RVG SHARE JOHN CALE COVER 'DYING ON THE VINE'

RVG have shared their crowd-favourite cover of John Cale's "Dying on the Vine", now streaming everywhere here. The B-side to the 'Alexandra' 7-Inch, the cover regularly opens the band's live show. Of the song, RVG's Romy Vager says:

"I’m a huge fan of this period of Cale’s music. It’s a strange balance of honest and grandiose pain, it’s like watching a car full of cocaine drive over a cliff. I guess that’s something I’ve always tried to do with the band: The kind of performance where you’re trying to make people feel anything but good about themselves. We played this song at our first gig and people have been bugging us to record it ever since so I’m glad that it’s finally around."

Paste Magazine writes: "Frontwoman Romy Vager bares her whole heart with this vocal performance as sorrow drips out of every nook and cranny of her voice. RVG’s guitars are just as poignant as Vager’s rough rock warble—they twinkle with a bittersweet glow." Brooklyn Vegan also included the song in their "9 New Songs Out Today" list.

"Dying On The Vine" is available alongside "Alexandra" on limited edition 7-inch vinyl, with only 200 copies available. The 7-inch is available now to pre-order.

The band are currently on tour in North America and have now completed their run of shows with Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever.  They have two headline shows remaining in San Diego (13th June) and Los Angeles (14th June), before heading home to Melbourne for the Reclink Community Cup (23rd June). Details are below!

US
13th June - Soda Bar, San Diego Tickets
14th June - Gold Diggers, Los Angeles 

AUS
23rd June - Reclink Community Cup, Victoria Park, Melbourne Info

jade imagine share new single 'Big Old House' and announce international deal

jade imagine have released their first new material in 2 years; a single titled 'Big Old House'. Premiered via Double J and Pilerats, this is the first single from their forthcoming debut album to be released later this year via Milk! Records / Remote Control Records. Of the new track, Pilerats write - "The single highlights what jade imagine does best. It's soft and subtle, with hazy guitar melodies meeting a subtle percussive pace and washed-out vocals from frontwoman and songwriter Jade McInally, whose vocal sways gently above the single's quite upbeat pace."
 
"I wrote ‘Big Old House’ in Sunshine Beach, after a dream in which a loose melody and lyrics came to me and stuck around just in time for me to get them down on paper,” Jade McInally, jade imagine’s front-person and key songwriter says. “It was the space and solitude of waking up at a stint at mum’s house that allowed the song to creep in and stick around for me. Most mornings at my house in Melbourne would be a fair bit more social... Then in a Brisbane hotel room, the band and I workshopped the arrangement and it was pretty much done!"
 
Of the video, co-directed by James Thomson and the band, Jade says, "The film clip is an extension of the themes within song; it's about telling yourself in your darker moments to let the good things in, even if all you feel is negativity. In the clip I am getting brainwashed by my happier, lighter and more wholesome self. It represents the ongoing conflict between the light and dark within ourselves. James Thomson and the band directed it together, shooting between the Coburg pool, velodrome, and a warehouse in Fairfield that we usually rehearse at. I was particularly inspired by the lighting in Dario Argento's film Suspiria and the brainwashing content Kubrick's Clockwork Orange."

In addition to signing to Milk! Records for Australia & New Zealand, jade imagine recently inked a deal with the Marathon Artists label (UK home to Courtney Barnett, Pond, Jen Cloher, Jagwar Ma & more) for the rest of world.

Emotionally dictated by the wit and noir of Jade McInally, jade imagine is a band that seamlessly fuses together elements of synthwave and art-rock, with a signature style of bleak pop and contemplative new-wave. Jade McInally has been a stalwart of the indie scene for more than a decade. After winding her way to Melbourne from somewhere consistently sunny, McInally cut her live-performer teeth with her own electronic project Tantrums, before playing in the bands of local favourites Jess Cornelius (Teeth and Tongue) and Jess Ribeiro.
 
