XMAS SHOWS 2008

I’m Just sneaking down the chimney for only a few Xmas shows this year. Sorry I”m not making it the full way around this time but I hope to get out of the house a little more often in March.

For my lack of mileage though I’m making up for it with….innovative venue ideas! Well, in two places at least…

Sydney: If anyone has ever lived in the inner west of Sydney then maybe they’ve had a late night temptation to embrace their inner goth and jump the graffitied walls of St Stephens Church in Newtown. Beyond lies the spooky colonial graveyard, along with other miscellaneous headstones relocated from the graves they once marked in the greater part of the cemetery after it was covered over and turned into a municipal park and playground.

I approached the resident minister and he was open to having a live performance inside the beautiful old sandstone church there. The show will be late afternoon on Saturday 20th, December and we encourage you to come early and have a picnic or throw a frisbee in the park. Try not to disturb what lies beneath, I’ll be nervous enough as it is.

This will be all ages. there will no alcohol and minimal bad language.

Brisbane: I’ve been driving past The Old Museum in Brisbane for years and imagined dusty shelves full of shrunken heads and specimen jars with baby Thylacines behind it”s stately Romanesque facade. Now we’ll all get to see for ourselves. Apparently it’s been hosting music for years starting way back in 1891. The good people at Mammoth have commandeered a room inside and will be hosting the xmas show for me.

Like St Stephens this show will be all ages although alcohol can be purchased too and all profits go to charity. Bring the family if they”re not annoying you.

Now all this is not to say that the East Brunswick Club in Melbourne isn’t exciting and interesting too. I’ll do my best to make it seem like you’ve stepped through a portal and arrived in a yuletide fantasia. I plan to do this with tinsel.

Also, on invitation from the good people at Happy Yess I’ll be bringing the Xmas show to Darwin for the first time, and experiencing December in the tropics first hand. I’ll bring gills so i can breathe out doors.

As always all shows will be solo and hopefully intimate in atmosphere.

Bring your own mug. I’ll make some mulled wine.

STOCKHOLM DATE MOVED

the Stockholm date has now jumped back a day to:

WEDNESDAY 27th, AUG

Still at:
Landet, Telefonplan
50kr

info at:
www.landet.nu

It seems there will be no shows in Gothenburg and Berlin after all. Something may happen in Oslo Monday night so come back to this spot over the weekend to see if there are any updates.

SHOWS BEFORE HEADING HOME

The tour with the Magnetic Fields was as wonderful as anticipated. Historic ornate theatres; acoustically engineered spaces that made my $300 pawn-shop guitar sound fit for philharmonic. For me, half hour sets!…all killer no filler. For them, 2 hour sets that I had the pleasure of enjoying each night. There are not many bands that bare such repetition. Also they seem to attract the same crowd world-wide; attractive, well dressed, well mannered, erudite, attentive lyrics appreciators. What more could I ask for? So since it’s finished I’ve been brought kicking and screaming back down to earth. I have to fend for myself again.

So I’ll be playing a few scattered shows in Europe before I return home.

So here are the dates locked in;

AUGUST

FRIDAY 22nd
Bergen, Norway
Hulen (the cave)
with Professor Pez
100kr

SATURDAY 23rd
Kamerad and Spelemann Festival
NorDan industrihall, Moi, Norway
with Sufjan Stevens, Ladybug Transistor, Wovenhand and others…
Darren is playing a short solo set
more info Kamerad and Spelermann myspace

FRIDAY 29th
Jonkping, Sweden
Chinabion
with the deirdres (uk) & casp casp!

SATURDAY 30th
Malmo Popfest
Malmo, Sweden
Debaser
with/ The Deirdres (UK) and many others
60kr

SEPTEMBER

FRIDAY 5th
Lisbon, Portugal
Maxime
info at the venue website

SATURDAY 6th
Coimbra, Portugal
Salão Brazil

MONDAY 8th
Hove (Brighton), UK
The Brunswick
venue website
show will finish in time for last London train

THURSDAY 11th
Manchester, UK
The Roadhouse
supporting Mark Kozelek/Sun Kil Moon
info at venue website

SUNDAY 14th
END OF THE ROAD FESTIVAL
Larmer Gardens, Dorset , UK with/
Akron/Family, Bon Iver, Calexico, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Dirty Three, Kimya Dawson, Mercury Rev and many more
info at End of the Road Website

MONDAY 15th
London, Earls Court
The Troubadour
if you want to come you can buy tickets here
venue info here
$7 presale $8 on the door (tickets selling fast!)

More European Dates

I’ve been added at the eleventh hour to various festivals and shows around the place. Keep checking the tour page for updates if you’re interested. There are plans afoot for my own headline shows in London and Brighton soon too.

Flippin Yeah!

It’s been so long in the making I can hardly believe it’s true. We’re just now putting the finishing touches on the shop connected to my website. It’s calling Flippin Yeah Industries. I even carved the masthead out of wood myself! it’s now nailed above the doorway of my house.

I’ve always anticipated having my own record label releasing other stuff I’m into but for now being slightly distracted I don’t have the time to do a good job of it. So the site will remain a glorified shop for the time being.

Although each month in the Flippin Yeah Presents section there’ll be 20 copies of a specific album put out independent or otherwise of friends and colleagues from here and abroad. This is a way to have other music available on the site as well without official ‘signings’. Kind of like an Oprah Book Club.

Available at the site are all my past albums previously sold through Candle Records. If you’ve got all of those you might be interested in a Poster or Commemorative Spoon? Hmm, tempting.
T-shirts coming soon….

It’s also a place where tickets will be on sale for Australian shows and tours.

Go to;
www.flippinyeah.com or the merchandise section of this website.

Magnetic Fields European Tour

So my reflective album writing year has just turned into a summer fun tour of Europe with the Magnetic Fields. I’m having trouble sleeping I’m so excited.

All the details of the shows are up in the tour section. For ticket info go to:

houseoftomorrow.com

There’s more dates coming too. See you there friends…

Daniel Kitson the Video Star

We made a music video for the song Fingertips and Mountaintops late last year. It starred Uk comedian Daniel Kitson. Daniel, myself and the director Nat had different ideas as to the plot but in the end we mashed them all together. Over the course of 3 minutes you can witness one mans personal journey from repressed private school lecturer to sweet-toothed, adventurous bicycle thief, all played out on the streets of Melbourne.

Daniel was quite the gentleman and kept everyone entertained on set. The catch phrase quot;be careful, I burn lenses!quot; was heard often. The only moment that came close to a leading man tantrum was when the behind-the-scenes camera crew failed to capture him solving the Melbourne Ages quot;target wordquot; in under 15 seconds. (We recreated the moment later for the cameras)

Anyway, if you haven”t heard of Daniel before you really should see about rectifying that situation. He’s a guy you feel you could hang out with and swap CD’s. His comedy hits your funny bone and thinking bone at the same time.
Here’s the clip…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqIO4RA_7IU

also another clip that we couldn”t put up is here;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7itrqtMs1qY

And lucky for you he”s back in Australia! His tour dates are at his site:

www.danielkitson.com

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