MyGen Profile Generator JAPAN TOUR 2007 SEPTEMBER
With Mach Pelican (Australia)
Wed 12 Sep @Shimokitazawa Shelter, Tokyo
w/ Special Guest
Open 6:30pm / Start 7:00pm
Presale 2,500yen / Door 3,000yen
Ticket from the venue 03-3466-7430 (from 29 Aug), T
icket Pia & Lawson (from 9 Aug)
www.loft-prj.co.jp/SHELTER
Thur 13 Sep @Yoyogi Zher The Zoo, Tokyo
w/ The Queers (US), Guitar Wolf & The Gimmies
Open 6:00pm / Start 6:30pm
Presale 3,200yen / Door 3,500yen
Ticket from the venue 03-5359-4491 & Ticket Pia (from 11 Aug)
www.ukproject.com/zherthezoo
Fri 14 Sep @Imaike Huckfinn, Nagoya
w/ The Havenots & Gasoline
Open 6:30pm / Start 7:00pm
Presale 2,000yen / Door 2,300yen
Ticket from the venue 052-733-8347 & Ticket Pia (from 13 Aug)
http://huckfinn.co.j p/
Sat 15 Sep @Sannomiya Varit, Kobe
w/ King Brothers, 50Kaitenz & Wimpys
Open 6:00pm / Start 6:30pm
Presale 2,500yen / Door 3,000yen
Ticket from the venue 078-392-6655 (from TBA)
http://www.varit.jp/
Sun 16 Sep @Motomachi Bar Gig, Yokohama
w/ The Havenots , Sunny Branch & Midnight TV Programs
Open 6:30pm / Start 7:00pm
Presale 2,500yen / Door 2,800yen
Ticket from the venue 045-662-2582 (from 13 Aug)
Mon 17 Sep @Shibuya Lush, Tokyo
w/ Supersnazz, The Bawdies & 2 more bands
Open 5:30pm / Start 6:00pm
Presale 2,200yen / Door 2,500yen
Ticket from the venue 03-5467-3071 (from TBA)
http://www.toos.co.jp/lush/
Mon 17 Sep @Shibuya HMV
In-Store Performance & Signing, Tokyo
5:00pm-6:00pm
FREE!
06 JUN
This week, Ground Components are happy to announce their induction to the super-eclectic Japanese record label P-Vine. Ground Components celebrate their first international release joining an incredible roster including Sun Ra & His Arkestra, Yo La Tengo, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, The Shins, Joanna Newsom and many others.
P-Vine, was founded in 1975 by Yasufumi Higurashi in Tokyo, Japan. The label began specialising in the Japanese release of black-American Gospel, Blues, Soul and Doo-Wop. Later expanding to cover a far wider range of everything from J-Pop to Garage Punk, and eventually now, publishing many quality books and magazines.
Ground Components will be heading to Japan this September tour dates - coming very soon!
'HANDS IN THE AIR'
SINGLE OUT NOW!
'ON YOUR LIVING ROOM FLOOR'
SINGLE OUT NOW!
'AN EYE FOR A BROW, A TOOTH FOR A PICK'
ALBUM OUT NOW!!
Out On Love & Mercy / Shock Records
DALLAS EATING A COOKIE
Herald Sun Hit ALBUM OF THE WEEK: ****
"A thrilling, raucous rock record... in a word: Electrifying" - Shane O'Donohue
The Age EG: ****
"...Defiant and celebatory... An eye' is a collection of party anthems for the night before the bulldozers come through" - Craig Mathieson
Beat Magazine "ALBUM OF THE WEEK"
By the time the trip is finished you’re battered and bruised, and the all the better for the experience, and ready for more... The 60s is dead – long live the Ground Components. - Partric Emery (ONLINE)
Jaymz Clements ( BEAT STREET-PRESS)
"An almost perfect soul-rock album... An unbelievably accomplished and just plainly rad debut"
Triple J Feature Album
RRR Album of the week
ABC Radio Feature album (nationally)
ZOO Weekly - ****
"Off-the-tap rock, coupled with Joe McGuigan's vocals... that sound a bit like Screech from saved by the bell, but suprisingly, it works!"
