant and touching recording from an excitingly fresh local voice" **** MX
"delicate but swooning classical-folk-pop songs" Rave
"a magical release .. a ghostly and blossoming talent" 9/10 Rip It Up
"an intelligent and affecting soundscape" **** The Age
"windswept, baroque and tender" - Melbourne Magazine
"with sweeping strings, melancholic piano and a voice that is part Kate Bush and part Joanna Newsom... Jessica Says has set the bar very high indeed" Xpress

www.myspace.com/jessicasayssongs

Jessica Says 'We Need To Talk' on [iTunes]. Out now through Unstable Ape.

Jessica Says in Adelaide this weekend, Sydney next month

"an intelligent and affecting soundscape" **** The Age

A reminder that Jessica Says heads interstate this weekend to launch her album in Adelaide, and will be in Sydney in a fortnight.

WE NEED TO TALK’ INTERSTATE ALBUM LAUNCHES
Sat 25 Apr – Adelaide, The Metro Hotel w/ Megafauna and Fair Maiden (official launch)
Fri 15 May - Sydney, Hopetoun w/ Hugo Race (official launch)
Sat 16 May - Sydney, Bar Me w/ Caitlin Park

"eloquent, affecting and downright gorgeous" - ****1/2 Album Of The Week, Beat & The Brag
"a compelling figure... a phenomenal debut" Inpress
"a guilt-free musical indulgence" J Mag
"a disarming debut... an elegant and touching recording from an excitingly fresh local voice" **** MX
"delicate but swooning classical-folk-pop songs" Rave
"a magical release .. a ghostly and blossoming talent" 9/10 Rip It Up
"an intelligent and affecting soundscape" **** The Age
"windswept, baroque and tender" - Melbourne Magazine
"with sweeping strings, melancholic piano and a voice that is part Kate Bush and part Joanna Newsom... Jessica Says has set the bar very high indeed" Xpress

Jessica Says 'We Need To Talk' on [iTunes]

Jessica Says I'll Set The Night Upon You

If she wasn’t so modest about it all we’d have to say 21 year old Jessica Venables is a precocious talent. She’s already been so in-demand, working with New Buffalo, Jens Lekman, Micah P. Hinson, Sly Hats and Luluc, and now has her own album We Need To Talk out this weekend. We’re hearing a lot of music on the o/s blogs that swims in the same deep blue water as Jessica Says and dare we say we’re thinking maybe she sounds better than pretty much all of it? Evidence? Well take a listen to I’ll Set The Night Upon, which sees Ms New Buffalo (aka Sally Seltmann) repay the favour by singing alongside Jessica.

I'll Set The Night Upon You (feat. New Buffalo) [mp3]

Oh and if you are in Melbourne and Sydney, you can check out the live shows
Thu 19 Mar – Melbourne, Empress
Fri 20 Mar – Melbourne, Yah Yah’s
Fri 10 Apr – Melbourne, The Toff *ALBUM LAUNCH w/ DJ Jens Lekman, Dick Diver and Darren Sylvester
Sat 25 Apr – Adelaide, The Metro Hotel *ALBUM LAUNCH w/ Megafauna and Fair Maiden
Fri 15 May - Sydney, Hopetoun *ALBUM LAUNCH w/ Hugo Race

We Need To Talk is out March 21 through Unstable Ape Records.

Jessica Says dances about architecture

"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture."

Jessica Says (21 year old Melbourne singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentatlist Jessica Venables), will be the first guest on the launch episode of Dancing About Architecture, a new music panel TV show that starts tonight at 9:30pm on Melbourne's C31.

Each episode of Dancing will culminate with a triumphant live performance in the "one-mic challenge" (which does exactly what it says on the label). And the best part? It's all going live-to-air! Jessica Says' will be performing the track His Mother's Ring from her debut album We Need To Talk, out March 21

Dancing will be hosted creator, Clem Bastow, and her co-panellists Tim Finney and Mia Timpano, produced by Renegade Films (the team behind RocKwiz). They'll be, well, dancing about architecture: talking about music. Whether it's the latest or the greatest, from CDs to DVDs and MP3s, music blogs to boutique 7" labels, Dancing wants to talk about it - and tell you all about it. The show will demonstrate that music criticism is much more than a buying guide: it is an art, and one that you will quickly grow to love.

VulgarGrad Vs The Band That Knew Too Much

It’s the cold war all over again, except this time it’s HOT! It’s Russia vs. Australia this Friday, February 20 at the Spot in Melbourne.

In the red corner (with a hammer and sickle scribbled out) is VulgarGrad. Playing songs from their upcoming album King Of Crooks, VulgarGrad have won many a brawl in the gulags of Siberia and the mean-streets of Moscow. Fronted by Australia’s most formidable stage and screen actors, Jacek Koman (Children of Men, Moulin Rouge, Romulus My Father), if you turn your back on them, their vodka-drenched songs of felony and misdemeanor will knock you straight to the ground.

