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After humble lo-fi beginnings in the Australian art-pop underground, Donny Benét has expanded his cult-like following across the globe with a resonant array of danceable repertoire dealing with love and affection. His next album marks a new chapter informed by a wealth of musical and personal development. Enter Mr Experience, the new album from Donny Benét released Friday 22nd May via Dot Dash Recordings / Remote Control Records.
To celebrate Mr Experience, Donny Benét will play a run of shows in UK & Europe throughout May and will return home to Australia in June. The east coast run of shows will begin at The Zoo in Brisbane on Friday 12th June, Sydney’s Oxford Art Factory on Saturday 13th June and finish up Friday 19th June at Melbourne’s Corner Hotel.
Sincerity has been a key component of Donny Benét’s output since the beginning. His songs deal with genuine emotion served on a kitsch platter. An alter-ego manifested at the beginning of the 2010s, Donny has blurred the lines of artifice to create a back catalogue that can embrace and challenge – often simultaneously – the notion of irony in art. Mr Experience moves further away from ironic notions as Donny explores lyrical and musical themes which embody observations of maturation in his audience, his tight-knit musical community, and himself. While ‘mature’ is a term that often rings hollow as an album descriptor, the term couldn’t be more apt for Mr Experience.
To push himself musically, Donny envisioned a soundtrack to a dinner party set in the late 1980s. While his earlier recordings drew inspiration from DIY pop conspirators such as Ariel Pink and John Maus, Donny channelled the stylings of Bryan Ferry and Hiroshi Yoshimura as the impetus for new material, evident on the intimacy found on current single ‘Girl Of My Dreams’ and its lush production (with a soothing whistle-along chorus for good measure).
Mr Experience will be available digitally and released on classic black vinyl as well as a special ‘fruit punch’ coloured vinyl available exclusively via independent retailers. UK and European distribution via Proper Music Group.
Pre-order and pre-save Mr Experience via https://donnybenet.lnk.to/
Donny Benét – Mr Experience Album Tour
Friday 22 May – Nouveau Monde – Fribourg, CH
Saturday 23 May – Villette Sonique – Paris, FR
Sunday 24 May – Botanique – Brussels, BE
Tuesday 26 May – The Dome – London, UK
Wednesday 27 May – Paradiso Noord – Amsterdam, NL
Thursday 28 May – Loppen – Copenhagen, DK
Friday 29 May – Lido – Berlin, DE
Saturday 30 May – Futurum – Prague, CZ
Sunday 31 May – Moers Festival, Moers DE
Friday 12 June – The Zoo – Brisbane
Saturday 13 June – Oxford Art Factory – Sydney
Friday 19 June – Corner Hotel – Melbourne
Friday 21 August – Pstereo – Trondheim, NO
Saturday 22 August – Parken Festivalen – Bodo, NO
Tickets via donnybenet.com
Australia’s masters of brutality Thy Art Is Murder have announced the Human Target Australian Tour, set to cause carnage across the country in May 2020. Their first headline run since the release of their earth-scorching fifth record of the same name, The Human Target tour will be a night to remember as Thy Art Is Murder unveil their most ambitious Australian production to date with help from supports Dying Fetus, Fit For An Autopsy, Enterprise Earth and Aversions Crown.
Human Target is a bleak experience where Thy Art Is Murder exorcise the pangs of mortality and the pains of socio-political trauma to a soundtrack of authentic crushing death metal with blackened fury and flashes of knuckle-dragging stomp. In its crosshairs are a buffet of human atrocities from privatised prisons enforcing police states where non-violent offenders languish for decades to human organ harvesting for the wealthy. They also examine the false gods of social media while pharmaceuticals numb the minds of the dissociated.
We’re also confronted with the current state of politics riddled with hyperactive virtue signalling, extremism and disenfranchisement. And, while hyperbolic leaders promise to make everything “great” again, our planet lurches toward an inevitable climate disaster that will extinguish humanity. Grim.
Since the release of Human Target, Thy Art Is Murder have been on tour non-stop, leaving a trail of sold out shows in their wake. Between bouts of crisscrossing the Northern Hemisphere, the band briefly returned home for a stint on Good Things festival before heading back to Europe. The next stop on their itinerary is a headline run in North America this month with low ticket warnings all round.
The Human Target Australian Tour promises to be the biggest and most insane live show Thy Art Is Murder has ever done on home soil. If you’ve seen the photos from their recent European tour, you know this tour is going to be EPIC.
Tickets go on sale on Friday March 6 at 12pm. Thy Art Is Murder’s last Australian tour sold out over a month in advance (!) so don’t sleep tickets or you’ll be sorry.