Following the release of their debut EP What The Fuck Was I Thinking on Milk! Records in 2017, jade imagine have played an incredible run of support slots including shows with The Pretenders (UK), Angel Olsen (US), Benjamin Booker (US), Lucy Dacus (US), Julia Jacklin and The Murlocs. In March 2018 the band travelled to the US to showcase at the prestigious South by Southwest music conference in Austin, as well as playing key shows in Los Angeles and New York City.
 
jade imagine launch 'Big Old House' in Melbourne at Yah Yah's on Saturday 1st  June with special guests Spike Vincent and Denise le Menice. Tickets available here.

Stream / Download jade imagine - 'Big Old House' https://jade-imagine.lnk.to/BigOldHouse

RVG SHARE NEW SINGLE 'ALEXANDRA' VIA THE FADER

Melbourne’s RVG return with “Alexandra”, the first taste of new music since the band’s debut album. Following their instant classic album A Quality of Mercy from 2017, “Alexandra” is a raw and lucid meditation on the personal and the political.

The video for "Alexandra", directed by Triana Hernandez, is premiering now at The Fader. Read the full writeup HERE.

"For listeners who have been waiting with bated breath for new RVG, “Alexandra” will be a worthy payoff; the song... maintains the band’s raw energy while adding newfound depth and sheen. RVG are as tight and compelling as ever, Vager’s evocative howl underscored by instrumentation that’s powerful without overpowering. There are few voices in indie rock as magnetic as Vager’s."
- The Fader 

"Alexandra" has its Beats 1 premiere tonight with Matt Wilkinson. Listen live from 8pm AEDT HERE.

"Alexandra" is available on limited edition 7-inch vinyl, with only 200 copies available, and features a previously unheard B-Side, a cover of John Cale's "Dying on the Vine". The 7-inch is available now to pre-order.

The band will launch "Alexandra" at Howler next Friday, 24th May, and tickets are already sold out. They then head straight to the US and Canada to support Rolling Blackouts C.F. on their biggest US tour to date. RVG will play headline shows in New York on May 30 and San Diego on June 13. Details and ticket links are here.

RVG’s lyricist Romy Vager describes “Alexandra” as a song which came together quickly, but which felt like it uncompromisingly needed to be recorded. The song details a story of personal oppression at the hands of one’s community, and is an allegory for the broader oppression marginalised people are subjected to. Vager feels an immense personal connection to this subject matter, one which can be heard in the sheer intensity of her vocal delivery: this is a song extremely close to her heart.

“Alexandra” was recorded at Head Gap studios with Victor Van Vugt (PJ Harvey, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Beth Orton). Internationally renowned, Van Vugt currently resides in Berlin, Germany and travelled to Melbourne to work with RVG. “Alexandra” is the first release from RVG in two years: assured, raw, and unashamed, “Alexandra” promises an exhilarating new era for RVG.

PEAK TWINS SIGN TO OUR GOLDEN FRIEND, ANNOUNCE SOPHOMORE ALBUM 'BELOVED', SHARE VIDEO FOR DEBUT SINGLE 'WATER'

Our Golden Friend are thrilled to welcome Melbourne's Peak Twins to the Our Golden Friend label roster! 

Peak Twins return with their second album, Beloved, out June 28. Following their self-titled debut LP from 2013, Beloved is a richly-rendered exercise in melodrama and melancholy. Today, the band share the debut single and video from Beloved, 'Water', premiering now at Weirdo Wasteland. The song had its radio premiere last week on Triple R's Breaking & Entering.

James Frostick of Weirdo Wasteland describes Water as "a spectacular return to the spotlight for the group – setting a tone of emotional maturity and acceptance, no-doubt forged through the years of bruising and battering their soul has undergone in the period between recordings."

Thanks to the song's video, directed by Luke Byrne, 'Water' is accompanied by images of nature which have been inverted, made otherworldly. 'Water' is essentially a series of positive affirmations, the chorus of which reminds its listener that no matter how much strength one can muster: “Love don’t come easy at all”.

Beloved is out June 28 via Our Golden Friend. It's available now to pre-order on blue vinyl.

Peak Twins launch 'Water' on May 17 at a Secret Collingwood Location alongside Sweet Whirl and Sleepless Nights (email info@ourgoldenfriend.com for the address).

