HUMAN FACE Album launch

Sat 9th Nov 8:30pm

After releasing their debut album which enjoyed high rotation on Double J and airplay on community radio stations across the country, Human Face emerge from their forest studio to launch ‘Parallels’, the band’s second full-length album.

From the creepy psycho-disco ‘Moth’ to the heartbreak ballad ‘Shadow’, the album can’t be wedged into a single-genre pigeon hole. Human Face’s penchant for studio gizmos and classic gear shines through, with drum machines, obscure analogue synthesizers and the band’s beloved RE-201 Space Echo featuring across the album.

Themes on ‘Parallels’ also cover much ground, from the intergalactic fantasy of the title track to the political sentiment of “Dirty Rinehart”.

Catch Human Face in a rare live show with support from local talent "Bruiser". 

TICKETS https://www.trybooking.com/BGCLD

SKYSCRAPER STAN

FRI 18th Oct 8:30pm

“Skyscraper” Stan Woodhouse is a songwriter lauded for his observational lyricism - a cocktail of wit and grit delivered in a versatile baritone. His touring band The Commission Flats have developed a reputation as one of the more dynamic live bands in Victoria today. They have shared bills with artists such as Marlon Williams, The Troggs, The Animals, The Church and C W Stoneking and appeared at major festivals around Australia.Their second studio album is due for release in May 2019.

TICKETS https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=549254&

LEO RONDEAU

Sat 28th Sept 8:30pm

Leo Rondeau deals in stories candid and honest and plainspoken. Based in Nashville TN, his own story finds root in the Turtle Mountains of North Dakota, where Rondeau grew up surrounded by country music listeners and pickers spanning three generations. “It was always around me,” he says.

This aspect of his adolescence bolstered an unwavering sense of self and place in his work that sets Rondeau apart from peer musicians. A child of the rural American west and owning family lineage within the Turtle Mountain band of the Chippewa Indian tribe, his own history and worldview are engrained in the lines of his songs. This is about a type of honesty that means more than simply telling the truth. It’s a voice that either lives within you or does not.

Early on, Rondeau found and dug into such contemporary mainstream artists as Steve Earle and Dwight Yoakam, gleaning from them a penchant for up-tempo numbers geared toward the dance hall. But Leo Rondeau is a country dance band with a folk singer’s heart. If there's a dance floor you'll find it in full swing when Leo's playing, but you’ll also find bar sitters turned on their stools watching the stage.

Rondeau is first and foremost a songwriter. As a boy, he took immediate interest in writing and has maintained a deep respect for studying one’s own life through song. He calls himself a lifelong musician, and to hear him play will take the wind out of anyone who says otherwise. In his writing, Rondeau has been heavily influenced by the dolorous and at times bleak illustrations of Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers and Townes Van Zandt. His marked presence within the scenes of his stories is even reminiscent of early Tom Waits tunes in their somber appreciation of the darker realities of life.

This is Rondeau’s third visit to Australia, having been invited back to play the incomparable Dashville Skyline Festival in NSW, and will be touring with full band, the East Coast with Melbourne’s Prince of Honky Tonk James Ellis and the Jealous Guys

TICKETS https://www.trybooking.com/BEZRK

BROADS

Sat 21st Sept 8:30pm

Special guest The Smallgoods (duo)

Broads launch their new album STAY CONNECTED at Major Tom’s.

Melbourne queens of indie-noir, Broads, will release their highly anticipated album ‘Stay Connected’on Friday August 23. They will be launching it at Major Tom’s, Kyneton on Saturday 21st September as part of their national album launch tour.

Fresh off the Tim Rogers 'Liquid Nights' tourbus, Broads return to Castlemaine with their sophomore album ‘Stay Connected’. Self produced, Broads have pushed their sound from their acoustic roots into a wider spectrum of colour - with hints at 60s pop, 70s folk, a little 80s new wave. Tying the album together is the duo's disarming vocals and lyricism, defying any obvious comparisons.

TICKETS https://www.trybooking.com/BFEJD

LACHLAN DENTON and LIAM HALLIWELL

Fri 13th Sept 8:30pm

A Brother by Lachlan Denton & Studio Magic has just been released! The Age and SMH has given the album 4 stars saying “there’s often a quiet thrill listening to his music, like driving too quickly over a sharp dip in the road”.

After releasing his debut solo album ‘Two Months In Ben Woolley’s Room’ in 2018, Lachlan Denton directed his focus back to The Ocean Party. After finishing off their next record and in the midst of organising its release Lachlan’s brother and Ocean Party band mate, Zac Denton, tragically and suddenly passed away. The band released ’The Oddfellows’ Hall’ as well as an EP of Zac’s final Ocean Party recordings, titled ‘Nothing Grows’ and put their band of 10 years to rest.