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PACHA
CLAPTONE PRESENTS: ‘THE MASQUERADE’
EVERY SATURDAY AT PACHA IBIZA
MAY 23rd – OCTOBER 3rd
Enigmatic DJ and producer Claptone is bringing The Masquerade, his spellbinding event concept, back to Pacha Ibiza for a second season this summer commencing on May 23rd, with the weekly run of parties switching to Saturday for 2020.
‘The Masquerade’ has quickly become a highlight on the Ibizan calendar, promising magic, mystery and intrigue, within a supercharged environment of wonder. It’s a place where one can live out their deepest desires, an extraordinary atmosphere, full of masked faces, complemented by some of Pacha’s world famous and beautiful costumed dancers, held every Saturday throughout the summer.
It follows on from a massively well-received first season, which welcomed MK, Diplo, Purple Disco Machine, Duke Dumont, Kerri Chandler, Basement Jaxx and many more to the idyllic shores of the White Isle for a string of majestic parties.
“It’s crazy to think last summer was just the beginning, it already felt that perfect to me. To be honest, I can’t fully fathom that after that epic 2019 season, I’ll be back at Pacha for 2020, to present an even bigger, better and longer season of The Masquerade – on the weekend. There will be exciting guests, propulsive house music and all these great performers that your heart desires! in our sanctuary, each Saturday for 21 weeks. This is only the beginning.”
Originating in 2016, Claptone took his unique ‘The Masquerade’ show to select cities and venues around the globe, from The Brooklyn Mirage in New York to Electric Brixton in London, from Estadio Geba in Buenos Aires to Burnley Park in Melbourne, from Club Space in Miami to his own arena at Belgium’s iconic Tomorrowland.
A unique figure in modern music, Claptone is like no other. Playing over 260 shows around the world each year, his idiosyncratic, spellbinding very own house sound has caught the attention of many. The second iteration of his Ibiza residency is certain to harbour many more.
The Masquerade returns to Pacha Ibiza May 23rd
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LISTEN TO 1000 gecs HERE
100 gecs:
Twitter | Instagram | SoundCl
Dylan Brady:
Twitter | Instagram | SoundClo
Laura Les:
Twitter | Instagram | SoundClo
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“Visual images do not merely replace words but do things that words cannot do.” – Ivan Durrant
Ivan Durrant, a leading exponent of photorealism, and natural raconteur, will be celebrated in a major survey paying tribute to five decades of his extraordinarily diverse career since the 1970s, at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia from 1 May 2020.
Ivan Durrant: Barrier Draw is the most comprehensive survey of Durrant’s work to date. Featuring over 100 multi-disciplinary works from the Melbourne-born artist, the exhibition will also unveil a new larger-than-life sculpture inspired by his controversial back catalogue. Drawn extensively from Durrant’s personal collection, the exhibition also includes major works from public and private collections from across Australia.
‘A prolific artist and provocateur, Ivan Durrant has created one of the most audacious bodies of work in Australian art,’ said Tony Ellwood AM, Director, NGV. ‘With his work first exhibited at the NGV in 1979, we’re delighted to welcome Ivan back to pay tribute to his extensive career and provide a platform to unveil an unmissable new work.’
The exhibition chronicles the evolution of Durrant’s diverse career, including his earliest folk paintings depicting an idyllic childhood in the countryside, which were a sharp contrast to his own experiences having grown up in an orphanage; his realist paintings, short films and sculptures of the 1970s and 80s, including his race track and movie star series; politically motivated installation works including Butcher Shop 1977/78, held in the NGV Collection; and more recent evocative ‘soft-focus’ paintings of the 1990s and 2000s.
A large proportion of Durrant’s later works employ a technique the artist refers to as ‘supraphotorealism’ – an abstract-like technique which mimics an out-of-focus photograph through the use of vibrant colours, softened edges and select focus, extending beyond the traditional parameters of photorealism.
Inspired by the deliberate intention to shock, Durrant first achieved public notoriety in 1975 when he deposited the carcass of a cow in the NGV forecourt. Soon after, media began referring to him as the ‘enfant terrible of Australian art’. Struck by the apparent double standard whereby people could buy, cook and eat meat but could not acknowledge where it came from, Durrant hoped to highlight the hypocrisy of killing an animal for human consumption.
The artistic context for Durrant’s work in the 1970s related to the distinguishing shift in Australian art with a new generation of artists beginning to explore socio-political issues and experiment with artistic mediums and techniques. Durrant was inspired by the potency of performance art and its ability to make a statement and elicit emotional responses in an unconventional way. Durrant also harnessed the power of the media to promote his work on a broader scale outside the traditional confines of the gallery space.