Ed Butler - Machines Against The Rage
"...Chock full of vision and ambition... Ground Components have created one of the most confident and impressive debuts from an Aussie band for years"
ABOUT
At 25, vocalist Joe Mcguigan has been playing in bands for almost a decade. Touring and recording with various bands as a teenager, Joe wanted his new band to incorporate the energy of his earlier groups but closer reflect his then tastes. He formed Ground Components with Indra Adams (bass), Dallas Packard (keys) and his brother Simon (drums) in 2002. All night jam sessions began with renditions of their favorite songs while they wrote their own material. Early live shows would be constructed from a set of originals often doubled with a set of covers ranging from Elvis Costello to Otis Redding, old punk tunes and classic reggae.
The release of their debut EP (November 2003) established them as one of Melbourne’s new favorite live acts, filling local venues and opening for touring acts such as Spoon and M Ward. The EP also got them a spot at the 2004 SXSW festival in Austin followed by dates in the U.S and U.K. They returned to Australia to release their second EP, play Splendor In The Grass and a 20 + date tour of the country. Selected as the opening act on Spiderbait’s national tour in September, they ended the year with their second appearance at the Meredith Music Festival. 2005 began with their biggest shows yet - opening for Powderfinger's national tour and a spot on the Big Day Out.
Fast forward to NOW
While many bands pump out an album within their first year, Ground Components have taken the time to put together a collection of songs that have stood the test of extensive touring, rehearsal and recording. Following on from two previous EP’s, this is the first full length release from the band. With previous recordings by Chicago engineer Casey Rice, the band opted to produce these tracks on their own. For the first time members Dallas Packard and Indra Adams have shown off multi-instrumental talents, between the two of them they play saxophone, trumpet, flute, clarinet, accordion, drums, guitar and of course piano and bass respectively. Not only are these songs their most elaborate instrumentally, but also the first chance we’ve had to hear the band fully explore their diverse musical influences.
The most obvious stylistic departure is the collaboration with Sydney MC Macromantics. As a teenager Romy Hoffman was once a member of Ben Lee’s Noise Addict but in recent years has been performing as an MC under the name Macromantics. After a few shows together, the band and Hoffman decided to mess around in the studio. One of the tracks they came up with was ‘Coming In All From All Angles'. It may be a surprise to hear a band like Ground Components pair with an abstract Hip Hop MC but somehow it works and is certainly one of the album highlights. Lookout for a Macromantics rework of the Ground Components track ‘Darkside of Dallas/Fistfull Of Dollars’ on her forthcoming album (the same track appearing on this album sans Macromantics).
Ground Components have made some ambitious choices when it comes to cover songs. Taking on some of the most sacred names in music history - reworking Bob Marley’s Soul Rebel, R&B standard Sticks And Stones (made famous by Ray Charles) and the Johnny Cash classic Jackson. You only need to look at Ray or Johnny as examples of how interpreting a song is an equal task to writing it in the first place. Whether or not the Ground Components versions of other songwriters are ‘great’, they do perform within the spirit of what makes a great cover song - they make it their own. Paul Kelly’s bushranger tribute ‘Our Sunshine’ is a late nineties oddity for the legendary Australian songwriter. Originally a rickety bluegrass song recorded with fiddles and all for the old-timey ‘Smoke’ album, it comes across like a lost page from a hundred year old Australian folk songbook. The version featured here is in a rock style but evokes the same Australiana spirit with it’s ‘fire and flood’ anthemic chorus. Perhaps the band's most ambitious moment yet closes the album. Bob Dylan’s ‘It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding’ is considered one of the best moments from one of the best. Far from it’s folk-rock original, Ground Components mutate the song into a mad organ driven rap. Joe McGuigan spitting out the exhaustive set of lyrics in a song that clocks in just under 10 minutes.
Between the collaborations and covers the majority of the album is what Ground Components do best- simple, sharp songs. Musically straight forward with generally reflective personal lyrics, it’s basic without being inane. While the majority is in an upbeat fashion there are also songs like the ballad-esque ‘As The Winter Months Approach’. Listening to ‘An Eye For A Brow, A Tooth For A Pick’ it’s impossible to fit Ground Components into a neat category. Their is familiarity but no obvious comparisons. The album references many styles and sounds, and sticks together with a natural cohesiveness.