The Mark Of Cain have announced a 2013 Australian tour on the back of the released of their new album Songs Of The Third and Fifth.
Work on The Mark Of Cain’s fifth studio LP began as far back as 2006 when Adelaide brothers John and Kim Scott caught up with drummer John Stanier while he was touring through Australia with his band Battles. The desire to produce another TMOC record was strong, but the reality of geographical distance (Stanier being based in the USA) and his constant touring commitments with his other bands, coupled with John and Kim’s day jobs and family commitments made it logistically impossible.
“I write better with the entire band present rather than trying to work out material at home. In order to help progress the writing I worked with a local drummer, Ben White, “ says John (Scott). “He and I would jam at Frank’s Custom Music in Adelaide once a week and Heart of Stone, Milosovic and Avenger came from those sessions.”
John Stanier’s other bands Battles and Tomahawk have a strong presence on the Australian live scene, which provided the trio a number of opportunities to get together and develop the rest of the songs for the record. They would spend one or two weeks jamming in Adelaide whenever he was out here, working the songs and recording the bare bones so that when Stanier left, John and Kim could continue to work the material into cohesive tracks.
In early 2008 Stanier returned to Australia with Battles for the Big Day Out, and the trio entered Adelaide’s Broadcast Studio with Evan James recording, engineering all of the beds (bass, drums, guitar) before Stanier returned to the USA.
During his 2008 Australia talking tour, long time friend and producer of their breakthrough record Ill At Ease, Henry Rollins, wrote and laid down a spoken word vocal part to the track Grey 11.
2009 and 2010 saw the breakdown of John’s (Scott) long-term relationship and subsequently two years of attempts to deal with the results of the split, while maintaining a job and trying to limit the ongoing personal turmoil which resulted in hindering the singer getting into the studio on a frequent basis to complete the record in a timely fashion. It wasn’t until May 2011 that John (Scott) and long time manager Tim Pittman joined engineer Forrester Savell (Karnivool, Cog, Birds Of Tokyo) at Melbourne’s Sing Sing Studios to start mixing of the LP, which would be completed in December 2011.
Now, in 2012, four years after they began making this album, and ten years since their last studio recording, The Mark Of Cain make a triumphant return to the Australian music scene with Songs Of The Third and Fifth.
The Mark Of Cain began in 1985, as a four piece with Rod Archer on vocals. Rod left to pursue singing for The Iron Sheiks while John Scott took over singing duties sometime in 1986.
The name of the band was taken from a Herman Hesse book called Demian, a tale of a youth who feels at odds with the rest of society and is an outsider. This premise runs through most of The Mark of Cain’s song writing and is a reflection of John’s fascination with authors such as Hesse, Camus, Dostoyevsky, Colin Wilson and Louis Ferdinand Celine who all touch on the idea of the outsider and depersonalization in this age, plus the need to self-actualise and find meaning in order to find sense to continue living in such a time.
The Mark Of Cain’s debut LP “Battlesick”, became a seminal release that is still hailed as one of the greatest alternative Australian albums ever to be released. A phrase inspired by the idea that there were parallels between a non-combatant’s life and its various hardships with that of the combatant. Driven from John’s interest in military history and in particular, that of the infantryman.
“I could see that just as a shell-shocked victim of a war could feel out of touch and alienated from his own kind, that non-combatants could also feel a similar alienation, or feelings of ill at ease due to the very nature of living in 20th and 21st Century western society.”
Fans of The Mark Of Cain have waited for ten years to hear more new material and six years to see the band live, in 2012 and 2013 the wait is over.
The Mark Of Cain 2013 Australian Tour
Songs Of The Third and Fifth National Album Tour Dates
With special guests
Tickets On Sale Nov 12th
Friday March 8th
HQ, Adelaide, SA
1 North Tce Adelaide
Tickets $38.90 + bf from www.venuetix.com.au ph: 82258888
Sunday March 10th
Golden Plains, Meredith, VIC
www.goldenplains.com.au
Friday March 15th
Hi Fi, Melbourne, VIC
125 Swanston Street Melbourne
Tickets $36.00 + bf from www.thehifi.com.au or ph: 1300 HIFI. Also available from www.feelpresents.com
Sunday March 17th
Capitol, Perth, WA
393 Murray St Perth
Tickets $36.00 + bf from www.heatseeker.com.au or www.oztix.com.au
Thursday March 21st
Hi Fi, Brisbane, QLD
125 Boundary Street West End
Tickets $36.00 + bf from www.thehifi.com.au or ph: 1300 HIFI. Also available from www.feelpresents.com
Friday March 22nd
Coolangatta Hotel, Coolangatta, QLD
Cnr Warner Street & Marine Parade Coolangatta
Tickets $33.00 + bf from www.thecoolyhotel.com.au
Saturday March 23rd
The Metro, Sydney, NSW
624 George Street, Sydney
Tickets $41.90 (includes booking fee, some transaction fees may apply) from www.ticketek.com.au or ph: 132849 also www.metrotheatre.com.au or www.feelpresents.com
