Alcohol, nympholepsy, insomnia and relationships that end in trainwrecks seem to be working.
Sounds Like
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If........ The Band Neil Young The Pogues The Beach Boys The Rolling Stones Bonnie Prince Billie Bob Dylan Tom Waits Elliot Smith The Beatles Tim Rogers Hank Williams Nick Drake Spiritualized The Everly Brothers and Johnny Cash were in a Broadway production of West Side Story, well that's what we would sound like..... But most of these people are dead so, it probably wouldn't sound very good. And it would probably smell.
The Gin Club play their 4th annual Xmas party on Saturday December the 13th at the Old Museum, Bowen Hills.
2008 has been a very busy year for the Gin Club. They performed at the Big Day Out, Splendour in the Grass and Gympie Music Muster festivals, travelled to the United States for the Musexpo Music conference, supported Band of Horses and The Drones on national tours and even found time to record another 30 tracks for at their rural hideaway outside Rockhampton. As well as this, they took out the 'Best Rock Song', 'Best Folk Ballad' and 'Song of the Year' prizes at the Q Song, Queensland's music industry awards.
Joining them for the Christmas Party are local folk whisperer Jacob S. Harris, recently returned from a Canadian jaunt; Sydney's amazing Aerial Maps featuring members of the Hummingbirds and Modern Giant; Melbourne's alt-country rabble rousers Clinkerfield; and local heartbreakers Texas Tea, whose new album The Junkship Recordings has just been released. Surely one of the most awesome assemblages of astounding Australian artistry that Brisbane has seen in recent years... Aerial Maps in particular are a very exciting new act, make sure you get along early! Utterly compelling.
As for the Gin Club set, well expect the usual ridiculous numbers of people on stage, some new material, some old material, a special commemorative CD, singing, dancing, Secret Satan, special guests, laughing, crying etc. Or not. In any case it'll be as awesome as a Radiers premiership, or whatever your definition of awesome is.
The Gin Club plus special guests Clinkerfield also play an intimate acoustic show at Bon Amici cafe, Toowoomba, the night before, Friday the 12th.
Don't forget the Gin Club also play their first interstate Xmas show at the Gershwin Room, The Esplanade, on Saturday the 6th of December.
Tickets to the Old Museum show are $17 plus booking fee from www.oztix.com.au or the usual outlets, or from the door for $20.
Someday this war's gonna end.
Hello there in internet land.
Sorry it's been a long time between updates on our new improved official website. Does anyone read official websites anymore? If we had a guest book I suppose we could find out. Anyway we have been so busy since Junk came out earlier this year.. travelled to the USA, played Splendour in the Grass and Gympie Muster, as well as found time to go and record some new demos up at Prior Park.
Thanks to everyone who has supported us this year, we appreciate it, and things are certainly looking up. We're off on tour with the Drones in October/November to help them launch their amazing new album Havilah - having heard it a couple of times drunkenly we can guarantee it's all that. Check the gig guide for dates. We're playing a free show at the Cascade Court at QPAC with Tim Steward and his band. Come along and watch, it's a great setting and best of all it's free! That's on the 27th of September.
We also have a very special show coming up at the end of the year at the Old Museum in Bowen Hills.. it will act as our XMAS party also.. it's on December 6th. Still deciding what to do and who to play with so stay tuned, but it's sure to be a special event. We're using their giant organ I think! We've had to bid a very sad farewell to Mr Ola Karlsson a few weeks ago .. he's had to go back to Sweden to re-acquaint himself with the language and his family! Hopefully we'll get to see him when we travel over to Europe next year.. fingers crossed. Anyway we're sure he's causing trouble over there already. Check out his awesome Swedish band O BAND, I'm sure they'll be busy pretty soon.
We'll also be down in Melbourne on the 6th of December to do an Xmas show at the wonderful Gershwin Room, joined by a stellar line up including Mike Noga and his Gentlemen of Fortune, The Vandas and The Young Liberals, some mystery men from Brisbane.
Anyway, we've got Travis Macdonald playing a bit of bass and what not for us at the moment, and Matt Schneider filling in on drums. Travis is of course Conor's brother and an all round righteous dude. Matt is a dapper man of mystery, recently tamed.
What else. We're playing the inaugural SOUNDS OF SPRING Festival on October the 11th.. should be a hoot. Lots of awesome bands playing including The Vandas, Rocket Science, Butcher Birds and Smudge. Tickets selling fast, more info at www.soundsofspring.com.au
I think that's it for the time being. Drop by the MySpace site regularly for updates, and please join our Facebook group here as we don't have a proper mailing list, and you know, hope you're all okay. Stay in touch.
Love
The Gin Club
OLD NEWS
Well we made it homeLos Angeles was awesome. Thanks so much to Q Music, Simon, Denise, The Queensland Goverment, Jamie "Wu Tang" Wooten, Beau, Dougie, Paige, Josh, and everyone else who made our stay so enjoyable. Hopefully we'll be back soon. Missing microwave burritos.
Plenty to keep us busy in the good old A U of S though. We've been added to the line ups of both Splendour in the Grass (Saturday at 4.00pm!) and the Gympie Music Muster, and been named as the support for the lovely Band of Horses in Melbourne and Sydney. Plus we're doing some shows with Dallas Crane and Liam Finn, and a bunch of shows of our own where we're doing two sets.. may as well, there's enough of us. So check out the dates and come along, baby needs shoes.
NEW VIDEOS!!
We've linked a whole bunch of Gin Club related videos below... if you're that bored. As well as some really old footage from the Troub we now have our new film clip by Kellie Lloyd for "Ten Paces Away", some rock'n'roll cooking show action, some old interviews and all sorts of crap. Check a check a check it out. If you're that bored. Scroll down a bit.
