Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 31 January 2020.
Hot on the heels of their forthcoming support slot with Craig David, Melbourne based warrior queens, The Merindas, have announced national tour dates to launch their debut album, We Sing Until Sunrise. the album sees them sharing their songs, language, dance, stories and powerful messaging through major cities including Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Perth, Darwin and Broome throughout March and April, 2020.
The Merindas are the collective force of Candice Lorrae of Jawoyn and Thursday Island heritage (born in Darwin) and Nyoongar Ballardong Whadjuk woman Kristel Kickett (from Tammin, Western Australia), bringing an on-trend style of rhythmic, expressive and beautiful music dedicated to their cultural heritage. They describe their unique sound as “electronic pop with a dancehall feel, alongside hip hop and R&B influences.”
The tour includes Sydney (March 5 at Oxford Art Factory); Adelaide (part of Adelaide Fringe – March 12 at Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute); Melbourne (March 19 at the Brunswick Mechanics Institute); Brisbane (March 20 at The Zoo); Perth (March 27 at Jack Rabbit Slim’s); Broome (March 28 at The Roebuck Bay Hotel); and Darwin (April 4 at Darwin Railway Club).
Chastity Belt and Loose Tooth have shared a “digital split single” featuring new material from both acts: Chastity Belt’s A Side “The Process” and Loose Tooth’s B side “Lonely”. Both tracks are available to download or stream worldwide from Hardly Art records and Milk! Records in Australia/New Zealand. Fifty percent of Bandcamp sales for either track will benefit Australian wildfire relief efforts, specifically the Country Fire Authority and Fire Relief Fund for First Nations Communities.
Inspired by F Scott Fitzgerald’s famous essay, John Bell and Simon Tedeschi unite with special guest Blazey Best in Echoes of the Jazz Age; for one night only at the City Recital Hall in Sydney.
The show will take you back to all the brilliance and bedazzlement of the Jazz Age, featuring sizzling quotes from Mae West, Groucho Marx, and Dorothy Parker, poetry by T.S. Eliot, and the irresistible music of Scott Joplin, Louis Armstrong and James P Johnson, and songs by George Gershwin, Ray Henderson, Fats Waller, and more.
Event Details: Thursday 6 February, 7.30pm, City Recital Hall
Tickets: $55 – $65
Phone: 8256 2222
Norwegian sensation girl in red (aka 20-year-old Marie Ulven) has shared her new song “Kate’s Not Here” and official video. The track was partly written in Sydney during her Australian live debut last year where she played to a sold-out audience at The Lansdowne as well as performed alongside some of the world’s biggest rising stars including BENEE, Tove Lo and Tones And I at Spotify’s Front Left Live playlist event in Melbourne.
Girl in red joins an all-star line-up of contributors who feature on the official soundtrack for Floria Sigismondi’s (Handmaid’s Tale) new film The Turning, a modern take on Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw which stars Finn Wolfhard and Mackenzie Davis. The 90’s inspired soundtrack, produced Lawrence Rothman and Yves Rothman includes original songs by Courtney Love, Mitski, Soccer Mommy, Empress Of, Vagabon, Warpaint, Cherry Glazerr, Kali Uchis, Alice Glass, Kim Gordon, The Aubreys and more.
Montreal-based indie art rock band Braids have announced their new album Shadow Offering will release on April 24th via Secret City Records / Remote Control. Produced by Chris Walla of Death Cab For Cutie, the new album finds the band at their most personal, unabashedly flexing a new sense of confidence through songs that reach a higher level of artistry and collaboration. They’ve also shared their lead single and video “Young Buck”, an effervescent ode to impossible love.
LISTEN LISTEN 2020 is a two-day conference, which will take place at the newly refurbished Brunswick Mechanics Institute on March 28 and 29 this year. It aims to spark reflection, strengthen learning and growth across communities, and inspire action in Australian music.
This year’s conference tackles a profound range of topics related to inclusion and representation in the music industry, from the festival stage to the club, online and offline. Drawing upon the ideas and topics raised in the organisation’s 2015 and 2016 conferences, LISTEN LISTEN 2020 will reflect on structural and cultural changes that have emerged in Australian music in recent years, whilst examining and unpacking fresh understandings of inclusion, representation, accessibility and diversity that have emerged since LISTEN’s conception in 2014.
For more info and updates, head to their Facebook event
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David Edwards is the editor of The Blurb and a contributor on film and television
