CUB ANNOUNCES ‘LIV LOUD’ TO SUPPORT AUSMUSIC T-SHIRT DAY, FEATURING YOU AM I, BOY & BEAR, TOUCH SENSITIVE, CROOKED COLOURS, THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT, HOCKEY DAD, KELI HOLIDAY AND MORE
Carlton & United Breweries will support the local live music and hospitality industries to the tune of around $100,000 as part of CUB’s LIV LOUD 2023 program collaboration with Ausmusic T-Shirt Day next month.
Around 40 venues across the country are participating in the program’s inaugural year, with each venue to receive a cash grant to host live events on off-peak days throughout November.
Breakout artists such as Pacific Avenue and radio personality Matty O’Gorman will play alongside some of Australia’s leading acts such as You Am I, Boy & Bear and Touch Sensitive.
Additionally, CUB will donate funds directly to charity Support Act in December to further assist their incredible work delivering crises relief support, mental health programs and more across the country.
CUB Artists & Events Manager Marcus Knight said CUB’s LIV LOUD 2023 builds on its long-standing tradition of supporting a vibrant live music industry.
“We’re delighted to be partnering with Support Act to deliver this initiative and continue our long-standing tradition of supporting Aussie pubs.
“Venues will use the grants to bring these events to life, including paying the performers, production costs and hiring some extra staff. This will help bring punters through the door on off-peak nights when they might otherwise have stayed at home and help ensure they have a great time. Bands, trivia nights and live performances are a quintessential part of the pub. LIV LOUD 2023 not only supports them, but the broader hospitality industry too.”
Thrilled to be a part of LIV LOUD, Boy & Bear lead singer Dave Hosking said: “We are really looking forward to playing as part of the inaugural LIV LOUD lineup alongside so many other great acts supporting Ausmusic month, AusmusicT-shirt day and Support Act. And it’s so good to see so many gigs and tours coming out to regional venues after such a rollercoaster few years for the music industry.”
AusmusicT-Shirt Day, scheduled for November 30 this year, is coordinated by Support Act annually to raise urgently-needed funds for music workers in crisis. Aussies can show their support by buying an Aussie music t-shirt throughout November, making a donation to Support Act or setting up a team to fundraise.
Support Act’s CEO Clive Miller said: “We welcome this wonderful initiative from CUB to promote and celebrate live music during Ausmusic Month and encourage fundraising for the Ausmusic T-Shirt Day campaign. LIV LOUD 2023 creates opportunities for live performers and hospitality staff while giving people a terrific night out and supporting a good cause. It really is a win-win all round.”
Marcus Knight added: “CUB are proud to partner with Ausmusic T-Shirt Day and Support Act in 2023 uniting with Australian artists and the hospitality sector who consistently service the Australian community. We acknowledge and support the critical service of Support Act in the delivery of crisis relief to musicians, managers, crew and music workers.”
For all tickets and further information about LIV LOUD 2023, visit CUB ‘LIV LOUD’
For more information about Ausmusic T-Shirt Day visit www.ausmusictshirtday.org.au
DIESEL ANNOUNCES 2024 AUSTRALIAN FOREVER TOUR NEW ALBUM ‘BOOTLEG MELANCHOLY’ OUT NOW
Ahead of releasing his sixteenth studio album tomorrow, Australian icon Diesel has today announced a special run of shows in 2024, with the Forever Tour set to kick off in January next year celebrating Diesel’s brand new outing, the multifaceted masterpiece Bootleg Melancholy – available to preorder now.
Set to perform across Australia next January at Avoca Beach, Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth, Margaret River, Sydney and Brisbane, including an appearance at the hallowed Sydney Opera House while in New South Wales, pre-sale tickets to these unforgettable evenings will be available for Diesel and venue members from 10am on Thursday 19 October until Sunday 22 October, with general public tickets on sale from Thursday 26 October at 9am AEDT. To keep up to date with all things Diesel, including upcoming tour pre-sale opportunities, head to dieselmusic.com.au/mailinglist.
All of the myriad talents of Diesel‘s musical abilities coalesce on Bootleg Melancholy, an unabashedly exuberant 14-track LP that is at once the most diverse and most cohesive album Diesel has recorded to date. Loaded with hooks, these songs greet with the warmth and familiarity of a good friend, songs about family, mortality, childhood, and dreams. Travelling across time, place, and memory, this is rousing yet reflective pop music that celebrates the joys of everyday life while braving the difficult stuff – the challenges we all eventually face – with insights and tenderness. Featuring the single Forever, the listener is going to take from Bootleg Melancholy what they best need, whether the pop rush of an infectious chorus, the reassurances of a heartening lyric sung with Diesel’s trademark soulfulness, or the satisfying interjection of some exhilarating solos on vintage guitars. And for Diesel, this album finally feels like a return to some form of normality after the previous few years and releases, as he explains, “After recording and releasing two albums in a pandemic, it feels great to be releasing this new album! I’m not sure what normal is, but it feels great to be still doing this with others around me. It’s always inspiring for me to see the excitement of people, especially as the recording process starts out as very insular, in this case a one-man journey. It’s always a challenge to put into words what something sounds like, but I feel like there are a lot of influences going on, probably more than any record I’ve made but somehow it feels the most cohesive at the same time.”