In ‘The Severed Hand Happening 1975’, Durrant generated the perfect media storm when he drew on his skills working in a prosthetics laboratory at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, and exhibited what appeared to be a severed human hand. Coming under police investigation, he revealed the hand was actually an intricately detailed resin sculpture.
Ivan Durrant: Barrier Draw includes a mini-documentary featuring an exclusive interview with the artist. The film will be exhibited alongside newspaper archives contextualising the Australian media’s response to Durrant’s most notorious works and the artist’s enduring fascination with playing the role of the larrikin.
The NGV will publish an exhibition catalogue featuring contributions by Australian playwright and actor Barry Dickins, writer and curator Rodney James, and NGV exhibition curator David Hurlston.
Ivan Durrant: Barrier Draw will be on display at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia from 1 May to 25 October 2020. Free entry. Further information is available via the NGV website.
Brace yourselves, Hideous Sun Demon are back with some of their most punishing and electrifying music to date. The Melbourne-based group, who made 2019 their own through the release of their EP Good Time and over the course of extensive bouts of touring, announce their newest Australian tour venture for April and May.
The brand is hitting the road, coming to some of the country’s best venues, brandishing their new single ‘Gimmicks’. Best believe, the song comes packing a serious punch. Arriving with the type of self-confidence that would make anybody envious, Hideous Sun Demon’s latest single is a furious snapshot of the trio operating at their crazy best.
Of their upcoming Australian tour, the band is chomping at the bit to reconnect with fans and introduce the public to their rejuvenated and hectic sounds. “We had grown pretty bored of our old sound. We had kinda gotten into this formulaic approach to songwriting that was defined by fuzzy guitars and doomy riffs. We were eager to adopt a wider breadth of influences, especially since Jake and Vin had bonded over their love of post-punk and new wave in their youth. We’ve started playing with cleaner guitars, writing songs that have a higher focus on tight playing rather than balls to the wall noise, as well as reimagining and broadening what our sound can be.” Hideous Sun Demon
Throughout last year, Hideous Sun Demon were honing their craft on stages throughout Europe, with the Good Time EP bringing them to the radars of many. Following on from 2018’s FAME, EROTIC, DREAM album (the band’s third), their 2019 material showcased a band that was further exploring their sonic identity. Heading into 2020, Hideous Sun Demon are flexing their songwriting and live muscles more than ever.
PRAISE FOR HIDEOUS SUN DEMON
“Hideous Sun Demon are both the odd kid on your street burning their toys with a magnifying glass and the warped, melting plastic figures themselves. Reckless abandon and gleeful horror all at once.”
Triple J Unearthed, Dave Ruby Howe
“A young band kicking genre’s expectations in the teeth.”
The AU Review
“Hideous Sun Demon have a solid sound that makes them stand out in the most beautiful way possible…they are easily one of the most exciting and interesting bands around.”
Beat In My Bones
Welcome this new chapter with the guys at a venue near you this Autumn – we dare ya.
HIDEOUS SUN DEMON AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES
Friday, April 3rd The Curtin Melbourne
Tickets
Saturday, April 4th The Eastern Ballarat
Tickets
Saturday, April 18th Lord Gladstone Sydney
Sunday, April 19th North Gong Hotel Wollongong
Tickets
Thursday, April 23rd The Northern Byron Bay
Friday, April 24th Vinnie’s Dive Gold Coast
Tickets
Saturday, April 25th Bearded Lady Brisbane
Tickets
Saturday, May 2nd Exeter Beer Garden Adelaide
Tickets
Saturday, May 8th Mojo’s Bar Fremantle
Tickets
Sunday, May 9th Lyric Lane Perth
Tickets
New Orleans punk band Pears have an announced an Australian tour for May of 2020. Pears will be touring their brand new self-titled album Pears, to be released March 6 on Fat Wreck Chords.
Head over to the Fat Wreck Chords YouTube page right now to listen to “Comfortably Dumb!” It’s a ferocious first taste of their ripping new full-length.
This is their third proper full-length and was recorded with Chris Fogal (The Gamits) at Black in Bluhm Studio in Denver. PEARS will take their latest effort on the road extensively in the coming year, with tours in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and South America.
Full Australian tour details below.
Some of history’s best punk bands came and went before they had a chance to get comfortable (and boring), so it’s not surprising that PEARS frontman Zach Quinn had doubts when it came time to record the band’s third full-length. While PEARS have only existed since 2014, maybe a couple LPs and hundreds of explosive live shows were enough?
“I was perfectly prepared to have my Blue Album already,” Quinn says, laughing. “That whole fucking cliché of ‘Our best record’s behind us.’