In a state of shock and confusion Lachlan put his thoughts to music, working through his emotions and looking for solace in a time of immense sadness. ‘A Brother’ though born from grief, is work of catharsis and a stunning reflection on a loving relationship between brothers.
To record the album, Lachlan assembled a band now collectively known as Studio Magic, featuring Ambrin Hasnain (Cool Sounds, Pregnancy, Skydeck), Dainis Lacey (Cool Sounds),Liam Halliwell (The Ocean Party, No Local), Rose Kean and Anila Hasnain, to live track the album at his Coburg home and Halliwell’s home studio in Preston. Mixed and mastered byHalliwell, the album has a live charm that lends itself to the honest and personal nature of the songwriting. The clean instrumental interplay and Denton’s deft pop hooks perfectly juxtapose against the devastatingly direct lyrical content, creating songs that are equal parts sad and hopeful. ‘A Brother’ is also a tribute to an incredible person and songwriter taken from us far too soon.

TICKETS https://www.trybooking.com/BFDDD

FRASER A. GORMAN

Sat 7th Sept 8:30pm

Since releasing his debut album Slow Gum in 2015, Melbourne's fuzzy haired-idiosyncratic-'blue eyed' soul cross 'turn cheeked' country-folk songwriter Fraser A. Gorman has been touring extensively across the U.K., EU and the USA as well as all across his home country of Australia. 

Gorman has appeared at a vast number of festivals across Australia and shared stages the likes of Courtney Barnett, Iron & Wine, Damon Albarn & Wanda Jackson.

His critically acclaimed sophomore release 'Easy Dazy' in 2018 only fueled his touring efforts with multiple tours around Australia and a winter tour planned for the U.K. in December this year. 

Over the last few years Gorman has spent extensive time in Los Angeles, CA building his own record label, Brown Truck Records, with his American partner Moorea Allen. 

Gorman has also spent time cultivating a new love of local taco truck, TacoZone and the Dodgers baseball club while in LA. 

His upcoming VIC/NSW run of shows is a bit of a goodbye to Australia (for now) before returning to the states to focus on tacos, Brown Truck, baseball, and album number three. 

TICKETS https://www.trybooking.com/BELCB

JAE LAFFER & SACHA LUCASHENKO

Sat 31st Aug 8:30pm

Jae Laffer is the principal singer and songwriter for award winning Australian group The Panics. He has recently completed his second solo album due for release late 2019, from which he will be performing material from, plus selected works from his sophisticated back catalogue.

Laffer’s music is nothing short of mind-blowing and his vocals are draped in vintage class, song after song the blend of oozy sliding tones blending with piano melodies or acoustic strums. 

    Jae Laffer is recognised as one of Australia’s finest songwriters; with his band The Panics he has crafted several albums worth of classic songs that embrace both stark intimacy and unapologetic grandeur.

    The Panics ‘Cruel Guards” won an ARIA and Triple J ‘Album of the Year’ while In the UK the album received rave reviews and the single “Don’t fight it” enjoyed high rotation across the nation’s airwaves. “Don’t fight it” became a Triple J hit anthem and also featured in the TV series “Underbelly”.

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In support of the evening will be Sacha Lucashenko, known from the Australian group The Morning After Girls, who will be performing a variety of familiar and haunting material, as well as new solo compositions set for a release later in the year.

TICKETS https://www.trybooking.com/BEXKK

HOT WINGS

Sat Aug 24th 8:30pm

With guests PARTY PEST

Hot Wings the freshest, hottest sound cooked up in Melbourne. With a secret recipe of Surf, Soul, Rockabilly and Swinging Guitar Boogie instrumentals.

Next stop, Major tom's with our mates, those delightfully dammed Party Pests, bringing their post punk dream turned party nightmare to the country!

TICKETS https://www.trybooking.com/BEXAI

MATTHEW COLIN

Sat 17th Aug 8:30pm

Special guest GEORGIA KNIGHT

Matthew Colin brings with him the philosophy of history's great songwriters
"a song and a friend for every mile behind". It'll only take listening to one or two lines to find a writer of considered craft, values nested in a time of country folk music when all that mattered was the song itself.

TICKETS https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=522691&fbclid=IwAR3pml7dbbJcK6MAxUvrfEysMkB5hxSyvwnru1qr5oNQYSf045T8o3GJ-qA