Micachu & The Shapes’ return, three years after the release of their last record Never, is almost an accident: the trio of friends decided to rehearse in an East London studio, and found themselves immersed into an hours-long jam. Drummer Marc Pell had an Edirol field recorder in hand, and unbeknownst to his bandmates, recorded the whole session; Pell, Mica Levi, and Raisa Khan were so enamored of those off-the-cuff audio experiments that they became the underpinnings of a new record.
The new record Good Sad Happy Bad will be released worldwide Friday 11 September via Rough Trade / Remote Control Records. First single ‘Oh Baby’ is available to stream here.
Not content with just releasing a new album with his band The Frames Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard has also announced plans to release his brand new solo album Didn’t He Ramble on the 18th September.
The album is Hansard’s second solo outing after 2012’s critically acclaimed Rhythm & Repose. The first single from Didn’t He Ramble is “Winning Streak” which comes with a gorgeous black and white video.
Check out the video for “Winning Streak” below:
Timber and Steel
Following the highly acclaimed 13th series of RocKwiz (RocKwiz Salutes The Decades) Australia’s favourite television music trivia show is once again going on the road to present Rockwiz Live! Salutes the ARIA Hall of Fame.
Since 1988, the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) has inducted 73 artists into its annual ARIA Hall of Fame, honouring performers, songwriters and others who have made a lasting impact on music culture in Australia. RocKwiz maintains a close relationship with ARIA and has always featured Hall Of Fame artists and drawn from their repertoire over its ten-year history. In 2010, RocKwiz produced the broadcast of the legendary ARIA Hall Of Fame awards night.
These fun-filled live shows, in theatres and concert halls around Australia, will feature some of your favourite Australian music legends performing their hits, alongside the brightest and best contemporary artists interpreting genuine Australian classics. As usual, four contestants will be drawn from the audience on the night to sit alongside rock and roll royalty and participate in the madness and mayhem that is RocKwiz Live!
Queen Of The Kwiz, Julia Zemiro, and Rock Brain, Brian Nankervis, will ask the curly questions, the Human Scoreboard, Dugald, will manage the stage and hold up scores and the original RocKwiz Orkestra – James Black, Peter Luscombe and Mark Ferrie, will be joined by Even guitarist Ashley Naylor and the sensational Vika and Linda Bull.
Expect something like this:
The highly anticipated collaborative album between Nathan Williams of Wavves and Dylan Baldi of Cloud Nothings, No Life For Me was surprise released this week via Williams’ own imprint, Ghost Ramp licenced to Pod for Australia and New Zealand through Inertia. The album was recorded at Williams’ home during two sessions between June 1st to June 10th 2014 and then March 16th through to March 26th 2015 and with production from Sweet Valley (comprised of Williams himself and his brother turn counterpart Joel) with help from Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij, who also performed guitar on the album track “Hard To Find”. Check it out below:
The legends Future Islands will be back later this year to support Mumford & Sons in their three date tour in November. Recently, the band released a new video for ‘A Song For Our Grandfathers’ where they performed to their friends & family at a reunion in North Carolina. They also released a clip earlier in the year for their killer single ‘The Chase’ watch it here:
Melbourne’s Immigrant Union released their brand album Anyway last month and the praise has been flowing ever since.
The latest single from Anyway is the infectiously raucous “War Is Peace” – check out the video below:
To celebrate the release of Anyway Immigrant Union announced a string of dates throughout the country this August and September. The full list of dates are here:
Friday 7th August – The Grace Emily, Adelaide, SA
Saturday 8th August – The Loft, Warrnambool, VIC
Thursday 13th August – Transit Bar, Canberra, ACT
Friday 14th August – The Lass, Newcastle, NSW
Saturday 15th August – Oxford Arts Factory, Sydney, NSW
Sunday 16th August – The Junkyard, Maitland, NSW
Thursday 27th August – Lefty’s Old Time Music Hall, Brisbane, QLD
Friday 28th August – The Great Northern Hotel, Byron Bay, NSW
Saturday 29th August – Solbar, Maroochydore, QLD
Friday 4th September – David Bowie Late Nights @ ACMI, Melbourne, VIC
Saturday 5th September – The Grand Poobah, Hobart, TAS
Tickets on sale Friday 3 July – http://www.immigrantunion.com
Timber and Steel
David Edwards is the editor of The Blurb and a contributor on film and television