GOOD MORNING SIGN TO OUR GOLDEN FRIEND FOR MANAGEMENT

Our Golden Friend are delighted to announce that Melbourne's beloved Good Morning have joined the Our Golden Friend management roster! Alongside existing management clients including RVG, Jade Imagine, Jess Ribeiro, and Chitra, Good Morning will join the three-year-old management company headed by Lorrae McKenna.

Good Morning recently independently released their second LP The Option, a 17-minute tumble through propulsive guitar melodies and lyrics of concise, casual poetry, recorded live to tape. 

Slightly belying their decidedly no-frills approach to recording and playing live, the band were recently heavily sampled on A$AP Rocky's "Kids Turned Out Fine" and consistently pack out Melbourne venues. Good Morning's early EPs Shawcross and Glory defined the band's initial lo-fi, lazy and laconic sound, and have amassed over 36 million streams on Spotify alone.

Good Morning's US fans will be happy to hear that the band are also excited to be working with agent Anna Benefield of Panache Booking in the US, looking to travel to the States later this year. The Panache roster includes Aldous Harding, Bikini Kill, Drugdealer, Hand Habits, Mac Demarco, Oh Sees, Ty Segall, and U.S. Girls, and Good Morning are excited to be included! The band are currently represented in the UK and Europe by Anita Richelli at Listen Agency, whose roster includes Born Ruffians, Buck Meek, Eleanor Friedberger, This Is The Kit, and Tiny Ruins.

Our Golden Friend are thrilled to welcome Good Morning to the family and can't wait to share what's coming!

JESS RIBEIRO Shares new single & video 'Chair Stare', and announces album LOVE HATE out April 12

Jess Ribeiro today releases the brand-new track 'Chair Stare’ premiered via Double J and accompanying video premiered via Pilerats. ‘Chair Stare’ is the third single from Jess’s highly anticipated new album LOVE HATE – also announced today and to be released via Barely Dressed / Remote Control Records on  Friday April 12, 2019.

‘Chair Stare’ exemplifies one of the reasons Ribeiro is such a compelling and extraordinary songwriter – packed full of double and triple entendre, the protagonist addresses a wooden chair assigning it personality, agency and sexuality. Or maybe not. 

“Hard wood,
four-legged animal,
you know what I like to do…. I’ve got the chair stare I’ve got the chair stare”

Ribeiro is dead-serious about writing great songs, and this is close to her best. Staccato synths underpin a driving rhythm section that powers through one of the most undeniable and hook-laden songs of Ribeiro’s career.

Accompanying ‘Chair Stare’ is a rouge music-video directed by Jade Marie Elford and shot on Super 8 camera. The video doubles down on the song’s suggestiveness as it shows a couple (Jess Ribeiroincluded) admiring an Eden-like garden in bloom. Jade explains “The pair come across a dancer and become enamored - struck with lust. There is lots of fanning and some sensual dancing going on. They leave the garden in the nude. Jess suggested the bare bum scene. The best ending!”

Jess goes on to say “In awkward moments a nudie run is always a good suggestion to awaken and excite the air.” 

On Ribeiro's third album LOVE HATE Jess traverses the landscapes of love: its amorous peaks, its rough rivers, and its dark valleys. Much like a concept album – Jess ponders the metamorphisis of the many stages of love –attraction, passion, infatuation, adulation, longing, submissiveness, and madness. No doubt ‘Chair Stare’ is desire.

Jess Ribeiro is a shape-shifting musical enigma. The near-untouchable quality of her recorded output is astonishingly consistent and the wait for new music is always worthwhile. LOVE HATE will be Jess’s third studio album  - produced by Ben Edwards (Aldous Harding/Marlon Williams/Julia Jacklin) and recorded as a 3-piece Dave Mudie (Courtney Barnett) and Jade Imagine. 

Preorder Jess Ribeiro - LOVE HATE via https://jess-ribeiro.lnk.to/LOVEHATE

Jess Ribeiro - LOVE HATE is out Friday 12 April
via Barely Dressed Records / Remote Control Records.

CHITRA PREMIERES NEW VIDEO FOR 'BETTER THAN BEFORE' VIA FASHION JOURNAL

Genre bending songwriter Chitra is incredibly excited to release her new video for Better Than Before, directed by Nick McKinlay (Julia Jacklin, Phantastic Ferniture, Jess Ribeiro), with assistant director Julia Jacklin.  