Spending the pandemic years revisiting artists like TLC, Elliot Smith, Leon Bridges, Khruangbin and Angel Olsen, Diesel also dove deep into guitar sounds and the first three Prince albums as he worked towards new material amidst a backdrop of extreme uncertainty. Recording, mixing and mastering his latest album entirely on his own, with drummer Lee Moloney appearing on some of the tracks and Bernie Bremond on saxophone for Never Giving Up, Bootleg Melancholy is as much an exercise in catharsis and joy as it is a snapshot of Diesel’s own personal journey; a reflection on places past tread during a time when travel seemed a distant memory, as Diesel reveals, “I would describe this album as almost a travel log recall of all the places I’ve been or lived in, I kind of had to as we weren’t going anywhere! There are also a lot of bright sounding songs with quite close to the bone lyrics, I like to have that juxtaposition.”
One of Australia’s greatest success stories, the American-born Diesel, aka Mark Lizotte, has spent three decades weaving an effortlessly magic musical touch into his rock and blues-fuelled sounds, both as part of the band Johnny Diesel & The Injectors and, more recently, as a solo artist. With multiple #1 ARIA charting albums under his belt, six ARIA award wins and millions of streams alongside a legion of fans, Diesel’s creative skillset also expands beyond his own projects, with the talented artist also renowned for his work as a producer and multi-instrumentalist.
Now set to wow fans once again with his new album Bootleg Melancholy this week, Diesel is definitely not slowing down as 2023 draws to a close, with his extensive national tour in early 2024 marking just the beginning of another exceptional year for this creative powerhouse. “It’s always exciting bringing a song into the live realm,” shares Diesel of the upcoming 2024 Australian tour. “A lot of times I want to record it again after touring it! It’s also like bringing new friends into the fold with old friends. And I’m most excited to feel the reaction from the audience with the new songs, it’s always a ‘butterflies in the stomach’ kind of feeling – but I thrive on that.”
Diesel’s Forever Australian tour commences in January 2024, tickets on sale Thursday 26 October from 9am from dieselmusic.com.au
Bootleg Melancholy is set for release Friday 13 October via Bloodlines, and is available to preorder now.
DIESEL – FOREVER NATIONAL TOUR DATES
SAT 13 JAN 24 | AVOCA BEACH THEATRE, AVOCA BEACH NSW | AA | 8-10.15pm
Tickets available from dieselmusic.com.au
SAT 24 FEB | DUNSTAN PLAYHOUSE, FESTIVAL CENTRE, ADELAIDE SA | AA | 8-10.15pm
Tickets available from www.ticketek.com.au | 132 849 | All Ticketek Outlets
FRI 01 MAR | ATHENAEUM THEATRE, MELBOURNE VIC | AA | 8-10.15pm
Tickets available from www.ticketmaster.com.au | 1300 446 925 | All Ticketmaster Outlets
FRI 22 MAR | REGAL THEATRE SUBIACO, PERTH WA | AA | 8-10.15pm
Tickets available from www.ticketek.com.au | 132 849 | All Ticketek Outlets
SAT 23 MAR | HEART THEATRE, MARGARET RIVER WA | AA | 8-10.15pm
Tickets available from dieselmusic.com.au
FRI 12 APR | SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE, SYDNEY NSW | AA | 8-10.15pm
Tickets available from dieselmusic.com.au
SAT 13 APR | THE TIVOLI, BRISBANE QLD | AA | 8:00-10.15pm
Tickets available from www.ticketmaster.com.au | 1300 446 925 | All Ticketmaster Outlets
CHAVEZ CARTEL SHARE NEW SINGLE + VIDEO ‘NO ONE’S WATCHING OVER’
With hazy propulsions and billowing soundscapes, the new single No One’s Watching Over out today from the Gold Coast’s Chavez Cartel is a cool, calm and deeply collected outing, shifting tack slightly from the group’s earlier 2023 EP Man’s Best Friend, but still undeniably Chavez Cartel. Also accompanied by a new music video, complete with an imposing mansion and sharp aesthetics, No One’s Watching Over amalgamates the building blocks of Chavez Cartel’s sonic DNA while also building towards a new EP release in 2024. Unfurling as an effortless and authentically charming journey, No One’s Watching Over will also undoubtedly be a fixture on the band’s setlist at The New Colossus Festival in 2024 following their invitation to perform at the event in New York next year.