With the imminent release of PEARS (March 6, Fat Wreck Chords), Quinn says, “Maybe not!” But there’s no maybe about it. PEARS is a significant step forward for a band that has grown by leaps and bounds on each album.
Recorded with Chris Fogal (The Gamits) at Black in Bluhm Studio in Denver, PEARS is 14 songs and 31 minutes of the band’s signature hardcore: heavy, melodic, blistering, pointed, and surprisingly catchy. While it continues down the path set by Green Starand 2015’s Go to Prison, PEARS finds the band taking a different creative approach.
“The last PEARS record, almost every detail was worked out before we ever stepped foot into the studio,” Quinn explains. “This record, we went in with skeletons of songs and put things together on the fly. ”
“We never could afford the studio time to be in there 24/7,” adds guitarist/vocalist Brian Pretus. “A couple of songs ended up being stuff that we wrote on the spot.”
Those include “Naptime,” which moves from loping pop to group-chant hardcore in the space of two minutes, and penultimate track “Traveling Time,” which Pretus describes as a “palate cleanser.” Basically, a midtempo pop song, “Traveling Time” began as a Quinn solo track but found its way onto PEARS thanks to the band’s more open studio approach.
“Collectively, we figured we’ve danced around pop music our entire career so far,” Quinn says, “but we were like, ‘Let’s just do a full-on fucking pop tune. Why not?”
“Full on” is a good descriptor for PEARS in general. The album opens with feedback at the beginning of the riff-heavy “Killing Me” and closes when the even riff-heavier “Cynical Serene” (whose opening plays like Nirvana by way of Hum). In between are 12 songs that shake with can’t-sit-still energy, as the band—rounded out by the ace rhythm section of bassist Erich Goodyear and drummer Jarret Nathan—shifts on a dime between parts and sounds. Elements of prog and grunge intermingle with classic hardcore and hook-laden rock—and it can happen in the space of one song. (In this case, “Worm.”)
Atop all of it are Quinn’s voice and words, which took a different approach as well on this album.
“I thought that I was going to continue the absurdist poetry thing that started with Go to Prison and amplified on Green Star,” he says. Describing Green Star as “The Iliad with shit and cum,” Quinn notes that this time, “The songs are about shit.”
Not shit in the “shit and cum” sense. Quinn writes directly about getting older (“Traveling Time”), moving past anger (“Nervous”), and the prospect of never having a family (“Daughter”), among other topics, all with the wit and candor PEARS fans have come to expect from the explosive frontman.
“It makes perfect sense that this is the third act, but it’s not what I would have predicted it to be,” Quinn says. “I wouldn’t have guessed that the album would end on a bittersweet note. It’s more uplifting than either record that we’ve done, but it’s not a happy record.”
PEARS – AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2020
May 28 – Singing Bird Studios, Frankston
Tickets
May 29 – Bendigo Hotel, Melbourne
Tickets
May 30 – Hotel Metro, Adelaide
Tickets
May 31 – The Den, Perth
Tickets
June 1 – Margaret River Football Club, WA
Tickets at the door
June 3 – Transit Bar, Canberra
Tickets
June 4 – Hamilton Station Hotel, Newcastle – Free Entry
June 5 – Bearded Lady, Brisbane
Tickets
June 6 – Vinnie’s Dive, Gold Coast
Tickets
June 7- Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney – Free Entry
Tickets on sale now.
For complete tour and ticket information, visit:
pearstheband.com
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Art Of Fighting & Youth Group – Co-Headline Tour
Fri May 1: Grace Emily – Adelaide
Tickets
Sat May 2: Howler – Melbourne
Tickets
Sun May 3: The Bridge – Castlemaine
Tickets
Thur May 7: La La La’s – Wollongong
Tickets
Fri May 8: Marrickville Bowling Club – Sydney
Tickets
SATURDAY MARCH 28TH 12PM-10PM
FULL LINEUP:
Theo Parrish, Sister Nancy, Mella Dee, Anastasia
Kristensen, C.FRIM, Cassettes For Kids, Lord Echo (LIVE),
JESSB, Mildlife, Mwanjé, Pink Matter, SK Simeon, Sophie
McAlister, Wax’o Paradiso
Get connected:
https://www.facebook.com/untitledgroupau/
Untitled Group are the group behind Beyond The Valley and Pitch Music & Arts Festival, the collective also represents boutique event brands Ability Fest, Grapevine Gathering and Melbourne electronic hub XE54.
https://www.facebook.com/pg/crownrulers/
Between acts like soul-jazz icon Roy Ayers, Detroit house godfather Theo Parrish, and Chicago dance luminary Larry Heard, the Crown Ruler name has become synonymous with soulful underground music.