THE PAINFULLY ALONE CONGREGATE AS ONE

As the winter is starting to melt but spring is still holding back on y’all, hearts will be warmed with a tour that sees two connoisseurs of extraordinary, inventive and gorgeous pop take to the road this August.

First up there’s the storytelling genius of Casiotone For The Painfully Alone’s Owen Ashworth. In a live context the lyrics are even more hardhitting, the emotions strung even higher, and the pop context even more ambitious, more intimate, and – yes – more affecting.

Regular collaborator Jenny Herbinson will be joining Ashworth for the tour, as the two bring tracks from their most recent release to life in the most extraordinary ways. This is their first time out to Australia, but given the success Etiquette has enjoyed and the excitement this tour has generated so far, we doubt it’ll be his last. Make them welcome.

And if that Ashworth fella isn’t enough for you, you dig a bit of that homegrown pending superstar kind of pop genius, then how about Adelaide native Mark Mitchell’s very own pop magnum opus Clue To Kalo.

Having just returned from a mammoth three month touring stint in the states, Clue To Kalo have well and truly established their most recent recorded effort, One Way, It’s Every Way, as a masterpiece.

And here’s betting the next one does it all over again. These shows are likely to be Clue To Kalo’s last before they bunker up in the genius of Mitchell’s mind to create album number three – don’t let Australia’s best musical minds pass you by.

In fact, include Casiotone For The Painfully Alone in that equation, and don’t let pop’s most innovative musical minds pass you by. This is a tour de force, shows to remember, whatever. These are shows you’d be foolish to miss.

Dates:
Tuesday August 22 - The Troubadour, Brisbane
Wednesday August 23 - Spectrum, Sydney
Friday August 25 - Jade Monkey, Adelaide
Saturday August 26 - Northcote Social Club, Melbourne

SODASTREAM INSTORE THIS EVENING

With their new album Reservations helping to warm up a frosty Melbourne winter, punters can now catch Sodastream in a rare in-store peformance at Readings Bookstore in Carlton on Friday 21 July.

Reservations is a bittersweet yet beautiful offering from Karl Smith and Pete Cohen, featuring a string of star-studded guests including Marty Brown (Art of Fighting), Libby Chow (Clare Bowditch and the Feeding Set), Biddy Connor (Disaster Plan), J Walker (Machine Translations) and Zoe Randell (Grand Salvo).

Reservations sees Sodastream jumping effortlessly from acoustic introspection and instrumentals, to raucous sing-a-long shanties, and even with the addition of horns and harmonicas, the core of their sound remains the same - acoustic guitars, driving double bass, and some of the most captivating song writing to come out of Australia in years.

During their ten-year career, Sodastream have toured relentlessly throughout Australia, Europe and North America, and have shared stages with the likes of Low, the Mountain Goats, Thalia Zedek, Yo La Tengo and Lambchop.

Don’t miss Sodastream as they play a rare in-store performance at Readings Bookstore in Carlton tonight from 6pm.