In the blue corner (with a few stars and some red and white stripes) is The Band Who Knew Too Much, veterans of sweaty pub fights all over this brown land. Their Aussie songs of beer-drinking and rent-spending hit as hard as woodchopper’s axe.

Officiating the fight is DJ Russian Disco, who makes no attempt to hide his allegiances – he knows the Aussies don’t need any help on their home turf.

Doors open at 9pm, tickets are $12 on the door.

Advance copies of VulgarGrad's brand new CD King Of Crooks will be available at the gig with the official CD launch happening on April 4 at the Corner Hotel in Melbourne.

VulgarGrad on Spicks and Specks

No Through Road have no guitars

After battling through the sauna that was Adelaide's Big Day Out, No Through Road had 3 of their guitars stolen from backstage. A post on their myspace says:

After playing a really fun show at the Adelaide Big Day Out 3 of our Guitars were stolen from backstage.
If you see or hear anything about these guitars please let us know.
We really like them and would love to have them back.

Details of guitars:

Nic's guitar: 1966 Hofner 173 Guitar. White Vinyl. black hard case, shape of guitar.

Marcin's Guitar: Gibson SG standard. Serial number 00155608. colour cherry. 2005 or 04. gibson leather case

Dexter's: Fender American series telecaster. Sun burst colour, black hard case. serial number 132423

Thanks
ntr

Despite this the band will be playing tonight in Melbourne supporting The Hold Steady.

Introducing Jessica Says

Ten Things about Jessica Says

1. Jessica Says is 21 year old Melbourne singer-songwriter Jessica Venables.

2. Her debut album We Need To Talk is to be released on Unstable Ape Records in February 2009.

3. We Need To Talk was produced by Geoff O’Connor (Crayon Fields/Sly Hats) with whom Jessica has collaborated in Sly Hats.

4. We Need To Talk features 10 songs written and arranged by Jessica and a very special vocal cameo by New Buffalo’s Sally Seltmann.

5. For the past year, she has been touring as part of New Buffalo’s band, providing backing vocals, cello and keyboard.

6. She has appeared on recordings by Grand Salvo, Sly Hats, Crayon Fields, Guy Blackman and Luluc.

7. She has also toured Australia as a cellist with Jens Lekman and Micah P. Hinson.

8. As a seventeen year old she was the lead cellist of the Melbourne Youth Orchestra.

9. The artwork for We Need To Talk features exclusive photography by Australian contemporary art wunderkind Darren Sylvester.

10. Jessica Says will next perform at The Evelyn on December 20th, both supporting Crayon Fields.

His Mother's Ring [mp3]

myspace.com/jessicasayssongs

Jane Badler brings her devilish show to Sydney and Melbourne

Sat 15 Nov – Sydney, Vanguard
Thu 11 Dec – Melbourne, Spiegeltent

This weekend, Sat November 15th ‘The Devil has my Double’ an album by Hollywood glamour icon Jane Badler has its Sydney launch at the Vanguard. The album is a compulsive mix of fame, sex and solitude set to a soundtrack of sweeping cold soul and synthetics. ‘The Devil has my Double’ a tale of too much for too long. How a charmed life has its price and eventually it must be paid.

The album lyrically and musically reflects Jane’s remarkable life and career from her initial public notoriety as Miss New Hampshire, competing in the Miss America pageant, to her long and varied career in Hollywood B films and television.

Jane appeared weekly on American television from 1976 to 1989 including roles in the classic daytime soap One life to live, Fantasy Island, the kidnapping seductress of Alex Baldwin’s baby in The Doctors and the on-air adversary of Kim Novak in Falcon’s Crest. Jane is best remembered for her portrayal of sexually charged villain Diana in the cult classic V, (Jane’s was voted one of Science Fictions 25 greatest legends in American TV Guide, August 2004).

Jane Badler began her professional singing career singing at the Playboy Club in Manhattan in the mid seventies, and finally after years of performing releases an album of originals informed by the twists and turns of her curious story.

Praise for the album

“An American Marianne Faithfull…a lurid snapshot of Hollyweird (sic) that is “The Devil has My Double” Australian Vogue Sep 08
“The female psyche hasn't been put on display this artfully since EURYTHMICS’ 1987 album 'SAVAGE'. Rockwired July 08
“21st Century torch songs, a chanteuse surveying her tattered past” Sydney Morning Herald July 4th 08
“The Devil Has My Double is a sultry love story of a woman
scorned, both understated and intense at the same time.” SX News July 08

“This assured recording will appeal to chic sorts who live a deadly lifestyle, lingering in cheap motels rooms, negligee torn, lipstick smeared.”
Melbourne Community Voice July 08

Next month will see Jane Badler and Sir perform at the Spiegeltent in Melbourne. Stay tuned for more details.