JET GET BACK

Melbourne four piece rock outfit Jet are delighted to announce they will return home to play two very special shows in Melbourne and Sydney come the month of August.

Having spent the past six months in Los Angeles recording the follow-up to their phenomenally successful debut Get Born, the band are excited to be able to finally preview a swag of new songs from their forthcoming long player, as well as taking the opportunity to dust off all the old favourites.

“After half a year hunkered down over a hot tape machine, we can’t wait to get on stage at home again and show people what we’ve come up with,” said drummer Chris Cester. “These new songs are something else, trust us!”

“Amen!” intoned his calmer, older brother Nic.

Beginning work on the album in January 2006 with 40 songs written, the band worked through them all, perfecting, rejecting and fine tuning until the list was whittled down to 20. These songs formed the basis of the new album.

Working again with Dave Sardy as producer, the band settled in to Dave’s new Hillside Manor studios and got cracking. The result is a mixture of soul stompin’, psychedelic, rock ‘n roll that has been well worth the wait, and bears all the hallmarks of a classic rock album from a band growing in stature as songwriters, without forfeiting any of the energy that made their debut such a monstrous calling card.

With the new album scheduled for September 30 , these two shows in August will be a once-only opportunity to see the band in a barely contained state of excitement at being home again, blasting out a healthy serving of great new cuts before the album is released.

The shows also represent the ONLY chance to see Jet live in Australia in 2006. If you miss these shows, your chance to see the four gents from Melbourne town won’t come around again this calendar year. Having last played on these fair shores in December 2004, headlining Homebake after 2 years of constant touring around the globe, it’s been way too long between drinks, and these shows promise to be THE rock and roll ticket of the year.

Tickets go on sale at 9am Thursday August 3rd from all Ticketek outlets, so if you’re not in the queue already you’ve probably missed out.

Dates:
Tuesday August 15th: Melbourne, Forum Theatre
Thursday August 17th: Sydney, Enmore Theatre

STRAIN YOUR VOICE AND WHISPER D’OH

In the middle of 2005, the Brooklyn/Philadelphia-based Clap Your Hands Say Yeah were being touted as the hottest unsigned band in the U.S.

Their self-titled debut was self-produced, self-released, self-promoted, and self-distributed, with a great deal of help from the grassroots indie blog machine. There was so much online interest in the band that NPR even did a feature on the emerging phenomena of Internet band buzz (using the group as the prime example).

Alec Ounsworth, Lee Sargent, Robbie Guertin, Tyler Sargent, and Sean Greenhalgh coalesced into a group after Ounsworth and Tyler Sargent laid the initial groundwork in Massachusetts. After the group moved to Brooklyn (with Ounsworth in nearby Philadelphia), songwriting work began in earnest.

A four-song demo was followed by their debut full-length in 2005 (and the subsequent internet hoopla followed hot on its heels). Rolling Stone championed the cause further by heralding the group as ‘Hot New Band’ for 2005. By the end of that year, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah signed with U.K.-based Wichita Recordings, also home to Bloc Party.

Now it’s the middle of 2006, and Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah are STILL one of the hottest bands around. But, alas, their tour to Australia - due to take place next week - has been canned.

The band recently released this statement:
“We’re sorry to announce that we have to postpone our upcoming trip to Japan and Australia. Unfortunately over the course of our recent European tour Alec’s voice started to give out on him, and in order to avoid any permanent damage to his vocal chords he’s going to have to take some time off of touring. We’re really sorry for the late notice, and we wish this wasn’t the case, but we promise to make it over as soon as we can. If you bought tickets for our shows in Sydney or Melbourne you’ll be able to get a refund for your tickets.”