The breathtakingly beautiful visuals for Chitra's debut single Better Than Before premiered overnight via Fashion Journal HERE.

"Filmed in the bay off Sandringham, Chitra and I found materials where she would blend in to her backgrounds. By doing this we hoped to convey her trying to change herself for another person, to fill the role she feels she should. We were followed by curious birds and the sunset, being out to sea west, took forever to dip."  - Nick McKinlay

"We shot the clip in one afternoon spending the day climbing up little bits of hill to get the right shot and over rocks to be closer to the shore. The concept of using the materials to blend into the landscape was a really nice and simple idea that Nick thought of which I think ended up working really well and is really effective in parallel to the song itself. The best part of that day was when the sun was just about to disappear and the whole atmosphere changed in the bay, it was very beautiful and is shown in the last shots of the clip. The whole experience was really lovely and surprisingly pleasant for a video that got whipped together so quickly. I admire Nicks work a lot and couldn't be happier with how it turned out." - Chitra

RVG SIGN TO SUB POP FOR PUBLISHING WORLDWIDE

Melbourne's RVG are thrilled to announce their signing to Sub Pop Publishing, who will be representing their catalogue worldwide, excluding AU & NZ. Sub Pop Publishing is the publishing division of the iconic Sub Pop Records, an independent record company based in Seattle. RVG join an incredible roster of artists at Sub Pop Publishing including U.S Girls, Chad Van Galen, La Luz, Bully, Still Corners and Melbourne's own Deaf Wish. Of the new signing Sub Pop Publishing's Gareth Smith says "I'm incredibly excited to be working with RVG and their management team Lorrae McKenna and Our Golden Friend". 

The announcement of the Sub Pop signing comes at the end of an extremely busy 2018 for RVG. This year has seen the band tour worldwide extensively, with two tours of the UK and Europe which saw them support Shame as well as playing Denmark's legendary Roskilde Festival, along with a trip to the USA for SXSW and key shows in Los Angeles and New York. 

RVG are now preparing for the release of their very highly anticipated second album in 2019, as well as looking forward to touring Australia in support of Kurt Vile & The Violators in April, and performing at some extra special festival spots across Australia during the summer months.

RVG
UPCOMING LIVE SHOWS

22.12.18 The Tote, Melbourne VIC w/ Dick Diver
02.03.19 Farmer & The Owl Festival, Wollongong NSW
09.03.19 Panama Festival, Launceston TAS
15.04.19 Enmore Theatre, Sydney NSW w/ Kurt Vile
16.04.19 UniBar, Wollongong NSW w/ Kurt Vile
17.04.19 Anu, Canberra ACT w/ Kurt Vile
22.04.19 The Forum, Melbourne VIC w/ Kurt Vile
26.04.19 Bendigo Autumn Music, Bendigo VIC
27.04.19 The Gov, Adelaide SA w/ Kurt Vile
28.04.19 Rosemount Hotel, Perth WA w/Kurt Vile

JESS RIBEIRO Shares new single & video 'Love Is The Score Of Nothing' & Announces Australian Tour

Jess Ribeiro has today released her new track ‘Love Is The Score Of Nothing’. Out now via Barely Dressed / Remote Control Record, it’s the first taste of new music in more than 3 years from one of Melbourne’s most beloved and acclaimed musicians. 

Premiered yesterday on Double J's Mornings with Zan, the new single is something of an indie rock banger from Ribeiro, signalling a new sound for an artist whose previous albums explored a kind of intricate folk-noire. This time round Ribeiro recalls the nonchalant coolness of the great French female vocalists of the 1960’s. Her vocal performance is detached while a delightful jangle of guitars, drums, keys and percussion swirls happily underneath.

Listen / Share 'Love Is The Score Of Nothing' HERE.

Produced by Ben Edwards (Marlon Williams/Julia Jacklin) and recorded as an all-star 3-piece (Dave Mudie of Courtney Barnett fame and Jade Imagine), 'Love Is the Score Of Nothing' features lyrics despairing about love at its most nihilistic. This is a song about love - but most definitely not a love song. 

