I H E A R T H I R O S H I M A
N e w a l b u m T h e R i p o u t n o w.
Final week of shows on the album release tour…
and some Vietnam dates & New Years dates
Susie managed to get her arm in order and after the first show with Mirko filling in drum duties… she couldn’t resist not playing at her hometown launch so was back on the beat (with a little postshow pain)… and since then has refused to leave. So after this current weekend traipsing around NSW they head back to QLD for shows on the GOLD COAST Thursday 5 NOV at the Never Land Bar with guests Last Dinosaurs; BRISBANE Friday 6 NOV at The HIFI as guests of YOU AM I plus The Cairos, Last Dinosaurs and The Rocksmiths all opening; TOOWOOMBA Saturday 7 NOV Bon Amici Cafe with Polaroid Fame from Sydney; and finally a long overdue show in BYRON BAY Sunday 8 NOV Great Northern with guests Last Dinosaurs. Should be a fun few days.
Soon after this tour concludes IHH have been invited to tour Vietnam and Cambodia at the end of November. They have just been announced on the LORETO FESTIVAL NOV 28 RMIT University, District 7, Ho Chi Minh City along with Ratatat from the USA, Goo from Thailand, Viet Nam’s Pham Anh Khoa, Thao Trang and the Microwave band. More details to come per dates in Hanoi, Nha Trang and Cambodia.
LoretoFest aims to help disadvantaged, disabled children
Also just announced is a New Years eve show at Dreamworld with Birds of Tokyo, Regurgitator, British India, and Inspector Cluzo (from France).
With the latest installment in this trail of construction flooding the driest of lands I Heart Hiroshima have released their much agitated second album THE RIP. Swimming against the incessant currents they recorded the album early this year in the long grass of Runcorn with compatriot Mirko Vogel, before sailing to the distant shores of England to mix it all up back of lanes with Andy Gill (Gang of Four) in the much loved Beauchamp Building. First ship out of the dock Shakeytown has drawn the light of recognition and many a sailor will bless their saviour from the rocks. The Rip was also album of the week last week in DRUM MEDIA.
The video for the first single SHAKEYTOWN (as made by debut videomaker Paul Rankin) check it here… SHAKEYTOWN
I Heart Hiroshima The Zoo, Brisbane October 16th 2009
by Matt Hickey (www.thevine.com.au)
Brisbane has a lot of praise-worthy bands at the moment, but there’s only a few that still considered something of a pride and joy. Powderfinger are no longer one of them, but I Heart Hiroshima are. They were one to spring from a bumper crop of local alternative pop bands mid-decade, they still live here, still work here, and still have an entirely unpretentious air about them. All of this helps, but none of it would matter if they didn’t have the songs and live show to back it up.
They do, and tonight displays the strengths of both.
The lights dim and Tom Waits’ spoken word ‘What’s He Building In There’ creates an oddly eerie atmosphere for a band that don’t necessarily trade on mystery or suspense in their music. I Heart Hiroshima is a band that have never seemed uncomfortable on stage. Tonight, launching their anticipated sophomore effort The Rip, they embrace the crowd’s enthusiasm intermingled with more of that flippant bravado that we’re used to. The set draws mainly from new material, which is a wise move given the ubiquity of so many songs off their debut in these parts. (Could’ve done with ‘Captain to Captain’ but oh well). Had they not continually introduced songs as new ones, an IHH virgin would have struggled to tell them apart – mainly because the audience give as much energy and enthusiasm to songs not heard before as previous singles. Such is the result of instantly digestible (but not disposable) pop music. Yes, The Rip is no significant departure for I Heart Hiroshima, but the more outwardly emotional songs do add an effective dynamic to their house party-like stage show.
Co-guitarist/singer Matt Sommers sounds like he’s having an anxiety attack with every gloriously affected syllable that leaves his lips, while drummer and main vocalist Susie Patten shifts between a suitably softer delivery at times and a similarly manic one. Most reserved member – and cover artist extraordinaire – Cameron Hawes, busies himself with his guitar and keys stage right, providing some ice to the Patten/Somers fire.
Latest single ‘Shakeytown’ appears third and their cover of The Chills’ ‘Pink Frost’ also makes an appearance. The main set is closed by old favourites ‘London in Love,’ ‘Punks,’ and The Rip closer ‘Listen.’ After sixty minutes of a relatively consistent sonic palette, it’s testament to the songs themselves that the audience are still gagging for more, which the band promptly deliver after taking an audience request.
The likes of An Horse and Yves Klein Blue might’ve appeared on Letterman and festival stages respectively this year, but I Heart Hiroshima have again upped the bar for Brisbane pop music.