REVIEWS FOR JUNK
Well the reviews of "Junk" have started rolling in and so far we're averaging 4.75 out of 5! Not bad. That's defintely a Very High Achievement. Noel Mengel writing for the Courier Mail (Thursday March 6th 2008) had this to say:
"With this third album, they've harnessed all that creative energy and ambition and crafted a recording with all the beauty and terror an inexorable force of rock music at its finest. Don't miss it."
Whilst Steve Bell, writing in last week's Time Off said this:
"It's difficult to do justice to this sprawling epic using mere words, but suffice to say Junk is a peerless record of world class standard - that an album of this quality has been made in our own backyard makes one proud to be associated with the Brisbane musical fraternity. Exquisite."
A HEAP OF JUNK
The new album is a double called "Junk", with 26 new songs recorded at various locations last year. Check out some of the new songs on our player. Probably playing right now. Bridget does a song, Gus helped wrote a song, Tim Rogers sings on one, it's grouse.
HISSY FIT
We have quite a few copies of our rarities CD "Hissy Fit Volume 1" still available... drop us a line and we can arrange to get one to you. We're planning on making the Hissy Fits a regular thing, just limited edition runs of stuff we come up with... there's 9 songwriters you know! We come up with lots of stuff.
Check back for updates soon!
THE USUAL BIO STUFF
Since forming in Brisbane in 2003, The Gin Club have quickly garnered a reputation as one of Australia's finest ensembles. Their sound is an eclectic mix of traditional folk, rock, psychedelic and country styles, featuring five distinctive song-writing voices backed by cello, accordion, piano, acoustic and electric guitar, drums, harmonica and saxophone. Their influences include The Band, Bob Dylan, Crowded House, and Neil Young.
The Gin Club have performed extensively throughout Brisbane, and their reputation as a powerful live act has seen them tour throughout Australia with acts including Youth Group, Tim Rogers & The Temperance Union, Sydney's theredsunband, and gain supports for international artists Papa M, Iron & Wine, Lamb Chop, Tony Joe White, Kevin Montgomery, Laura Veirs, and Australian artists Paul Kelly, You Am I, Pete Murray, Andrew Morris and various others. They were featured in TripleJ's Aus Music month program as part of the 'next crop' of Australian artists in 2004.
2005 saw The Gin Club release their sophomore album 'Fear of the Sea', which has received strong support as a follow-up to their widely acclaimed debut self-titled album in 2004 (a fixture in the Australian Independent Record charts for 4 months). Fear of the Sea features 'Drugflowers', which peaked at No.3 on the Triple J Net 50, and added to high rotation nationally. 2005 was rounded off with a national tour with club patron Tim Rogers & The Temperance Union.
2006 has already been a busy year for the band. In March they engaged on a tour of Canada with labelmates Giants of Science and Iron On, where they were invited to showcase at Canadian Music Week in Toronto, as well as playing a series of side shows throughout Ottowa, Montreal and Quebec.
2008 is the most exciting year thus far for the Club. They have just released their third album, a double LP entitled "Junk", to rapturous reviews, and are about to embark on a tour around the East Coast, and are then off to LA in April before taking over the world sometime around 2009.
Someday this war's gonna end.
Love
The Gin Club
SOME VIDEOS, NOT MANY KILLINGS
Filmclip for "Ten Paces Away" by Kellie Lloyd
"I Was A Young Boy" on The Rock N Roll Cooking Show
An interview from 2005 with Scotty and Aggro and some footage of us playing at the Bowery I think...
(Above: CONOR PLAYS AT THE TROUBADOUR, 2004 or so)
"...a haunting and moving ode to innocence lost that sees The Gin Club wielding their ten-strong musical prowess to truly devastating effect." - cdbaby.com
"An indie super-ensemble from Brisbane, the Gin Club at their best make a tilt for The Band's timeless, rootsy Americana with an Oz update... Nice (***1/2)" - Rolling Stone Magazine
"My favorite album of 2004."Ian Haug, Powderfinger, Rolling Stone Magazine Nov 04
"The sound of convict folk...inspired just as much by sea shanties and traditional ballads, jigs and reels as the more contemporary sounds of The Triffids, Iron and Wine and the Pogues". (***1/2) Danielle O'Donohue, Herald Sun
Yes, Buck & Deanne would Lourve to see THE GIN CLUB play in Sydney Town and we'd Lourve to be your support. We warm up audiences better than a tea cosy and without stewing. That's Buck & Deanne RIGHT HERE - and we quite like your Mp3s, big fans...of your early stuff.
"Also hugely enjoyable, highly original AND psychically useful is the
music of Australian duo The Scrapes, whose fiery epic guitar and
abandoned Mithraic fiddle pieces evoke images of lost Keltic lands
inundated by the oceans, lost Iberian & Armorican sea peoples and
lost times from beyond the beyond." Julian Cope
Just dropping by to let you know that 30 Years From Now has entered Triple J's highschool band competition. We've currently got all three of our entry songs in the Top 100, but we need your help! Check it out and rate us while you're there! Cheers 30YFN
Hey Guys, Thanks for stopping by... Sorry for the long delay in replying
One thing to say LOVE UR WORK!! Fantastic sound and great songs. I hope we get to C U in Sydney/ Central Coast sometime soon. If U ever need a support Ace would be keen to strap on the the big G and showcase a few of his beige numbers from his (never to be finished) solo album.
Do I sound excited? I have just had a baby!!! and ned some grown up time!!