Ribeiro suggests, "Love is like tennis. You win, you lose, you work up a sweat, the game ends. You go home, take a shower then go outside and keep playing."

Also released today is Jess Ribeiro’s new video for the single, premiered last night on the 405 – directed by Nick McKinlay and shot around Collingwood’s famous Ginger Hair Salon. As Ribeiro explains, “Hair stylist Ginger Light is well known for her love of Brigitte Bardot, Jane Birkin, and all things sixties fashion and hair.” As Nick goes on to say “It ended up being a celebration of Ginger’s life, shooting at her salon, in her car, and on her roof. We aspired to reflect her life on film…. with tennis racquets.” Watch via image below.

'Love Is The Score Of Nothing' is the first music out from Jess Ribeiro since her 2015 triumph Kill it Yourself. That album was shortlisted in the top 10 for the Australian Music Prize, received Album of the Week on multiple community radio stations and received impressive reviews across the board. Jess Ribeiro is undoubtedly a shape-shifting musical enigma – to show off her new sound (and new band), she has announced a run of east coast dates in February – details and tickets below.

Purchase / stream 'Love Is The Score Of Nothing': https://jess-ribeiro.lnk.to/loveisthescoreofnothingPR

Watch: Jess Ribeiro - 'Love Is The Score Of Nothing'

Photo by Nick Mckk

Jess Ribeiro - Love Is The Score Of Nothing Australian Single Tour 

Saturday 2 February - Geddes Lane, Melbourne - Tickets
Thursday 7 February - Leadbelly, Sydney - Tickets
Friday 8 February -  The Junk Bar, Brisbane - Tickets

Way Dynamic release debut EP 'What's It All For Now' today!

Way Dynamic are incredibly excited to announce the release of their debut EP What's It All For Now today, available for streaming and download online, and also on limited edition rubine red cassette tape! You can stream and download the track HERE, or you can order your own copy of the EP on cassette HERE!

What’s It All For Now features five tracks written, recorded and produced over the space of just a few days by Dylan Young, the multi-instrumentalist behind the songwriting and musical composition of Way Dynamic - all in the lounge room of his home in Carlton, Victoria.

Hailing from Ballarat and now firmly rooted in the Melbourne Music scene, Way Dynamic are influenced by the classic and offbeat songwriting of yesteryear (Carol King, Brian Wilson respectively), and yet their sound is strangely refreshing and modern. Young’ssongwriting and composition combine oddball arrangements with lyrical poetism that is both introspective and engaging. In it’s current formation the Way Dynamic live band features members of Totally Mild, Tam Vantage, The Ocean Party, Great Outdoors, ESC and Emma Russack, and the group are unified by their love of music and of each other. 

Dylan also answered a few questions about the making of What’s It All For Now here -

What are you listening to at the moment?

Right now, these and nothing else:

Gal Costa - Gal Costa

Murmur - REM

The Oddfellows’ Hall - The Ocean Party

Cactus Country - Cool Sounds

Did writing and recording the EP over two days have such impact over the feel of the songs? Can you hear the spontanaitety in any particular moments?

Yep. Knowing it needed to be finished the same day forced me to muster up some confidence on each of the instruments, and it worked so well, so most of what is on the EP is the first take. I do remember being able to let go and get pretty into be spontaneous.

There’s this bridge in ‘Losing Touch’ where each instrument is playing pseudo-randomly and culminates into a strange, syncopated, jagged thing - I don’t think it would have worked if it had been planned. The EP is certainly a bit rough around the edges but that is part of what charms me.

Tell me a bit more about the day you recorded the ep? how long did it take/where about did you do it/who was there etc.?

We had been recording an LP and putting a lot of care into it - quite often second-guessing decisions. And one morning I decided I wanted to put my creativity elsewhere for a moment, wrote 5 songs and recorded them that day. It took about 15 hours of being alone in this dead, tiny room. And I loved it.

The music video for losing touch is filmed at the Tote - do you have any favourite gigs you’ve seen there?

By far, it was The Ocean Party in the upstairs band room. I just have a heap of admiration for each of them. And that room seems so right.