I HEART HIROSHIMA, Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire! & The Diamond Sea @ The Northcote Social Club 24/10/09
Chelsea Carter (Ravereview.com.au)
The clock strikes nigh on 11.20pm the lights go down, and the creaking gravelly voice of one Mr Tom Waits comes pounding through the speakers and shakes the Northcote right to its core. ‘What’s he building in there? What the hell is he building in there?’ The room fell dead silent which can be attributed to half of the punters who were completely spooked, and the other half who were genuinely trying to figure out just what I Heart Hiroshima were building in there. The houselights come up as the ever awesome Brisbane trio take to the stage under the direction of anchorSusie Patten. Piece by piece I Heart Hiroshima revealed to their guests that they are sitting on yet another stellar LP (The Rip) that is set to catapult the band to the forefront of many iPods.
Sharing a joke with the crowd Susie launches into a spiel about not being a singles band, it is this same spiel that ends with Patten introducing their latest single! Joke or no-joke you cannot deny Shakeytown for what it is. Hooky, catchy, call it whatever you want it got the notoriously hard to please, black clad Melbourne crowd moving. A really tight all round set here no doubt a result of their recent European jaunt with The Rakes and Maximo Park.
The audience was privy to quite a few new songs, one in particular as described by Susie about ‘A rendezvous with a rather unfortunate member of the opposite sex, which is a rarity in itself’ called Who I Was before inevitably hitting us with some old favs like London in Love and Punks. Honourable mentions have to go to the three slightly older gentlemen of the mullet variety that had to be IHH’s biggest fans. Giving the crowd a display of typical blokey dance moves that involved beer in one hand, bending the knees and raising the other arm and pointing in time to the music these guys knew every word and heckled for a five song encore. In the end in the name of compromise Cam, Matt and Susie went from having no encore planned to a two song offering from the first EP and ended on Neutron Popsong.
ALBUM OF THE WEEK – Time Off Magazine
I HEART HIROSHIMA The Rip (Valve/MGM)
This local trio’s 2007 debut Tuff Teef was a thoroughly enjoyable jaunt that gave indie rock a good name both here and abroad. It’s great to see that I Heart Hiroshima have backed up that debut with another swath of instantly infectious tunes, fully armed with that distinctive twin guitar attack. There is something though, that was apparent but not altogether obvious the first time around, something that is unmistakable from the moment the trio skip out of your speakers – there is no-one, anywhere, making music that sounds quite like this.
Under our noses for so long now, Susie, Matt and Cameron aren’t tossing off pop or wringing the neck of youthful experience. These songs are filled with cryptic but considered lyrics, obviously lived in and delivered in tunes like ‘Old Tree’ by Matt Somers with only a hint of desperation. ‘The Corner’ is another tune strung up by glassy guitars, but not strung out by any thinness in their sound that might have lingered within their debut (thanks here to Andy Gill). Here, it’s not about one person’s presence, a drummer’s exuberance, a guitarist’s static electricity – this is one sound, one creative force, this is music that it definitely takes a band hundreds of shared hours together to even get close to. Heartfelt, if not a little bashful, agitated by its own sense of urgency, gleeful and completely unreserved, these forces don’t make easy hits – they do however make music that lasts and The Rip is an all but faultless musical creation. Usually we think of rock as a visceral affair but quality and craftsmanship, making so much with so little, can’t be denied here. I Heart Hiroshima have overcome the biggest hurdle any guitar-based band anywhere have… they’ve made music that’s imaginative, vibrant, accessible and arresting to one and all. HHHH Alex Gilli
www.myspace.com/ihearthiroshima www.myspace.com/ihearthiroshima
THE RIP out NOW
featuring Shakeytown, Got Out, Old Tree, River and more of your favourite shanties…
and album art entirely handcut from paper by Cameron.
I HEART HIROSHIMA ALBUM LAUNCH TOUR
Album tour – October2009 – final dates
THU NOV 5 – QLD – GOLD COAST, NEVER LAND BAR
Doors: 8.00pm. Plus guests LAST DINOSAURS
Tickets: Moshtix and the venue.
FRI NOV 7 – QLD – BRISBANE, THE HIFI
Doors: 8.30pm. Plus YOU AM I, THE CAIROS, LAST DINOSAURS & THE ROCKETSMITHS
Tickets: all OzTix outlets, www.oztix.com.au, ph: 1300 762 545, and the venue
SAT NOV 6 – QLD – TOOWOOMBA, BON AMICI CAFÉ
Doors: 8.00pm. Plus guests POLAROID FAME
Tickets: all OzTix outlets, www.oztix.com.au, ph: 1300 762 545, and the venue
SUN NOV 8 – NSW – BYRON BAY, GREAT NORTHERN
Doors: 9.00pm. Plus guests LAST DINOSAURS
Free Entry.
SAT NOV 28 – VIETNAM – HO CHI MINH CITY, LORETO FEST
Plus RATATAT (USA), GOO (Thailand)
and from Viet Nam’s Pham Anh Khoa, Thao Trang and the Microwave band and more
Tickets usual outlets
NEW YEARS EVE – QLD – AMPED ROCK N RIDES, DREAMWORLD
Doors: 7.00pm. Plus BIRDS OF TOKYO, REGURGITATOR, BRITISH INDIA and more
Tickets from www.dreamworld.com.au
PEACHES …reburns to whip it hot!
I HEART HIROSHIMA back on the country road…