Amongst its woozy guitars, driving beats and creamy vocals No One’s Watching Over revels in moody aesthetics and harder-hitting moments. Like a modern jolt merged with The Velvet Underground & Nico, No One’s Watching Over’s origins quickly evolved during a well-timed jam session, with the hypnotic track seamlessly flexing the band’s trademark HBO soundtrack-worthy swoon alongside themes of feeling lost in the moment, as the band explain, “No One’s Watching Over is about feeling lost and having a fair assessment of where you’ve gone wrong in life (and right) to get you to where you currently stand. It’s about being harsh but being fair. It’s about being held accountable but accurately accountable. It’s not about getting to the answers though. That stage where we have more clarity comes after this song. This song is about the feeling of going round in circles when we don’t know what to do with ourselves. It’s the first step towards repair but we can’t even see that yet. The hazy sounds of the song really do paint the picture so well of the hazy feeling of not feeling all there. The song was written in a time of self-work after a heavy break up.”
Teaming up once again with ARIA Award-winning producer Govinda Doyle to bring No One’s Watching Over to life, Chavez Cartel also sought to actively step beyond their comfort zones when it came to creating the perfect accompanying video for their latest release, pursuing more artistic territory with Direct Entertainment’s Anthony Brown at the helm of the band’s creative vision. And fluidly balancing the old with the new, the band’s team and lack of creative barriers proved to be the pivotal spark to lead Chavez Cartel into this new chapter. “Govinda Doyle did everything that we could not,” says the band. “We worked together on our last record, and we started to feel things changing for us and we want a lot more of the same. ‘Don’t fix what isn’t broken’ as they say. We also wanted a more arty video than anything we’d done previously, relying less on performances and making it more of an artistic introduction of the band. We hired the perfect location while we were away on tour earlier in the year – a really old mansion full of art, history, books and character, and the storyboard just sort of wrote itself. Once AB, our video guy, had familiarised himself with the property, we just let him do his thing. All we did was dress accordingly and get drunk on set. He did the rest. We always try to give our collaborators as much freedom as possible so that they can get into the project as if it were their own. I mean technically it is their own, so once we’ve outlined the concept and explained our style, we really do just hand the rest over. It’s important for creatives to be authentic and have their stamp on things, otherwise what’s the point?”
Releasing two EPs in 2019, Lucky Lucky and Confidence Is All I’m Taking Home, Chavez Cartel bunkered down during the pandemic years, turning their gaze and full focus into sharpening their sound and songwriting. The end result was their 2023 EP release Man’s Best Friend, which was unveiled after the group signed with End Of The Trail Records. Following Man’s Best Friend, Chavez Cartel embarked on an extensive East Coast headline tour, with 2023 also finding the group supporting The Reytons for their What’s Rock N Roll Australian Tour, as well as their first ever UK show, ticking off headline shows in Sheffield, Barnsley and Rotherham alongside performances at The Great Escape Festival in Brighton and at the End Of The Trail Creative Showcase in London.
Gaining support from BBC Radio while across the pond earlier this year, Chavez Cartel have also recently appeared at Rockhampton River Festival, as main support for The Delta Riggs, and will trek back overseas in 2024 after being officially invited and scheduled to play at The New Colossus Festival in New York next March. And for Chavez Cartel, the prospect of another imminent international adventure is one that affirms that the sky is the limit for this talented Gold Coast collective. “It was sort of like a before and after moment in our career thus far,” shares the band. “Looking back, before that UK tour, we were half the band we are now, and we owe it all to the vital experiences that tour gave us. There’s something really boosting about getting on planes and being received well at the other side of the world for doing your thing. The top up of self-belief and surety we got from that tour was an acceleration that we’ve never felt before; or at least not at the pace we felt it. It just goes to show that there are some things you just have to do to move forward, and that first international tour was one of those for us. Playing at a showcase event too was great for us because it wasn’t just new fans that we picked up, industry personnel also bought into us which again gave us more confidence in what we are doing. It’s like if the moguls see potential then it adds to the argument that there’s a career to be had here. We picked up some New York connections which shows as the next showcase event we were invited to play at happened to be in New York. Funny how things work out, isn’t it? A band from Gold Coast playing shows around London and picking up festivals in America. What a ride!”
No One’s Watching Over is out today, Thursday October 5.
CHAVEZ CARTEL – UPCOMING TOUR DATES:
6-10 MARCH 2024 | THE NEW COLOSSUS FESTIVAL | NEW YORK, USA | 21+
Tickets available from Dice.fm
Soundcloud: NO ONE’S WATCHING OVER